Men In Coats, Grand Opera House, York, May 24

FOR a silent comedy act, Men In Coats' Mick Dow has plenty to say.

"Comedy needs a bit of a shake-up because there's more to this world than talking about your girlfriend or your boyfriend," he says.

"With our act, people are saying 'I like it but there are limitations'. Well, let's see how we can take it."

Step forward dextrous double act Mick Dow and Maddy Sparham, strangers three years ago, but now the coming force in British comedy on their first nationwide tour. Tomorrow they are in York, to perform their absurd and delirious stunts at the Grand Opera House.

Putting the "Shut Up into Stand Up", Men In Coats present A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please, their debut full-length show with the Elvis song title, at 7.30pm.

Premiered last summer at the Edinburgh Fringe, where the run sold out within three days, this one-hour show takes the Men In Coats on to a new level after Saturday night television exposure as regular guests on the BBC's The Live Floor Show. "The TV work has allowed us to play bigger venues, and pay for our van," says Mick.

To prove the point, the Men In Coats were booked to play The Other Side Comedy Club at City Screen, York, earlier this year but the basement bar show was pulled when the theatre tour was put together. "We've been doing the comedy club circuit for the past couple of years, but theatre shows give you more space and time," says Mick.

"At comedy clubs, some people just come along without always knowing who's going to be on, so you have to catch them in the first two minutes but in a theatre they've specifically paid to see you, they're on your side, and while you can't rest on your laurels, you've got time to slow it down.

"We're slowing it down so much that we have a tea break in the middle - though we still like to do quick-fire things."

The physical dimensions of the show can be stretched in a theatre setting. "Physically there's more room. It allows us to go bigger, with a much bigger set with much bigger possibilities, so you're not just repeating yourself," says Mick.

Born in Scotland but brought up in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, Mick met Nottingham-born Maddy (short for Matthew) through a mutual friend. "She went to drama school with Maddy at the Poor School in London, and when I said I was looking for someone to work with, she suggested him as he'd done some physical theatre roles," says Mick, whose roots lie in street theatre.

"Men In Coats is a strange show really. We worked it into shape in the streets; we worked abroad the whole summer three years ago, and then came back and played at Up The Creek in Greenwich, and that was the real tester. It has the tradition of being a bear pit, but we rocked the place, and that means we could take it further," he recalls.

Yet there have been problems. "Most comedy clubs wouldn't take the show seriously because it is a little different: when they ask what you do and you say 'we run around and don't say anything', you can understand why promoters don't take us on," Mick says.

Those days are behind them, and a television series could be on its way with a BBC pilot planned for the autumn.

"We've been commissioned to do a show, with no words, though there may be words in the background like in Jacques Tati's films. It's not about going back to the days of silent film but showing that we live in a multicultural society, and language is not the only form of communication. You can turn things upside down," says Mick.

"Working in visual comedy, the great thing about us is that no one else is doing this, so we can try and reinvent the wheel ourselves."

The TV show will be a silent comedy drama, like Mr Bean only very different. "There's a dynamic to double acts that I think we can play off. We're almost like twins who don't look alike but know what each other is doing but somehow haven't clicked into what the rest of society is doing," Mick says.

Come rain or shine, the mysterious Men In Coats will be in their Parkas. Mick has a plentiful supply: "There was a drought of them after last year, but they were back in the shops in the winter, so I've bought 20 or 30 of them." Only a comedy turn would do that.

Men In Coats, Grand Opera House, York, May 24, 7.30pm. Tickets: 12, £10; ring 01904 671818. City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds, June 3; ring 0113 243 30808

Updated: 10:09 Friday, May 23, 2003