Boothby Graffoe (comedian)

Boothby Graffoe (born James Martyn Rogers, 20 October 1962), is an English comedian, singer, songwriter and playwright. He is particularly known for his surreal sense of humour and work with Canadian band Barenaked Ladies.

Rogers was born in 1962 in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. For the latter part of his schooling, he attended the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Horncastle. At the age of 18, he became a member of the redcoats at a Butlins on the south coast. He named his alter ego after an English village while driving back from a gig in the late 1980s. His family still live in the Tattershall area. He claims to be the only comedian in the world named after a Lincolnshire village.

Graffoe often incorporates guitar playing 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.

He explained his reasons for increasingly irrelevant song titles as — essentially — ways to avoid giving away the key phrases or punchlines in his songs. For instance, he renamed "Umbrella Head Boy" to "Wot Italian" after realising that audiences familiar with his work would ask him to "Play Umbrella Head Boy", thus rendering the surprise element of this line in the song redundant to others.

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