This Review is from August 2025

Twenty years ago, comedian, actor, street performer and circus star Sam Wills created The Boy with Tape on His Face, a traditional silent comedy clown act updated for contemporary appeal.

Five years later, The Boy made his debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a small room in the Gilded Balloon. These days, the New Zealander, now known as Tape Face, is an internationally recognised television star and the world’s best known contemporary clown.

The YouTube clips of his run on season 11 of America’s Got Talent where he reached the final have been viewed over 45 million times. Tonight, he’s live and in person at the Pleasance Grand, one of the largest rooms at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The capacity audience were treated to a retrospective of sorts, a greatest hit show. Tape Face‘s superpower is the ability to stay in complete control of a room while enjoying unique individual and collective audience interactions, all without speaking. Nobody does that better.

I’m hoping for a whole new Tape Face Edinburgh show in our near future.

A version of this review appears on Episode 3 of the On the Mic: Five a Day podcast.