Adelaide comedian Phil DeBondi tells us what keeps him up at night in this heartfelt and endearingly funny debut hour of stand-up comedy.

Dressed in a navy-blue blazer complete with pocket square, the unassuming comedian acknowledges his appearance would lead many to believe him better suited for a career in real estate. At a glance, some might think him an almost unremarkable portrait of a white-collar husband and father. What unfolds is not a story to the contrary, but rather a story, in Phil’s words, how he got from ‘where he was’ to ‘where he is now.’

Diagnosed parasomniac, Phil is plagued by crippling sleep disorders which often place him in amusingly compromised scenarios. He often wakes up wondering what he has done and where he is (much to his wife’s bemusement). Reflecting on this, Phil takes us back to his early childhood in Port Augusta, walking us through lived experiences of domestic violence and frozen vegemite sandwiches, to several unexpected career paths, including submarines and physiotherapy. Finally, Phil discusses entering fatherhood, how his condition effects his parenting, and the similarities between his five-year-old daughter and Bruce Lee.

Phil lays it all out there; his personal trauma, flaws, insecurities, and doubts about the future, as he acknowledges he as long surpassed the timeframe where people with his condition begin to enter the throes of dementia. Although the show touches on some heavy subject matter, the laughter is consistent and spirited as Phil sets the tone with a light-hearted optimism that is hard not to like. Where other comedians may stray too dark, Phil is always able to pull the audience back in with a lemons-to-lemonade charm. In his unassuming nature Phil finds his greatest comedic strength; the self-aware scrappiness of a nice guy just doing his best.