For a festival that celebrates the spoken work, it is a nice irony that perhaps the biggest star at this year's Fringe is silent.
Sam Wills, a 32-year-old prop comic from New Zealand, is arguably Edinburgh's hottest act. And the word is out, with daily sell-out shows, as hundreds pack into one of the Pleasance Courtyard theatres to watch and participate in The Boy with Tape On His Face.
An hour of silent comedy may outwardly appear a difficult proposition... for both performer and audience. However, Wills fills the show with plenty of sound, using a raft of on-cue tracks and audience involvement. He just doesn't speak. He does, however, walk off to the sound of delighted and heartfelt applause.
"It is a wee bit tiring," Wills tells the Huffington Post UK five minutes after the end of a show.
Speaking to a performer who's spent the past hour deliberately mute is an unusual experience, especially when he answers in a chirpy Kiwi lilt.
"It can get very hot under the lights, plus it is very physical."
Wills first performed T1 (Tape 1), as he calls it, at the Fringe last year, building a following via word-of-mouth. Previously, he'd worked as a comic in New Zealand, appearing regularly on TV, before taking his act abroad, eventually washing up in London. This year he's been rewarded with one of the larger theatres on the lot.
"The reaction has been phenomenal," he says. "I think now people know what the show is, they know what to expect. Last year a lot of people were turning up saying, 'I've been told to come and see it.' This year it is an educated audience. They know what they are coming to see."
A graduate of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology's Circus School, Wills developed the character out of a five-minute sketch that was part of his wider act.
"It was never intended to be a show," he says. "It was just a novelty act I did. I thought it was quite funny, and it grew into ten minutes, then quarter of an hour, and now it has taken over."
The challenge, he says, was to see if the character could keep an audience entertained for a whole hour. It could and he took it around his homeland then further afield to Australia, performing at the 2009 Melbourne Comedy Festival to critical acclaim.
"We are lucky that, because there are no words, the show is fairly international. We've done shows all over the world. The most interesting was in Norway. The whole show was in Norwegian, so I was just listening for my cue. Fortunately, I use very well known songs, very iconic songs."
Watching Louis Armstrong, albeit one made of two shoes, sing What A Wonderful World was one of the show's many highlights. Seeing three members of the audience dance to The Jackson Five's Don't Blame It On The Sunshine (under Wills' strict direction) was another.
"It's all about audience participation," says the comic, "but not bad audience participation. The people who I'm getting up on stage are vital to the show. I want them to be the stars. When they leave the stage I want them to be a hero."
By inviting audience members on stage, Wills is a constant hostage to the unexpected however this does give each show a sense of individuality.
"The real magic is born out of the audience. It evolves over time as the people up on stage can do something completely random. I like to think I've thought through just about every option of what's going to happen but sometimes an audience member will throw a curve ball at you and you just think, 'wow - that was really funny.' Then you spend the next three months trying to recreate that moment."
The popularity of this year's show will no doubt push Wills and his comic creation further into the limelight, with UK dates booked in until November. Looking further ahead, the act itself seems to have a solid shelf life.
"It is just silly and fun," he says. "I don't have to worry about the current state of the world, politics or the financial crisis. All I need is an audience who wants to come along and have a laugh at really innocent gags. At its heart the show is just clowning around and there's plenty of clowning in everyday life. Maybe when I run out of Eighties music I'll stop. Fortunately, the Eighties has quite a good back catalogue."