The Dome's security guards looked twitchy as coins started to land on stage where Johnny Vegas was exposing his enormous bottom.

The comedian bent over, with his back to the audience, and belted out a booze-fuelled version of Band Aid's Feed The World.

He turned the night's performance into an impromptu charity gig and was challenging people to lodge a pound coin in his oversized backside.

It was a bizarre, fantastic, troubling moment that had everyone in the sold-out 1,800-seater theatre laughing hysterically.

It was one of the highlights of a triumphant comeback gig for Vegas, whose previous performance ended in fiasco when punters walked out before the end.

Here, he proved he was back on top form.

After joking about the coverage given to Thursday's troubled show in The Argus, saying "all publicity is bad publicity", Vegas opened by pledging to get back to "doing what he does".

Bravely, the northern stand-up relied solely on audience banter to get him through his 90-minute slot.

Smoking a Malboro Light and swigging from a can of Guinness, Vegas extracted his entire performance from those who had paid to see him.

It was edgy stuff - "trust me to pick a conversation with a mute" - and often left the audience wondering where the next laugh was going to come from.

The audience, however, seemed determined to see their Johnny succeed and provided enough surreal banter for him to work his magic.

Whether debating the precise syntax of a David Bowie song or the time he was attacked by Welsh farmers for turning the milk brown with Coco Pops, it was all very funny.

There were still times when things went slightly flat but Vegas used these to his advantage.

At one point he told the audience: "I was tested for autism - and then they found out it was all the other kids who weren't talking to me."

He told it straight, it got a huge laugh and this time the ball kept rolling.