Paul Boross

Paul Boross MBE (born 1959) is an author, psychologist, performance coach, comedian, public speaker, corporate consultant, and podcast host. He is best known for his music career with Morris Minor and the Majors and The Calypso Twins and as a TV psychologist on Speed Up Slow Down (BBC) and School of Hard Knocks (Sky).
==Early life==
In 1971 Boross presented "From Us To You", a series produced by David Hatch and Simon Brett on BBC Radio 4.
==Career==
===Morris Minor and the Majors===
In 1984, Boross formed Morris Minor and The Majors with British actors/musicians/comedians Tony Hawks and Philip Judge. The band regularly played alternative comedy venues such as The Comedy Store, Jongleurs, Banana Cabaret, and The Hackney Empire.
In 1985, the group performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the show Have You Been on Telly? where they shared the bill with comedians Paul Merton (originally Paul Martin) and Mark Steel.
In 1987, the band appeared on the Channel 4 TV show Saturday Live which led to the band signing with Virgin 10 Records. Later that year, they released “Stutter Rap” which reached number 4 on the UK charts and Number 1 in Australia. Their second record, “This Is The Chorus”, reached number 22 in Australia. They appeared on UK TV shows including Top Of The Pops, Get Fresh, Saturday Live, Live From Her Majesty’s, Number 73 and Surprise Surprise.
Morris Minor and The Majors became the first music act to perform at 35,000 feet as they regularly played on-board transatlantic flights for Virgin Atlantic. This led to them having a successful live performance career in America and regularly performing at most of the major US comedy clubs such as Catch A Rising Star, The Improv, The Comic Strip, The Comedy Cellar and eventually headlining at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York.
===The Calypso Twins===
Boross formed The Calypso Twins, a comedy and music act, with his school friend and chef Ainsley Harriott in 1988. The duo performed at alternative UK comedy clubs including The Comedy Store, Jongleurs, The Tunnel Club, and The London Palladium. They appeared on television programmes such as Number 73, Get Fresh (ITV), Saturday Night (Sky), and The ITV Telethon. In 1989, music producer Mike Mansfield filmed The Calypso Twins for a comedy special called What Are We Talking?! which was recorded live at the Comedy Store and broadcast on ITV.
In 1990, The Calypso Twins signed a record deal with M&G Records/Polydor Records. They released their single “World Party”, which was written by Boross and Henry Marsh and produced by Steve Levine. Boross and Marsh later wrote theme music for various television programmes including Strike It Rich, Win, Lose or Draw, and Blockbusters. The Calypso Twins were featured on the show The Generation Game with Bruce Forsyth for which Boross was asked to compose a special song for a game called Generation Calypso.
In 2015, there was a media furore when ITV News mistakenly included a video of Paul Boross and Ainsley Harriott as The Calypso Twins singing and dancing at the Comedy Store in a news item about Sir Lenny Henry receiving a knighthood. Many of the complaints viewed the incident as racially motivated.
In 2018, Paul appeared with Ainsley Harriott on the BBC Radio 4 show It’s Not What You Know.
In 2019, The Calypso Twins reformed to write and perform the theme song "Kitchen Calypso" to the ITV television show Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen.
==The Comedy Store Players==
Boross was a regular guest with The Comedy Store Players on improvisation nights with founding members Mike Myers, Neil Mullarkey, Paul Merton, and Josie Lawrence.
===Music career===
Boross co-composed material for both Morris Minor and The Majors and The Calypso Twins. He co-wrote, with Mark Holding, the song "One More Night" for Francis Ruffelle which was one of the final eight songs in A Song for Europe in 1994.
Boross, with his partner in MB Productions, Henry Marsh, co-composed music for various television shows including:
* Blockbusters (BBC TV)
* Win, Lose or Draw (ITV)
* Strike It Rich (ITV)
* Just For Laughs
Paul was involved from the inception of the film The Aristocrats, produced by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette. With Henry Marsh, he composed the film’s title song, “Love Theme from The Aristocrats,” performing it together as The Royal Debonaires.
===The Pitch Doctor===
Boross has branded himself "The Pitch Doctor," a presentations and pitch specialist, corporate consultant, motivational psychologist, and life-change expert who has consulted with clients in media, television, public speaking, and comedy. Boross' client list includes BBC, Google, MTV, Disney, Barclays, and Nestlé. He has coached CEOs and senior executives, and he has developed and delivered leadership and talent management programs for Fortune 500 companies.
Boross has served as a visiting lecturer at the University of the Arts London, National Film and Television School, MIPCOM, Hult International Business School, King's College London, and Peter Jones Enterprise Academy.
==Filmography==
Boross was the on-screen Team Psychologist on seven series of the Sky TV show School of Hard Knocks. Boross employed psychology-based intervention to help young, unemployed people back into work through an eight-week programme that incorporated rugby and psychology. He is a business ambassador for the School of Hard Knocks charity.
In 2005, Boross served as the on-screen psychologist and time management expert alongside psychologist Garner Thomson on the primetime BBC Two TV series ‘’Speed Up Slow Down’’. The premise of the show involved helping a different "time-poor" individual each week by utilising time management and psychological techniques to improve their lives within a week.
==Publications==
Boross published his first book, The Pitching Bible, in 2010 with CGW Publishing. It is a non-fiction guide to business pitching and communication. In 2012, he published The Pocket Pitching Bible with CGW Publishing. In 2015, Boross published his third book, Pitch Up!: Pitch Yourself for the Job of Your Dreams with CGW Publishing. In 2017, he published his fourth book with CGW Publishing, Leader on the Pitch: Succeed in Business Leadership with the Wisdom of Rugby Resilience, with rugby legend Scott Quinnell and a foreword by Sir Clive Woodward. In 2022, Boross published Humourology: The Serious Business of Humour at Work with Genius Media Publishing, a compendium of interviews with leaders in business, politics, and sports such as Lord William Hague, Alastair Campbell, Jo Brand, and Dame Arlene Phillips. It was on the long list for Business Book of the Year (UK). Boross contributed to the book Where Does It Hurt? The New World of Medical Humanities, published in 2014 by Wellcome Trust.
==Recognition==
In 2020, Boross received Best International Corporate Speaker at The Best You awards. He won the 2021 Best New Podcast and 2022 Best Entertainment Podcast at the Podcasting for Business Awards.
In 2022, Boross was recognised as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to Business and Social Mobility. In 2024, he was named one of the Top 100 Influential People in the UK.
In 2017, Boross was named #13 on the Top 30 Global Gurus List. In 2019, he was named #7.
==Professional affiliations==
* Fellow of The Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs
* Licenced by The Society of NLP
* Authors Licencing and Collectors Society (ALCS)
Category:1959 births
Category:Author
Category:Psychologists
Category:Coaching