Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 115. Iain Stirling - S8 Ep.6

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

This week Ed is joined by comedian, presenter and the voice of Love Island - Iain Stirling! Iain returns to the podcast to discuss his time on Series 8. The pair talk team tasks, workarounds and why Iain is such a huge fan of the show. The new series of Buffering starts Monday 30th January at 22.05 on ITV2 with a simultaneous full series drop on ITVXWatch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmasterVisit the Taskmaster Store for all your TM goodies!taskmasterstore.com Visit the Taskmaster YouTube Channelyoutube.com/taskmaster Get in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We can wait for clean water solutions, or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures, or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth, or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. It's me, Ed Gamble, the host of the Taskmaster podcast. And today we will be talking about Taskmaster OBS, Series 8, Episode 6.

It's another great episode from Series 8 and we'll be chatting through this episode with the wonderful Ian Stirling. Ian Stirling, of course, is a star of Taskmaster Series 8, one of the stars. And, of course, you might know him from Love Island, you might know him from his brilliant stand-up shows, and I hope you know him from Buffering, which is his sitcom, which is just about to come out on ITV2 and ITVX. It's Series 2 of Buffering. Go and catch up on Series 1, but, you or just watch series two it's brilliant it's really

funny it's brilliantly written stars ian got loads of other brilliant people in it as well go and watch it uh buffering series two starts at five past ten on monday the 30th of january on itv2 and then the whole series is on itvx but before you do any of that you must listen to this episode which is about Taskmaster Series 8 Episode 6 as discussed by Ian Stirling. Welcome Ian Stirling to the Taskmaster podcast. Hello Ed Gamble, hello listeners. Very excited to have you on the podcast Ian. We're of course talking about Series 8 at

the moment and you were on that one. I was on Series 8, yeah. Sort of, yeah it's a fun one i've forgotten not forgotten but i didn't know the numbers so when i i clicked on series eight to what to remind myself of it and then realize it was r1 so that was a nice bonus what you didn't you didn't realize that you were doing an interview about an episode that you were in i had no idea i just thought you'd ran out of people to ask or something. So I just thought here we go. No way. We like to talk to people about episodes they're in. Some people like watching them back.

Some people don't like watching them back. Particular examples, Doc Brown had never seen his Taskmaster back. Hates watching himself on a screen, which made the whole studio, the whole studio part of Taskmaster, absolute hell for him uh did you did you enjoy watching it back this one this one i didn't mind at all actually there's a there's um

there's the the series as a whole uh has got ups and downs for me but uh this one was this one was all right although there was a couple of tasks that went uh went awry but i'm generally speaking if it was all right but look you can't get through a series of taskmaster without tasks going awry but generally speaking I thought it was all right. But look you can't get through a series of Taskmaster without tasks going awry you know it would be boring if people were brilliant at everything all the way through. You are one of you know one of the good Taskmaster competitors you're very competent in in a lot of the tasks you have some absolutely brilliant high moments sure everyone has their lows. Let's talk about the highs though, Ian.

That's what we're here for. Are there any proud moments that you remember from the show task-wise? Genuinely, in this episode, one of my high moments was everyone loves when they discover a workaround on a task. So when I found the bigger goals in the score and a goal task, I was so proud of my little self. That was great. And my other high was the bring in, the bringer tasks at the beginning, which I have, I over, in hindsight now, I so over thought them

and I tried to get too clever. And I think that is greg's pet hey is someone that tries to be clever and doesn't do that that's like the thing he hates the most yeah i'm not sure it has anything to do with how well the person manages to pull off being too clever i think it's just the notion of someone trying to be clever in the first place he definitely he definitely hates that i think you're right um but then also i think i think overthinking is better than underthinking the price test because absolutely well i was i mean this people just really screw it up our series was joe thomas who didn't i don't think he'd seen taskmaster that might not be a fair thing i can't remember

but he definitely didn't he basically answered the bringer tasks in the back of a taxi how comedians answer like an online questionnaire that they've been forced to do he literally just wrote the first one that came in i don't think he realized how it was more he didn't realize what a significant part of the show that was yeah so he just went he just jerm mean a small thing grape net jimmy and worked his way through yeah i mean that's that's a total fair representation of how he did it and i think i think we could probably say he'd not seen much taskmaster beforehand in fact he he said as much to us on this podcast i believe right okay i don't want to say that but i definitely he basically we filmed two episodes a day and after at the end of the first day he

literally came through and was like i have completely dropped the ball on this task situation i didn't realize how important a part of the show this was yeah but but i would say that then you do have the opportunity the production crew do give you the opportunity to then change some of your price tasks once you're in actually filming the show to be like now you see how big an important part is so why don't you have a little rethink and he chose and he said so on this podcast to just simply not do that as represented by what we're about to talk about i think yes you did you won two prize tussle in which is you know fair fair share there's five of you on there 10 episodes you won two which is pretty good going yeah um this this isn't this isn't one of them this is a perfect example of trying to be clever and not only was

it it was sort of like cringy try hard trying to be clever and also it absolutely fundamentally wasn't what was asked well let's talk about it it was best see-through item um i i didn't get the impression from this that you were trying to be clever. Certainly not as much as Lou was in this. So Lou really screwed it up here, I think. But you brought in a beer fridge with a glass front. Yes.

But, I mean, look, the door was see-through. Yeah. But you couldn't bring in a beer fridge door. But, I mean, you literally couldn't see through the back of it so i guess i brought a c into uh item you bought a c into yeah you you bought a c into beer fridge um but i i would say as well that this prize task i think no one really covers themselves in glory uh see i would disagree i would almost put shan's shan's um the item sham brought is one of the best taskmaster examples of getting it right i thought she

absolutely smashed it actually well i have written down on my notes that it was my favorite of the bunch uh because what i like about it is and i like a bit i like about a lot of price stars this is 10 that tend to be the ones that I enjoy, where they say best see-through item and they come to someone and they can sum it up in one word. So she's just like, gin, bang, done. The answer was perfect.

