- 2 hours ago
Creative Types with Virginia Trioli - Season 3 - Episode 05: Andy Griffiths
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:06Andy hello hi Virginia well there wouldn't be a child in Australia who hasn't read or
00:12heard of one of your books yeah I feel like I've transmitted my love of reading as a child to
00:19the
00:19next generation so very satisfied about that so how did you come to speak fluent kid this
00:25may surprise you but I was a kid for quite a long time and that window just stayed open for
00:32me that
00:33feeling of like anything can happen an infinite possibility I can access that at any time well
00:42you've just published your 41st book and you're taking it on the road can I come along absolutely
00:47see you there great I'll see you in Melbourne bye I'm Virginia Trioli and I've spent my life paying
00:57attention to creative Australians and wondering what is going on in that wild mind of theirs
01:05in this series I'll showcase artists and performers at the peak of their powers and tell the story of
01:11their triumphs their stumbles and why they make the glorious work we love so much Andy Griffiths is
01:22one of Australia's most successful authors he's the punk pied piper of children's reading luring kids
01:29to books all around the world you forgot to tell me about the page his treehouse just and bad books
01:37have been international sensations selling more than 20 million copies and Andy's popularity with kids
01:44has earned him rock star status
01:53I'm thrilled to be unashamedly celebrating the art of making because we are a country of so many brilliant creative
02:01types
02:15great to see you
02:16hello Andy hello great to see you great to see you
02:18well I wanted to take us to a quiet space for a quiet little chat yes yes it's quiet but
02:24it's going
02:24to get pretty loud very soon there's a lot of kids out there waiting to be very noisy 200 of
02:30your fans
02:31for your new book. Yeah, yeah.
02:33And they get very excited.
02:34Should I have brought earplugs? You should have.
02:36You didn't get the memo. I didn't get the memo.
02:39All right.
02:40Never mind.
02:50Are you ready to hear from Annie Griffiths?
02:52Yeah!
03:00What are you normally studying on a Wednesday morning?
03:04Math.
03:05All right, would you like me to teach you some math?
03:10I can count to ten,
03:12but I just can't always do it in the right order.
03:19Andy, he never has that distance
03:21that some author might get from their audience.
03:23He's really tapped into what sort of makes kids excited,
03:27what kind of, like, sparks their imagination
03:29and what kind of drives them crazy as well.
03:32He loves that almost kind of combative relationship
03:35with his audience.
03:37This is my best climb ever.
03:43It is.
03:47I'll tell you the truth.
03:48That is me,
03:50but I didn't make the climb.
03:51I fell,
03:52and I fell many hundreds of metres
03:54until I died.
04:01They realise quite early
04:03that this contract of responsible adult and child
04:05has been broken at the start,
04:08and they think,
04:09OK, I've got to screw with this guy now.
04:11He can't finish it.
04:12Does anyone want to finish the banana?
04:16I'll throw it up in the air.
04:21There's this complicated paradox with Andy.
04:29He is both a chaos agent
04:31and a sort of a maestro,
04:35an orchestra conductor in a way.
04:37He knows how to make those two things work together.
04:41There's quite a lot of you.
04:43I've only got one book.
04:45I'll give you each a page from the book.
04:48Would that be fair?
04:52Who's happy for me to rip up the book
04:54and give you...
04:58I think we actually found
05:00a few hundred lost books
05:03and with this wonderful magic trick.
05:11That's the hero moment
05:13when the books were revealed.
05:14You're all getting a book.
05:15It was like Oprah Winfrey.
05:19What do you get out of this?
05:20The joy of the kids,
05:22their inquisitiveness,
05:24their challenging me.
05:25We're just celebrating
05:28reading stories,
05:30silliness.
05:31Yes.
05:32And that all feeds into
05:34positive, pleasurable associations
05:37with books.
05:38And farts.
05:40Oh, there's always a fart or two, yes.
05:55In order to write,
05:57Andy needs to play.
05:58So at the bottom of his garden,
06:00he's built himself a playroom
06:02to ensure that window to his childhood
06:05stays wide open.
06:07This is the treehouse.
