Greg Fleet.
 Talking to Greg Fleet about his latest Fringe show, 'Word Up', is a very jolly experience, but also one tinged with irony. You see, it's all about how we communicate with one another, and frequent bursts of static make it quite difficult to make out a word he's saying.
"It's ostensibly about language," Fleet explains slowly. "How we use it, what it is, and where it comes from. How we use it correctly, how we use it incorrectly. While writing it, this theme developed on what it means to be Australian, or un-Australian. A lot of people are now describing themselves as proudly un-Australian, which I think is understandable."
If words, per se, don't exactly float your boat, Fleet has managed to cast a wider net within the show. "There's some stuff about homophobia, and the racial situation which doesn't exist in our country, apparently. There's even about six pages of stuff on the comedy goldmine that is domestic violence."
Some of Fleet's previous shows have been about such things as his drug addiction and his relationship with his father. What made him switch to something as universal as language? "On a really practical level, with festivals they ask you about a few months out what your show's called and what's it about, and more often than not you just say what you were thinking about that week, and then you're stuck with it.
"I kind of wanted something that was open enough to incorporate a lot of stuff, and also the written and spoken word is kind of how I've made my living for the past 19 years. Other than fairly recently when I was involved in something I quietly like to call the Bali Ten," he quips.
"There's a bit [in the show] about that, actually," he adds. "It's kind of a new trend for Aussies to go overseas with a bit of drugs strapped to your body, and have a go. That good Aussie spirit of having a shot, having a crack, and keeping us in the papers. It's that real Anzac spirit of having a go against the odds."
This vein of humour might seem to some a little black, possibly even inappropriate, but that suits Fleet right down to the ground. "As a comic who's done it for a really long time, I like the idea of trying to be funny about things that, on the surface, are really serious, and not funny at all.
"When you start out on it, people kind of go, 'Oh my God'. Then they go, 'Oh, I get it; you're not a creep, you've actually got a point'. Hopefully, otherwise I'll be run out of Adelaide very quickly."
Henry Nicholls
 | Greg Fleet's 'Word Up' can be found at Nova Cinema (Rundle Street) from Fri 24 Feb as part of the Fringe. |
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