The Boy With Tape On His Face
| Sam Wills | |
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Wills performing in Victoria Square, Christchurch, in 2010
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| Pseudonym | The Boy With Tape on his Face, Tape Face |
| Born | 28 August 1978 |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Genres | prop-comic |
| Spouse | Felicity Wills (née Redman) |
| Website | tapeface |
Sam Wills (born 28 August 1978), is a New Zealand prop comic, busker, and mime residing in London. He performs under the name The Boy With Tape On His Face and, more recently, as Tape Face. He was also half of the two-person act Spitroast and sometimes performed under his own name, Sam Wills. He has featured in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival, the World Buskers Festival, and was a finalist on Season 11 of America's Got Talent.
Wills began his performing career in Timaru at the age of thirteen while he trained as a clown. He uses a diverse range of performance styles and skills. He holds a diploma in New Circus from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology's Circus School where he has taught juggling for two years. His interest in the phenomenon of traditional circus freak shows and influences such as the Jim Rose Circus and the Tokyo Shock Boys led to experiments with shock comedy, earning him his first Pulp Comedy appearance, the Best New Face award for the 2001 season, and he was called ‘Prince of Cringe’ from Truth and TV Extra magazine.
Until 2001, Wills was active in the Christchurch entertainment scene, appearing at balls, private functions and corporate events; running weekly comedy nights and appearing on local television. In 2002, he moved to Auckland to become a resident comedian at the casino in SkyCity Auckland, where he had a weekly show, the NCB Comedy Hour, blending circus and vaudeville styles. In 2008, Wills took his show The Boy With Tape On His Face to the Melbourne Comedy Festival, where it received critical acclaim. After Melbourne, he moved to London, appearing as a modern mime and wearing the traditional striped shirt.
Wills met his future wife, English burlesque performer Felicity Redman (also known as Lili La Scala), in 2007. They had a "symbolic wedding" on 9 January 2009, in Christchurch as a start to that year's World Buskers Festival in the same spot on the banks of the Avon River where they got engaged a year earlier. This was followed by a legal wedding later that year in England. Their first son, Rafferty Basil Danger Wills, was born in January 2013.
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