Boothby Graffoe

Early life

He was born in 1962 in Hull, East Yorkshire, England.

Stand-up comedy

He is a regular performer at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Although originally from Beverley, East Yorkshire, he claims (probably correctly) to be the only comedian in the world named after a Lincolnshire village.

Boothby incorporates his guitar playing skills into his stage act, through his oddball (and usually slightly twisted) songs, including such titles as “Planet Dog”, “Woof” and his album’s title track “Wot Italian” (sometimes referred to as ‘Umbrella Head Boy’). Some of his song titles are still more surreal, in that they do not reflect the subject matter, such as “Giraffes Don’t Play Harmonicas, So It Can’t Be a Giraffe” and “The Consequences of Living in a Container”. He is currently accompanied by the violinist Nick Pynn, having previously toured with acoustic guitarist Antonio Forcione.

 

 

On his latest tour of Scotland in February/March 2007 he announced his intention to retire from stand-up comedy and concentrate on writing for Omid Djalili.

He has won several awards, including the 2002 Adelaide Fringe Award for Excellence, and the Time Out Comedy Award. He has also been previously nominated for British comedy’s most prestigious award, the Perrier Award.

Radio

He started his career in 1988 on BBC Radio Lincolnshire when he presented a two hour programme (Boothby Graffoe Live), on Friday evenings for a few years.

He appears regularly on Radio 4′s Loose Ends with Ned Sherrin.

Television

In 2003, he appeared on NBC‘s Late Night with Conan O’Brian

Music

In 2004 he released his first album of songs with Antonio Forcione, Wot Italian? A second disc followed in 2006, a live recording of a show in Brighton billed as Boothby Graffoe & the Following People, the backing band including Pynn.

Boothby has twice acted as support for Canadian band Barenaked Ladies on two of their UK tours, first in 2004 for the Barenaked For The Holidays Tour, and again in 2007 on the Barenaked Ladies are Me tour. Boothby mostly performs solo, with various members of the band joining him to play bass (Jim Creeggan), keyboard (Kevin Hearn) and drums (guitarist Ed Robertson) for some of the songs.

He has championed the work of surreal songwriter Syd Meats, often including Meats’s songs such as Far Too Serious in his set.

Stage plays written by Boothby Graffoe

  • The Condition of the Virgin 2001
  • One Night Stand: God and Adam 2002
  • Hitler Sells Tickets 2004

All three plays were subsequently adapted for BBC Radio.

Books

  • Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN-10: 0091889243; ISBN-13: 978-0091889241

 

 

This very tall comedian from Hull has been honing his gags and guitar-playing on the stand-up circuit since the late 1980s. Winner of a Time Out Comedy Award and a 1995 Perrier Award nominee, he has also co-written and starred in two series of The Big Booth for Radio 4 and seen two of his plays, The Condition Of The Virgin and God and Adam performed at the Edinburgh Festival.
 
All of which is why he has his own series on Radio 4.

As well as pleasing his die hard fans, the radio series aims to bring the full flavour of Boothby to an audience who do not know his work.

He is a skilled performer, expert with an audience, so it is recorded as live at the Drill Hall. He has a lovely singing voice, so each show has at least one song. He tells great gags, ranging from the political to the silly and surreal and delivers great anecdotes so all are included in the show.

And this year the gag count is even higher as writer Jim Miller (Jo Brand: Through the Cakehole) joins the team.

With Boothby on stage are his small team of regulars: accomplished actor Stephen Frost, and fab guitarist Antonio Forcione. A guest actor also joins each week, Paul Zerdin, Debra Stephenson (star of Bad Girls) and Art Malik are all looking forward to being part of the show for a night.