The item was perfect. It's in the taskmaster's wheelhouse of things that he might possibly like. I don't know him well enough socially, but I think I'm going to make that assumption. wheelhouse of things that he might possibly like i don't know him well enough socially yeah i think i'm gonna make that assumption um and i like you said if you can just say this the big mistake i made in a lot of taskmasters there was a lot of explaining why something happened when it should all speak for itself yes yeah yeah yeah i think you're right i think as soon as because they do

tell you when you film the show make sure you just say what the thing is and then we'll show a picture of it and then you can explain what it is after if you're sat there explaining and waffling a bit at the beginning to build up to what it is that means you're probably having to over explain it and it's not it's not going to do well whereas gin i think you're right is is a very straightforward it's you know it's a bot it's a bosh presentation you know but it's a silly bang it it's, you know, it's a Bosch presentation, you know. Bang. It's a silly bang. It was good, but do you know what I mean?

That's why I think it's so, because it's not the first thing that pops into your head. If you were to say a see-through item, that would be a window. As we've touched on with Joe's answers throughout the entire series. But there's enough thought that went into it that takes it to that extra level. But it's not trying to be clever for clever's sake. It's a thing that most people like. And it does the job. I thought Sian's was actually one of the better answers from the whole series, actually.

And it was, yeah, it was sad that she got one point as well. I think there should have been some distinction between, say, Sian's bottle of gin and your thing that wasn't actually see-through. That failed completely on all levels, yeah. But it wasn't the only one that failed on all levels because I think Paul Sinner's hula hoop also failed on all levels because the hula hoop is not see-through, right? No.

I mean, it's an absolutely mad suggestion. I don't know what was... Because he's quite good with those things yeah but yeah i don't understand what that was really i mean what he was suggesting was the item he brought in was the air in the middle of the hula hoop but you can't bring in air surely for best seat i brought a c into yeah he brought a sort of, oh, what was it? A nothing. He brought a nothing, yeah. He brought a nothing.

He brought a look through. He brought a look through. A look through, that was the word I was looking for. I brought a look into, he brought a look through. Lou didn't even work on any of those levels. Lou brought in the book 50 Ways to See Three People by Vernon Howard. And I guess what she, she was trying to be clever, right?

She was trying to think outside the box, which is quite a difficult prize category, this one. And I guess you get yourself thinking of, how can I differentiate myself from everyone else? And her book, I guess, was what she, that's what she was hoping for. But it doesn't,

it doesn't really work. It's a very Lou Prize. I'm willing to believe that Lou has genuinely read that book cover to cover. I imagine, yeah, I think she got it for the task, for the prize task, and it would not surprise me if she devoured that on the taxi home. For sure. And then used it for mind games against Greg in future episodes.

I don't think Greg's particularly difficult to see through. For example, when he's about to give out the points here, you know exactly what's going to happen. Oh, yeah. I think this might be one of the first episodes ever where two winners don't even get five points. That's how badly the whole episode's a bit of a comedy of errors, really. Yeah, it really is. Because Joe ends up getting four points for his work for his window I

mean geez the man the man that gave it no thought to the extent that he was actually mortified by his answers is destroyed everyone else yeah even before he gave the answer you just see him like really panicking he's like oh yeah it's a window like he's he's devastated because he knows he's fucked up again um i would i i would say though i know a lot of his prize tasks were very straightforward and very simple and quite basic items but i loved his uh there was best smell i think was the was the prize task and he brought in a tomato on the vine when you take the vine out of the tomato. I think that's really interesting and it represents how he thinks.

Well, that's what I mean. Why Joe's prize task has become really interesting is because you know it's the first thing that's popped into his head. He's not overthought it at all. So some of us

would bring in something a bit mad. You know, oh, well, they've overthought it. They said nicest smell and he thought, a tomato off the vine. That was the first thing that came into his mind. Oh, he's brilliant. I mean, more and more, every episode.

So, I mean, I've seen these episodes a few times now. We're at episode six now. Every episode, it looks like he's been kidnapped and made to be there, and he's getting more and more panicked. Like, it's just his eyes are wide he's just like panicking sweating a little bit he's terrified that guy yeah and people always say to me is he like that in real life and i went well i think he's putting it he's putting on a bit

of sort of um bravado and charisma for the cameras really yeah i mean you're totally right he's uh he's a brilliant he's a brilliant brilliant man he's the sweetest guy in real life as well i thought he was sort of joke when you first meet him you think he's sort of joking and then you think oh no he's just that sort of timid and lovable and like self-reflective constantly yeah totally he's always been like that was it was it a good vibe backstage yeah honestly we we all got on so well like it was such an it was such a nice vibe our series was like so nice i think at the time as well um none of us had really done even though a lot of us were like comics none of us had really done the whole panel show vibe either so it was all everyone was just so excited to be there so

like yeah we were all sort of going on this journey together so yeah it was really lovely actually um yeah we all really good it's a really good gang it's a really good gang of people i can see i can see that you were getting great with everyone we this series always feels like a bit for me because as you know i'm like as most people are i'm like such a huge task master fan but our series almost to this day it all almost feels like the biggest odd bunch of the lot like it always feels like if you saw all of us in a pub you'd see people be like how the do these people know each other yeah i could see that and that's i guess that's part of its charm really i think i think that was the case a little bit for series six as well and it's russell

howard alice levine asim chowdhury yeah all of those guys you know like interesting how did how did these people all get put together that might be uh on the series where alex says oh people often ask how we pick the teams and it's schedules so it might be the case of that but again it works they're very good at putting people together it was it was one point for you Ian which I guess even at the time you knew was going to happen oh I mean the minute it was pointed out to me that the see-through item wasn't see-through I was thought I thought I'd get minus points or something so I was very relieved really see-through i thought i thought i'd get minus points or something so i was very relieved really

um but it was also one point for sean one point for paul and one point for lou greg was in a real mood that day uh and it was four points for joe which that seems harsh and he's not the one point the one point for sean was a madness yeah and also greg seemed i remember on the day, Greg was like delighted when she said Jen at the beginning. Yeah. I think he sort of, our prize tasks were so bad. I think he genuinely, I don't normally, I would on the show obviously, I sort of did a lot. But I wouldn't normally pull him up on things. I think he genuinely forgot how good her prize was. Yeah.

