HARRY Hill charges on stage in his trademark large specs, huge-collared white shirt and tight suit festooned with badges and pens.

He is a mesmerising blur of activity, firing out lines with a compelling energy. Spotting a fellow bald man in the audience, the follically challenged stand-up asks: "Was it the same for you, sir? You just noticed it was taking longer and longer to wash your face."

He goes on to bemoan the stupidity of the staff at a well-known high street chain: "You know you're in trouble when they say, 'sorry, sir, I can't serve you because there's a little bird trapped in your Visa card'."

It is a bravura performance, best summed up by all those adjectives beginning with D: daft, dotty, dynamic – oh yes, and dazzling.

Laidback on his day off, Hill is dressed down in jeans and a blue checked shirt. Sipping a cup of coffee, he is looking forward to his 45-date national spring tour, entitled Wild Horses, which calls at Aldershot's Princes Hall on April 2. He reflects on the unique buzz he gets from performing live.

"When it's going well, there is nothing better," beams the man who has also carved out an enormously successful TV career. "It's such tremendous fun. The great thing is, it's immediate. You don't have to rely on 20 other people – there's no one telling you what to say. If I have an idea in the morning, I can be doing it in the evening. It's great to see people laughing. I get the most fantastic enjoyment from playing to the crowd."

Performing live also gives Hill free rein to mix up his routines to sparkling effect. When his act is flying, the comedian can spiral off into uncharted territory.

"I don't have a set order when I go on stage," he confirms. "I know what I'll start and finish with, but every night I'll do it in a different order in between. A lot of the time, I'm thinking, 'what's next?' and I come off stage asking 'what did I miss out?'" But however it comes out, Hill's act is always electrifying.

Wild Horses promises to be his most memorable show yet. He says that in it he will be "celebrating a staggering 50 golden years in showbiz" and explaining how Jesus might have been a duck.

The "power duo", The Caterers, will be playing, and fans will also be delighted to hear that the comic's lifelong companion, Stouffer, will be making an appearance. He will be happy to take questions from the floor. In addition, Hill teases, "there might be a badger or two!"

One of the highlights of Wild Horses is bound to be a full, woodsplintering karate display. "I am really looking forward to demonstrating my new karate skills. I should add, all wood broken in the show is from renewable sources.

"I will also have the opportunity to read an open letter to my son, Gary, who I fell out with over his desire to become a ballet dancer, resulting in me breaking both his legs. I am hoping he will come to one of the shows and we will be reunited." Gary is, of course, played by a ventriloquist's dummy.

Hill, who has a devoted live following, revels in all this stage business. "I love all that," he enthuses. "Look at Bernie Clifton. He does a prop act, which includes a 20-foot inflatable sausage that he throws out over the audience. A lot of that sort of stuff – prop acts, ventriloquism, eccentric dancing, falling over, dressing-up boxes – originated in music hall. No one does those things anymore, they've fallen from memory. But they're still terrific."

This stage paraphernalia, he continues, really helps to enliven an audience. "Stand-up these days tends to be just one bloke with a microphone, but for two hours that's too much. Comedians don't tend to tour with a band or props or personnel, but I do. It may be more expensive, but it's also much more fun!" And fun is a word that everyone associates with Harry Hill.

The comedian, who trained as a doctor but switched to a career in stand-up after a medical revue, has had a frantically busy couple of years. Harry Hill's TV Burp, his brilliant send-up of popular television programmes, proved a huge hit on ITV1 last year. It was quite an exhausting show to make, however. "It was so labour-intensive – I couldn't begin to tell you how much telly I watched for it," Hill sighs.

Last year, Hill also found the time to write a comic novel, Flight From Deathrow. He was braced for some criticism beforehand. "I was aware of some reviewers who always slag off comedians for writing novels," he admits. "You couldn't knock me for writing this sort of book. Sometimes you can knock comedians for writing pretentious books, but what I wrote was what I knew – gags."

The first series of The All New Harry Hill Show has just finished a successful run on ITV1. According to Hill, "it was more of a big show. I would appear from a giant revolving collar and do stand-up and sketches and a news desk. I had Sir Steve Redgrave as my sidekick – since he's given up rowing, he hasn't been as busy and was able to help out."

Finally, how would the comedian describe his own humour? "I've been labelled as surreal," Hill concludes. "People have latched onto that tag because it's easier. But most of my comedy isn't surreal – most of it is just silly."