Greg Fleet – Word Up
Rather than just getting up and talking about stuff, in “Greg Fleet – Word Up”, Fleety has given himself a theme and a structure to stick all the stuff in.
He has a set of big cards on an easel with headings on them. The first is ‘Words’ then ‘Learning to Speak’, where he was able to talk about his four year old daughter and her amazing ability to make up words, then ‘Speaking Proper’ where he could joke about Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde which lead to Speaking Ho Mo where he could make some gay jokes, especially the funny “Gay Away” skit, a shonky salesman with a system for curing gays. He was heckled rather intellectually about Shakespeare and he handled it superbly. Years of experience just drop off Gregg Fleet like comedy fairy dust. There was also How to Talk Aussie and How to Talk Funny Without Meaning to. Throughout he was able to chuck in some pretty wonderfully vicious political satire about the state of our country today, from gay marriage, to Aboriginal reconciliation to the AWB Enquiry. He does some lovely characterisations and silly accents and at then bleeds honestly before you about himself and his relationships. The show was summed up at the end in song with the accompaniment of Keiran Butler on the guitar.
I enjoyed the show immensely, except for one aspect. I couldn’t help but notice he was cracking jokes for twenty minutes before the actual show started and he eventually went forty five minutes over. I love spending time with Fleety, he’s a legend and brilliant at what he does. I can see how it must be hard for him to stick to a structure, but I had somewhere else to be.
For bookings go to Greg Fleet – Word Up