I mean, it might be it, just because it was lumped in with all those others. I love that you say I wouldn't normally pull him up on stuff. You pull him up on stuff the whole time. Oh, mate, every time. On the telly, I do. I'm not that person in real life. No, I know, I know.

But also, Taskmaster changes people. It's often heralded as being the show which is best for comics to really show their true personalities. But once you get in there, man, once it gets competitive, it can change. Once it takes hold. I just feel like he genuinely just must have forgotten. Yeah, that must be it. I think also you might...

I'll get Jack Bernhardt, the Taskmaster statistician, to go through this. You might be the Taskmaster contestant who most in history has jumped out of their seat in the studio. Oh my god, I think that could very well be the case. Because every time there was something that you didn't agree with, some points handed

out that you didn't agree with, or you were happy about something, instant, on your feet, ready to go, energy, let's do this. If it take all those factors in i was basically stood the whole thing episode one even i think with the puppet uh oh my god i mean that is the thing i get it it's not a puppet is still the thing that people shout at me to this day in the street it's not a vent puppet defining what a vent puppet is for everyone episode one on your feet i know and also why why get that worked up about a puppet i just didn't i don't think i had it in

me no it's great man it's great do you know what it was it's because i i don't know much but i know puppets you know puppets you know what event puppet is and your event puppet was excellent let's not beat around the bush there Okay, Joe Thomas. I do think about my game here. It's the classic see-through I don't know what's more see-through than this. I'd also say that it's a symbol of Industrial progress. It's something that is a human right if you're in a prison. It is of course a window I Know that you sort of think that maybe I've been a bit literal in the interpretation of... When you're given the sort of opportunity

to choose these prizes, some people who work within... I think I've switched off. I'd gone as well. I'd gone too. I don't mind the window. I think that's your strongest effort so far. Thanks. Jesus Christ. Let's move on to task one.

I mean, this whole task, I'm going to read out the task in a second, is when I was watching it, I was like, oh, yeah, it's interesting. Like, people are really trying, but it's really hard. And it felt like one of those tasks where maybe no one's going to do anything sort of interesting enough because it's impossible to,

that why did this task make it? And it is obviously there for one striking image which i think is the funniest thing possibly in in the whole of taskmaster but we're gonna completely conceal yourself inside this phone box no part of you your clothing may be visible from outside the phone box fastest wins your time starts when you shout i'm invisible your time starts now this is very hard oh and that it's one of those tasks when you first read it um i think it not being timed is the only reason it wasn't just full of people being absolutely insane because my biggest downfall in task well there was a few but my biggest for the task was i would just immediately plow on with something. So if it had been timed, I mean like Lou at one point was trying to climb into the roof of the phone box, so having all the time meant she could get out of that. So there's a

few tasks on Taskmaster where you read it for the first 30 seconds, you're like what even am I meant to do? And that's definitely what happened with that one, but then we had a bit of time to like get our heads around it and we started to somewhat work out what was going on. Yeah, I mean, your technique was great, I thought. You essentially got cushions and tried to create another phone box within the phone box, right?

So you were building your house. Yeah, you made a den, exactly. And that seemed like the smartest thing to do um and you know it worked it did work and you did it in four minutes for uh 46 seconds it worked perfectly um but it's just a very difficult task to showboat on as much as lou tried by by you know attempting to get into the roof of the phone box which is a very lou thing to do um i did a tv show, Outsiders, with Lou, and we had to camouflage ourselves,

and she immediately went up a tree. You can't stop her from climbing up stuff. So it makes absolute sense that she tried to climb into the roof of the phone box. You could say Lou was asked to do anything, and if you said, and then she tried to go up a tree, and none of those... QI. She tried to go up a tree none of those QI she tried to go up a tree on QI

Lou got a letter from HMRC saying her touchstone was late and she tried to climb up a tree exactly it's very entertaining but I'm sad it didn't pay off for her I mean she gets in a bin earlier in the series it's not that much of a surprise what a highlight the bin was

yeah but so this task was one of those ones where at the start you're like what's going on and then because i would love to have seen how that task would have panned out if they said you have 15 minutes or whatever yeah yeah it would have been absolute chaos it would have been i mean joe and sean didn't even manage to do the invisible thing um sean went for the three bin bags but you could you could see her hair i mean come on this is basic surely especially as a red-headed person you must realize that that's quite that's going to be quite a striking feature of people cover up the brightest part of your body for surely um joe i mean joe joe covered up the windows right which

i think is a really smart technique as well Like, if you're going to get something Cover up the windows, then no one can see anything In the phone box, let alone you But using something translucent A see-through thing I mean, he would have probably got him Three points in the prize task

If he'd brought that stuff in Exactly, and he knows about windows We know he's obsessed with windows He loves a window And instead he sort of just frosted the glass like a posh hotel bathroom um and you could see you could see his outline and he tried to argue that his silhouette was not him because it could be anything but then you could the damning twist that you could also just see his full body through a crack in the in the bubble wrap as well i mean sean and juggle rap i mean this is the great thing about taskmaster imagine if that wasn't being filmed on television that's

sort of like that why people that do sometimes you give people on quizzes on television because they'll give terrible answers because they panic if you said to someone in real life make yourself invisible they look at bubble wrap and go well you can see through that yeah definitely not definitely not bubble wrap we'll take that there's definitely bin liners lying around there somewhere not for a fact yeah yeah exactly bin liners newspaper which will come on to cushions was was a great shout lou used a blanket in the end which was really good and actually managed to conceal herself but the drop off that's what i hated about doing taskmaster sometimes is when you have these grand ideas like climbing into the roof of a phone box yeah realize it's not possible and then just have to back down

and end up using a blanket yeah god that nothing sums up taskmaster more than being like i'm going to hide in the roof of this phone box and the next thing you know you're cowered under a blanket um let's talk about paul because there's so many elements of this that I said to Lou on the podcast, I said Paul has a real talent in this series for creating tragic tableaus. So there's just, there's so many moments where Paul just seems to know the exact right thing to do to make everyone go, oh no Paul. Even his outfit really helps that as well. It's the outfit isn't it? Because I don't know how he managed to get hold of a dressing gown that was so tattered and old looking.

