Tape Face returns to Comedy Festival for the first time in over a decade to celebrate 20 years of making people laugh without uttering a word.
Before there was Tape Face, there was Sam Wills, a mainstay of the late-90s and early-00s New Zealand comedy scene, known for his physical comedy and circus sideshow stunts.
“I was a bit like Jackass meets Tokyo Shock Boys with a bit of circus freak show thrown in the mix,” says Wills, who’s chatting to Beat ahead of Tape Face’s four-week stint at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. “I would be doing routines like hammering nails up my nose, walking on broken glass, and that sort of thing.”
Tape Face: 20
- Thu 26 Mar – Sun 19 Apr
- fortyfivedownstairs
- Tickets here
Wills began performing the Tape Face character – a silent clown who wears black duct tape over his mouth – 20 years ago. The character has since become an international phenomenon, appearing on multiple seasons of America’s Got Talent and performing at Edinburgh Fringe and London’s West End. More recently, Tape Face has been performing six shows a week at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.
At first, however, Wills had only modest ambitions for the character.
“The original version of Tape Face was just a silent character to prove a point to my friends that I could shut up for a minute,” he says. “That was the whole point of it, just a five-minute sketch. And then I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll write another joke for it,’ and then I would write another joke, and then I accidentally discovered I had written an hour’s worth of material. So I was like, ‘I wonder if people will watch an hour of this shit?’ And it turns out they will.”
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Tape Face last performed at Comedy Festival in 2014, when he was nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award (formerly known as the Barry). He debuted at the festival in 2008 with the show The Boy With Tape On His Face, a pivotal moment in the Tape Face story.
“I’d just done New Zealand, doing some smaller shows, and then I won an award in the Christchurch World Busking Festival and they gave me the funds to actually come to Melbourne,” Wills says. “I was able to bring the show over here to actually check out a proper big, big comedy festival. I got nominated for Best Newcomer, and so that’s when I really started taking it properly seriously.”
Twelve years since his last visit, Tape Face is back for a complete season at Comedy Festival, performing seven nights a week at fortyfivedownstairs. The show is something of a greatest hits compilation, and includes several of the sketches that won over the America’s Got Talent judges, Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell.
“It’s a collection of the first three shows and some other little odd ideas, and then going right back to my original finale,” Wills says. “The show has got a lot of pop culture references and nostalgia feelings. I’ve got a very cute puppet that sings. I do my own variation of the world-famous bullet catch. And then also we’ve got some of the big hits that people have seen from America’s Got Talent, like the dancing with the red dress and the stripper and that sort of thing.
“When I pull out those oven gloves to do the Endless Love routine, there’s normally a round of applause or a lot of screaming and cheering at that moment because it’s like a band playing your favourite song. That’s my Stairway To Heaven.”
Returning to Melbourne is itself a nostalgic experience for Wills, and he’s thrilled to be back in the city that cemented his confidence in the Tape Face character.
“The fun thing for me in Melbourne is catching up with a lot of the street performers, because that’s really my community of people,” he says. “I will try and see as many shows as I can fit in. My shows are on at nine o’clock, so that means I can normally get in a nice early show first.”
As for pre-show rituals, Wills has one simple but effective way of making himself feel at home.
“I normally tape a little bit of tape on the venue somewhere,” he says. “Just a little piece of tape. That way the venue’s mine. It’s a bit like marking my territory.”
Get your tickets for Tape Face’s 20 at Melbourne International Comedy Festival here.
