Greg Fleet embodies everything honest and sincere about comedy in Australia. A man who is candid, frank and curious, his comedy continues to draw in large crowds and rave reviews
Greg Fleet embodies everything honest and sincere about comedy in Australia. A man who is candid, frank and curious, his comedy continues to draw in large crowds and rave reviews, proving that his shows are always a solid choice for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
This year Greg Fleet will bring two fresh offerings to the festival, along with the help of the very hilarious Mick Moriarty. Big Love is a unique show that exudes exaltation and encourages audience participation and relaxation.
“It’s a mixture of music and comedy. It’s all about the love basically. The audience very much feels like it’s their thing and we don’t give them any grief. There’s no heckling and no abuse, it’s almost bordering on hippie. People can wander in and wander out and get drinks. We have musical guests as well as comedy guests, so yeah, it’s great.”
As art imitates life, Greg will have to pay penance for indulging in his art in his second show this comedy festival season, Smoke Signals.
“Smoke Signals is about smoking, giving up smoking, and addiction. It’s about smoking coming full circle, from when you were little and you used to do it behind trees, and have to hide it from everyone. And it’s come to that again now. If you want to smoke you have to go outside and hide. Mick recently gave up, so I’m going to give up too before the festival, and see how I handle it.”
“I feel okay about it strangely, I’ve never tried before, but I’ve virtually given up everything else at some point, so I reckon I’ll be able to do it. But I feel a bit nostalgic about it, I think ill miss it. I’ve truly loved smoking over the years; I think I’ve done it longer than I’ve done anything else in my life. I think just that smoking is becoming harder and harder to do, it’s more expensive, you can do it in less places, and it’s becoming more socially unacceptable.”
Greg Fleet is a true veteran of the comedy world, and he comments on how much the comedy scene has changed and evolved in recent years. “It used to be a lot more diverse strangely enough. It used to be a lot weirder. When I first started comedy there was a whole lot of odd people doing strange and surreal things. But then once it became economically really viable to do it became a lot more like one man and a microphone. So a lot of the weirdness kind of dripped out of it. It was a shame, because it became a bit more generic, and more homogenized. Everyone was doing the same thing. But it seems to be changing back a bit now, there’s a lot more oddness and weirdness in it, which is great. “
So exactly why is Big Love THE show to see at the Comedy Festival in 2011? Greg can’t sum up why in ten words or less, but he manages to in eleven. “Come in, come out of the pain. Now with added dignity.”
Greg Fleet and Mick Moriarty perform Big Love at The Victoria Hotel from April 1 – April 21. It’s at 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays only. Tickets are $25 from Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door. Greg Fleet also performs Smoke Signals: Love Stories From A Soft Pack In Red at The Blue Diamond from March 30 – April 21. It’s at 9pm Tuesday – Thursday. Tickets are $20 – $29.90 through Ticketmaster, 1300 660 013 and at the door.
