SAM Wills loves to talk.

From his early days as a clown's apprentice to his love of street performances and stand-up, the New Zealander is more than happy to talk at length to Weekend about his life on the comedy circuit.

On stage, he was renowned for being even more chatty – so you can imagine fans' surprise when he walked out for a show and did not say a word.

For the last decade, the 37-year-old has been championing the often-forgotten art of silent comedy with his Buster Keaton-influenced alter ego, 'The Boy With Tape on his Face'.

Sam said: "It first came about many years ago because in 2005 I won an award for doing my old comedy show where I talked a lot.

"So everyone expected me to keep talking and doing more of my old show so I surprised everyone by doing a silent character. Nobody thought I could shut up for that long."

The complete change in his act took a bit of getting use to though.

"I did one show and I ruined it by accidentally talking to the front row," added Sam, who recently won over the judges on America's Got Talent.

"So the next night I got to go back and we all joked backstage that I should gaffer tape my mouth shut. I said: ‘Ok, let’s try it’ and it worked. It wasn’t too off putting for people and ironically it stuck."

After numerous shows in New Zealand and Australia, Sam first brought 'Tape Face' to the UK in 2010 but the first audiences were a bit bewildered.

"When we came over here it was very much a case that Edinburgh Fringe wasn’t ready for it," he said.

"A lot of the comedians were going: ‘What is this act? Who is this guy?’ I sort of stormed onto the scene and it was great but now there are quite a few silent comedians like Doctor Brown and Trygve Wakenshaw.

"Silent comedy has been validated again in that people think that stand-up comedy doesn’t have to just be words, a physical comedy show can be just as enjoyable.

"So it’s really nice to be involved in that kind of resurgence of silent comedy. I don’t think it ever truly went away though

"We also avoid the mime word – it brings out the connotation of stripy tops and walking against the wind."

Sam will be performing at Lymm Hotel as part of Lymm Festival on Friday, June 24, and said that audiences generally understand his unique act a lot more now.

He added: "There’s always that slight confusion of people going: ‘How does this work?’ But when I get going and the first couple of jokes are out the way and they trust me, it’s fine. I’ve never had an audience I didn’t like."

Sam told Weekend he knew he wanted to a performer since he was a youngster and learned the craft with a rather unusual apprenticeship...under the guidance of Jaffa the Clown in Timaru, New Zealand.

"I was learning magic tricks as a boy and I asked him if I could be his apprentice," he said.

"He taught me all kinds of clown routines and the first bit of juggling I ever learnt. From there I went to a circus school. My dream was to be a juggler in Las Vegas."

Sam, who now lives in the UK, ended up teaching at the clown school and when he was not doing that he worked as a street performer.

He added: "I used to do a show where I would push my body through a tennis racket, walk on broken glass and do all sorts of strange tricks

"The finale involved cutting a cucumber in half on a member of the audience’s stomach and juggling machetes and clubs on fire while balancing a box rolling on a tube."

Since then Tape Face has gone on to sell-out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe four years in a row.

Sam said: "I really like UK audiences because they’re comedy savvy. They know what they like and they’ll let you know if they don’t like it.

"The UK has such a great tradition of comedy that you can’t slip something past an audience because they’ll see through it pretty quick. It makes you up your game."

- The Boy With Tape on his Face performs at Lymm Hotel on June 24. Visit lymmfestival.org.uk

DAVID MORGAN