World News – GB – What Taskmaster taught me about comedians

Taskmaster has become a huge TV hit The unique game show in which comedians have to perform increasingly silly tasks such as playing golf with a potato or bringing in a random 55-year-old at the Five in a Mall Became a Global Success The program and format, originally created by co-host Alex Horne, has been sold in 106 countries and has been nominated for an International Emmy in the UK, he transfers from Dave to Channel 4

Since its debut in 2015, The Tasks have seen comedians go way beyond the game show’s call of duty when they’ve had to find a £ 20 gift for host Greg Davies, Josh Widdicombe s ‘Greg’ is tattooed on his foot Elsewhere, Bob Mortimer stuck in the trunk of a car with Horne As for Romesh Ranganathan, after seeing him try to devour a whole watermelon in a minute, you will cancel his invitation at a dinner

The fun didn’t even stop during the lockdown, with Horne setting tasks for fans online. His original Hometasking challenges included throwing paper in a trash can – inevitably more difficult than there is. seems – to camouflage yourself and turn your bathroom into a party place

The madcap format will remain the same for the Channel 4 debut The lineup for this series includes This Country star Daisy May Cooper, Katherine Parkinson of The IT Crowd, and comedians Johnny Vegas, Mawaan Rizwan and Richard Herring A potentially classic task in the making

I like to think I played a small part in the success of the show – I was definitely there early on Not that you would have seen me, unless you were one of the hundred or so die-hard fans of the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh in 2011 Before Taskmaster started garnering rave reviews and attracting TV stars like Lolly Adefope, David Baddiel and Katherine Ryan, it was a humble one-off event at Edinburgh Fringe Twelve months earlier, after an even more anarchic dry run at the festival in 2010, Horne contacted me to ask if I wanted to be part of a group of comedians.

Each month, Horne would email us a task that we would complete on our own, and then at the Edinburgh concert the results of our efforts would be revealed and points allocated for choosing a winner Horne filmed this concert and he was part of the land that won him the commission from Dave And the rest is history

The budget may have increased since that first show, but the inspired silliness was there from the very beginning Participating was an eye-opener It taught me more about comedians than I ever learned to write them during two decades It made me realize: a) how instinctively creative comedians are and b) how fiercely competitive they are As I did the chores with a few minutes free in my free time, j felt like my fellow competitors were spending every waking minute finding different ways to outdo themselves

There was no Greg Davies as Head of Tasks at the time, but the seeds for the series’ later success were clearly there.Participants included Josie Long, Stuart Goldsmith, Dan Atkinson, Lloyd Langford , Joe Wilkinson and Tim Key, who helped design some of the games in the TV version Key also appeared in the first series and tried to clinch first place in one lap by bribing Horne and Davies

The live version quickly set the pattern for unlikely challenges One task, for example, was to “create a copy of Alex Horne” Obviously, the simplest option would have been a painting I thought I was smart when i noticed how ovoid horne’s head was i boiled a hard-boiled egg, painted his face on it, stuck on my kids’ old fuzzy felt for hair and mailed it to him

« It made me realize: a) how instinctively creative actors are and b) how fiercely competitive they are »

Thought I was with a photo of the first place But that day I was wiped out by other entries, as almost every lap Goldsmith had carved a Horne lookalike head – and he even made a Lionel Richie « Hello » style video to go with it.

As if that weren’t enough, strolling backstage near the chips before the concert, I had noticed a bearded man quietly leaning against a wall who looked remarkably like Alex Horne When the time came, he was carried on stage by Key, who had hired him for the day as a Horne clone

Another challenge was to ‘cheer up’ Bristol comedian Mark Olver I did my research on this one and found out in an old interview with him what his favorite brand of homemade burger was. then bought the burger in a van on the south bank of London and drove straight to Bath where I introduced it to Olver at a gig he was doing at Komedia It still wasn’t enough to dominate the table

If the comedians were brilliantly imaginative, Horne himself wasn’t averse to mischief In mid-February I got an email saying there was a bonus round – extra points could be won by standing in the sea with a copy of today’s journal Do I risk a winter dive? I decided against that But then it happened in April and Horne emailed again No one had, so points were still up for grabs

I was actually on vacation at the time, so I armed myself and jumped into the icy Easter water near Bridport It wasn’t until the August reveal that ‘it turned out that Horne had sent me these messages alone, so that I could commit self-inflicted immersion in the English Channel

I had my moments, however Contestants had to ask someone famous to send Horne a signed photograph I used tenuous showbiz links to get Andy Murray to send Horne a photo with he wrote something like « Alex Horne you are a wonderful person » and wrote down some valuable points

It wasn’t enough to snatch the win, although it at least got me off the last place Josie Long was victorious, beating Goldsmith in a final task by putting 18 grapes in her mouth

At this point, to be honest, I’m not sure if any of us expected the idea to have a future.But if they’ve never been short of comedians to invite into the TV version I’d love to be invited back I promise I’ll be more inventive – and if that fails I’ll follow Key’s tactics and bribe the Taskmaster

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Taskmaster, Alex Horne, Channel 4