Boothby Graffoe & Antonio Forcione on Wot Italian?, Improvisation and the Joy of the Unexpected

Some live shows follow a script.

Others make it up as they go along.

Wot Italian? proudly falls into the second category.

In the latest episode of The MarshyCast, I caught up with comedian Boothby Graffoe and internationally renowned guitarist Antonio Forcione to talk about their unique collaboration, which blends comedy, storytelling and astonishing musicianship into one unforgettable evening.

Before we got onto the show itself, there was one important issue to clear up...

No, their names are not "Gruffalo" and "Fettuccini."

Once we'd all stopped laughing, we explored how two performers from very different worlds first came together. The chemistry clearly worked, and they've continued surprising audiences ever since, including fellow comedian and musician Bill Bailey.

One of the things that makes Wot Italian? so special is that no two performances are exactly alike. Improvisation sits at the heart of the show, allowing Boothby and Antonio to react to each other, the audience and whatever unexpected moments happen along the way.

Of course, improvising alongside one of the world's finest guitarists brings its own challenges. Boothby admitted it's almost impossible to catch Antonio out, although that's all part of the fun.

We also discussed songs capable of waking the dead... or perhaps just the deaf... proving that the humour continues long after the guitars start playing.

If you're looking for an evening that's equal parts comedy, music and beautifully unpredictable entertainment, Wot Italian? might just be one of the most unique shows you'll see this year.

🎧 You can hear the full conversation now on The MarshyCast, available on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

Find me on all social media @paulswampymarsh

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

What happens when you pair one of Britain's funniest comedians with one of the world's greatest guitarists? Apparently, even they don't know. On this episode of The Marchast, I'm joined by comedian Boothby Graffo and internationally acclaimed guitarist Antonio Forcioni to talk about their wonderfully unpredictable live show, What Italian? After getting past the fact that their names definitely don't sound like Gruffalo and Festcini, we chat about how their partnership came together, why they've been surprising audiences ever since, and even leaving the great Bill Bailey wondering what might happen next. We also discuss the joy of improvisation, songs that could wake the dead, or at least the deaf, and why it's almost impossible to catch Antonio out when you've got one of the world's finest guitarists sitting beside you. It's Paul Marsh, and I'm delighted to say that I've been joined by Booth B. Grafo and Antonio Forccioni. How are you both? Wow.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

What a pronunciation.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yes. If listen, if I got even a nine out of ten, I would be more than happy with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Nine and a half, actually.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Well, thank you both very much. I do appreciate it. You are both coming down uh to the Portsmouth Guild Hall on Sunday, the 11th of October. I guess I have to start with a very obvious question. You've both had very successful careers on your own. What made you think let's put a comedian and the Italian guitar genius together and see what happens?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

That's a good question. I have no idea. Can I just say regarding your pronunciation of Fcioni? Um, the other day I talked to someone and he thought his name was Fettuccini.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Tastier, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yes, I didn't I didn't correct him.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

That's that's even better.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I'd like to be the testier music genius. Okay, that sounds good. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I was just thinking Booth B. Gruffalo and Antonio Fettuccini.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yes. That sounds better. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I've stumbled onto something. You might sell more tickets. Because people just literally wonder what the F Italian is going on.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Yes, if they might think it's a restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Yeah, a children. Yes. So anyway, back to my original question. How did you two get together? Where where did we meet?

SPEAKER_01 2:57

I think we must have met probably in Edinburgh Festival, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Yeah, I think I think so, yes. And the Edinburgh Festival, yeah. Antonio was doing a very successful solo show. And uh I was scraping a living. And somehow I don't quite know how. He he agreed to uh come on, tell the truth.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

I mean, Boothby is is is a good guitar player and he loves guitar too. That's going on the Pokemon.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

It's it's funny, isn't it? When when you are when you are a talented musician, and I let's just say we were talking about rate, let's just say you're a seven out of ten, and then you meet somebody who is not only a ten out of ten, but an eleven out of ten. And all of a sudden, do you know do you go, right? I can really learn from this guy, or do you go, why do I even bother?

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Um, well, that's the thing is if I if I do miss anything, like a note or a chord or anything like that, he he fills it in anyway. You don't notice, you don't it's seamless.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

That's it. Filling the gaps. That's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

And I'm here to provide the gaps.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Somebody has to, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

It's it's a it's a couple that compliment each other. I like it. Who was the first person then? Once you once you'd met each other, and uh and obviously it's safe to say you get along. Who was the first person to actually say out loud, we should do something together?

