Stamptown ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A raunchy, chaotic, totally one-of-a-kind spectacle, Stamptown features the most anarchic and wildly entertaining performance from around the world. Hosted by the bad boy of clown, Zach Zucker, this show has packed out rooms at Netflix Is A Joke, Just For Laughs, Glastonbury, SXSW, Lincoln Centre, Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, O2 Arena and Off-Broadway in New York City.

Stamptown is not really a show you can review in quite the same way as a traditional piece of theatre. There isn't a fixed cast, there isn't a conventional narrative and, most importantly, the acts can change from night to night. What you get is a lucky dip of comedy, clowning, cabaret, circus and whatever wonderfully strange idea someone has decided to throw at an audience. Honestly, that unpredictability is a huge part of the fun.

With a show built around a constantly changing line-up, Stamptown doesn't have the kind of conventional direction you would expect from a play or musical. Instead, the evening relies on the host and production team to stitch together wildly different acts into something that feels like one ridiculous night out. And somehow, it works. There is a deliberately chaotic feeling to the whole thing, but underneath the apparent madness is a strong understanding of rhythm. Acts arrive, perform, disappear and make way for something completely different. It gives the evening the feeling that absolutely anything could happen next, which, in Stamptown, is probably a fairly accurate assumption.

With a rotating line-up, costume is naturally dictated by each performer and their act. Zach Zucker's costume is wonderfully chaotic, whilst Mr Cardboard had a unique and polished costume.

And speaking of Mr Cardboard. He was one of my personal highlights of the evening. There is something gloriously ridiculous about the character, but underneath the silliness is an incredibly committed performer who understands exactly how to make absurdity work. The character's appearance alone tells you that you're probably not going to be watching a normal comedy set.

The lighting does what it needs to do for a variety show of this scale: it supports the acts, shifts the atmosphere, and keeps the stage visually alive without trying to become the main attraction. That's important with Stamptown because the performers themselves are the visual attraction. The lighting knows when to support and when to get out of the way.

Sound is a huge part of making a show like this work, particularly when you are jumping between completely different styles of performance. The music, effects and microphones help give each number its own identity while still allowing the evening to maintain its overall energy. The sound operation feels like part of the chaos, rather than simply sitting behind it. However for the space it was loud. I was even wearing earplugs and it was still quite loud.

There isn't a traditional book, and that's the point. The evening is held together by its host, Zach Zucker, and the loose structure surrounding the acts. Rather than pretending this is a carefully plotted theatrical narrative, Stamptown embraces the fact that it is a nighttime variety show where the unexpected is part of the attraction. The result is messy, anarchic and occasionally completely bonkers. But it is also why the show feels different from one night to the next.

The rotating nature of the line-up means I can't fairly judge the show as though every performer will be appearing at every performance. That's actually one of its greatest strengths. The audience is effectively buying a ticket to see what happens tonight. For me, Mr Cardboard was a star. The character is completely ridiculous, but the commitment and care behind the silliness make it impossible not to watch. The foot-juggling act was another major highlight. It was simply astonishing. The kind of circus skill that makes you briefly forget you're at a comedy show because your brain is too busy trying to understand how a human body is doing that. And that variety is what makes Stamptown work. Some acts will inevitably land more strongly for you than others, but there is enough happening that the evening constantly has another surprise waiting around the corner.

Stamptown is organised chaos, and I mean that as a compliment. Trying to judge it by the same rules as a conventional play would miss the point. This is a variety show where the line-up changes, the performers come from wildly different disciplines and the audience never quite knows what is coming next. For me, the combination of Mr Cardboard's gloriously strange clowning and the genuinely jaw-dropping foot-juggling made the night particularly memorable. Not every act will necessarily be your cup of tea, but that's almost beside the point. Stamptown is about discovering what you didn't know you wanted to see. It's messy. It's raunchy. It's ridiculous. And sometimes, ridiculous is exactly what you need.

I saw Stamptown as part of its 2026 run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. However Stamptown is currently performing at Soho Theatre Walthamstow, where it performs from 3 – Saturday 5 September with performances at 8:00 pm. With performace times running approximately 80 minutes. The show is recommended for 18+.

Book tickets for Stamptown at Soho Theatre Walthamstow: https://sohotheatre.com/events/stamptown/