Interview With The Boy With Tape On His Face

by J.Dean on January 20, 2012 in Interviews with 2 Comments
The Boy With Tape on His Face

The Crispy Comedy Cuts team thought it was about time we had another chat with New Zealand comic The Boy With Tape on His Face. A lot has happened since he guested on the CCC radio feature in Manchester last year including his performance at the Royal Variety Show and new BBC Three pilot. 

You started your performing career at a circus school in New Zealand, what made you want to learn those types of tricks and skills and how did this lead into comedy?

I moved to a small town in New Zealand and was given a magic set as a going away present and it was that thing that started me going! From learning magic skills I heard about a circus school where I studied the stranded circus skills but also became interested in circus sideshow like hammering a nail up your nose and eating light bulbs.  I got a phone call from a friend asking if I could cover for one of his comics who cancelled last minute and he said for me to just come down and do some “crazy circus sideshow stuff” and that was the first stand-up comedy crowd I played for.

Where did the idea for having tape over your mouth while performing come from, and why did you elect to name the act “The Boy With Tape on His Face” rather than coming up with a name for the character?

I kept performing my circus sideshow routine for a number of years in New Zealand until I had won a selection of comedy awards and felt that I had reached the top of my game in this style. I also felt that people expected me to just learn more “tricks” and keep talking so I decided to do a silent character that didn’t perform tricks.

You have a web pilot coming up as part of BBC3’s “Comedy Kitchen” format. Will this be of a similar style to your live performances, or putting the Boy into a different situation?

It will feature some of the live style show I do as well as going a step further inside the brain of The Boy. I have never really had to translate the act for television, if anything it becomes a bit more about planning what the camera will be looking at to make sure the comedy comes across at it’s best.
.
Some of your newer material uses a speech synthesiser and injects some more traditional comedy into the act. What has been the response so far?
.
Ha! I have only ever done that once as it was a new material night. I don’t think that you could call that “more traditional comedy” as what I was doing was sending up the so called generic stand-up comedian. Currently the act can go in any direction as it has no boundaries. On a side note the reaction to that one night was good so I am thinking about extending on it.
.
Have you got any backstage gossip from this years Royal Variety Show? How big a moment was that for your career and have you felt a rise in awareness of what you are doing since?
.
It was a great moment in my career and was a very strange gig to be a part of. As for awareness we noticed a lot of people hitting my website, and twitter was a great place to watch the reaction to the routine, overall the response was good. Now for the gossip…..Barry Manilow is actually an anamatronic puppet controlled by Pixar.
.
How long do you usually spend on devising and practising some of the tricks and routines in your live show?
.
Some routines I have spent up to two years tweaking and developing and have still not put them onstage and other routines can be an idea that afternoon and find their way onstage that night and seem to work straight away.

 

Tagged: , ,

2 Comments on "Interview With The Boy With Tape On His Face"

  1. rick james bitch says:
    February 8, 2012 at 17:52

    This guy is really good…its amazing how you can bring something fresh to the table with an old style act. He really adds some dynamic to a straight stand up night.

    Reply
  2. Slater says:
    February 8, 2012 at 17:50

    I thought he would just sit there and look at you blankly for the whole interview…

    Reply

Got something to say? Go for it!

←
→