What Chance Change?, asks Micky Flanagan in his Hyena Lounge Comedy Club dates at The Basement, City Screen, York, on Sunday and Harrogate Theatre on Monday.

Londoner Micky premiered the show to sell-out success last summer at the Edinburgh Festival, where he became possibly the oldest ever nominee for the if.comedy Newcomer Award.

What Chance Change? is the story of working-class Micky’s journey from the mean streets of the East End to the leafy lanes of East Dulwich.

He opens in 1980, feeling trapped and angry, working as a porter in Billingsgate fish market, but come 2009, he is merely slightly upset at the cost of a latte during a recession while working as a stand-up comic now re-located to the pretentious London suburbs.

“Over the years I’ve gone from Sunblest to panini, tabloids to broadsheets, the street party to the dinner party. Travel, countless jobs, a belated higher education, critical acclaim and women have all played their part, but have I really changed?” he ponders.

A professional stand-up since 1997, Flanagan draws on his East End background to deconstruct the Cockney myth with his observational wit.

“In What Chance Change? he tells a comic tale of a working-class upbringing, where alphabetti spaghetti is a luxury and a bottle of Blue Nun is the height of sophistication,” says Hyena Lounge promoter Toby Clouston-Jones.

“Micky’s brand of intelligent humour appeals to men and women equally, as he bemoans the lot of modern man in pursuit of the perfect idle day and celebrates being turned away from a nightclub because his feet are killing him.” Since his Edinburgh success, Flanagan has gone on to record half-hour specials for Paramount TV and BBC Radio 4. Now he is taking What Chance Change? around Britain for the first and last chance to see it on the road.

Doors open at 7pm for Sunday’s 7.30pm start at City Screen and 7pm for 8pm on Monday in Harrogate. Tickets: £10, concessions £8, on 0871 704 2054 (York) or 01423 502116 (Harrogate).