Silence is golden for Sam

Sam Wills has carved a career out of saying very little. His signature trademark has taken him around the world, but his talent was discovered in his hometown of Timaru. Wills removes the tape to chat with Al Williams. 

It's 11pm in Britain and Sam Wills is frantically scrambling to get his bags packed for the flight home to New Zealand. Wills is bringing his acclaimed act home again after a relentless Christmas schedule in the northern hemisphere, which included a performance for senior members of the royal family at the prestigious Royal Variety Performance.

It was a long way from Timaru where, at 12, Wills began learning the real tricks of the trade as Jaffa the Clown's apprentice.

Twenty years later and the celebrated comic has conquered the market with his self-described brand of mime with noise, stand-up with no talking, drama with no acting.

The show speaks for itself, and there appears to be no formula for its success.

It was born out of a desire to create something "international".

"I wanted to go to Japan and couldn't be bothered learning the language," Wills jokes.

His method has worked well. Wills heads to the Middle East after his New Zealand and Australian jaunts this summer and Japan has been conquered. So has Norway and many other countries where English is not the first language.

Wills says the format defeats culture and language barriers.

"I can take the show anywhere; it's an easier option."

The Boy with Tape on his Face is a character described as wry, many-layered and hilarious.

Wills' piercing blue eyes stare out over a rectangle of gaffer tape deftly unfolding the tangents of a quirky brain process, deliberately preparing each scene and finally breaking the suspense with unpredictable manoeuvres.

A pensive character approaching every object and audience member as a potential friend – or plaything.

The combination has led to a BBC pilot series which will be shot when Wills is back in Britain.

He describes it as "something different".

"We've got 20 days to shoot it; we're still developing it. It will be a kind of sketch show."

Wills even managed to fit marriage into his busy schedule – twice.

He and British burlesque performer Felicity Redman became engaged at the World Buskers Festival in Christchurch. They married in 2009 at midnight in an inner-city park beside the Avon River, and then had a second wedding in Britain.

Wills says busy schedules keep them apart for lengthy periods.

At 32, he wants children and agrees there will be some change in the schedule when and if that happens.

He would like to settle in New Zealand but concedes he will always be travelling.

Wills has goals as well.

"I'd like to develop a West End show."

The West End is a long way from South Canterbury, where Wills first took to the stage.

"I started learning magic tricks and then I heard there was a clown in Timaru.

"I knocked on Mr John Martin's door (Jaffa the Clown) and asked if I could be his apprentice.

"He took me on luckily enough; he taught me all sorts of clowning stuff, helped me out with juggling; taught me how to juggle which was a key thing in my career."

From there Wills was billed as Sam the Juggler and supported Martin in live performances.

"I was genuinely interested in performing, I got quite good at the tricks; John was the only person in Timaru who I knew of who was performing before crowds so I thought if anyone could teach me to perform in front of an an audience it would be him because he was a brilliant clown, he taught me heaps."

Home schooled, at 18 Wills moved to Christchurch and attended Circus School.

That was the catalyst for a life of performance.

"That's where I really learnt my love of juggling and performing."

Wills studied for two years and taught at the school for two more years.

He continued chipping away at his live performance, making regular appearances in sideshows and freakshows. What developed was a fusion of extreme comedy, circus skills and vaudeville style. That included contorting his body through a tennis racquet and hammering a four inch nail up his nose.

By then comedy was an emerging force in New Zealand – a new rock'n'roll which had attracted a rag-tag bunch of jokers to stage Pulp Comedy.

An invitation to audition for the show led to a television appearance. "A lot of luck I suppose, I happened to get the right gigs at the right time and everything sort of worked out the right way."

Auckland's Comedy Club was and still is the premium venue for burgeoning comedic talent.

It is located in a former pornographic movie theatre in the heart of the city and features local and international guest acts up to six nights a week.

Wills was asked by the owner to move to Auckland and become a resident host at a show he was developing for the Sky City Casino. It ran for six years.

"I kept developing more shows and more ideas."

The hard work culminated with a prestigious Billy T James Award at the 2005 NZ Comedy Festival; an annual search for New Zealand's most promising new talent in comedy named after the much-loved comedian. The award was to be another milestone which prompted change.

"After winning Billy T I needed to challenge myself."

That led to the birth of The Boy with Tape on his Face.

While Wills jokes the character came about so he didn't have to learn other languages, it was, however, all the talking which led to a silent performance.

"I'd been doing a show where I talked so much, so I tried to develop a silent character.

"The first night I did it and ruined the performance within the first two minutes by speaking to the audience; I came back the second night and had a big hunk of gaffer tape across my mouth."

What started as a five-minute skit was fine-tuned into a one-hour performance, which is still evolving.

On the eve of his 2012 New Zealand tour Wills looks back at 2011 as the biggest yet.

He performed in the Comedy Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London with full orchestral backing, a gig he describes as surreal.

2011 was capped off with an appearance on the Royal Variety Performance.

"I heard a rumour I was getting shortlisted for the royal performance so I just cranked the Edinburgh festival and had a really good season."

"The royal performance was quite surreal, I'm sharing a dressing room with Penn and Teller who are my heroes from when I was learning magic and across the hall from Barry Manilow.

"It was a surreal backstage environment. It was definitely a reality check standing at the side of the stage and knowing I was about to go on, it was great, it was amazing."

The schedule is relentless, however, as he will head back to Britain to spend a month filming the pilot after a gruelling New Zealand schedule.

He will be in Edinburgh performing for a month after that, then Dubai at a festival before another tour circuit in Europe.

The pilot excites him.

"It's mostly me getting to write the whole thing which means creatively I get to go all out and get to pick and choose who I want to be in the show. I'm doing a modern reinvention of variety, I believe variety was a lost art form and now I want to try and put my spin on it.

"I can't stand shows like Britain's Got Talent, X Factor and New Zealand's Got Talent; this show will have other acts but it won't be traditional.

"It will be a different format, that's the exciting aspect of it."

Wills can't think of a negative in choosing the turbulent life of entertainment.

"I don't know if there is a downside; I'm one of the lucky ones, I always fell on my feet, I really love what I'm doing."

- © Fairfax NZ News