What's Eton Ivo Graham?

Ivo Graham is describing his school's open day. He recalls the huge picnic, the boys assembled in uniform, the procession of boats – here I interrupt. There was a procession of boats? He sniggers. "Yeah. Every posh stereotype of the school comes to the forefront." Because prior to becoming the youngest competitor in—and eventual winner of— last year's So You Think You're Funny (SYTYF), the 20-year-old Oxford student attended Eton, the undeniably exclusive institution where 'posh' was born.

Given its reputation for churning out prime ministers, it's difficult not to wonder how someone like this ended up in the highly unpredictable, and badly paid, career of stand-up comedy. Aren't his parents disappointed? He claims his mum is "proud in a roundabout way – 'baffled' is more appropriate. She never thought of it as a world that really existed." Indeed, Graham's mother features in one of his routines, which sees him bashfully explaining "your mum" jokes to her. 

Graham is keen to point out that before the secret "came out", no one knew for the entire month of last year's festival that he was—whisper it—an old Etonian. In fact, it was only ever made public by accident, during a brief interview with The Times.

"All they wanted was to have the winner of SYTYF as a poster boy for the success the competition brings. The interview for that was really quick – then the Times journalist switched off the tape and said, 'Where'd you go to school, by the way?' and I said (here Graham speaks through gritted teeth) 'I went to Eton.'" It was at this point, Graham recounts, that the journo switched the tape back on triumphantly, telling him "I think we might get a bonus story out of this."

It says a lot that Graham feels he must "admit" to his schooling. He talks nervously of "just being honest about it", as though confessing to a crime. "I'm not trying to escape it at all but I don't really want to be 'the Eton comedian'; I want to be known as 'the good comedian'."

And herein lies one of his most endearing qualities – his impressive capacity for self-deprecation. He hates watching videos of his performances, says adding himself to Wikipedia would be "just about one of the most arrogant things you could do", and when his phone cuts out mid-interview and I wonder if he's hung up, I receive a text assuring me that "I'd love to be the kind of diva who hangs up on interviewers, but I don't think I'm nearly successful enough".

When asked about his future in comedy he talks anxiously of pursuing it only "if I could get good", despite the fact that his astonishing win at SYTYF bagged him an agent and regular bookings on the circuit, as well as cementing his place in the competition's hall of fame alongside luminaries such as Phil Kay, Rhona Cameron and Dylan Moran.

But back to Eton. Given the media interest in it, why not buy into the niche and write material about a secluded world into which most people have little or no insight? Though he talks admiringly of fellow SYTYF winner Miles Jupp "because he can do the 'posh thing'", he frets about being unable to pull it off in his own act.

Nonetheless, he laughs as he remembers that, on his recent visit to his old school, a university friend spent the entire day gawping at the pageantry, aghast that Graham had neglected to make any jokes about it. A forthcoming trip to a comedy festival in Hollywood will see the tentative airing of new material on this very topic, the success of which will be the deciding factor in whether it's used in class-obsessed Britain.

"For Americans, the stereotype of the young British guy has completely different connotations to in England. In the US if you say you went to Eton they go 'wow, that's so English!' and you can talk about Eton and Oxford without alienating people. They'd just be vaguely charmed."

Besides, Graham reckons he has bona fide evidence that his poshness adds or subtracts nothing to his act. He confesses to making a graph that compared personal ratings of his own performance to the number of Northerners in the audience. "Sadly, there was no correlation."