“PEOPLE of Manchester... and the surrounding areas” packed out, in his own words, the newly named “Phones Fuck You Arena” this week for comedian of the moment, Micky Flanagan’s The Back In The Game Tour 2013.

While Flanagan’s last tour The Out Out Tour in 2011 set a very steady bar for his career, The Back in The Game Tour 2013 sees him push the boundaries even further.

Explaining there’d be no new talent or support act because “fuck ‘em, it’s every man for himself in this game” a majority middle aged crowd tuned their ears into Flanagan’s tell it like it is, bona fide cockney take on real life.

You see whilst most of Britain’s biggest comedians were at the top of their game by their mid to late 30s, Flanagan was in fact just starting out. Now at 52 and on his second sell out tour, the former window cleaner, painter/decorator and trainee teacher is clearly keen to make up for lost time with his no holds barred approach to telling the very colourful story of his life, intermixed with current affairs.

While Flanagan’s last tour The Out Out Tour in 2011 set a very steady bar for his career, The Back in The Game Tour 2013 sees him push the boundaries even further. There were clear spikes of raucous laughter at the Phones 4u Arena and these were the moments where Flanagan went what he described as “a bit strong”.

Topics included Jimmy Saville - “How did we not know the man was a nonce?”; homosexuality and religion - “Priests don’t like the idea of a dinky in the bot bot”; and the best types of sausages - “They’re made of noses, arseholes and sawdust”.

The safer, more predictable anecdotes such as "my wife's such a bad cook" were Flanagan’s weaker moments but overall, it was hard to hate on most of the matey banter.

Clearly mirroring many of the audience members' upbringings in the 1970s, the only shame was that in a setting reflecting the size of his flourishing career, Flanagan was unable to really see the impact of his work on each of the 20,000 beaming faces.

The boy clearly done good, but I doubt I wasn’t the only one wishing it was a pub crawl rather than an arena tour.

Micky Flanagan’s Back In The Game 2013 DVD is now available from Amazon priced £10.

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