Phil Ellis’ first Edinburgh Fringe show was back in 2008, and he was once a contestant on TV’s Taskmaster. Nevertheless, I’d never heard of him until the Royal and Derngate announced his Bath Mat tour on their listings; that was all the impetus we needed to see him for ourselves. As soon as he came on stage, Mrs Chrisparkle felt that he looked like someone else but couldn’t quite put her finger on who. Halfway through the second half it came to her in an instant, and she whispered it to me. She’s absolutely bang on, but you’ll have to read to the end to find out who it is.

Phil Ellis comes at his humour from an unusual angle, embellishing himself as a top drawer, master performer, full of pizzazz and charisma, only to spend the next two hours deflating himself as a plucky loser. Essentially, he takes the showbiz comedy genre and neatly deconstructs it; your all-singing all-laughing comedy genius is in fact just a guy from Preston who’s had to move back in with his parents at the age of 44. To enhance that façade, he is often accompanied by Tom Short; not a traditional, separate support act, but someone engaged to whoop us up in a frenzy of excitement for his first appearance and who crops up occasionally when Mr E needs an extra pair of hands.

It’s a very clever idea and fertile ground for some great self-deprecatory material, which Mr Ellis delivers with great timing, heart and a lot of appeal. He cuts an immensely likeable character on stage; someone we can identify with because no one is really as good as they make themselves out to be. He provides a running commentary on the show, pointing out for example that this part is weak, or that part needs work. His crowd work is fantastic, with a devilish memory for detail; it was fascinating to observe just how confident the audience was in interacting with him. On so many occasions you see a comedian work hard to get comedy gems out of an uncomfortable, unwilling audience member, but Mr E’s audience is always ready to give as good as they get, even heckling themselves at one stage, which is something you don’t often see.

Despite his breezy, light-hearted style, he often takes his comedy where angels fear to tread, for example starting off with an “accidental” image of Ruth rather than Phil Ellis and giving us a few asides about her hanging; or talking about a favourite Auntie who was murdered, but still creating some funny punchlines. At his best, his material soars with an excellent balance of fantastical but not overly-stupid observations. Some of his material fails to connect; a section where he invites the audience to heckle him didn’t work because of its artificiality (the audience members were going to decide for themselves when they were going to shout out, not be told when!) and a good boy/bad boy media projection sequence didn’t really achieve anything. Why is the show called Bath Mat, I hear you ask? Because a bath mat was one of the final straws that ended his previous relationship. Yes, I’m not quite sure I believe that either, but it’s all jokes.

Overall, it’s a very funny couple of hours that at times can have you in hysterics, and others you’ll just be wondering what the heck is this bit all about. Nothing against Mr Short, but I found their interactions the least entertaining aspect to the entire show; Phil Ellis doesn’t need another person on stage to make us realise how funny he is. Bath Mat has been touring the UK since February and, after a couple more dates in May, will continue to tour in September and October.

Leonard Rossiter. Imagine a young Leonard Rossiter doing stand-up. That’s whom he reminded us of!