WELCOME to the idiosyncratic world of Boothby Graffoe - the guitarist comic who lulls his audience into a false sense of security before jolting them with well-aimed barbs.

Graffoe's electric guitar and acoustic counterpart are no mere props. He can play, accompanying himself on well-crafted songs that take a wry look at the world.

Only Graffoe could set the words of a suicidal airline pilot to a variation on a theme from Pachelbel's Canon and avoid a crash landing.

His lullaby musical joke was inspired by the late Spike Milligan stating, in a lucid moment, that comedy was all about doing the unexpected.

Graffoe's dialogue of two sheep discussing Martini earned guffaws of laughter from Saturday's small, but enthusiastic crowd, which had been shepherded into the front half of the stalls to allow Graffoe to chat to individuals during his act.

Graffoe, holding a cigarette, pint of beer or glass of wine, worked his audience like a skilled fisherman playing a salmon. There may be barbs, but there was no malice.

His whistle-stop tour of regional accents - the West Country, Birmingham and Manchester plus Australia - was a delight, giving him the opportunity to define the French accent as "English with disdain".

Peckham, where he lives, was dismissed as a place that "makes George Orwell seem like an optimist" and Graffoe was poetry in motion when he aped the walk of a Peckham yob.

Slapstick, music and satire too, what more could you want? A bigger audience to enjoy Graffoe's comic gifts.

Updated: 10:33 Monday, November 15, 2004