Melvin Brown is a hugely likeable performer, and at 65 he can still tap his way through various styles, often singing at the same time. The show is an autobiography, with elements of the confessional, as he takes us through his unusual life, and the performers he has admired along the way. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, as one of 12 children, he started to perform at five, when his teacher asked the class if anyone could dance. He couldn’t, but got up and improvised. In his early teens he was sneaking out at night to visit clubs, and sing a number with visiting bands. Soon he won a local TV talent show. The prize, to his disgust, was an electric frying-pan.

Dressed in a gold tail-coat, Brown performs numbers from different periods of his life — an impression of Bojangles Robinson’s tap style; a homage to Chubby Checker, in which he sings and actually manages to tap while he twists. On we go, through Ray Charles and Otis Redding and many others. For seven years Melvin toured with a group of male strippers. He invites a lady from the audience to sit on stage, and does his raunchy routine in front of her, right down to a black G-string. We don’t see an elderly man doing his best, but a clear picture of the sexy young man he once was, still with the body of a 25-year-old.

Later in life Brown became a minister, and now he’s touring the world to raise money for a home he wants to start for the old and the very young. He calls it his “Change the World Project”. This is a terrific show, and it lasted an hour and a half in the sweltering upstairs room of Copa, a feat of endurance as well as a performance. Movin’ Melvin Brown will be appearing at Glastonbury, and at the Edinburgh Festival.