A new show, with all-new routines, from the erstwhile Boy With Tape on His Face is bound to be a big Edinburgh draw. It was here, before the West End runs and stints on America’s Got Talent, that Sam Wills’ mime and prop-comedy act first made waves. I regret having to report, then, that this is his weakest offering, a series of audience-interactive stunts that trade over and again in the not-so-comic clash between bombastic buildup and underwhelming anticlimax.
Wills’ earlier shows as the kohl-eyed boy with the gaffer-taped mouth mixed household-object visual gags with improbable on-stage games for audience members. Usually, they climaxed in some visual coup that Wills had worked to accomplish. But too often here, there’s no payoff. Whether it’s his paper aeroplane contest with a punter, the walking on broken glass sequence, or the pillow fight opener, invention is at a minimum and the expected flourish seldom comes. Time after time, it’s just hype (lights, loud music, Wills ramping up our expectations), followed by audience members doing something stubbornly unexceptional on stage.
The rhythm – interminable circular preamble to big finish – harks back to Wills’ roots in street theatre, even if on the street that finish is usually virtuosic. Here, Wills’ skill at mining the audience’s playfulness and marshalling bizarre activity around a stage is revealed only by a choice swingball-on-crash-helmet routine. Elsewhere – the one-note whoopee cushion gag; the would-be transcendent finale that doesn’t take flight – it’s a repeating series of non-achievements hiding behind high production values and Wills’ expressive flair.
In fairness, a 700-strong crowd still finds much to enjoy in Wills’ silent party-game comedy. But these new tricks aren’t a patch on their predecessors.
At the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 26 August.
