Stamptown

Stamptown is a comedy variety show hosted by Zach Zucker

## 3rd March 2023

On March 3rd, as part of the Just For Laughs 4 festival at the O2 Arena and surrounding campus, "Stamptown" was held at the Fortuna Spiegeltent, with such acts as Reggie Watts and Desiree Burch perfoming. The show ran long that night, to almost-disasterous consequences.

Jazz Emu was to be the closing act. He had already had a run of bad luck that day, due to issues sourcing a projector & screen for his routine.

The gig was running over, and before Jazz had stepped on stage, the lights of the Spiegeltent had dimmed, to try and persuade the Stamptown crew to vacate. They would not be rushed, and continued onwards with the show.

As soon as Jazz got onto stage, and was about to start his set, he was physically tackled by a member of the O2 Security team, who dragged him off-stage. (Considering Jazz is 6'3, this is a feat in itself). Mics and lights are cut out.

The audience, who at first are not sure if this is part of the act, are then shocked and appauled that one of the acts have been forceably removed from the stage, and start to (rightly) boo and yell at the security team. Zach Zucker, goes back onto the stage to try and explain the situation, but he is also tackled by the Security Guard.

**This happened due to the gig running 10 minutes over its alloted time.**

The organisers of the event, speaking with the O2 staff, somehow manage to get the Security team off the stage.

Jazz Emu and Zach Zucker return to the stage, and the audience light up the room with phone-torches.

Jazz then performs an acapella routine of "*Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"* ending with flipping off the Security Guard.

### Aftermath

Audience members and some of the acts performing that night, took to Social Media to complain about the excessive force used on Jazz and Zach Zucker.

Desiree Burch Twitter: *"...Is anyone going to address the unnecessary physical removal of headliner @thejazzemu from the #JFLLondon show @stamptown\_ this past Friday night?..."*

On March 15th, nearly 2 weeks after the incident, Just For Laughs and O2 organiser AEG events issued an apology:

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> *On Friday 3 March at the Stamptown event at Just For Laughs London, there was an attempt to remove one of the artists from the stage, due to the event running significantly past curfew.*
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> *‘We sincerely apologise to the artists and fans present for any distress caused. This is not usual protocol for events at The O2, or events conducted by AEG Presents or Just For Laughs. We have reached out to Jazz Emu’s team to apologise and address this directly.’*
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>
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Chortle article | Comedy.co.uk article | IG Mag

1. ↑ Twitter: Jazz Emu
2. ↑ Twitter

## 1st September 2023

After a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Stamptown came back to London on September 1st. Originally the poster did not show Jazz Emu as one of the headliners; Zack Zucker had previously said that he would bring Jazz Emu back to Stamptown. On Jazz Emu Instagram stories, on 30th August 2023, he reposted Zach Zucker's story of the amended poster, with the singular 'Reunited'.

Stamptown was held at the Leicester Square Theatre at 9:30pm, and was sold out.

Lineup :

* Zach Zucker (MC)
* Josh Glanc
* Martin Urbano
* Joe Fisher (Juggler)
* Sikisa
* Amadeo Fusca
* Flo & Joan
* Jazz Emu
* Mawaan Rizwan
* Marshall Arkley
* Elf Lyons

Courtney Pauroso did not appear.