Review by Steve Bennett

As a high-concept show, he admits that he has pretty much screwed it up with the title, revealing the secret right from the start. He is not, as his accent, attitude and life might suggest, a born-and-bred Australian but a fully-fledged US citizen. It’s a shameful burden he has never had the courage to share until now.

There’s not much more to that story. He’s American, so what? Really the ‘revelation’ is just an excuse to embark on material about dumb Americans and the blokey Aussie culture. Ground, as you can tell, remains unbroken.

But this lively, likeable, silly, talkative and engaging comic is so very good at what he does. The ‘dumb American’ strand comprises a list of stupid questions and responses taken from apparently genuine court cases. It’s a moment’s work on Google to find such a list yourself, but Fleety brings it to entertaining life, with his lightly incredulous take on the stupidity of it all.

This leads him on to an Australian court case concerning the 1998 murder of toddler Jaidyn Leskie. Not the most obvious source of hilarity, but Fleet seizes on a minor player called Kenny Penfold, and has some fun at the expense of his pig-headedly ignorant conduct. Typically of this fluid show, this leads naturally onto more examples of stereotypically Australian behaviour, with the phrases ‘how Aussie is that?’ and ‘the Aussiest thing in the world’ tripping off Fleet’s lips several times. The routine about blokes yelling from their car that they’d all slept with his girlfriend is sublime.

Some of this material featured in his patchy Edinburgh two-hander last year with musician Mick Moriaty – and has no doubt been honed on his recent UK tour supporting Stewart Lee – and it’s certainly matured over time. Only his ‘theatrical’ finale, a creaking, pun-laden Marlowesque private-eye monologue seems tired – but then it did even when it was new.

That aside, Fleet is simply excellent company – the man who put the Greg in gregarious. He’s witty, convivial and relaxed, and serves up a show guaranteed to make even the most jaded heart laugh.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Review date: 1 Jan 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett