Chubby (right), Britain's deepest blue comedian, comes face to face with York's very own Roy Brown, whose name and frame have led to the nickname of Chubby. Roy, the York one that is, first dressed up as Chubby at Christmas 1996 to surprise his friends at the Acomb Working Men's Club, where he is the concert secretary.

Roy has subsequently worn his Chubby gear for a sponsored pub crawl and various charity events for the Candlelighters, And at the Grand Opera House last night, he finally met the man. "When I came into his dressing room, he said 'Flippin' heck, it's my twin'," said Roy. "He's such a nice guy and I'll treasure the card he signed for me."

To complete his special night, Roy Chubby Brown watched Roy Chubby Brown from a box. Chubbywill be on stage at the Opera House again tonight. Tickets are selling fast for the 7.30pm show, so booking is advised on 01904 671818.

Review by Charles Hutchinson

Roy Chubby Brown, Grand Opera House, York, tonight at 7.30pm. The Micklegate run crosses Ouse Bridge and snakes into the Grand Opera House for the annual Chubby convention in York. Outside, it's T-shirt weather, but then it is all year round for Taking The Micklegate Man. Inside the language is hotter than a pan of chip fat.

The usual door staff are in place, in dinner jackets and smiles, but so are the Chubby tour's own team of stewards, just in case. The only heavy thing going on, however, is Chubby arriving on stage to that traditional greeting shared by Middlesbrough's other less than trim star turn, Paul Gascoigne. "You fat bastard, you fat bastard, you fat bastard," the crowd roars at Britain's gladiator of smut. Such affection! It is almost touching.

"If easily offended, please stay away," say the posters and the tickets (although it's a bit too late by then, isn't it?), but that warning is the politest sentiment you will hear all night.

Chubby, in his tracksuit and with his beer cans, prepares quietly in his dressing room, preparing a few new gags for the show. Once attired in that burst quilt of a suit, goggles, helmet, glasses, white socks and fawn moccasins, he is a man re-born with a sewer in his mouth.

There are those who can put away all thoughts of political correctness, the Blair Think Police, New Beige Britain and the Guardian, and certainly this audience - half men, half women, totally committed - did exactly that, being too busy laughing to care about such sensibilities. Take a hike polite society, impolite society is having its say when Chubby comes to town.

When Chubby Brown goes on the offensive, he does overstep the mark on racism (albeit he tries to justify his one reference to 'niggers') but like Andy Capp and Viz magazine, he is mostly sending up our failings, sexual obsessions, and in particular the absurd male ego outstripping reality. He puts up a mirror to the human condition, warts and all, and reflects what is there, ugly as it may. This is the Brown stuff indeed.

Deepest blue Chubby, like the equally controversial Bernard Manning, is a brilliant gag man. Timing, delivery, change of pace, he has them all, in a set that takes in topical gags about the beef ban as well as the inevitable Clinton, Viagra, and sex, more sex and not getting enough sex. Unlike Manning, Brown is a self-deprecating turn, who, in his Full Monty finale, quite literally strips himself bare.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.