I mean, I guess he just brought in one of his old dressing gowns. I've no idea. But like, yeah, just him lying on the ground. He looks like he's been taken hostage or just recently rescued. I mean, yeah, it is. It's the shot of his face when the camera peeks over the, well, firstly, the newspaper. Good idea.

Use newspapers to block the windows out. Don't put it on the outside of the phone box on a windy day, Paul. That's definitely not going to work. And then just the shot of his face where it's like he's still trying to hide. He thinks if he can stay really still, then that counts as being invisible. He looks like a kid that's been caught stealing chocolate or something. Like, it's absolutely wild. It's, I mean, it's vulnerable.

It's funny. It's heartbreaking. It's just, it is. I think if you had to tweet a frame from every series of Taskmaster, that for me would be the frame from from this series the one a hundred i think he's got about seven of them but yeah it would be him in a dressing gown looking sad a hundred percent in what context who knows but one of those ones oh it's just absolutely it's absolutely perfect it really is uh and it's worth it that whole task

is absolutely worth it for that moment and of course it's one point for paul because he still takes 22 minutes 42 seconds to crouch in a phone box with a fully visible face this episode is really good for paul taking ages to do something and still not doing it quite right which is what is like the charm of him he's so good he's so good and he absolutely knows it as well there's no there's nothing of him in the studio being like oh I thought I did well at that. He knows what he's done. I don't think he realises quite what I don't think he quite understands quite how it's why it's gone as badly as it has but yeah it's not I think he knows it's gone it's not gone well but I don't

know if he quite has his head completely around why it's gone badly if that makes sense. surely when he saw his full face he must have realized when you're looking at a camera and you think what camera can then definitely see me oh it's so good um joe and sean got two points uh lou did it in eight minutes 17 seconds uh meaning she got four points and you of course four minutes 46 seconds that that energy that puppyish energy comes into play here i think yeah this is the my downfall and my upfall yeah and i use upfall on purpose yeah i've because i knee jerk and just go straight into what i think is the right thing to do when it goes well it's i i always i tend to get like four or

five points. Because you're the fastest all the time. I always career down the wrong choice quite a lot, hence why I don't win any episodes really or anything. Hey, you won three episodes, man. Don't you do yourself down. Three episodes, very strong, very strong. It was five points for you, of course.

Yes, please. But you still didn't escape with full dignity, I think, because when you had to shout, I'm invisible, it was the most desperate cry of I'm invisible that anyone managed. I'm invisible! I do genuinely think I was taking it so seriously. I didn't want to, like, move at all. Yeah.

And I wasn't a really quite, it was actually quite, have you ever tried crouching in a phone box? It's actually a lot more claustrophobic than you imagine. And I've lost a lot of circumference in that box due to pillows. It's actually quite a narrow place to be. So you were properly just hunched up and then trying not to move.

Yeah, my elbows were right up at my head. Like it was really, really quite painful. And you've got to take your time so they can pan the cameras around and all that to make sure they can't see you anywhere so you're in there for a fair bit once you've said I'm invisible for them to fully test if there's any visibility at all I suppose I've never tried to shout I'm invisible whilst absolutely not moving a single part of my body but I guess I can try it give Give it a go, give it a go.

Yeah, you can't do it not pathetic. No, yeah. I'm invisible, I'm invisible! You sound just like me. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Well, there you go, that's what it is. It's mere science, Ian. It was five points for you, so well deserved.

Am I supposed to not have a shadow? The trouble is bubble wrap is see-through. It's one of the Troubles. One of the Troubles. I think you're being a bit harsh on my effort. I mean, I think the fact you could see a sort of moving form... You could also see you through a crack. Well, I don't know why any man would say to another man, I can see you through a crack. You could just see you through... Yes, yes.

Well, look. He loves windows as well, so it's a surprise. They're the best thing to see someone through, aren't they? They're helpful. Disinformation makes it harder to find information you can trust, especially on social media. And it could lead you to make choices

that aren't good for you. Learn how to spot it at Canada.ca slash disinformation. A message from the Government of Canada. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge Indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves.

At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Task two is a team task. Design the most iconic album cover. Best album cover, album title, and band name wins. Your album cover best album cover album title and band name

wins your album cover photo will be taken in 30 minutes your time starts now um what a what a team first of all oh god yeah absolutely loved uh all of the dynamics flying around um i'm always interested to know what order you filmed the team tasks in yeah i'm trying to think i think we done i think this one was near the end we done the outside ones first yeah so i think it was like the one where you had to like we had to all be i can't remember why we're all strapped together and crawling around the floor and all that the worst day of paul's life, he told me. Yeah, I mean, with the information we know now, it wasn't an ideal day for Paul. No.