06:09Yes.
06:09It's where all the hard work gets done.
06:16After you.
06:18Oh, wow.
06:22Andy, the 10-year-old in you
06:24has never left you.
06:25No, he didn't.
06:27He left me in charge.
06:29Is this a lot of your stuff
06:31from your childhood?
06:32Yeah, many items
06:33have been retrieved
06:35from the shoe box
06:36I used to keep under my bed.
06:39It evokes play for me.
06:42I've got a direct window
06:43to that 10-year-old.
06:44And so once he's excited,
06:47then I'm getting ideas to write.
06:54Oh, I love these things.
06:55Oh, they're cool, aren't they?
06:57I have one.
06:58So you've got to make one move
06:59and the other stay.
07:01You're really good.
07:02You're a professional.
07:03I spent hours on my grandmother's
07:05little donkey doing that.
07:06And I love...
07:07There's no batteries in them.
07:08No, exactly.
07:09Yes, it's finger control only.
07:11One of my favourites
07:12is this little guy.
07:13He's got an eyeball head.
07:16And if we hold it like that,
07:18he's got a little lever at the back.
07:19Uh-oh.
07:21Got it.
07:23The other thing in here is books.
07:26How many books?
07:27Lots of books
07:28and some of the most important ones
07:30that have had an influence
07:32on me as a writer.
07:33And from childhood as well?
07:35Absolutely.
07:35This was one of the first books
07:37I ever had was Streville Peter.
07:40I know this book.
07:41I had this book too.
07:42It's called Merry Stories
07:44and Funny Pictures.
07:45There's not a single laugh
07:46in this book.
07:47Not really.
07:48Well, there's a laugh of surprise.
07:50The poor old little sucker thumb.
07:52Yes, this is the one.
07:53The red-legged scissor man.
07:54Yeah.
07:55His mother goes out and says,
07:56don't suck your thumb while I'm out
07:58or a man with long red legs
07:59and a big pair of scissors
08:01will come in and cut them off.
08:02And bang.
08:03And sure enough,
08:05mother is right.
08:06Poor old Conrad gets his thumbs cut off
08:09and at the end
08:10he's just showing his thumbless hands
08:13and Mama comes home.
08:15Ah, said Mama,
08:16I knew he'd come to naughty little sucker thumb.
08:19Just when you want your mother
08:20to protect you and love you.
08:22No sympathy.
08:22She told you.
08:24So even as a five-year-old
08:26I realised there was something
08:27a little absurd about this.
08:29And there was some connection
08:30between horror and humour.
08:33Yeah.
08:33Humour helps you digest the horror.
08:36Right.
08:36And stand it in a way.
08:38So you need to build tension
08:40in your audience.
08:41But then I'll make them slip
08:43on a banana skin
08:45and suddenly the tension
08:47is released as a laugh
08:48rather than further nail-biting.
08:52Show me another one.
08:53What's another book
08:53that's really important to you?
08:54Oh, Dr Seuss was pretty important
08:58very early on.
08:59This was a great book
09:01because he starts telling you
09:03about all the different fish there are.
09:05That there's blue fish
09:07and old fish
09:08and new fish
09:08and some are bad.
09:10And then he just abandons it
09:12and just starts telling silly stories
09:15about anything.
09:16And mind-blowing
09:19imaginative scenarios.
09:21Yes.
09:21A sing-songy,
09:24surrealistic landscape
09:25which I just loved.
09:27And I put that on my hand
09:29as a sort of...
09:30Well, my arm.
09:31As a reminder,
09:33that's Mount Everest.
09:34That's the pinnacle
09:35of what you could achieve.
09:36A nonsensical book
09:38that you just fall in love with.
09:41And so that's what
09:42I've always been trying to write.
09:43Don't start getting designs
09:45on yourself, Buster.
09:47You know it's Seuss there.
09:49That's...
09:50You're still not there.
09:50You set your sights high.
09:52Yeah.
09:52Yeah.
09:58The origins of Andy's rebellious spirit
10:01can be found
10:02in his listening room.
10:03It's a space filled
10:04with some truly impressive audio tech
10:07dedicated to his other great love.
10:09A deep and wild collection of music.
10:16How many years of collecting is this?
10:19Since I was 10 years old.
10:21And how many do you think
10:22you've got all up?
10:23Don't know.
10:24Maybe 1,000?
10:26Well, this one's for me
10:27because that's the models, isn't it?
10:29Absolutely.
10:29And the boys next door
10:30on the other side.
10:31Yeah.
10:31Perfect.
10:32Pick one for you.
10:34How can you go past Cosmic Psychos?
10:36Love it.
10:37Punk rock at its finest.
10:39What did punk give you?
10:41Because punk's been
10:42really important in your life.
10:43Yeah, it's an energy
10:44that makes you feel alive.
10:46And that's what I try
10:48to get into the fiction.
10:52And he loved and lived punk.
10:55As a young man,
10:56he fronted his own punk band
10:58called Gothic Farmyard.
11:09Did you love being in the band?
11:11Yeah, absolutely loved it
11:13because music has been important to me
11:15right from the beginning.
11:16We can tell.
11:17And when I'm writing,
11:19it's a form of music.
11:20I'm listening to the words
11:22and do they sound good
11:23and do they have a nice rhythm?
11:25So there's a continuum there.
11:27Absolutely.
11:27And when I hear a song
11:29that excites me,
11:30it's like,
11:32I'm so excited.
11:33I want to grab that energy
11:34and transmit it
11:36through my fiction
11:37to my audience
11:38because I wanted my stories
11:40to be like that.
11:42Well, that's so interesting
11:43because this is your youthful,
11:45anarchic punk stage.
11:47But that's a heck of a pivot
11:48from what I understand
11:50was a very stable,
11:51very happy childhood.
11:53Absolutely.
11:54Yeah, it was free ranging
11:56all around Dandenong Creek
11:58and the bush all around that area
12:01in the eastern suburbs
12:02and lots of books to read at night.
12:06So surrounded by literature
12:07from a young age.
12:08Yeah.
12:08And my mother ran
12:09a second-hand book stall
12:11for the school fete
12:12and every year
12:14our spare room
12:16would fill up
12:16with all the neighbourhood's
12:17unwanted books.
12:19Did you get first choice?
12:20Absolutely.
12:20I'd spent hours in there
12:22going through books
12:23on psychology
12:24and philosophy,
12:26potboiler adult thrillers
12:28that I shouldn't have been reading,
12:30but all grist
12:31to a growing reader's mill.
12:33We had a lot of kids
12:34in our neighbourhood
12:35and we were all out
12:37on the streets
12:38all the time
12:38and they gravitated towards me
12:40and I couldn't help
12:43telling them tall tales
12:44of things that I'd apparently done
12:47that were completely impossible.
12:49And the more they doubted me,
12:51the more I would invent
12:52supporting detail
12:53as to why this
12:54absolutely was true.
12:56And it was like a game
12:58we were playing
12:59for no reason
13:00other than the enjoyment of it.
13:03In his late 20s,
13:04Andy qualified
13:05as a high school teacher
13:06and worked in country Victoria.
13:09His writing life began
13:10with the challenge
13:11of trying to get the kids to read.
13:14The kids didn't like reading
13:16or writing.
13:17They said,
13:18that's, you know,
13:19for losers
13:19and who would go to the library?
13:22And by that stage,
13:24late 80s,
13:25children's literature
13:26appeared to be becoming safer
13:28and more messagey.
13:31And the sort of books
13:32I loved
13:33were the anarchy chaos books
13:36that were just there
13:37for the sheer enjoyment
13:38of reading.
13:39And so I started doing
13:40the same for my students.
13:42So that was the beginning
13:43of you thinking,
13:44I can write stories?
13:46I didn't know
13:47that I could write stories,
13:49but I knew
13:50these kids needed something
13:52that was a little bit more modern,
13:55a little bit more punk rock.
13:56And I'd been watching
13:58The Young Ones.
13:59It was about the only television
14:01I watched in the 80s.
14:03But that punk rock energy
14:05of The Young Ones,
14:07I wanted to capture that in fiction.
