Review: PHIL ELLIS: BATH MAT, Soho Theatre

For those unfamiliar with Phil Ellis and his style of comedy, they might be more than just a bit confused by the start of Bath Mat. Instead of Ellis himself taking the stage, it’s fellow comedian Tom Short dressed up as a DJ with a bright hoodie, headphones and cap, getting the audience warmed up. This involves blasting hits like Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and starting a chant where he yells “Phil” and the audience yells back “Ellis.” Finally, the man of the hour arrives, crashing onto the stage after being introduced as “the biggest loser in all of comedy,” unable to see as he’s wearing a bin bag over his head. This is the start of Bath Mat, and it only gets stranger from there.

Even though this isn’t the first show Ellis has done by any means, it may be one of his more popular ones, as he has risen to a new level of fame after appearing on the 20th series of Taskmaster. But the audience is seeing a comedian in all his absurdist glory, dressed like a cowboy and going from subject to subject with no real narrative. There are some stories about his personal life, like how he was living with his parents in Preston at 44 and the grimmest sentence on his Wikipedia page, but there are also some out of left field bits including a presentation about “good boys” versus “bad boys.”

There are many times when it is difficult to find the comedy within the absurdism of Bath Mat. As Ellis himself says about thirty minutes into the show, “Joke Number Two, please!” There are some moments of excellent misdirection that get the biggest laughs of the night, but the majority of the jokes are ones that only Ellis himself laughs at, especially after some particularly awkward crowdwork. Even parts that should be funny, like Ellis performing a parody of “Country Roads” dedicated to Preston, lose their funniness with Ellis seemingly forgetting all of the lyrics and simply laughing at himself and Short. 

Short remains on stage for the entire show, occasionally contributing some sound effects to back up Ellis, who is startled every time a noise is played over the speakers, seemingly forgetting that Short is still there. He even plays a role in a segment during which Ellis attempts to do crowd work, going out into the audience and filming on his phone as people are encouraged to heckle Ellis (and are at times funnier than the comedian himself). There are a few times in which Short actively takes away from the show, struggling to change the slides on a PowerPoint presentation and choosing to put on a bizarre accent that has Ellis losing track of his jokes. 

Having loved Ellis’s show last year, Come On and Take The Rest of Me, it was a bit disappointing to watch Bath Mat, knowing that Ellis has the ability to keep an audience laughing for an entire hour. But the comedian isn’t worried about the many awkward moments of silence in this new hour, having done a range of quiet gigs and recounting the time he performed at a lavender farm. 

There’s a funny moment in which Ellis promises that there will be none of his usual gags involving plants, AKA paid audience members, before a man angrily interrupts, frustrated at Ellis not going forward with his favourite bit. Of course, this is a plant, and Lenny Sherman plays the part perfectly, even returning later in the show pretending to be a member of Soho Theatre’s security team. It’s moments like these that work really well and show the potential that Ellis has in terms of absurdity. 

Phil Ellis: Bath Mat is a bizarre hour of comedy that lacks cohesion and never really finds it footing, but luckily has some good jokes throughout. Ellis is a talented comedian, as proven by his previous shows, but he struggles to keep it together in this particular production.