And then it was the putting things in a hammock. The hammock. So I think they were all at the beginning. Yeah. And then we had like a bit of lunch. Yeah. And me, Paul and Lou having a lovely lunch together, not knowing the absolute carnage that was about

to unfold as a result of those probably the worst performances in team task history those two tasks between the two of the three of us very entertaining oh my gosh yeah it was a real highlight the funny thing is me and I think these these team tasks were really really funny for me and for uh paul and lou because apart from the pulse and a bin bag incident none of them went none of them went particularly badly that we thought oh that what a disaster we sort of thought it'd been all right and then we all sort of watched it back and went oh god that's awful oh no yeah i mean this this is again i think a hard task there's a lot of hard tasks in this episode. Yeah and this is hard when you're three people and obviously we're so different as well,

so like something like an album cover is such a, you've really got to stick on a brief and like we're all such different people so I think we suffered from like a series of compromises, when it wasn't quite, I don't think it was any of our proudest moments, really. I think it's very tricky in a three, you're right, because I think team tasks are normally get that thing in that thing or do this thing quickly. They're very rarely the creative tasks

and the creative tasks are very hard in Taskmaster anyway because we're all professional creatives. So you then put the weight of your reputation as doing your job properly on the tasks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which makes it harder. It puts an extra pressure on. When there's three people, you're all doing that.

And then you're all trying to get across what you want to do. And I think you're right. I think you end up compromising. And the chat about what you should do really made me laugh because i've also on outsiders with lou we had to do a couple of things where we had to come up with like a dance and a song and a motto and me and lou and i i think you and i are more similar where we'll think about an idea for a bit we'll internalize it internalize it internalize it then say an Yes. Lou's way of doing things is to say everything

she's ever thought out loud. Uh-huh. So this was typified. And it's always funny. And she always comes up with a good idea. But this was typified in this one, I think, when she was talking and talking and talking and then went for an album title idea.

Yes, please, we like music. she just she was talking and talking and talking and then went for an album title idea yes please we like music yes please we like music and when you're trying to think internally and come up with one thing if someone's saying everything and says yes please we like music it is very funny to watch but as the other person i'd just be like oh lou please and also when you're trying to think of something and someone says yes please we like music you can't think of anything else but that phrase and then we had and then i think paul if i remember that day i i then fell between the two ferns then because it was like lou was just saying anything out loud and paul was oh we should have a think about this and i think at one point i sort of

started shouting stuff out loud with lou because I thought oh maybe this is a good technique then so then I started shouting stuff out but then I thought oh now Paul can't do his think thing and then I fell into the think and I just was then I was just sort of in this sort of nowhere land of not knowing what I was meant to be doing so I don't really yeah it was a it was a it was a it was a weird task that was actually really enjoyable at the end, like actually taking the photos and doing all that was really funny and like getting all dressed up and stuff like we all really enjoyed that. But I think it was, I mean, I can't imagine me, well I can't speak for

the other two but like, I can't imagine Lou and Paul look at that album cover and think what a wonderfully creative and thought through piece of art that is I think it represents three people in a band who have completely different ideas of what they want to do so you just sort of threw everything at it and you know the band's

called Lou Sanders and the Lovely Boys and the album's called what a shit thing sex The band's called Lou Sanders and the Lovely Boys and the album's called... What? The album's called Sex. What a shit thing. Sex. Sex. With three S's. Because that is like everyone throwing in ideas and then as far as I can tell, none

of Paul's ideas made it in. I don't... I can't... I mean, I don't think any of mine made it in, to be completely honest. And I think only about 0.5% of Lou's ideas made it in. Yeah, just some ideas happened around you. Lou Sanders and the lovely boys with sex. Contradictory, I love the chats between you guys where you're like,

yes, please, we like music, the lovely boys, SSS. Oh, all our surnames begin with s we should have that in there very sort of natural chat like light-hearted cutting to Joe going maybe we should have like a family having a nice dinner but on the plates are all like cockroaches is dark again again it's a real insight the joy is you know it's a real insight into great about joe is you know it's a real insight into psyche everything absolutely series which i really like but their album cover was great great it was fantastic it was like a sparks album cover like it it they thought about the art direction like

it had you can almost hear what sort of music it was as you know we got the get together that that um that little song it was perfect and they worked out the whole live show um and again they went with their names for the title of the band they were sheer so a little um yeah um like um that's uh everywhere really um it was good it was good i think the album cover was actually good i think it was a almost waste how good it was because they could have done basically anything and won the task so the fact they smashed it as hard as they did was sort of salt in the wounds really at that stage yeah that's why you need to try hard on taskmaster you can't just rely on the other people screwing up uh but you know quite often that that does happen um but i think there is

an advantage in two people in this one. A hundred. I think a hundred percent. I think generally speaking, two people must be easier than three for the team task. Because I think the tasks are sort of designed to, you've got to work in a team, but then that's what makes it trickier.

There is definitely ones where it's easier being three, but I can't, few and far between. I also think they had an advantage because they look more like they'd be in a band together oh god yeah i mean we we don't look like we should be on a bus together yeah yeah i think you're right um so it was two points for Lou Sanders and the Lovely Boys with sex and four points for sheer with It's Too Big. What's the theme? There's a not-to-clockwork orange and then there's a lady in a pink jumpsuit, right?

If you can't see what's going on here, yeah? Yeah. Then you don't like music. The red ball's the man. she's on the man okay so so it's a combination of the nihilism and destruction of clockwork orange combined with wanting to stick it to the man using a pineapple yeah I think that we were trying to convey okay. The album's called Sex. Yeah, because sex sells. That's our catchphrase. Sex sells. So you're challenging the man, but you're also, like, heavily corporate. And what does it say, sex?

A 48-year-old Asian man in a crisis. Wow. I thought we were going to blow you away with that. Yeah. We've actually started a band off the back of it. Let's talk about task three. Oh, my God god this would have sent me fucking insane in in five minutes you must return this pack of cards to alex in the lab and tell alex the order that the cards are currently in you may not leave this room during the five minutes most correctly named cards wins your time

starts now this is hard yeah especially with the, leaving the pen that no one finds as well. Yeah. Because I don't know whether, yeah, I guess if you'd found the pen and written them down, you could have just taken that with you to the lab and just read them out to Alex, right? Yeah.

