Notes from Taskmaster's New Year Treat studio recording
I was lucky enough to be in the studio audience of ep 2 of Taskmaster's NYT and thought I'd post my notes from the recording. These are mostly things related to Greg and Alex but there's some other stuff as well.
Greg on stage:
Greg is always the first one to be called on stage – he chats a bit with the audience and lets people ask questions. Someone asked a question about penguin meat (I think it was about how it tastes). Greg hadn't had penguin meat but said he'd strangle a penguin as soon as look at it. When he called Alex on stage, Alex said he wouldn't kill a penguin.
Greg and Alex's hug:
They were both facing the audience, Greg was standing behind Alex. Greg put his arms around Alex, and Alex (with his back to Greg) reached behind him and put his hands briefly on Greg's arse.
Alex's dance:
Greg asked the audience what kind of dance and song should Alex improvise. There were several suggestions and eventually Greg made Alex do an Irish dance (to a country style song, I think). He danced very well, Greg was impressed and praised him, then told him to do it again. But then they ran out of time and had to start the show proper and call the contestants to the stage.
When Greg sat down on his throne he dusted off his knees, Alex noticed that, bent down and dusted off Greg's shins.
Greg's intro for Alex:
Greg's initial intro was actually that Alex wants Greta Thunberg to shout at him. But he immediately said he'll record another intro and this was the one we got in the broadcast version ("and next to me, a man who says he likes his women like he likes his coffee...").
Banter section:
They included most of it in the broadcast version but edited out Greg's response after Alex said "it's bunk beds, always bunk beds". Greg said that bunk beds or not, Alex will get fucked either way. Alex immediately said, "My children are in the audience!" (He did seem annoyed, but he may have been playing it up.) Greg said he'd forgotten that Alex's children were there and kept saying he's sorry but he was giggling the whole time. Then he stopped giggling, said he's genuinely sorry and they moved on to the prize task.
Ad break links (these are cut from the Youtube version):
They had to redo both the "Greggy go poo-poo" and "For Christmas, I gave Alex a golden shower" ad links (most of the retakes are done at the end of the show when the contestants have already left the stage).
When they were doing a retake of the Greggy go poo-poo one, they messed up their lines again, and Alex asked: "And which one of us wrote this?" Greg: "It wasn't me." Alex: "?" Greg (proudly): "Yeah, it was me."
When they were redoing the golden shower bit, then Greg said that he's surprised this had flown under the radar and that they were allowed to keep this in the show. At some point he also said: "I don't even like piss stuff."
Audience Q&A (during breaks there's chat with the audience and the warm-up guy – or sometimes Greg – says that people can ask questions):
During one of the breaks Greg was asked whose throne is more comfortable, he said Alex's because "the prick has padded arms" (so apparently he hasn't gone through with his threat to remove the padding). There was also a question about whether the contestants who win an episode keep the prizes – both Greg and Alex said that yes, they do. But only if they want the prizes – not everyone wants to keep them. Someone asked how their new studio differs from the old one, the answer was that it's closer to Greg's place. For some reason, several people were asking questions about chocolate (I remember that there was discussion about Bounty and Twix). One audience member said they're from Hong Kong and Greg said that the drunkest he's ever been was when he was in Hong Kong – he went with Rhod Gilbert and they both drank so much that they cried.
I've also written in my notes that at some point during a Q&A Greg called Alex "baby boy", I've written it down as: Greg said, "I would, baby boy." Unfortunately I don't remember what this was about...
General notes:
There were two interpreters for Rose in the studio, I think they swapped every 20 minutes or so. The VTs they played in the studio had subtitles.
Big Zuu talked about different types of TVs for ages, during the prize task as well as during one of the breaks. He also asked Greg about his TV, Greg said his TV is smaller than the one Big Zuu brought in.
After they played the VT of the "split something in half" task where Big Zuu was using "the power of his voice", someone in the studio (can't remember who – maybe Jill – because those two had a friendly rivalry going on throughout the episode) questioned the power of Big Zuu's voice, so he started singing and got a big applause for it from the audience.
I'm glad they kept in the bit where Greg deducted a point from Jill just because it was Susie's birthday, and then regretted it when it turned out Jill was just one point off winning.
Greg said several times he was gonna make this right and then, when they started the VT for the next task (the painting task), Greg leaned over to Alex and whispered to him what he was going to do. Alex just nodded. (Greg had decided to give Jill one extra point for her painting.)
In the live task, they had to redo the first round between Rose and Susie. There was some confusion, they realised that Susie had the wrong shoe but initially didn't notice that Rose's shoe wasn't the right size. (I remember wondering why did Rose pick the wrong size if all the shoes had numbers on them, but when Rose was on the TM podcast she explained that all the shoes in her bag had only European sizes on them, and she didn't know the European equivalent of UK size 11).
When Rose had done the episode victory celebration, Big Zuu asked if she'd give him Sam's jumpsuit that she'd won. She agreed. Rose didn't want Big Zuu's TV either, so it was offered to the audience. But I don't know if anyone from the audience actually got it or not.
Final notes:
Before the recording, we were queueing outside the studio for several hours because NYT ep 1 recording overran (both eps were filmed on the same day). It was a cold day so everyone was freezing – members of the studio crew occasionally popped out and said "it shouldn't be long now" and assured us that there's heating in the studio. Eventually we were let in, and then it took almost another hour before our recording started. So I think Greg and Alex and the contestants only had one hour between recordings to rest a little and get something to eat. (They must've been exhausted by the end of their day as our recording was 3.5 hours and the previous ep apparently took almost 4 hours).
There was also a longish break when someone needed first aid, and they had to stop recording for a while. This was at the end of the show, after all the contestants had left, and Greg and Alex stayed behind to do retakes of things they'd messed up. If I remember correctly, it was during this break that the warm-up guy said something like "there's never a need for an emergency comedian", then asked the audience that if there was an emergency, would we prefer Greg or Alex to be there – most of the audience said Greg. It was already so late that the production crew said that if anyone needs to leave in order to catch their last train home they can do so now while there's a break in the recording. Greg and Alex said that they'd really appreciate it if those of us who don't have to catch a train would stay until they've done the retakes as well.
After they had done all the necessary retakes, Greg and Alex thanked us, waved everyone good-bye and left the stage.
It goes without saying that it was an absolutely amazing evening!
Ed Gamble: Did you have a good time doing Taskmaster?
Sam Ryder: Honestly, I've had the best time. And Greg and Alex, they're so lovely. I think, in this world of, I guess, hanging around with people that are known for things or famous or have that kind of celebrity tag on them for better or worse, I haven't met people that are as welcoming and polite and just have the basic manners as those two. Like, after the show, hanging out in the green room and seeing them interact with everyone, not just the people that were on the show, but their family and their extended friends and family, and how they gave every single person time, and did all the pictures with, like, so much, I don't know, patience and kindness. I just, sort of, watched that. I was like, "Ah, that's so cool." Because you always see sides of people, and then when the cameras are off, sometimes that side changes and is different. But in fact what I love about them is that when the cameras are on, they're kind of actually quite angry and...
Ed Gamble: Alex is weird.
Sam Ryder: Yeah, Alex is slightly weird. And then when the cameras are off, they're just lovely, like absolutely lovely people. So yeah, that was great.
Sam Ryder talking about Greg and Alex on Taskmaster the Podcast
