Thank the Comedy Gods for Fleety. Two days into the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, enjoying each show I had been to but lacking a side-aching belly laugh, I went to see Word Up. Within minutes of taking to the stage, Fleet had me laughing harder than the top-selling international acts I had seen already. It appears I haven’t lost my funny bone; it just takes something special to tickle it.

Word Up is, essentially, about Greg Fleet’s long running love affair with words and language. Far from a discussion on proper pronouns, the show focuses on how language connects us all. Anything but dry, this collection of diverse reflections allows Fleet to reel in his audience until they are captured hook, line and sinker. It seems all too easy for the comic, who clearly loves being on stage as much as the audience love watching him there.

Word Up proves that Fleet deserves his reputation as one of the greatest comics Australia has to offer. His political potshots are backed up with extensive knowledge (Few comics could back up a joke about holding supply with Whitlam references.), audience interaction is ever-respectful of the people who have paid to come see his show, and his digressions from show-themed material never feel like an attempt to steal a cheap laugh. On the night I attended, Fleet ran well overtime (to put it lightly), and the audience still didn’t want him to go at the end. It doesn’t get any better.