Noel Fielding is 41.

I didn’t believe it though he reminded his audience throughout his show.

On this evidence, he was not the 41-year-old he professed to be; a one day old helium balloon, a man who struggled to be the hellraiser of his youth or as svelte as he once was.

A show with this much energy and this many ideas, a mixture of stand-up character comedy, video and animation, song and dance, was not the work of a flagging middle-aged comic.

He did the comedic staple of interrogating his audience but who else would do it as a 1970s New York cop with a paparazzi camera man in tow?

We had an audience member hauled up on stage but who else would turn him into a heroic knight who saved the day with his member?

There were incredible flights of fantasy; did Joey Ramone, David Bowie, a Minotaur, a reverse Minotaur with Greg Wallace’s head and flatulence in a maze make sense to anyone who hadn’t seen the show?

But the fantasy never dragged or lost its comic edge for all its random weirdness.

Being 41, as Fielding said, means he has been a stand-up for a long time and he knew how to keep the audience rapt, especially back in Brighton for the first time in six years where he was among his people.

At 41 – the best is yet to come.