The Boy With Tape On His Face

In a world where cynicism and verbosity dominate the ‘alternative’ comedy scene, how do you make the essentially innocent charms of silent clowning appeal to a fashionable young audience? New Zealander Sam Wills has come up with an extraordinarily effective answer: you frame it as an ordinary standup show with a twist. Coming onstage with a large piece of gaffer tape plastered over the bottom half of his face, Wills approaches the mic, taps it, points to the tape and shrugs.

The implied impossibility of the task ahead is, of course, a conceit. Charlie Chaplin and Jaques Tati proved 80 years ago that comedy doesn't need words, but Wills’s bold, big-hearted and fun show is still bracing because this kind of humour is so rarely seen on adult stages. He calls audience members up onstage throughout the show to help him perform short routines, and wields extraordinary power with his wide-eyed, childlike but faintly authoritarian persona. People find themselves doing very silly things for him, but it's never degrading. The show maintains a sense of joyous naivety. Music clips are well-used along with the visual gags, a few too many of which involve Wills performing puppetry with an inanimate object, in time with a popular song.

Some of the gags, like those where the character flirts outrageously with attractive female audience members, would look hackneyed and tired performed by a regular standup. But the inventive wit with which Wills translates these comedy club cliches into the age-old language of mime is a joy to behold. It’s a tight, refreshing and very funny hour.