The Stage

Boothby Graffoe and Antonio Forcione - Wot Italian?

Published Thursday 1 September 2005 at 11:20 by Chris Bartlett

Revived for one night only after a sell-out, full-length run at last year’s fringe, this show from comedian/musician Boothby Graffoe and Italian virtuoso acoustic guitarist Antonio Forcione feels like one long fan convention.

Lanky comic absurdist Graffoe is a festival legend in his own right but his shows with the mostly monosyllabic but quietly charismatic Forcione inspire the kind of fervent fan admiration not often witnessed outside of a religious cult.

This concert then, entirely made up of old favourites - basically Graffoe’s comedy songbook with fine-fingered Forcione embellishments - is, fairly and squarely, one for the fans. Although the songs are such an infectiously silly joy, and Graffoe such a consummately funny master of ceremonies, that even first timers would be hard pushed not to get swept up in all the fun.

The main joke, that as he struggles to keep up with Forcione, Graffoe, while more than capable of holding his own, is by far the inferior musician, may be starting to pall. But instant classics like Baseball Playing Spider and, accompanied by six-piece vocal troupe The Magnets, a rousing, climatic I’m a Coward, Like My Father Behind Me add up to an immensely enjoyable and heart-warmingly good natured hour.