Sydney Fringe Festival 2017: Burger King Illuminati: The Infinite Pizza Party

Taking time off running the world in secret, the Burger King Illuminati emerge once again to reveal their evil secrets to the world at the Fringe Festival. What were these secrets that had been boiling in the minds of the USyd born comedy group? Apparently some weird but hilarious jokes about “long bread” and people with feet for hands. From the opening lights, the audience knew that this would a show like no other.

The show starts with Bruno, local Marrickville boy like myself, advertising BKI as an advertising agency, listing off local Marrickville businesses such as the Yeeros shop and “Austin Powers Hair Place.” Whilst this segment had a specific audience in mind, Bruno’s charmingly nervous delivery made it accessible for anyone to enjoy.

From there came a diverse and masterfully crafted show that kept the audience guessing as to what would come next, but knew it would be funny. BKI’s comedy prowess was made apparent through the fresh, novel ways jokes were structured, linking the entire show together. Some jokes were set up at the beginning, forgotten about and then come back to at the very end. Even single words were referenced in later sketches, giving them a unique value. A favourite series of sketches of mine was the trio’s own solo specialised stand-up routines that had to be delivered by another member after intended member broke their ankle. Jacob performed Bruno’s video editing jokes, Bruno butchered Dan’s audio editing jokes and Dan confusedly read out Jacob’s “fucking” jokes.

It was also lovely to see absent member Liam Scarrett make multiple appearances in the show’s video sketch explaining how to play Yu-Gi-Oh, even though the live action sketch it referenced had long since ended, making for one of my personal highlights.

Despite its lack of pizza content, the Infinite Pizza Party was an hour of amazingly funny comedy with not one single moment of boredom. It’s hard to explain all the reasons why BKI were so funny and a joy to watch. The show as a whole was so utterly DIY yet sometimes intellectually surreal that it seemed almost avant-garde. Bruno, Jacob and Dan obviously had a blast both constructing and performing this show and it really shines through. For an hour of content, it seems a lot of work was put into it and for that, BKI should be applauded. In many ways, BKI were parodying themselves and the comedy genre as a whole, making for a delightfully funny and witty show. All in all, if the Burger King Illuminati was running the world, we would all be dead, but at least we would die laughing.