Yeah, written on, I think everyone had that idea, right? We can just write the order on a bit of paper. And then, again, I think this tasks another one of those ones where everyone, me in particular, we just got in, we need a pen. And then you sort of rush around and you sort of rely on that. When in fact, I think the pen was sellotaped literally on the desk in front of us

with pen written on it. Yeah, just to rub it in. It takes no time to find that. If you weren't running around like a nutter, you would have seen it. But I wonder if there was even another twist, because no one found it. I can just see Alex leaving a pen there,

and the pen's got no ink in it. I mean, I think the series they're in now, I can totally see them being in a situation where the pen's dead, basically. But then obviously at the end of the task, he also mentioned that we could have used his iPad to take a picture of them all. Yeah, but no one's doing that, are they? Because he has his iPad the whole time. In the spirit of Taskmaster, you're not going to go,

Alex, can I use your iPad, right? Because, I mean, if he did, if the iPad comes into it, then people are just googling stuff like every task and stuff it's like a nightmare yeah i mean i used my phone a couple of times in series nine and it felt bad both times i used it once and i felt like i slightly justified it because it was doing something with your thumb yeah yeah i see so you were using it within within the realms of the task i used it to Google the translation of something and used it to take photos of pictures

so I could do a bigger picture. But yeah, it felt like a cheat. It didn't feel like it was in the spirit of Taskmaster. Yeah, there's times where you feel really clever when you get a workaround in Taskmaster and sometimes you feel like you've just ruined it a bit. And you can maybe a little bit, you can see sometimes when

alex goes oh good he's discovered that what an interesting workaround and you can see when he goes oh you just go and make fun of this um you i mean look you you got two points this is one of this is one of the times where you can rely on someone else absolutely hoofing it up even worse than you um what made me absolutely scream in is when you got into the lab and you made an effort to remember these cards and then alex reminds you that you have to say them in the order that they were in and you just thought it was remember cards that's one of the things i'm saying i just get in my head and i just plow down the root of what i think is the right thing to do and i'm sort of don't take any time to just think about it for a second yeah but i would say it's easier to learn cards in order than it is to just learn cards in no also

what was i thinking of it just learn the cards and you would just go, well, clubs, here we go. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Yeah, but they were weird cards as well, right? They were weird cards. Some were, but you could rely on most of them just by reading the normal ones. It's just stupid things. It's such an idiotic thing to have done. Your face is brilliant in that moment as well. Because it's in the lab as well, so it's just so stark and stark and white around you and then just that little tiny realization on your face that you've messed up it's what's great about it's what's great about taskmaster as well because in another show it might feel like it was like that it feels almost like a scripted thing that

they'd make this idiot character that would think that but actually in taskmaster it's very clear that i am a man who is under pressure and has absolutely dropped a ball i can can't quite believe it what he's done you had some rough times in that lab didn't you because there was the sand task that we we've talked about recently as well with the sand pouring out the bucket where you had broken both of the rules and then realized the only other rule was not leave the room so you just went fuck it and just walked out yeah lou's a very similar approach in this one actually she does yeah so i mean yeah she just she leaves the room screws it up immediately and she's put all the cards in a different order but the funny thing with the lou one this time is they always keep someone if

someone's kept at the end yeah i hate to ruin the magic for taskmaster if they don't know but if someone's kept from the end they've unbelievably smashed it yeah completely it and because it was a card remembering task and i was in the series with paul sinner i'm like well she's not out remembered more cards than paul's definitely yeah the whole time of that task i remember just thinking So the whole time of that task, I remember just thinking, but do you know when I fucked up the sand bucket task, I was like, oh yeah, well, I sort of grabbed the sand. I'm not saying it's fine.

It was still stupid, but I can understand. I just remember thinking, how do you get kept to the end specially for remembering card tasks? Like, I don't know what she's done for it to go this badly. And then they showed us and it was so great. If I was on that series and Lou had been kept from the end and knowing the thing about either someone smashed it or they've screwed it up, at no point am I thinking, Lou smashed it.

Although, would it surprise you if out of nowhere Lou had like a photographic memory and could just... Yeah, it would because I know Lou and her memory is absolutely terrible. She's a wonderful comedian and brilliant on taskmaster but her memory is like an absolute sieve yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um yeah she's she screws that up royally and gets disqualified for leaving the room um joe joe and sean both do pretty well i mean it's just by hard graft they they seem to They seem to remember the cards. Any other, I would go as far as to say,

any other series Joe's getting, any other series of Taskmaster, Joe gets five points there. Yeah, 100%. He got seven mistakes and he's got that sort of brain as well, I think. He's a clever boy. He went to one of the good unis and all that.

He's a good guy. He went to one of the good unis, clever boy. I think he's got a strong internal monologue which is why he's quite quiet when you're looking at him you like you almost see him reacting to things he's saying to himself um so i think he's very good at talking to himself in his head so i think that must yeah he stood up he stood out of his chair on taskmaster more times than me but he did it in his mind which Which I wish I had done a bit more as well. Yeah I think he's got a real inner world Joe. Was there ever any doubt that Paul Sinner was going to be good at this? Of course I mean like if he wasn't,

there's just no way and you could even see him when he's remembering the cards, you could see him doing like a mind map thing and all that and then even the way he done the mind map was brilliant and oh yeah even the the german soldiers thing about the i mean yeah it was just so funny what was it i'm i'm dick or something i can't remember what he said it was something like it was like a sort of something it was a saucy it was a saucy story about german soldiers and that's how he remembered it but that that's an insight into how he's so brilliant at general knowledge as well right because he must he must just have to learn fact after fact after fact

for the chase and for quiz championships so they're all some sort of like sexy story it needs his knowledge of stuff like that is absolutely wild. Like if you talk about football, he can remember like football match score results and all that from years ago and everything. Like it's absolutely wild. One mistake, and this is why he's the best. He was gutted about that mistake. He was absolutely livid that he made that mistake.

