He speaks: interview with silent comedian The Boy with Tape on His Face

11 October, 2011
by: Emma

Sam Wills has come a long way since hammering nails into his nose on the streets of Christchurch. Emma McAlpine speaks to silent comedy sensation The Boy With Tape on His Face...

Here’s a conversation I never thought I’d have: where to buy the best gaffer tape. I'm in the New Diorama cafe, talking to 32-year-old comedian Sam Wills (aka The Boy With Tape on his Face) about his namesake piece of kit. It transpires that British tape just doesn’t do the trick. "I actually have to get my parents to ship over an Australian brand that’s much stronger.” Hailing from New Zealand, Wills moved to London three years ago to showcase his prop comedy act on the UK circuit, but he still goes home every now and then, enlisting his Dad’s help in making fan helmets, amongst other things.

Last year, he took his first show to the Edinburgh Fringe, an innovative hour of prop comedy, mime and audience interaction. It was a sell-out success and earned Wills a nomination for the coveted ‘Best Newcomer’ award. This year, he took over an even bigger venue for a second run of the show, the 340-seat Pleasance Beyond. “My biggest concern was being in a larger venue and trying to recreate as good a show”, he tells me. “One of the posters had ‘this show will sell out’ on it which was quite ballsy but it did sell out, so I was relieved!”

If you haven’t seen ‘TapeFace’ in action, he wears a strip of black gaffer tape over his mouth throughout, rendering him mute. Aided by random props, ‘80s and ‘90s pop songs and several willing audience members, his act involves a series of carefully timed, hilarious visual gags: some complex and charming, others straightforward and silly. So far, it’s led to some massive gigs: this August he was invited to perform at the first Comedy Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, in front of 5900 people: “I was on stage shaking two hobby horse heads, thinking ‘This is pretty silly, and I'm about to throw a plunger at a toilet seat!’”

It’s a far cry from his early days of clowning and busking on the streets of Christchurch. “When I was 13, I found a clown in my local town, knocked on his door and asked to be his apprentice. He took me on and taught me how to juggle. Then I learnt there was a circus school in Christchurch so I moved there.” After mastering in juggling, acrobatics and trapeze, Wills became fascinated in circus sideshow, swallowing swords, walking on glass and hammering nails through his nose.

His move to the comedy circuit, it transpires, was a happy accident. One day, Kiwi comedian Jarred Christmas asked him to fill in for one of his comics at a gig. “I took a suitcase down and did some stunts and my comedy career started from there. I became New Zealand’s only prop comic, and did that for a number of years until I got sick of my own voice!” So what prompted him to go mute?

“I won an award called the Billy T James award which at the time was the biggest comedy award in New Zealand. I felt like everyone expected me to learn more tricks and talk, but I didn’t want to do what everyone expected. I decided to do a silent character but couldn’t stop myself from speaking. The next time I had to physically tape my mouth shut!”

While he’s been compared to silent comedy stars like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Wills has put his own stamp on the genre. “I’m coming at it from a very prop-heavy point of view. I think of myself more as a director of people.” He joins a host of other comics – like Adam Riches and Doctor Brown – whose imaginative use of audience interaction has proved popular at the Edinburgh Fringe in recent years. “The audience wants to think 'this is live, we're not just watching a script like Live at the Apollo’. Even though I’m sure Adam Riches is doing the same show every night it feels new every time. It's a weird thing to pay a ticket to be part of someone's show but some people really like being involved.”

And what about those that don’t? Have there been any disasters with not-so-game audience members? “I once picked a guy in Manchester for the ‘Return to Sender’ bit where I put gaffer tape on their clothes. When I pulled out the tape, he totally freaked out and started yelling and screaming. It was pretty funny, I just stood there while he stormed off the stage with the audience booing him. But it doesn’t matter how people react; there's no right or wrong way.”

Currently touring his first show around the UK, Wills is busy finely-tuning his second Edinburgh hour and writing a third. “While I'm enjoying it I may as well, and then when the ink runs out, I'll start yelling again!” Yet – even with plenty of TapeFace mileage to go – you won’t find him shunning his street performance roots. “This year I did about 12 street shows in Edinburgh. Only a few people recognised me as I was yelling and screaming and putting my body through a tennis racket. I'll never give that up because it's like the bungy-jumping of comedy. You have to pull people in and talk them out of parting with their money. It's far more exciting.”

The Boy with Tape on His Face will be performing in London at the Comedy Store from 27th-29th October.

Click here to see upcoming national tour dates.

Photo credit: Alex Brenner

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