Name Geoffrey Rowe Birth name Geoffrey Rowe Nationality British | Years active 1993–present Role Comedian | |
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Born March 1948 (age 73), Saint Buryan, United Kingdom Similar Jim Davidson, Roy Chubby Brown, Bernard Manning | ||
Jethro is the stage name of British stand-up comedian Geoffrey J Rowe, based in Lewdown in Devon. Rowe was born in March 1948 in St Buryan, a village in west Cornwall.
Contents
- Television
- Charity work
- Political views
- Shooting
- Horse breeding
- Rugby
- Stand up VHS and DVD releases
- References
After leaving school, Rowe was apprenticed as a carpenter and then worked as a timber man in a tin mine. At the age of eighteen he joined the St. Just and District Operatic Society and, in addition to his bass voice, locals found he had a talent for making an audience laugh. He began visiting the pubs of Cornwall to sing and joke and was quickly hailed as Cornwall’s top comic.
Television
Rowe made his TV debut on the Westward Television programme ‘Treasure Hunt’ playing a pirate co-host.
In addition to his appearances on stage and video, Jethro has made nine appearances on TV shows hosted by Des O'Connor. His first appearance was on the Des O’Connor Tonight show in 1990, followed by a return for the Christmas Eve show later that year - the first time a comedian was invited back during one series. He also appeared five times on Jim Davidson’s Generation Game show, twice giving a demonstration of how to make a Cornish pasty. Jethro was also involved in one of the show’s longest sequences of out-takes, removed due to his and Davidson's uncontrolled fits of laughter but later shown separately; it involved the story of Hans Brinker, “the boy who put his finger in the dike”, with a pun on dyke. Davidson has said that he regards Jethro as his favourite storyteller, one of his great stories being Train don’t stop Camborne Wednesdays.
He has hosted two shows of his own, The Jethro Junction, on HTV and in December 2001 appeared in front of Queen Elizabeth II for the Royal Variety Show.
Charity work
The comedian lives in Lewdown in west Devon and in March 1995 walked the distance from Land's End to Lewdown to raise money for the Bristol Cancer Open Scanner Appeal. He gave a show each night at a local venue where he raised in total £20,000.
Political views
In March 2014, Rowe announced he would be supporting UKIP at the next UK general election. He once stood as an anti-EU independent candidate.
Shooting
Rowe is a skilled marksman. He often competes in Down the Line (DTL), a form of clay pigeon shooting competition at B class standard. He has been mentioned numerous times in the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association’s Pull! magazine as one of Cornwall’s most prominent shooters.
Horse breeding
Whilst not performing comedy Rowe shows his horses all over the country. They have won most major prizes, including at Wembley Arena. He also runs his own venue, Jethro’s Club, where he performs each year for charity. He was one of the directors of channel Sound TV and performed at Somerset County Cricket Club at the benefit dinner of England batsman Marcus Trescothick.
Rugby
In earlier times Rowe played over 100 games for the Penzance Pirates rugby team, now better known as the Cornish Pirates. His rugby interest was nurtured at Cape Cornwall School under the guidance of Derek Small who helped produce other famous Pirate characters such as Colin ‘Dumbo’ Dymond and Graham ‘Granite’ Waters. He played in St Just’s first ever match back in 1967 and then in 1970 had his first spell with the Pirates. Rowe played his 100th match for the Pirates in 1974-75. Rowe played rugby for Penzance and Newlyn Senior first team for 10 years from 1967 to 1977 as prop forward. One of his teammates at the time was Brian 'Stack' Stevens who went on to become one of English rugby’s most famous players. He also played for Wadebridge Camels captaining the highly successful and competitive ‘Commandos’ second XV.