It was really early as well. Because I remember when it first, on the day when it first happened, there was like an odd, I think it's in the show as well but like the audience let you go oh because everyone's so behind them this is his task and I think he gets like the first or second card wrong and everyone goes no he's gonna be bad at this as well but then obviously he's not

he's absolutely incredible gets on a roll and it is incredible to watch so it's five points for Paul four points points for Jo, three points for Sian, two points for you, Ian, and no points for Lou because she fucked it. Are you slightly annoyed you just made one mistake, the second card? I'm really, really upset. I'm an absolute dickhead at every other task. That one should be in my territory. How many mistakes did Jo make?

Young Jo made seven mistakes. Still pretty impressive. Paul, you told me afterwards how you remember them. Can you remember? Somebody asking a German... Because they weren't in order. Yeah. Jack, King, Nine, Queen.

Right. I made a story about flirting with a German man saying, Jack, King, and him going nine queen task four score a goal from the furthest distance you may you may only take one shot if you don't score a goal you are disqualified you must perform a terrific goal celebration

whether or not you score your goal that's the funniest twist in this task there might be a bonus point for best goal celebration you have five minutes your time starts now this is so there's a lot going on in this task for what seems quite simple it's deceptively complicated you have to judge judge your own scoring potential uh you then have to if you miss it remember to celebrate in a fantastic way in a terrific way um and i think sean's the only one who really takes that into account because she knows she's not gonna she's unlikely to score a goal from a long distance so she you know she underestimates herself in a way and moves it only

9.8 meters away gets the goal amazing celebration because sean running around squealing at a pitch that no one else can manage is always entertaining we've already seen it on this series uh and then everyone else misses ian when you go and get that bigger goal it is fantastic to think outside it's one of my it's one of my highlights of my televisual life yeah when i when i said to alex oh i might get that bigger goal and again it was those moments sometimes you gotta work around and he's like oh you've ruined the fun and something's like brilliant and it was so exciting yeah yeah to walk back into shot holding that huge goal which i guess was not i mean i'm assuming not left there by the production crew that's just from we were

it's on if we're on we're on a playing field there was just literally there's just rugby posts and football goals i don't know the names of them but there's that sort of stuff just lying around yeah and it's great and i i like the idea that maybe they were someone else was playing a game uh and you just went and commandeered their goal it was half time it was and it's so. And it's sort of the only way it could go at that point for it to be any funnier was for you to then miss that goal. Especially because the thing I'm most annoyed about is not missing,

but I just try to be so safe and, like, tap to it. And, like, you've got to rifle it. Like, do you know what I mean? And actually, you hit it harder, you're more likely to hit it straight. And on, it was leaving it to the grass was the downfall. Cause it's just an unreal,

it's all bumpy. And all the whole thing was, yeah. The only way it would have been good if I'd got, got it in is if I'd absolutely smashed it top bends. Yeah. The fact I, the fact I dinked it meant I deserved to get,

to miss it basically. But it's the, it's the fall from pride as well, isn't it? It's the getting the goal, and you were clearly elated with that idea, as you should have been. It was a great idea to be like, yes, this is so great,

and then to miss it. It's just, it's pure tragedy. One of the biggest insights into my psyche I had from Taskmaster is every task where I thought I'd smashed it, and I was building myself up in my head, like this is it, this has gone so well. This is every time it went, not even like beyond badly.

Like I'd done the sort of volcano cooking Mentos challenge where I'd got like eight gallons of cooking Mentos and I was like, this is it, I've smashed it. See you all next year. And it's- See you in champion of champions. It just dribbles out of Coke and mint or something. I was like, this is it. I've smashed it. See you all next year. See you in Champions of Champions. It just dribbles out of the top like a disaster. Those goals. Every time I've just got to stop saying and start doing.

That's my big thing with these things. But also I think you instinctively know that it's way funnier because to say, to give the big chat and then it works is great. But then I think you know that it's way funnier if it fucks up so to then go like oh this is gonna be so great and then it screws up you know that's funny which is why you did it i think that yes but i think if you watch on the show as well you know i'm not doing those things thinking this is going to be so funny when it goes wrong i am genuinely like oh my god i can't believe I've thought of this. What a clever little boy. The one thing I'll say about Sian, everyone sort of says,

not like on the show, how she went quite close. She's nearly 10 metres away, right? That goal is tiny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you think that's like, so it's 10 times the size of the goal away. So if that was a full-size football pitch, you're looking at where professional footballers take free kicks from. Yeah, I suppose so. It was by no means a given.

And the other thing, having watched it back to remind myself, I forgot she absolutely bangs that in. Yeah. It's like top corner, just about. Yeah, I suppose you're right. I think just in comparison to everyone else is why I assumed it was slightly closer than that. Because Joe goes 11.5, Lou goes 14.6, which is mad.

And Paul goes 17.2, which you would have thought, given his performance on the show up until that point, maybe it was quite early on. I would have given him three points if he could kick a ball that far. Yeah, it's amazing. The celebrations are great as well. It's so funny to make you perform even if you've missed the goal

because everyone does the same thing where they're devastated that they've missed and then you see the cogs whirring and then you go, oh no. Yeah! That's where Alex is so good. That's where Alex is so good. The other thing I thought was so amazing

and again, such a beautiful insight into him as a man is the fact that joe puts the ball at like a weirdly tricky angle yeah yeah yeah like what is that for himself and then the celebration which ends with him just standing completely still as well yeah that's that that's the only screenshot that might topple a paulner in a dressing gown It was 0 points for you, Paul Lou and Joe, Sian is the only one

who bags the points, 5 points, that is integral in this episode to give her the win, but only just Oh I just gotta go. Oh god. I go. Oh, yeah, yeah, everyone go, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's nothing you could do to inspire that conga line. Your spirits were so broken. At one point, Alex whispered, you don't have to do this. Let's talk about the live task. Part one, standing behind the first line, roll your loo roll beyond the second line if your loo roll fails to roll beyond the second line or falls from the runway

you're eliminated from the task a classic taskmaster setup there part two retrieve your shoe you may not cross the line in front of you if your shoe falls off your loo roll your loo roll breaks you're eliminated from the task fastest Fastest wins. Winner takes all. It's, again, that part two is a fucker there. Very, very hard. Lou, at this point, is the absolute sniper of the live tasks. She was untouchable. It was actually ridiculous.