14:09And so that's what
14:11I applied myself to do.
14:13Andy matched that energy
14:15with a steely discipline.
14:16For 10 years,
14:18he banked half his annual
14:19teaching salary
14:20and then gave himself
14:22two years off
14:23to see if he could make it
14:25as a writer.
14:26The words poured out of him
14:28and he discovered
14:29that he had
14:29an unexpected talent.
14:31Two years got me
14:33to the foothills
14:34of Everest.
14:35It didn't actually
14:36get me up top.
14:37But it certainly taught me
14:39I had a comedic gift
14:41when I wrote.
14:42So I was like,
14:43ah,
14:43so I'm not Shakespeare,
14:46I'm not Raymond Carver,
14:48I'm this clown.
14:50My life will take
14:51a different path.
14:52Yeah.
14:52And in fact,
14:53I couldn't get myself
14:54out of the books.
14:56Andy was always
14:57the main character.
14:58This is happening to me.
15:00I tried.
15:01But then I saw Seinfeld
15:03and I thought,
15:04well, he's a character
15:04in his own sitcom.
15:06I can be a character
15:07in my own book.
15:08So that was a real breakthrough.
15:10But I didn't think
15:10I would be accepted
15:11as a proper writer
15:14if I'm doing this.
15:15But in the end,
15:17that's all I could do
15:18was submit to the voice
15:19that came through.
15:21And that's, I guess,
15:22what resulted in
15:22the first series of books,
15:24the Just books.
15:25Yeah.
15:25They were about me
15:27as a kid
15:28playing jokes on people.
15:30And they were
15:31horrendous jokes.
15:32But Andy always suffered
15:34more than anybody else
15:36in the end.
15:36He never got away with it.
15:38And that's what
15:39a book is to me.
15:40It's a form of play.
15:43And you might as well
15:44play hard
15:45rather than play safe.
15:48Yeah.
15:50Andy was never
15:50going to play it safe.
15:52Graduating from short stories
15:54to his first
15:54full-length novel,
15:56Andy wrote
15:56The Day My Bum Went Psycho
15:58and his mission
16:00to get kids to read
16:01by any means allowable
16:02was underway.
16:04It became
16:05an instant bestseller.
16:06May your bum be with you.
16:10The Day My Bum Went Psycho
16:12was the stupidest title
16:13I could think
16:14for a story.
16:15And it would also
16:16help to loosen up
16:17what I felt
16:18was an overly precious
16:19approach
16:21to literature
16:22for children
16:22which there was
16:23always this idea
16:24it should have
16:25some moral uplifting
16:27or send some message.
16:29Yeah.
16:29So I wanted this
16:31to be like a Trojan horse
16:32to get everyone
16:34to say bum
16:35so often
16:36that they would
16:37just relax.
16:38Is it
16:391,200?
16:41273 times.
16:43Somebody counted up
16:44the amount of
16:44word times
16:45I said bum
16:46in a 50,000 word novel.
16:49It was the beginning
16:50of what we might call
16:51your controversy period
16:52because there was
16:53a big controversy
16:54about this book.
16:55I think it came
16:56from educational bureaucrats
16:57who got their bum
16:58in a twist
16:59about a particular poster.
17:00Yeah, we had a picture
17:02of a baby's bottom
17:03on the cover.
17:04It was like
17:05it was terrorising
17:06an entire city.
17:07Yes.
17:08And they said
17:08oh some people
17:09might get offended
17:10by the sight
17:10of a baby's bottom.
17:12Then it was
17:13on page three
17:15of The Age
17:15the next day
17:16and I was having a ball.
17:18It would have been
17:19a moment I guess
17:19where you got to decide
17:20okay what am I fighting for?
17:22Yeah, I need
17:23I need to be able
17:24to entertain these kids
17:26in the most powerful
17:27way I know how.
17:29Whatever you write
17:30is not going to
17:31please someone.
17:32I learnt that
17:33very early
17:34so I thought
17:34I have to please
17:35myself
17:36and I have to
17:37please my audience
17:38and the gatekeepers
17:39certainly have to
17:40be negotiated
17:41but I'm not going
17:43to compromise
17:44for them.
