Emma McAlpine reviews the multi-award winning mute comedy act from New Zealand.
Apart from being rather out of vogue these days, silent comedy can conjure up all sorts of negative connotations; particularly those dodgy Marcel Marceau wannabe mime artists that are probably frequenting Edinburgh's Royal Mile as we speak. Thankfully, Boy With Tape on His Face (AKA Kiwi comic Sam Wills) is not one of them; although amusingly, he does walk on stage wearing a Breton t-shirt to the Amélie soundtrack, parodying the legendary French mime artist from the off.
A combination of vaudeville theatre, mime and physical comedy, Wills has put his own stamp on the silent genre, using the audience and some carefully timed pop songs to aid his gags. Be warned, if the idea of going on stage and playing the crowd jester is your idea of hell, you might be best off sitting near the back.
Wills is mute throughout the performance (it’s hard not to be with a strip of gaffer tape across your mouth) but he conveys everything he needs to through facial expressions, Chaplin style. Giving his ‘volunteers’ an exasperated look here or a thumbs up there, he then gets them to copy his actions like an impish puppeteer, often drawing out the tutorial until the music starts and the joke is revealed. During the course of the show he also performs some neat tricks, turning inanimate objects into crooning faces and electrical tape into roses.
Some of his visual inventions are complex and charming; others straightforward and silly, but each is meticulously planned and choreographed for full comic effect (look out for the piece involving an audience member and a well-known theme tune – so simple and so, so funny). This may be Wills’ Fringe debut but he’s had several years to hone his act, picking up a slew of awards in his native New Zealand and Australia along the way. An astonishingly innovative and delightfully bonkers act; I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked up another one here too.
The Boy With Tape on His Face will be at the Gilded Balloon Teviot from 4-29th August at 10:30pm
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