As The Boy with Tape on his Face, Sam Wills – gagged by a black strip of gaffer tape – takes us on a breakneck trip through a gloriously convoluted array of prop-heavy gags. He is a masterful clown and exceptionally deft at communicating with us through a mixture of nimble movements, subtle gestures, bewildered looks and exasperated shrugs.

It’s a hard show to describe without spoiling punchlines, but it’s well-balanced, fast paced, and horrendously funny. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I haven’t seen any of his previous Buskers Festival performances as this character so it’s all new to me, but the anticipation that builds during each imaginative, meandering set-up is a wonderful feeling.

Apart from the pleasure of seeing what comes out of Wills’ seemingly bottomless satchel, I enjoy his ongoing bait and switch: he often shows us what he can’t do – communicate verbally – while simultaneously and swiftly setting up outlandish jokes in a manner that seems deceptively casual.

The show is very interactive and relies heavily on the buy-in of those people who are called upon to participate. Having watched no end of performances where reluctant ‘volunteers’ stand awkwardly on stage waiting for their own very public torment to be over, it is enormously rewarding to see people having a bloody good time in front of a packed out auditorium: something that’s a great credit to Sam Wills’ ability to work with people and create a safe and supportive space.

The show’s technical execution is also extremely tight, and I hope that the uncredited technical staff who facilitate many of the music and lighting based gags are getting paid well, because they deserve every cent.

It’s easy to see how The Boy With Tape On His Face has managed to attract such spectacular attention and success overseas. The enormous warmth of the audience for Wills, both as a world class performer and as a local-boy-made-good, is really lovely to experience, and this final season of the show will no doubt sell out its festival run.

I have a moment of sadness at the end when Wills comes out to address the audience at the end and mentions his training at Circoarts, which was based at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology and which lost its building in the earthquakes. The circus degree programme was such an extraordinary font of talent, and brought so many diverse and imaginative performers to Christchurch, that my final takeaway from the show is the hope that it’s able to be revived, if only for the very selfish reason that we might have more performers like Wills to entertain us in the future.

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