America’s Got Talent, apparently, although Sam Wills – a New Zealander resident in the UK – is a tenuous example of it. As kohl-eyed mime act The Boy With Tape on his Face, Wills was a finalist in this year’s series of the US talent show, before returning to the UK with this West End-bound greatest hits set. It offers near-guaranteed entertainment for audiences of all stripes – save perhaps Tape Face regulars, for whom the novelty of one or two routines may by now be wearing off.
I certainly found a handful of tonight’s numbers a bit disposable: there’s an over-reliance on pop songs lip-synched by household artefacts (oven gloves; old shoes), and too many of Wills’s visual jokes end as soon as they’re established, when one wishes he’d build on them.
The most successful skits come when Wills – so expressive despite (because of?) his gaffer-taped mouth – develops a relationship with his volunteers. His furious glare as three stooges fail to master their dance moves; the priapic swagger as he and a punter compete to elongate tape-measures – these moments find Wills at his most captivating.
They’re all united by the conceit that everything’s taking place in Wills’s head as he snoozes before the show. Is the suggestion that Tape Face’s stunts are too whimsical to actually be the show? Maybe so – and yet, they add up to a winning two hours of party comedy, a celebration of the improbable, wordless things you can do with domestic objects and popular songs.
- At South Street, Reading, on 9 November. Box office: 0118-960 6060. At Old Market, Brighton, 10-12 November. Box office: 01273 201 801. Then touring.
