Near-the-knuckle comic on form in Telford
Few comedians divide opinion as sharply as Roy Chubby Brown.
To some he is an outdated racist, sexist and homophobe, a symbol of narrow-minded prejudice and all that is still wrong in today's world.
But to others he is a working class hero, the man who gets up on stage and says what he wants with scant regard to the consequences.
What is clear from last night's performance at Telford's Oakengates Theatre is that there are still enough in the latter camp to keep him in garish suits and short trousers.
There was hardly an empty seat in the house as hundreds packed in to catch his "Who Ate All The Pies?" touring show.
"How can I be racist? I have got a colour telly," Chubby, now a comic veteran of nearly 50 years, quipped.
Was he racist? Yes. Black people were portrayed as criminals and we heard a rather different interpretation as to why Nelson Mandela was revered so much by people of his own race.
Sexist? Definitely, with his long-suffering wife the butt of a lot of the jokes.
Homophobic? Not so much, although there was a smattering in there.
But, rightly or wrongly, this is the sort of stuff his fans clearly love, with huge laughs and rounds of applause greeting every joke that brushed a bit close to the bone.
The material was a mix of old and new. For the new, there were references to the missing Malaysian aeroplane, Joey Essex and Jeremy Kyle.
But tried and tested stuff featured heavily too, with Chubby claiming he would be "beaten up" if he didn't sing and perform his chart hit Living Next Door To Alice.
He showed off rather too much of his body in a Full Monty type strip routine near the end but it was again lapped up by his fans.
There was no encore, but the 69-year-old seemed genuinely moved as he signed off by saying Telford was the "best possible audience anyone could hope for".
Chubby clearly knows he is not to everyone's taste, increasingly so in this ever-changing world.
His response? "I've been doing this 44 years and you good people are still coming to see me, so I can't be that s***e can I?"
And if last night's turnout and reaction is anything to go by – with several on their feet at the end – there is a bit more life in this old dog yet.
