Lawyer

Joking at other people's expense

Court No.1 in the Old Bailey can hold a few terrors for barrister Graham Davies: "Before Christmas, I got booed off by 300 chartered surveyors; they absolutely hated me! I think the alcohol had something to do with it".

Davies, 30, combines his general law practice - he is a member of chambers at 3 Dr Johnson's Buildings - with a life on the road as an after-dinner speaker. Despite what the surveyors may think, he's much in demand, speaking at more that 200 dinners each year. In February a Mail on Sunday article rated Davies as one of the country's top after-dinner speakers.

Though it may be hard to believe, Davies claims he owes it all to gameshow presenter Nicholas Parsons. When unable to fulfil an engagement, Parsons remembered the student he had met at the Cambridge Union. Davies did the gig and a star was born.

Davies admits that his success is due in part to the fact that he is not really a star. This makes him cheap. Well, relatively cheap. In these recessionary times "people are still entertaining", he notes "but they're not splashing out seven or eight grand on Bob Monkhouse". (Although Davies declines to specify his own rates, the Mail on Sunday article placed his fees in the �1000 to �2000 per function bracket).

Davies's success can also be put down to his "put -downs", it seems. "There is nothing funnier than laughing a colleague, for some reason", he shrugs. Accordingly, he does his homework before every speech and targets individuals in the audience. But he saves his more venomous shots for any hecklers, firing off a quick, "When your IQ hits 60, sell" or the like, when necessary.

Alternatively, he may seek a little sympathy by turning the spotlight on himself: "If you look up the definition of 'barrister' in the Oxford English Dictionary, you'll find it comes in between 'bankrupt' and 'bastard'".

But does Davies ever fell tempted to let rip a one-liner in court? No, he says, "I'm discouragingly straight in court - I'm no there to tell the jokes, I'm there to laugh at them".