We are bowled over! 

We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the response to our appeal to help us relaunch and reboot has been something else.

Phil Ellis has been plying his trade for a while and is an established performer at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he has won awards – including the Edinburgh Comedy Award Panel Prize in 2014. And now happily he has come to a wider audience through his appearance on series 20 of Taskmaster.

Mark Simmons is, in the nicest possible way, an old-fashioned comic, in that he tells jokes. Puns, one-liners, slow-burners, delayed payoffs as well as visual and physical gags, he’s got them all, lots of them, and they’re all rather good.

Simon Amstell says this show is a departure from his previous ones, which were full of angsty introspection. And true, in I Love It Here he appears less wired, but fans fear not; this is more of the same, albeit wrapped up in positivity and some knowing self-deprecation.

We’ve become so used to Bridget Christie taking on big themes – sexism and the menopause among them – that a show more akin to observational comedy comes as a bit of surprise. Then again, while her friends, dating and the woes of parenting form the solid base of Jacket Potato Pizza, she layers it with some politics too.

An evening in the company of the smiley Russell Howard always lifts one’s spirits and his latest show, Don’t Tell the Algorithm, proves no exception.

Maybe it was the cold weather. Maybe it was the disparate list of comics on the bill. Maybe it was a host (Fatiha El-Ghorri) who said that she might be a bit rusty this soon into the new year. But whatever it was, the gala preview for the Leicester Comedy Festival, which runs next month, didn’t quite fire on all cylinders.

It wasn't exactly a stellar year for comedy but there were plenty of shows that shone brightly and have stayed with me, even if the Edinburgh Fringe – for so long the highlight of the comedy year – increasingly disappoints.

It’s good to have the old gang back together in An Evening With The Fast Show, more than 30 years since The Fast Show debuted on the BBC. And if many in the audience attending with parents, or even grandparents, weren’t yet born during the sketch show’s run from 1994 to 1997, they are testament to its longevity – and how good catchphrases can live for ever.

Tim Key, besuited and wearing a baseball cap, stands on stage as the audience files in, smiling sweetly as people take their seats. He’s on stage but, in keeping with many of the acting roles that non-comedy fans may know him from – Alan Partridge’s Side Kick Simon and the lazy office manager Ken in The Paper, to mention just two – he’s unobtrusive. Many don’t clock his presence at all.