Middlesbrough funnyman Roy (Chubby) Brown may be a 70-year-old throat cancer survivor but he can still put on a good show.

A well-attended crowd were warmed up by Lincolnshire tribute act New Retros, with occasional Blondie tribute vocalist Denise Danielle trying hard, but unsuccessfully, to get the crowd clapping and arm-waving along, often a fruitless request locally, as they powered their way through a lively half-hour warm-up set.

Then, with the speakers blasting out the familiar chant that precedes his entrance, Chubby was back in town.

His act has never been one that the politically correct would recommend to others, but somehow the man’s personality seems to allow his vulgar, sexist and racist joke-telling to be tolerated for the fairly short, at about 80 minutes, period he was on stage.

The sexist jokes never seem to prevent the ladies in the audience from laughing along, and his shows never fail to attract a considerable number, but I felt that some of the blatantly racist ones were given too much of an airing, even if he regularly made telling points about recent atrocities.

He again demonstrated what a decent pianist he is and his songs are still a highlight. What a double act he’d make with Victoria Wood in a strictly after-hours revue.

A rousing version of his sole chart success, the adaptation of Living Next Door to Alice, elicited the appropriate audience response before a rather lame ventriloquist sequence, followed by a bizarre striptease.

Both of these struggled to justify their inclusion in what was otherwise a very entertaining evening in the company of a very funny comedian who is most definitely the archetypal Marmite man.

Such is his perennial popularity, most of those in the audience will almost certainly go again when he next appears, and he will tour until he drops, but don’t expect them to tell many of the jokes in mixed company.

Alan Johns