‘America's Got Talent Stars’ Take on The Suffolk Theater for Halloween Week

For the first time in its history, this week The Suffolk Theater will host not one, but two “America’s Got Talent” stars, Tape Face, a silent comedian, and Piff the Magic Dragon, who along with Mr. Piffles, The World's Only Magic Performing Chihuahua, performs a magic show filled with comedy.

Their bookings at the theater are part of its new initiative to attract families with shows that are interesting and entertaining for younger audience members explained the theater’s executive director Gary Hygom.

“Both of these shows are absolutely family-friendly,” he said. “It’s pretty much mime comedy, and magic and comedy.”

Hygom has been trying to book both these acts for years, even prior to his time at The Suffolk, but after their appearances on “America's Got Talent,” both performers began Vegas residencies and touring. Finally, the timing was right, and it just so happens the timing worked out so Piff the Magic Dragon will take the stage Thursday, October 26, at 8 p.m. with Tape Face following just three days later, on Sunday, October 29, at 8 p.m.

“I probably would have enjoyed a little more separation,” Hygom admitted. “But, for both of them to lock in around the same time was kind of a miracle.”

Tape Face: A Mime who doesn’t need words

New Zealand native Tape Face, whose real name is Sam Willis, first appeared on “America’s Got Talent” in 2016, advancing to the finals before being eliminated. His act, which is self-described as “stand-up with no talking — drama with no acting,” consists of no spoken words at all, with his mouth literally taped shut on stage. His comedy is simple, using household props and gestures, along with some audience participation.

“I accidentally found myself without any other qualifications and ended up doing this,” Willis wrote in an email interview. Hygom said Tape Face reminded him of “the silent film era of comedy and in a new way. Even his makeup makes the audience go back in time,” said Hygom.

“He's just brilliant,” Hygom added. “Anyone that can make an audience roar with laughter without uttering a word all night long is kind of an immense talent that I think people should experience.”

Tape Face is also a perfect choice for the theater’s attempt to draw in young people, as Hygom knows several children who described seeing Tape Face live as “magical,” and were mesmerized throughout the show. “It’s just pure fun,” said Hygom.

Given that he performs mostly in Vegas, Willis said he’s looking forward to coming to the East End in order to connect with a new audience.

“We want to bring the show to everyone everywhere so people have a chance to experience the Tape Face show,” he explained. “We want people to be able to switch off from the real world and escape into our comedy world of silly fun.”

Willis explained that he tries to get his audiences involved in the show in as many ways as possible, ranging from getting people to take part in a dance-off to making others become Darth Vader and fight in space. Willis’ favorite parts of the show involve getting audience members to take part in an on-stage strip tease and make a Jackson Five music video.

“One of the favorite parts for me is seeing how people play in the various situations I’ll be placing them in and seeing what comedy we find,” Willis remarked.

Piff The Magic Dragon: An audience filled comedy show, mixed with magic and a dog

Piff The Magic Dragon, who is really named John Van der Put, is a native of Britain but he has called Vegas home for the past five years with a residency at the Flamingo Hotel, after appearing on “America's Got Talent” in 2015. He performs 250 shows a year, while also touring and appearing on television programs. Taking the stage wearing a dragon costume, he and his dog, Mr. Piffles, are encouraging the audience to wear their costumes to the show for Halloween weekend.

“It's a grumpy dragon doing magic tricks with a chihuahua sidekick who everyone loves,” Piff explained when previewing his performance. He’s looking forward to performing in a smaller venue, as he feels the intimacy of The Suffolk will allow for more audience participation. The performance will mark Piff’s first time on the East End. Traveling shows tend to have more engaged audiences than Vegas, another plus to taking the show on the road, said Piff.

“When you’re on the road, the show is the only thing people are doing that week; usually they're big Friday night or big Saturday night, whereas sometimes in Vegas, it's just one of the many things people are doing,” Piff noted. “So the audiences on the road tend to be a lot more pumped up.”

Much like Tape Face, the audience is the cornerstone of Piff’s show. He asks them to come on stage and take part in the magic tricks throughout the evening, whether it's choosing a card or stating the name of their favorite pet. Their involvement makes the show unpredictable, and even Piff himself never quite knows how it will go.

“You get crazy people, funny people, drunk people,” he said. “You never know what you're gonna get next.”

Audiences are also often taken aback by the depth and skill of Piff’s magic, he said.

“People can never get their heads around the magic because it's like they kind of expect the show to be funny, but they don’t expect the magic to be amazing,” he said. ‘So when it is and they don't know how we do it, they freak out”

Hygom said much like Tape Face, Piff is a light-hearted show, perfect for all ages.

“He's an amazing magician,” said Hygom. “He's really very talented. And combining magic with such kind of fun and costumes in a comedic, ridiculous, tongue-in-cheek way just takes magic to another level to me and makes it more accessible to everybody.

“It makes it more palatable for kids. It makes it more palatable for adults,” he added. “You don't just have to be a fan of magic. You know, if you're a fan of comedy, you're gonna get something out of it too.”

So far, the response to both the acts coming to Suffolk Theater has been positive, though Hygom said there are plenty of tickets left for the shows.

“The difficulty on a lot of the programming that I'm doing here is it’s all brand new and different genres and different ideas that The Suffolk typically has not done before, such as jazz, world music and things like this for family programs,” he said. “I'm very happy with the response so far.”

Piff the Magic Dragon will perform at the Suffolk Theater on Thursday, October 26, at 8 p.m. and Tape Face on Sunday, October 29, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $39 to $69, plus applicable fees at thesuffolk.org. Purchase tickets for both shows, and get 25 percent off the whole purchase.

Suffolk Theater is at 118 East Main Street, Riverhead.