Maz Pantz at Canal Café Theatre Review
Funny. Quick. Dynamic. Maz Pantz written, performed and directed by actor and comedian, Mary Redmond, is a one-woman comedy sketch show offering the audience a handful of characters, a basket full of silly situations and a barrel full of laughs! Maz Pantz is presented as part of Camden Fringe at Canal Café Theatre.
This show immediately takes you back to classic sketch comedy, moving from scene to scene with pace and energy, constantly introducing new situations and characters that we will return to later in the performance, and every moment rounded off with a punch line. This is a massive undertaking for one actor, but Redmond brings confidence and precision to the stage that kept the audience engaged and laughing throughout. My personal favourite character was Hermione, a Scottish TV presenter wearing a brown turtle-neck and glasses, presenting anything from 30-second crafts to wine tasting to – well, after her downfall - prison. There is definitely something for everyone in this show, and the high pace and varied performance allowed us to quickly move between sketches without lingering on a moment for too long. Meaning that if you weren’t laughing at one thing, you would quickly be laughing at the next.
The star of the show was Redmond’s physicality, clearly differentiating between each weird and wonderful character she’s created and sometimes using nothing but movement and soundscape to communicate the story. Her movement for each character was so clear that when we revisited them later in the show all she had to do was the opening sequence and we would already be signposted to who we were meeting next. Redmond is a natural clown, she could simply turn around, and I would already be laughing at the way she holds herself and looks at the audience, before she’s even said a word. Maz Pantz is an incredibly visual show that reminded me of the wonderful slapstick and mime performances I have seen from many incredible comedians and Redmond is no exception. The physicality had also been rehearsed and timed perfectly to the voice over and sound elements to create a seamless and hilarious night of comedy.
As with all sketch comedy and varying audiences, not every joke will get a large response every night, however Redmond is a brilliant entertainer who brought the audience firmly into the world of each story, maintaining eye contact and speaking directly to us in many moments to form a genuine connection between the audience and her collection of characters. To take this piece to the next level, I feel it could benefit from having an outside director to really see the sketches from an audience perspective, maybe adding more elements to the staging and design to compliment Redmond’s performance. These ideas and characters deserve a larger stage and audience and I can’t wait to see where Maz Pantz goes next!
Maz Pantz is running at Canal Café Theatre as part of Camden Fringe until the 25th August and performance times vary.
★★★★
Written by George for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.