Jethro (comedian)

Rowe was born in St Buryan, Cornwall, on 8 March 1948, the son of a farmer. After leaving school, he apprenticed as a carpenter and worked in the Levant tin mine.[1][2]

Rowe joined the local operatic society in St Just as a bass singer, and then started touring pubs and clubs in Cornwall, singing traditional songs and developing his comedy act. From 1967 he also played rugby as a prop forward in over 100 matches for Penzance & Newlyn RFC, a team that later became the Cornish Pirates. The stage name "Jethro" came from his real name, Geoff Rowe, influenced by the character of Jethro in the American television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.[3][1][4]

After his popularity grew in Cornwall and Devon through the 1970s and 1980s, Rowe made his first national television performance in 1990 on the Des O'Connor Show, making several subsequent appearances.[3] He also appeared on Jim Davidson's programmes including "The Generation Game" where both Jethro & Jim had several attemps to record a skit about a Norfolk Dyke Dish, to the Audience delight,[3][4] and on regional television, though much of his material was considered unsuitable for a television audience.[5] He produced his first video, A Portion of Jethro, in 1993, followed by several others.[5] He also claimed that, during the height of his popularity, he sold some 250,000 theatre seats a year.[5] In 2001, he appeared in a Royal Variety Performance.[3][4]

In February 2020, Rowe announced that he was retiring from public performances at the end of the year; the final shows were later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]

Jethro's standup act made use of his strong Cornish accent and rural style of dress, with a "no-holds barred, foul-mouthed and sexually explicit routine". He was sometimes criticised for incorporating racism, sexism, and homophobia into his act.[6] Comedian Richard Herring noted that Jethro's success over a long career was admirable, but also stated, "Part of my admiration is that his stuff isn't as horrible as that of some of his contemporaries. Which is a bit of a negative positive."[7]

Rowe spent his later years living in Lewdown, where he bred horses and owned a comedy club, which closed in 2012.[1][8] In 1995, he walked from Land's End to Lewdown and raised £20,000 for the Bristol Cancer Open Scanner Appeal.[9]

He died in Plymouth on 14 December 2021, at the age of 73.[5] An official notice said that he had contracted COVID-19 in the time leading up to his death.[10]

• Jethro discography at Discogs
• Jethro at IMDb