And in New Zealand, especially, we thrive a wee bit on alternative comedy, so I felt like I could develop such a weird character there. But overall, I think I was reasonably confident that people would go for it because, like you say, it was so different. But because there are small vignettes it means that if you’re not enjoying one little piece that I’m doing, I’m going to move on to something completely different within three or four minutes, onto the next gag, which is quite nice. Wills: Umm, initially I think it kind of was, because I was really anxious if the audience would stay with me for that long. Q: Now, just out of curiosity, was it a challenge when you first began expanding the length of your shows while continuing not talking? Wills: And I’m surviving quite well (chuckle). Q: Well, you are doing something original in the comedy genre and have carved your own niche and are doing a fine job of it, to boot! tour, I get hundreds of messages from people saying, “Why aren’t you coming to my town?!” - and I’m going, “The country’s too big!” - to tour the entire country would take ages! (Laughter) But the thing is, this country is huge whenever we announce that we’re doing a U.S. I think that this might be our first time coming into the area, which is quite exciting. Q: Have you performed up in Maine before? Wills: Yeah, we’ve been knocking out shows, it’s been insane, it’s been very, very busy. Q: And that’s been proved with this residency in Vegas that you’re doing and the 1,000 shows you’ve done in the last five years. Then I thought, “I wonder if people would watch a whole hour or 70 minutes of this nonsense?” - and it turns out that people do (laughter)! It went from there, originally it was a bit of a joke: it was a five-minute routine just to prove a point, then I wrote more material and I hit 15 minutes and 20 minutes and 30 minutes. I found a bit of tape, put it over my mouth, I went out and I did a five-minute routine without saying a word. But I came back the next night and I was lucky enough because there was another comedian who said to me, “The only way you could do a silent character would be if you could tape your mouth shut!” So that was where it sort of came from. Wills: I lasted about 15 to 20 seconds before I ruined it by talking to the audience (chuckle). I was lucky enough in 2005 where I won a comedy award, but the problem was that everyone expected me to keep doing more shows where I did disgusting tricks and talked more, so I challenged myself to do a silent character and nobody believed me because they couldn’t believe that I could shut up for that long. So I developed a show during that where I talked a lot. But I also learned about circus sideshows, all the freak show stuff, and that netted me: all the sword swallowers and the people who can eat light bulbs and hammer nails up their noses, all the grotesque sideshow things. At the school I learned different things from juggling to tightrope to all sorts of random circus skills. I was an apprentice to a clown in a very small town in New Zealand, so I moved out of home and started studying at the circus school. Wills: I started out performing at the age of 12. Q: (Laughter) How did you develop this persona and this act? Wills: (Chuckle) Yeah, well, that’s one of the reasons the tape came about because I talked too much! I was surprised to learn that you were willing to talk with me. Tape Face, the artist formerly known as The Boy With Tape On His Face, is to return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer.Q: I first saw you on “America’s Got Talent,” and when I heard that you were scheduled to appear in Waterville, Maine, at the opera house there, I thought it would be neat to chat with you, but because your performance is all non-vocal, I figured you didn’t do interviews.
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