Yeah. It was ridiculous. Because you're a competitive man. You're a competitive man. You're a capable man. I would have thought the live tasks would have been really where you came to the forefront. But Lou's smashing them. Yeah, I had a shocker on the live task. I think, again, the mine and Lou approach of just going for it.

Weirdly having an audience and all that and having Greg there and Alex there, so it would take a little split second to think things through. And that little pause is all you need for Lou to get in. Like, pulling that shoe, because I've seen those videos where you pull something on the toilet roll and it like breaks.

That's the whole thing. So the three of us all, if you watch, the three of us are pulling it really slow lou just yanks hers which is the whole point is it's meant to break the toilet roll does not break i don't know what it's made of and you can see everyone else then go oh god we can just pull it it's like the shortest task of all time that yeah second bit she just absolutely crushes it yeah she crushes it and i think sometimes it's that instinct that she has to just do it really works for her i'm thinking of we've talked about it a lot in the last few episodes but pan hoop getting the pan into the hoop from really far away and she just does it

she's not like thinking about it she's not like aiming she's not like gotta get my eye in she just does it and the instinct pays off and i think that's that's what makes her a very good live task competitor um but sadly it was winner takes all so it was nought points uh for Joe and Paul who fail on the first part of the task of course uh and then it was nought points for you and Sian uh who were slower slower than Lou who just absolutely annihilated it again yeah seconds just pulled it you're not meant to do that she did it it worked out happy days um it was a victory for sean though on 15 points this is one of the lowest scoring episodes in taskmaster history in it was i must admit i don't think anyone covered himself in glory this

no episode at all really it's a it's a episode. There's some amazing failures but it's mainly about the failures this episode. The lowest was episode 1 of series 10 with 47 points in total. There was 60 points given in this episode. But episode 1 series 10, I mean that series kicks off with I think the first

task, everyone gets disqualified. So that was always going to happen with some shocking price tests as well um it was nine points for paul 10 points for you 12 points for lou 14 points for joe and a well-deserved victory for sean uh thanks to that goal score uh on 15 points um lou still in still in the lead at this point in the series i'm not sure that ever changes really no um uh with 107 points sean on 95 you and joe drawing at this point that changed that changed pretty quickly i think uh and then paul on 74 way behind everyone else sadly but in your taskmaster days are behind you you're you. You're now obviously the voice of Love Island, a TV presenter.

And you have co-written and are starring in your own sitcom, Buffering. Yes. And it's series two. That's so exciting. Yeah, man. I can't. I'm so excited for it. I'm so proud of it.

I'm just dead. It's just what a privilege, isn't it, to have your own sitcom? It's like dream world stuff sir I do not know but I'd imagine yes it would be a massive privilege and it's a great cast

it's exceptionally well written created by yourself and Steve Begea who is wonderful and you're both in the series he's in the series as well he's in it yeah he's managed to write himself

in a little part isn't he you've got to you've simply got to really you've simply got to, really. You've simply got to. No, he's so good. He's a very, very talented man. I'm very lucky to work with him.

And it starts on Monday, the 30th of January at five past ten on ITV2. And also, as people like to do these days, the full series drops on ITVX. Yeah, get ITVX. It's not a pornographic website. It is a rebranded ITVX. Yeah, get ITVX. It's not a pornographic website.

It is a rebranded ITV hub to appeal to young people. Yes. ITVX. Yeah, I'll buffer it. It'll all be on there. So give it a watch. Make sure you go and give it a watch, Series 2.

And is Series 1 all on there as well for people who might not have caught up? It's all there as well. It's all there as well. Do the binge. Do the buffering binge. Do the buffering binge. Or just start on Series 2. Start on Series 2. Obviously, I've just finished Series 2, so I'm just like, forget 1. well it's all there as well do the binge do the buffering binge do the buffering binge or just

start on series two obviously i've just finished series two so i'm just like forget one that's in the past man it's a sitcom even there's no important plot points that you're not going to understand it's not lord of the rings mate each episode speaks for itself right yes yeah absolutely in uh thank you so much for coming on the Taskmaster podcast. No, thanks for having me, man. It's so nice. It is so nice getting to rewatch this all again and reminding yourself of the happy days of Taskmaster.

It was such a lovely experience. It was nice to talk about it again. Oh, mate, I'm glad. We always ask our guests to rate their experience on the podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster. Have you had a nice time recording the podcast? And give it a points score in thank you i've had a lovely time i'm gonna give a big juicy five yes because there wasn't enough fives in this podcast episode

you're right we didn't get many fives so there weren't enough fives there were no fives in the prize task there were no fives really throughout um to be honest so thank you very much i'm glad we could write that wrong thank you very much ian everyone go watch buffering monday 30th of january five past ten itv2 and a full series drop on itvx thanks ian bye bye bye love you bye i love you bye bye bye much thank you so much to ian for coming on Do go and watch Buffering, ITV2, Monday 30th of January, 5 past 10, and the whole series on ITVX after that. Love chatting to Ian.

Hope to see him come on the podcast again sometime soon. Thank you very much for listening. We'll be back next week to discuss Series 8, Episode 7, of course, because that's how numbers work. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Get together. We can wait for clean water solutions.

Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future.