17:47In 2004
17:49Andy and his collaborator
17:51and illustrator
17:51Terry Denton
17:52created another
17:54very naughty book.
17:55They called it
17:56The Bad Book.
17:58And it's as bad
17:59as you can get.
18:00It's one of my favourites
18:02and this takes us
18:03right back to
18:03Seuss
18:04and to Grimm
18:05and everything
18:06but in the most
18:07concise little form.
18:08It's Bad Little Betty.
18:09Bad Little Betty
18:10wouldn't get out of bed.
18:12Was she being lazy?
18:14No.
18:15She was dead.
18:17I love that.
18:18Poor Little Betty.
18:19But also
18:20perfect.
18:21Yeah.
18:21And then
18:22most children
18:24are not traumatised
18:25by that
18:26because they realise
18:27how stupid that is.
18:29That freaked a whole
18:30lot of people out
18:31that book
18:31didn't it?
18:32Yeah.
18:32Once again
18:33they thought
18:33oh kids will be
18:35traumatised by this
18:36or they'll go
18:37and do bad things
18:38and I said
18:39no
18:39this is a thought
18:40experiment.
18:41They understand
18:42that if you call
18:43the book
18:43The Bad Book
18:44it's not really
18:46that bad.
18:47It's a wink.
18:48It's a wink.
18:49But there was
18:49an obnoxious element
18:50in this
18:51which I think
18:51was a key
18:52learning moment
18:53for you
18:53about
18:54how far
18:55you can go
18:56and the jokes
18:57that you can't
18:57tell in a book
18:58for kids.
18:59Yeah.
18:59There's a strain
19:00of dark
19:01you know
19:02humour
19:02in Australian
19:03culture
19:04called
19:05the Little Willie
19:07rhymes
19:07and it was like
19:08Little Willie
19:09in his best of sashes
19:10fell in the fire
19:11and was burned
19:12to ashes
19:13by and by
19:14the wind
19:14grew chilly
19:15but nobody
19:16liked to poke
19:17poor Willie
19:17and there are
19:19many such
19:20variations
19:21of these Willie
19:21poems
19:22from the 30s
19:23and 40s
19:23so I made
19:24my own
19:25Little Willie
19:26took a match
19:26and set fire
19:27to the cat
19:28said Little Willie
19:29as it burnt
19:29I bet the cat
19:30hates that
19:31and then he takes
19:32a match
19:33and sets fire
19:34to his bum
19:34said Little Willie
19:35as it burnt
19:36gee that was
19:37pretty dumb
19:37Little Willie
19:38took a match
19:39and set fire
19:40to his head
19:40said Little Willie
19:41as it burnt
19:42soon I will be
19:43dead
19:44and now
19:45no one minded
19:46him setting fire
19:46to his own
19:47bum
19:48or his head
19:49but the cat
19:50got me into
19:51a lot of trouble
19:54the pylon
19:55was immediate
19:56educators
19:58commentators
19:59and librarians
19:59scolded Andy
20:00in 2004
20:02the bad book
20:03was removed
20:04from libraries
20:05and bookstores
20:06around the country
20:07it was a lesson
20:09he's never forgotten
20:12I realised
20:13I'd transgressed
20:14the unwritten
20:15moral laws
20:17fiction
20:17if someone
20:18does something
20:19bad
20:19they need
20:20to be punished
20:21in some way
20:22at some point
20:23okay
20:25so I took it out
20:26I've had him
20:27set fire
20:27to his knee
20:28and he said
20:29ouch that's hurting me
20:30and there was never
20:31any more complaints
20:33so what is too far
20:35and do you
20:35instinctively know
20:36or is that just
20:37trial and error
20:38what's odd
20:39about writing comedy
20:41is that you have
20:42to walk up
20:43to the line
20:43and then not
20:44cross over it
20:45and then the line
20:46changes
20:47especially if you've
20:48got a long running
20:49series like I do
20:50I'm on book 20 now
20:52if you showed me
20:54my writing
20:54in books 1 through 5
20:56right now
20:56I might cringe a little
20:58I might not have
20:58written those jokes
20:59in the same way
21:00and so I think
21:02that that's a really
21:03tricky territory
21:03I think that humour
