While Lancashire wag Phil Cool's act featured jokes and music as well it was the former wrestler's twisted chops that marked him out from the stand-up crowd.

And it seems those cheeks haven't lost their flexibility as the rubber-faced funnyman is on his travels with a new show - and makes three stops in our region, beginning on Thursday when he performs at Rotheram Civic Theatre.

After that he takes in The Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, on April 18, followed by new entertainments destination The Venue, in Stocksbridge, on May 10.

A big TV star in the 1980s, Phil's contorted chops more or less vanished from our television screens after three series of Cool It for the BBC and two seasons of his ITV show.

The fickle nature of telly executives after a management re-shuffle prompted him to re-think his career path and a return to doing his thing live beckoned. He's been pretty much touring the UK and playing one-off venues abroad ever since.

Along the way his set had included jiggling his jowls to mimic the Pope, Sylvester Stallone and Tina Turner as well as fellow comics such as Bill Connolly and Sheffield University-educated Eddie Izzard as well as close impressions of Tony Blair and George Bush.

Described by some as the world's only stand-up chameleon, Phil hints that he is winding down, but his current tour takes in plenty of dates.

"I'm getting older and don't want to gallivant about too much.," he quips.

Born in Chorley, the small town turned comedy central courtesy of Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights and its co-star Dave Spikey, Phil has remained active in spite of a heart scare at the turn of the decade.

Now he's a fit-looking 60-year-old turning in a two-hour routine honed over 30 years, much based around characters and stories he's come across along the way.

Besides his version of Winston Churchill's scathing verdict of today's youth he touches on the very public divorce of a certain ex-Beatle by impersonating Paul McCartney explaining the troubles he's had with a certain blonde woman.

His website claims he has one dream left - to play Jim Carrey's dad in a Hollywood flick. You never know.

Meanwhile, another vintage comedy clown who vanished with the old cathode ray tube, Irish mirth-maker Jimmy Cricket, has booked a night in Rotherham on March 17 when he pulls his famous wellies on at the Civic Theatre.

He finds Sheffield on September 20 for a show at the Park Gardeners Arms.