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Uh I think I asked you, didn't I, Antonio?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I asked you if you wanted to come and um uh Jim literally told me um and we call him uh Boodby, I call him Jim now and then. Uh he literally I knew he he wrote some really great songs, but I didn't know much about this songs. Basically, he just grabbed me and said, We're going to Scotland. I'd like to record an album with 30 songs I didn't I didn't hear about in one day. I said, What? And so it happened. Yes, it worked quite well, didn't it? Basically, I just told him to be on my left, so at least I could see the chords he was doing. And and what I don't know how we recorded the whole album in just in in very few you know, few hours.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

It was ridiculous, wasn't it? We we I mean that when when we did it, I think the engineer said, you don't you don't make an album like this? Because we we just basically did it together, didn't we? We played at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

It was crazy doing this, but uh actually I went along with it. I said I I'm just gonna see what this comedian was to go ahead with his project. And uh the songs are really charming and great. I really enjoyed them. I had a really good uh uh fun making them and then uh arranging a bit of them because some needed arrangements.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah, and I think well, I think on the album itself you can hear moments of Antonio laughing out loud and just chuckling in the background.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

I mean, the lyrics of the songs are uh are hideously fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, he was laughing at my guitar playing.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

It's not that the songs are funny at all. He ended up with doing the show that I I must say, Boothby used to bring songs I never heard in the new in the in the gig and telling the audience, now I'm gonna play a new song, and you see Antonio's gonna play it anyway. He's never heard it before. And you used to put me on the spot.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah, and I used to say to him, Can you afterwards I would say to him, can you at least try and make it look difficult?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Try and make it look like you don't know exactly what you're doing after three seconds of the song.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Exactly, but but that's the that's the that's the talent and and that's the skill of of a good musician, is that he knows before he's heard it where the middle eight is. He knows where the break is. He knows where the uh knows where it all is instinctively. And and even if it even if it hasn't got a middle eight, he adds one and it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

I think literally after less than five minutes of this chat already, we can see that you two get on brilliantly. Obviously, getting together, uh Edinburgh, getting together and then working on an album is one thing. Heading out on tour across the UK is a whole other thing. What is maybe some things that we you've learnt about each other that maybe we wouldn't expect?

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Good question.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah. Well we we we did a we did a long tour of Australia, didn't we? Yeah. We we went all around Australia, all of it. I think we did all of it. Um from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland. I don't know if we did Alice Springs, did we? Mum Gambia. Uh yes. Oh yeah. We we have we have spent a long time on on on the road together and um it's like being on holiday, really.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I mean it's a different gig for me, obviously, because it's uh you know, I doing gigs with a with a smile, basically. I'm I'm just there having f fun because uh Boothby is capable of always changing the show. I'll change my playing every night. You know, I I don't play the same things.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

So it's it's it's uh it's quite refreshing. I think I think well I think that's there's a there's a part of it. You can tell he's having fun. You can't see it on his face, but you can tell he's he'll tell you afterwards he had fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Just say, just pretend you're having fun, all right.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

Can I tell can I tell the Australian story, Antonio? Do you mind? I tell this story. Which one?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Is it broadcastable?

SPEAKER_02 8:43

We we did we did we did a radio gig in um Melbourne, I think it was Melbourne, might have been Adelaide, can't remember, might have been Sydney, doesn't matter. It was a big theatre, it was on at half past eleven in the morning, it was a radio show, and they had lots of acts or from um from a festival that was on, and we were one of the acts. We were doing um a song, one song, they wanted one song, and we should have known it was called Morning Melodies, that should have warned us. And uh it was on it was on at 11:30 in the morning, that should have warned us, and we got there, and the audience were um, to be polite, elderly, like very, very, very elderly. I don't think there was anybody in there under 80. It was it was very there was a very certain demographic. And um, we were sitting in the dressing room listening to these different acts go on stand-ups and bits of plays and all things, and um, and I just said to Fortciani, I said, What the what the hell are we gonna do? And he said, We have a song called The Lullaby at the time, we don't do anymore, but we had a song called The Lullaby, and it's basically just very nice music for about 30 seconds intro, very soft and gentle music, and then I screamed, Go to sleep, like that. And and people, you know, it's just stupid. People jump in the air, and it and it it's just a icebreaker. And he said to me, after I said, What the hell are we gonna do? He just said, Let's do the lullaby. And I said you're kidding, you'll kill him. And he said, and I quote, they pay the money, they take an exchange.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Come on!

