Paul Boross

Paul Boross is a British speech writer, media consultant and performance coach, who often writes and presents as "The Pitch Doctor",^[1] former actor, member of Morris Minor and the Majors and one half of the Calypso Twins duo with Ainsley Harriott.^[2]

Early career

After radio work from the age of 11,^[3] Boross played the part of the younger version of lead character Michael Rogers in the film Endless Night, based on the Agatha Christie novel, starring Hywel Bennett, Hayley Mills and Britt Ekland.^[4]

Acting career and Morris Minor and the Majors

After school, Boross gained his FAA (Film Artiste Association) union card and Equity Card and started work with minor roles in film and television, playing the slave of Ernest Borgnine's character in the TV mini-series The Last Days of Pompeii, starring Sir Laurence Olivier and a would-be pop star in an episode of British TV comedy series Minder.

During this period he frequently worked with another aspiring performer, Tony Hawks and when Granada Television wanted new talent for a show called The Fame Game,^[5] Boross and Hawks invited Philip Judge to join them to form the comedy and music trio Morris Minor and the Majors. The audition for the show was at the comedy club Jongleurs, where the trio not only passed the audition for the TV show but were spotted by the club owner Maria Kempinska MBE and offered a set at the club. Morris Minor and the Majors became a successful musical comedy act on the alternative comedy scene and featured on the bills with many (now household) names such as Julian Clary, Frank Skinner, Harry Enfield, Jo Brand and Eddie Izzard, who were also starting their careers.

The group became famous with their 1988 song Stutter Rap, an original song in the style of the then-popular rap song No Sleep till Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys.^[6]

The stage names of the group were "Morris Minor," "Rusty Wing" and "Phil Errup" (real names Tony Hawks, Paul Boross and Phil Judge).^[7][8]

The song reached No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart,^[9] No. 14 in Canada and was a No. 2 hit in Australia. It sold over 220,000 copies.^[10]

In Australia, they had a second charting single with This Is the Chorus (No. 22),^[11] which parodied Stock/Aitken/Waterman.

As a result of the popularity of the song, a TV series was created in 1989, titled Morris Minor's Marvellous Motors^[12] written by and starring Hawks.^[13] On the show, the fictional band leader attempted to maintain his pop music career while running an automotive garage.^[14]

Stand-up comedy and the Calypso Twins

In 1985 Morris Minor and The Majors teamed up with Paul Merton (still called Paul Martin at the time) and Mark Steel to take a show called: “Have You Been on Telly?” up to the Pleasance Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival.

During 1986–87 Boross was one of the original regular guests with newly formed Comedy Store Players.^[15][16] He regularly performed with the original team of Mike Myers, Neil Mullarkey, Paul Merton, Josie Lawrence and Kit Hollerbach.

Boross was one half of the Calypso Twins, formed by school-friend Ainsley Harriot. Together, the released a hit record in the early 1990s, World Party.^[17] The Calypso Twins went on to be regular performers at The Comedy Store, London and Jongleurs; they also performed in America and on TV and radio shows.^[18]

Performance coaching

Boross has coached and developed media businesspeople, politicians, doctors and performers including Sir Richard Branson and Dermot Murnaghan.^[15]

He specialises in time management, NLP and negotiation, for which he has appeared several times on national media.^[19] – including, most recently, presenting theSky Sports series School of Hard Knocks,^[20] primetime BBC Two series Speed Up Slow Down and ITV's Wannabe, which advised young people on the psychology of breaking into TV and the music business, The Politics Show (BBC One), Radio Five Live and BBC Radio London.^[15]

Boross has written numerous books as "The Pitch Doctor", including Pitch Up! (ISBN 978-1908293206), The Pitching Bible and The Pocket Pitching Bible.

He is also founder and managing director of training company BIG SKY and music production studios MB Productions.^[1]

References