21:04doesn't always age well
21:06once we expunged
21:08all this obnoxious stuff
21:10we were able to find
21:12other types of humour
21:15hi my name's Andy
21:17this is my friend Terry
21:19we live in a tree
21:20but it was the
21:22treehouse series
21:22with illustrator
21:23Terry Denton
21:24that cemented
21:25Andy's reputation
21:26as the undisputed
21:28king of children's books
21:29he's got a bowling alley
21:31a see-through swimming pool
21:33a tank full of
21:35man-eating sharks
21:36Terry then drew
21:38this 13 story
21:40wonderland
21:41and I recognised
21:42it instantly
21:43as a place
21:44I would want
21:45to live
21:46and any child
21:48and their parents
21:49would also want
21:50to live in this place
21:51so I said
21:52right
21:52here's the book
21:53you and me
21:55and Jill
21:56my wife
21:56and editor
21:58we're all living
21:59in the tree
22:00trying to write a book
22:01but we're distracted
22:02by all the wonderful
22:04stuff that's going on
22:05and that's why
22:06we can't write the book
22:07and so that just
22:09took off
22:10in a way
22:11we hadn't even expected
22:13around
22:13both in Australia
22:15and around the world
22:17the treehouse series
22:18engaged readers
22:19around the world
22:20and was published
22:21in more than 35 countries
22:25what struck me
22:26really quickly
22:27was that we
22:28we were on
22:29the same wavelength
22:29I'd been doing
22:30a lot of kids books
22:31but I had never met
22:33anyone with a sense
22:34of humour
22:34that could
22:35you know
22:35drive me
22:36and bring out of me
22:38the stuff I wanted to do
22:39but somehow
22:40I was able to go
22:41into Andy Land
22:42as much as he was
22:43able to go
22:44into Terry Land
22:54Andy has another
22:55great passion
22:56one that gives him
22:58access to his
22:59creative state of mind
23:01running has always
23:03come very easily
23:04to me
23:05I enjoy
23:06the repetitive
23:07rhythmic
23:08motion of it
23:11I go into
23:12a different
23:12thought process
23:13you're just
23:14in a more broad
23:16open state
23:17of mind
23:18where ideas
23:19are coming
23:20and going
23:21like clouds
23:21and that can be
23:23really useful
23:24the big picture
23:26of what you're doing
23:27when you come back
23:28to nail it down
23:30into words
23:33well when you were
23:34learning to write
23:35you decided to apply
23:36your running regime
23:37to your writing
23:38talk me through that
23:39yeah
23:40I thought
23:41gee if I applied
23:42a similar
23:42kind of discipline
23:44to writing practice
23:46as my running
23:47perhaps I would
23:48improve writing
23:49so yeah
23:51I started a writing
23:52practice
23:53which consisted
23:54of timed writing
23:55three minutes
23:56on the clock
23:57put your pen
23:58down
23:59and start
23:59writing
24:00and do not
24:00stop
24:01so I was
24:02downloading my
24:03subconscious
24:03in three minute
24:05bursts
24:05which eventually
24:06grew to ten minutes
24:07to half an hour
24:08to one hour
24:09so free running
24:11is almost parallel
24:12to free writing
24:14yes
24:14yeah
24:15you're not trying
24:16to control
24:16anything
24:17we have a
24:19free expression
24:20part of ourselves
24:21and we have
24:22an editor
24:23part of ourselves
24:24and you need
24:25to disable
24:25the editor
24:26for long enough
24:27to get the thoughts
24:28on the page
24:29and then
24:30you can make
24:32decisions
24:32about how much
24:33and how honest
24:34you want to be
24:35but get it down
24:36first
24:36yeah
24:39Andy's new
24:40partnership
24:40with illustrator
24:41Bill Hope
24:41marks his next
24:43chapter
24:43in encouraging
24:44another generation
24:45of readers
24:47I love the one
24:48where he's sitting
24:49on his throne there
24:50can you go back
24:50to that one
24:52this one
