Phil Ellis is Alone Together (But Mostly Alone)

Riding low on the award-winning success of 2014's Funz and Gamez, Phil Ellis is back on the comedy fringes, his panel show appearances most striking for the other guests' almost complete obliviousness to his presence. Some things never change though. He's still very much over his ex-wife Leanne, who's hooked up with the leader of an improv troupe, their relationship almost certainly not a contributing factor in his decision to embrace the theatrical parlour games himself.

Taking the stage in little beyond a top hat and denim shorts, Ellis continues to deliver a convincing impression of a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, at one point cheerfully inviting the audience to assist him in his suicide. Encouraging volunteers to spin his Random Wheel of Randomness, alighting on such topics as "hobbies", "dating" and "wanting Leanne back", these are the setups for daft vignettes, such as his love of Robot Chess – entertaining if inexplicable little set pieces in which he attempts to lure the hesitant crowd into his world.

Radiating chronic desperation, he takes inspiration from the video of an over-earnest US improv group, mocking their enthusiasm and self-absorption while appropriating their techniques for his own hastily assembled troupe. There's a fine line between a deliberately shambolic and inadvertently scuppered show that Ellis essentially obliterates with his agitated intensity, reinforcing the ridiculousness of his hour with a finale that pokes fun at the contrived, constrained theatricality of so many Fringe shows.