Micky Flanagan Editorial_Double Page Editorial 16/09/2013 12:22 Page 1
F
ame for Micky Flanagan is not fast cars or big houses. It is a sausage sandwich. The Cockney comedian likes nothing better than having a quiet moment in his kitchen making a sandwich. "That's the kind of thing that is an adventure to me these days," he smiles. It certainly makes a change from playing sold out shows, which is what he is spending most of 2013 doing on his biggest tour yet, entitled Back In The Game. Flanagan turned fifty last October but shows no signs of slowing down. His tour puts him firmly in comedy's premier league alongside the likes of Michael McIntyre and John Bishop, but fame brings about all sorts of changes, as the genial gagsmith jokes: "You can't nick things any more. These are the problems of being successful. A sandwich here, a chocolate bar there. Apparently crime and success don't go hand in hand!"
He says that hitting the big 50 didn’t really worry him: "Someone suggested I should lie about my age. If I was a film star or a pop star maybe, but comedians are supposed to tell the truth. Frankie Boyle says you can't be a stand-up after forty. On the other hand Bob Monkhouse once said you can't be funny until you are over forty. So how much time does that leave you to be funny? About a year." Flanagan's challenge with Back In The Game was coming up with material to match previous classic routines, such as his famous "out out" story, where you pop out for a quick drink and end up in a club still wearing your slippers. If his last show was all about his life up to becoming a comedian via Billingsgate market, living in America – "where I was an international lover and player" – and doing a City University degree in Social Science, Back In The Game is about where he is now. And where he is now is living in Dulwich, south London with his wife Cathy and six-year-old son Max. We are chatting in his bright study, surrounded by comedy books by his peers such as Russell Brand