Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

This is Barney Pollock’s first festival show, but the skill and commitment  with which he inhabits his nightmarishly surreal characters tells you he’s an  already accomplished performer, even if you didn’t know he has an established background in improv.

We first meet him in the guise of a camp and creepy South African bug exterminator, in patchily applied whiteface and with a tendency to get high on his own supply of hallucinogenic poison – which is how he comes to picture the pests enjoying their own utopian society inside the TV.

As the fumes envelop us all, we enter a surreal world in which Pollock melts between eccentric characters such as a cheesy lounge singer, a sea captain or friendly fairy with a high-pitched voice. Weird Ritual and strange stoner-like conversations ensue as we are invited to play with this bizarre menagerie of characters. 

Directed by Hannah Camilleri, who’s no stranger to fully-realised oddballs herself, King Of The Pigs 2 (the original played at October’s artsy Melbourne Fringe) is not a laugh riot, but an opportunity to fully immerse yourself in an absurd world full of uncanny situations and imaginative, expertly realised creations. Fans of The Boosh, David Lynch or Yorgos Lanthimos will surely find plenty to absorb them here.

• Barney Pollock's run of King Of The Pigs 2 is now over.

Review date: 7 Apr 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival