A certain anxiety washed over me when it suddenly dawned on me there may be some complications involved in interviewing comedian Sam Wills.
After all, the former Timaru lad is well known in comedy clubs around the globe as "The Boy With Tape on His Face" - a slightly creepy character who is able to generate side-splitting stand-up comedy without uttering a single syllable.
Would there be awkward silences?
Would there be an uncomfortable moment when you realise that that finger gesture means "No, I'm not going to answer that question!"?
Surprisingly, it didn't come to that, because when he doesn't have tape over his mouth, it's hard to shut him up.
Wills says "The Boy With Tape on His Face" was born in 2005 after he won the Billy T. James Award for doing "other comedy stuff" like juggling hedge clippers, pulling his body through a tennis racket, snorting balloons and hammering nails through his nose.
After winning the award with "talking comedy", he decided to challenge himself by inventing a silent character to do stand-up.
"I remember the first show. It was at the Classic Comedy Club in Auckland.
"I ruined it in the first 30 seconds by talking to someone in the front row. I couldn't help it.
"So the next night, I put tape over my mouth to stop me from talking during the show."
And the rest is history.
Wills says "The Boy With Tape on His Face" was inspired by his love of characters such as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands in Tim Burton films.
"They're social outcasts.
"In the first shows, there was a slight amount of confusion in the audience - there was that awkward moment when they thought 'How can you do a stand-up comedy show without using your mouth?
'"I enjoy that confusion."
Since then, the character has evolved a lot. There has been constant tweaking, and because there is a large amount of audience participation in his act, no two shows are the same, he says.
Having tape stuck on your face for at least an hour every day raises several important questions.
What sort of tape does he use?
Does it hurt when he rips it off after every show?
And does it cut down on his disposable razor bill?
Wills says he uses Nashua 357 tape.
"You could hang curtains with it, I reckon. It's pretty sturdy.
"It has to be. I'm on stage for an hour, and under lighting it gets very hot.
"I need something that doesn't come off when I sweat."
Despite the super-stickability of the industrial tape, Wills says it no longer hurts to pull off.
"I've gotten used to it.
"But I have noticed, if I do a lot of short shows, I do get a red square on my face."
For that reason, he is careful to be cleanly shaven before applying the tape to his mouth.
Ripping the tape off while sporting facial hair would be excruciating, he says.
"You can tell when I'm on holiday. Any chance to grow facial hair, I'm on to it."
Wills will be on UKTV at 8.30pm on Saturday in the New Zealand premiere of the BBC Proms Season.
The footage is from the BBC Proms 2011: Comedy Prom which also featured musician, actor, comedian and rock 'n' roll superstar Tim Minchin, Beardyman, Doc Brown and the Mongrels.
It was the first time an evening of comedy had been incorporated into the popular annual Proms Concerts, and the programme offers a fresh, accessible and funny take on the Proms, accompanied on a grand scale by the ever-versatile BBC Concert Orchestra under Andrew Litton (guest conductor) and Jules Buckley (music director).
• The BBC Proms 2011: Comedy Prom screens on Saturday at 8.30pm on UKTV
