Last Things First: Tape Face
Episode #426
When you hear the words Tape Face, what do you picture? Sam Wills began his comedy career in his native New Zealand as a teenage clown in training, complete with a diploma from a circus school in Christchurch. But after an initial foray into stand-up comedy, his friends challenged him to stop talking so much — so he became The Boy With Tape On His Face. He received a Best Newcomer nomination at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010, and followed that two years later with the Fringe’s coveted Panel Prize. When he broke through in the U.S. on America’s Got Talent in 2016, though, his name was shortened to simply Tape Face. Tape Face was a hit with AGT judges and NBC viewers, and he’s held down a Vegas residency ever since at Harrah’s Las Vegas. He took off the tape to speak to me in Times Square to promote one of his mini-tours away from the Vegas Strip.
If you’re unfamiliar, then please catch up with this reel of all of his AGT appearances:
Want to discover other cool Substacks? Each morning, The Sample sends you one article from a random blog or newsletter that matches up with your interests. When you get one you like, you can subscribe to the writer with one click. Sign up here.
If you’re not already subscribed to my podcast, please seek it out and subscribe to Last Things First on the podcast platform of your choice! Among them: Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Stitcher; Amazon Music/Audible; iHeartRadio; Player.FM; and my original hosting platform, Libsyn.
This transcript has been edited and condensed only slightly for your convenience.
So Tape Face, Last Things First: Thank you so much for taking the tape off for this podcast.
You are more than welcome. Otherwise it's a very awkward interview. Mmmm mm mmmm mmm mmmm.
Well, there's no video, so your secret is still safe. They just have to imagine placing your voice with the video. And also I just want to say last things first: I love the irony — even though it might not have been ironic at the time — that your first major award was Pulp Comedy’s Best New Face.
Hahahahaha. That was many years ago…what was it? 1990-something? 2001? Yeah, Best New Whole Face.
I have to presume that was before the tape.
That was well before the tape. That was when I was doing a circus sideshow freak show act, where I would do routines like hammering four-inch-nails up by nose, eating broken light bulbs.
Were you big fan of the Jim Rose?
Loved Jim Rose Circus. Loved the Tokyo Shock Boys. All of those guys. This was all before Jackass kind of thing. And I loved all of that style of comedy. So I wanted to push myself to learn all these stunts.
Was that what drew you? Or was there something about clowning in general?
I won an award, the Billy. T James Award, in 2005, and that at the time was New Zealand's biggest comedy award. And everyone expected me to keep doing more shows of the style that I'd been doing. So I'm the type of person that, if you tell me to do one thing, I will want to do the other — just to annoy you. So, everyone told me to do more shows. So I went, I’m gonna do a silent character, and they were like, ‘You can’t shut up for a minute. How are you gonna do it?’ And then I went to a comedy club. I performed there as a silent clown. I tried it without the tape, and I lasted 15,20,30 seconds before I ruined it by talking to the front row. Luckily enough, I came back the next night and there was a friend of mine backstage who said to me, ‘The only way you could do a silent comedy act would be if you taped your mouth shut.’ And so that's when the tape came about.
The Boy with Tape on His Face.
The Boy with Tape on His Face was invented there. We changed it to Tape Face when we went on to do AGT in 2016.
Was that because NBC just couldn't handle a name that long? Or was it because you were too old to be presumed as a Boy?
You saying you can’t be a boy with a little salt and pepper? C’mon, there’s nothing wrong with that. But no. It was more for international market. We realized, everybody called me Tape Face anyway. Like, ‘Hey, Tape Face. What are you doing?’
When you first start doing that, was that still in Christchurch or was that in Auckland?
I was street performing in Christchurch, and then I developed the comedy act in Auckland, at The Classic Comedy Club.
Now I know in that period that was when Bret and Jemaine, Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi were all coming out of New Zealand. Were you part of that crew? Or were you looking at them going, ah, you’re too mainstream? I have to do something different.
They were a couple of years above me, if you think of it like school, because I remember when Flight of the Conchords got nominated for the Perrier Award in Edinburgh (the original name for the Edinburgh Fringe’s comedy prizes), I saw them, and that was the golden gem to aim for. So that's why I started to go to Edinburgh to develop my show there and see if I could follow in their footsteps and win an award.