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Wil Anderson is a troubled soul. His relationship with partner Amy, just shy of seven years, has ended, and Wil is very obviously poleaxed.

This evening, I caught his low key stand-up show, Wil Anderson – A Work In Progress at Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave. To coin an overused adjective, it was hilarious. But also desperately and inescapably poignant. The publicity for the gig warned that it wouldn’t all be funny. (Wil’s putting together material for his forthcoming show BeWILdered, and the gigs at Wollongong, Belgrave and Canberra are new material tryouts.) No warnings, though, about Wil’s anguish, nor his lashing out. At one point he laid into a bar wench (sorry, bar staff assistant) who was clattering the bottles she was collecting. And at the end he kinda attacked the whole crowd, by saying that the evening had been no help in putting the new show together.

So, am I warning you away from BeWILdered? Absolutely not! The best creativity comes from deep within the emotional core; the best humour from pain, humiliation and anger. Wil’s new material has a dark edge, an acid bite and a ruthless honesty. The result is a performance with substance and meaning, as you get a tangible sense of his struggle to do what most of us can relate to – try to pick up the pieces of a shattered life.

Oh, and after seeing the show, you’ll never be able to watch Lleyton Hewitt doing his ‘c'mon’ gesture without rafflwaffling your ass off!!!

BeWILdered is on at the Sydney Opera House in March and Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April – tour dates here.