“It’s fantastic to be here in Milton Keynes,” says our host, Paul Zenon, “which is not easy to say with any degree of sincerity.” And they say Variety is dead. Not in this wobbly but likeable show, which also features Harry Hill, Lee Mack, an unmetaphorical one-man band, and a bloke who makes sci-fi spaceships out of balloons (I’m condensing his act here, but only slightly).

It’s the first night of a tour to raise funds for Zenon’s charity, the Wonderbus, which gives people in old folks’ homes a chance to get out for a day and see a show. Zenon performs novel magic tricks and holds the night together with a brittle, self-deprecating wit. “A live show should feel live,” he says, as he spins a pint of beer round his head on a snooker triangle, and it’s a rule that Mack follows too. As seen on his sitcom Not Going Out, Mack has a ready supply of one-liners. But his secret skill is to get a bit of conflict going between him and his audience. “I’ve been on The Des O’Connor Show,” he mock-haughtily reminds us as he takes on a Cornishman in the stalls, and he’s just getting into his stride when his short set ends.

But the show is worth seeing for Hill. Has mainstream success on ITV1 softened him? Quite the opposite. It seems to have freed him to be even more daft and disdainful. Backed by his band the Harrys, he annihilates everything from other acts to his own work on You’ve Been Framed. He ellides meanings – “my Sharia law” turns into My Cherie Amour, Morrissey become MRSA – and ends with an old favourite, playing God Save the Queen on car horns.

If TV Burp is Hill at his cuddliest, this is Hill reaching for something wilder and weirder, but still with puppets and props. He performs so intensely that he is always fascinating, even when his ideas slow down to resting pace. Is he the greatest live stand-up in the land? He’s certainly the most original. This taste of new material makes me look forward to his next tour like a child looks forward to Christmas.

Next show, Saturday, Playhouse, Weston-super-Mare (01934 645544). www.thewonderbus.org

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