24:53uh yeah
24:54show me
24:54the middle one
24:56that's
24:57beautiful
24:59you've created
25:00a new partnership
25:01with Andy now
25:02after so many years
25:03of him working
25:04with Terry Denton
25:04is it hard
25:05to create
25:06that new rapport
25:07it was surprising
25:09I think to
25:09everybody involved
25:10including me
25:11how well
25:12Andy and I
25:13got on
25:14I mean
25:14there's a 30 year
25:15age difference
25:16between us
25:17but at the same
25:17time
25:18we have a lot
25:19of the same
25:20kind of cultural
25:20references
25:21and a very
25:21similar
25:22kind of
25:23slightly chaotic
25:24silly
25:25sense of humour
25:27so are you
25:28young enough
25:28to have actually
25:29grown up
25:29with Andy's books
25:30yes
25:31yeah
25:31yeah
25:31I remember
25:32being in
25:32year 6
25:33class
25:33and getting
25:34a copy
25:35of
25:35Just Kidding
25:37or Just Joking
25:38I can't remember
25:38which one it was
25:39and I remember
25:40there was a drawing
25:41of a half
25:42decomposing fish
25:43on the front
25:44that had a finger
25:45poking out of it
25:46and it was one
25:47of those things
25:47that just like
25:48scratched a little
25:48bit of my brain
25:49that was like
25:50this is weird
25:51this is edgy
25:52kind of stuff
25:53I wonder why
25:54the squid is mad
25:55with us
25:55it could have
25:56some I don't know
25:57magical ink
25:58we could be trying
25:59to steal the ink
26:00off the squid
26:01working with
26:02working with Bill
26:03is just a joy
26:04I can say
26:06something
26:07or a silly
26:08idea
26:08he's already
26:09sketched it
26:10before I've
26:11finished the
26:11sentence
26:12and that
26:13then suggests
26:15new avenues
26:16for me
26:17to expand
26:17on the story
26:18so things
26:20are developing
26:21very quickly
26:21with Bill
26:22yeah
26:23or it can just
26:24be an evil squid
26:25could it just
26:26be an evil squid
26:27I'll put some
26:28evil eyebrows on him
26:29so we know
26:29who we're talking
26:30about
26:30so it just
26:31allows me to go
26:32to different places
26:33with Bill
26:34and it's a very
26:36vast cinematic
26:37universe
26:40I think what's
26:41most exciting to me
26:42is that Andy
26:43when he last
26:44visited me
26:44I saw this spark
26:45I saw that
26:46he wanted to keep
26:47going and he had
26:48a new idea
26:49and he was really
26:50excited about it
26:51Andy's mind is so
26:53pliable that I don't
26:54think he'll ever
26:55stop writing
26:56and I think that's
26:57that's a good thing
26:57for readers all
26:58over the world
26:59have bad books
27:00and naughty books
27:01and anarchic books
27:02had their day
27:03for kids
27:04no they will be
27:05with us
27:06till the end
27:07of time
27:08or to whenever
27:10people finally
27:10stop reading books
27:12an anarchic joyful
27:14clowning kind of
27:16spirit
27:17it's something
27:18that's innate
27:19to human existence
27:20we need that
27:22comic perspective
27:23well when I see kids
27:25literally screaming
27:26at the sight of you
27:27and the sight of your
27:28books
27:28they're clearly not
27:29done with you
27:30no unfortunately
27:33you've got to keep
27:34working
27:35I've got to keep going
27:36what colour is the
27:37stick
27:38brown
27:38brown
27:41correct
27:41what shape
27:42it's just like such a
27:44fun game to play
27:45with kids
27:46shaped like a stick
27:47shaped like a stick
27:48let's pretend
27:49what I'm about to say
27:51is perfectly reasonable
27:52when it's anything but
27:54so it's just one long
27:56game of let's pretend
27:57with an enormous
27:58audience of readers
27:59absolutely
27:59yes
28:00so thank you very much
28:02for coming along today
28:04thank you
28:05Andy Griffiths everyone
28:07big round of applause
28:13and the monkey
Comments