Caught up with MJ Hibbett ahead of their show ‘Data and Doctor Doom’ at Arch 555 @ Silly Towers on Saturday 11 October.

 

What was the inspiration behind your show?

‘Data and Doctor Doom’ is a musical adaptation of my PhD thesis, which uses Marvel’s Doctor Doom as case study to look at evidence-based ways to examine transmedia characters – I spent five years working on the PhD so the inspiration was to finally get out of the house and tell people what I’d been up to.

 

How long has your production been in progress?

The PhD took five years, then there was another year writing it up as a book (which is still available – really quite astonishingly available in fact), and turning all of that into a musical extravaganza took another six months. It turns out to be quite hard to get things to rhyme with “random stratified sampling”, so it took a while.

Where are planning on taking the play next?

I’m off to Thought Bubble  and the Lakes International Comics Festival around the time of this show, so I’m really looking forward to finding out how it goes down with audiences of hard-core comics fans.

 

What would you like audiences to take away from your show?

There’s two things really. Firstly, I’d like people to come away with an appreciation of how empirical data and evidence-based decision-making can be a powerful force for good in a time when we’re ruled by liars. Secondly, I’d like everyone to agree with my opinions of the 1984 comics series “Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars”.

 

What are you looking forward to most about performing your show?

My favourite bit is the section when the audience suggests a fictional character and together we go through my unified catalogue of transmedia character components to see how it can be applied to them. Boy oh boy, that sounds like fun written down, but it’s even more tremendous in the live arena!

 

Why did you choose your particular Fringe venue?

It’s got the word “silly” in it and I think we all need a bit more silliness in our lives.

 

Which shows at the Fringe are you planning on watching?

Mitch Benn’s show “The Lehrer Effect” seems to be on at every Fringe festival I play at, but always on a day I can’t make, so I’m hoping that this time I’ll finally get to see it!

 

Have you had any major hurdles to overcome to get this production on the stage?

I’ve spent thirty odd years playing pub gigs, so it’s been weird getting used to playing in slightly fancier venues where there are behavioural expectations e.g. I got into trouble the other week for coming out straight after the end of the show to say thank you to the audience. Everyone looked horrified, and I had to reassure them that I definitely wasn’t going to do an encore.

 

What other productions have you previously been involved with?

I had a run of Fringe shows 10-15 years ago with my friend Steve Hewitt, with titles such as “Dinosaur Planet”, “Moon Horse vs The Mars Men of Jupiter” and “Hey Hey 16K”. Otherwise I’ve mostly been playing gigs with my band MJ Hibbett & The Validators.

 

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