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Oh, that is super weird. Honestly, they jumped to my there was hair, teeth, good god, during this time. That's yeah, it was it was stunning.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Uh, we'll make sure that we've got one of the uh the CPR machines, we'll defibrillate it, we make sure we've got one of those ready at the Portsmouth Guild Hall.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, well no, looking forward to Portsmouth, it's a great place, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Um, talking of audiences, I know that obviously I I don't know. Let's put some numbers on it and say maybe 60% are there for the whole show, maybe 10% are there for one and 10% are there the other. And I think maybe there's going to be a small number, 10 to 20% of people are gonna be there discovering this for the first time. What scares you more? Is it the comedy audience experiencing the music side or the music audience experiencing the comedy?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

I think they're really intertwined quite nicely. The music should say accompanying the comedy, and it's it's I I think that's why I like this duo. Because there's there's not a serious part of the the music and then the comedy. Actually, they're great songs. It doesn't look like it, but Bootbay is a good song, singer songwriter. I'm waving.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

But then the but also the thing is it music, good music is is inspirational and and it brings people up. If you play good music, people get excited and and they and they relax into it, and it's and it gives them a heightened sense of of joy, really. And I we've done this before. I think I think we did a late show at Edinburgh one time, and um it was all stand-ups, all of them. And I asked Antonio to come along, and um I was comparing it, so I I said, let's uh let Antonio do a five-minute bit. And everybody said, All these comics went, well, he's he's not he's not a comic, he's not a comic, he can't go and play music. You know, it was it was one o'clock in the morning or something. He said there's about 600 to a thousand people there, and they said, We can't put a musician on. I said, just put him on, I'll put him on, I'll put him on. Put him on.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

I mean they were very negative about it. I remember that. And I'm very grateful for you insisted.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

I sorry, I I put him on, and it it would it took about a second of him playing before people just focused because it's quite incredible to hear him play, and the whole place was a bit, you know, it was very early on, and people still a bit, you know, drunk and whatever, but the whole crowd focused and he finished to virtually a standing ovation. And the other comments were going, Well, how are we gonna follow that?

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah, no, I think there was our friend great Bill Bailey after me, and I he said, What the f am I gonna do, man?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Exactly, and and but the thing is, after he'd finished, the audience were on such a high that they were ready for anything, yeah. They were ready to enjoy themselves, and and the everybody absolutely stormed it. And it turned into one of a geek because he set it up to be he set the bar, and and everybody went along with it. But the audience were already at that bar, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:41

It's uh yeah, you know you have to bring your A game after that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yes, but but you've also got an audience who are ready for good stuff, yeah. And you know, everybody, everybody had a great night.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Um the title of the show is What Italian, what spelt W O T. That already tells us not to expect a serious evening. Or Italian is if someone's never seen either of you before, what's that one thing that they will definitely not be expecting?

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Good God. Very interesting. I'm not sure. What would that what would they not be expecting? Well, hopefully they're expecting to enjoy themselves. And and other than that, I don't know. I mean, Antonio uh it does some things. Sometimes just by playing it makes you laugh because it's so incredible. It makes you just laugh. It's just like, oh my god, how did he do that? And also, he's very funny. He's a very funny man.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Well, you you mentioned about um playing like a new song and bits. Do you do you do is there much improvisation or is the the whole show scripted to a T?

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It's scripted completely down the line. Every single word is is is prepared, rehearsed, and in its place. No, we just make up loads.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Make it up as we go along.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot of improvisation, amusically and with words. Obviously, we'd both be down the side of the words mainly. But it's it's it's uh yeah, there's a lot of surprises. But that's why I actually I enjoy this show because I'm I'm always there to to enjoy the ride, basically.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Um I will I'll ask one more question and then I will leave you to the rest of your afternoon. Uh you're coming to Portsmouth now. Before you head back home, what's the one thing that you'd like a local to recommend? Would it be a pub, a good restaurant, a hidden gem? Where can we send you?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Um well I don't know if it recommended the restaurant. Good restaurant for me. Definitely restaurant, yeah. But you see, there's a place, is it Mangostin? Is that in Portsmouth? I think it's on the it's a vegan restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

And I think it's Mangostein, it's called.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

I know, I know that there are quite a few good vegan restaurants in Portsmouth, actually. Um there's there's somebody that I deal with quite a lot called Shroom, um, which obviously dealing in mushrooms, but yeah, they they do some lovely vegan food.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

And and am I getting it right? Is there one in a church? Is that Portsmouth or am I mixing that up?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

A restaurant in a church.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah. I might be mixing up.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Well, you've done homework. Yeah, very much so. Looks like I don't need to recommend anything at all.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah. No, but there's a there's a vast amount of history in Portsmouth, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yes, absolutely. There is that's and and also this year is the 100th year as Portsmouth being a city, so there is lots going on as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Wow. Oh, excellent. Looking forward to that then. Get on and do a song, 100 years.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

There you go. You've got a few months to get it ready, make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Yeah, when is the gig? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

October.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

October. Oh, great, okay. Yeah, we've got time to write the uh hundred years of Portsmouth. Can you take any more?

SPEAKER_00 16:55

There you go. Uh well look, Booth B Antonio, thank you so much for talking to me. I really do appreciate it. What Italian is coming to the Portsmouth Guild Hall on Sunday, the 11th of October. If this interview doesn't make you want to buy tickets and go and see it, I don't know what will. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you so much for talking to me.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Thank you, Paul. Thank you very much.