Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 9. Katy Wix

Episode Date: December 10, 2020

On this week's podcast Ed is joined by actor, comedian and Series 9 contestant Katy Wix. The pair discuss Katy’s time on the series including her infamous stressful teapot. They also take a look at the latest episode of Series 10 which involved building a beer mat house, some impressive bedding and drawing a monster. And as ever the BFF returns with not one, but two facts!  Get in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail]  Visit the Taskmaster Youtube channelwww.youtube.com/taskmaster  For all your Taskmaster goodies visit www.taskmasterstore.com   Sales, advertising and general enquiries:[e-mail] Taskmaster is on Channel 4 Thursdays at 9pm and you can catch the family friendly version Sundays on E4 at 6pm. Taskmaster the podcast is produced by Daisy Knight for Avalon Television Ltd  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. What's up? Yep, I'm bringing that back. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. My name is Ed Gamble. I am nearing ever closer to no longer being the Taskmaster champion because it's episode 9 of Taskmaster series 10. That's right, episode 9. I'm sure you've watched all the episodes up until this point

episodes 1 through 9 i'm not going to talk down to you and tell you that if you haven't you shouldn't be listening to this because there'll be spoilers of course you've watched it you are not stupid there's no way that you'd listen ahead unless you've seen the episode because you know that there's going to be spoilers because we will be discussing the down low, the dirty, the dog's dumps. I'm not good at podcast intros. I really need to write down what I say in advance. Apologies. We're going to talk about everything is essentially what I'm saying.

So go away, watch the episode. I'm sure you all watch Taskmaster. It's 9pm, Channel 4, Thursdays. Or, you know, if you're a family friendly kind of person why not watch it on e4 at 6 p.m that's when all the horrible rude things are taken out there's a lot of rude things very sexy episode this week actually uh real real full-on stuff so definitely watch it on e4 at 6 p.m if you're not into that sort of rude business um it wasn't a sexy episode at all a lot of fun though uh this week we will be chatting through

the episode with the wonderful katie wicks from series 9 of taskmaster the same series that i was on she's absolutely brilliant katie absolutely hilarious looking forward to chatting to her about this episode sure but also about her time on Taskmaster and also answering some of your emails if you want to email in with a question for me and my special guest next week why not do it taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com and we will read the questions to them but for now why not go and get some gifts from TaskmasterStore.com or go onto the Taskmaster YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash Taskmaster, for all of your Taskmaster content.

Let's crack on. That is the admin done. Let's have a chat to Katie Wicks on the Taskmaster podcast. Welcome, Katie, to the Taskmaster podcast. Thank you very much for coming on. Hi, Ed. My absolute pleasure and honour. Thank you very much for coming on. Hi, Ed. My absolute pleasure and honour. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

Obviously, we were on the same series, so it's lovely to catch up and it's lovely to have a chat about this current series. Tell me, did you enjoy your time on Taskmaster Series 9? Oh, God, we're straight in with the big question. It's the big question at the top i mean yes obviously i i loved it it's like it was my dream for so many years decades and i've never known a show which has which is kind of uh got so much kind of jealousy from other

comedians when i said i was doing it i mean someone i know like walked out the room because they were so cross someone we both know which i didn't take to me you know it wasn't like they were saying why you but i think they were just like why not me um so yeah i i feel like it's a huge honour. I was really nervous for that very reason because I feel like all our peers watch it and there's nowhere to hide. It feels so kind of exposing that I felt more nervous on day one than I would do just walking into any old set, you know, where someone gives you some lines to say.

But, no, I mean, I loved it. I had a turbulent one as you know yes things happened to me and that wasn't ideal but you know i i yeah apart from that it was it was a dream i wish i could have done it again on less um painkillers i guess because it was ill i should say i'm sure i'm sure we'll come to that uh throughout the discussion I'm pretty sure we've got some email questions about that as well save it for act three the jealousy thing is very interesting from uh from other comedians because yeah you do you do feel that and I know that other comedians are jealous uh of the people who do the show because I was

one of those comedians until I got to do it. And I don't know whether that makes me feel good or bad. I think it's part of the reason I enjoyed doing the show, that I knew loads of other comedians were seething. Yeah, yeah, I agree. That always spurs me on. It's a good energy. Yeah, I just thought it honestly felt like a real privilege for that reason because just all the people I've loved have done it and

I just felt this real pressure to come up with to be to come up with something original each time and but no way I mean I loved it I I think I love just doing the tasks more than the studio maybe because you know I've done panel shows in the past and i've enjoyed them but what's really nice is actually having a thing to do and focus on so you're not just sort of sat trying to kind of interject in the conversation there were times when i wish alex had sort of left me alone and there'd be no cameras there because i just was so into just doing the the doing of it yeah that there were times where i just was like a Alex stop you know talking to me I'm trying to do this thing and um but I think that's the only way to approach it isn't it to be

to get involved and to not sort of think of it as the cameras are on and you have to can you can you think of any particular tasks where you were so into the process of it that you wanted Alex to leave you alone because I know that you were you're always quite keen on the more art-based ones yeah so things like um the making of Mount Rushmore I got really into that and could quite happily have gone another sort of two hours um just there were times where i'd be like alex i'm thinking just shut up he'd be asking me these questions like do you what do you do you want me to get you with this ping pong and i'd be like i'm just thinking but yeah i i the whole thing was it was really amazing i feel really lucky that we were in the group that we were

i really do it was a really It was a really good group. And our team, of course, me, you and Rose were on a team for team tasks. I think, honestly, one of my favourite days. We've already had Rose Matafao on the podcast. But the buckaroo, recreating buckaroo while I was the donkey and you two improvised as two cowboys. God, can you talk about it? It's the most I've laughed in ages.

It is like a weird dream now that you tell me that that actually has happened in my life. Yeah. Oh, the donkey sounds mighty agitated. Angry, angry eyes. Y'all gone fishing. God, here comes the wine ride. Watch your eyes. Y'all gone fishing. God, here comes the wine ride. Watch your ears.

A wooden spoon. A horse on a donkey. A horse next to a violin. You guys were really, really... The first time you both appeared over the horizon, over the horizon of the caravan. And what I remember thinking was like, oh, these guys have this like puppyish kind of gusto and they're attacking this with the right energy. And it was good because it made me more like, it made me more, I felt like like until then i'd been a bit introverted and i kept sort of giving myself these talks of like you've gotta this is an amazing opportunity you've got to be you've got to go back out there and like just do something really wild but i saw the way you

approached it and i thought maybe i should be doing it more like that because you were calmer and you were processing things and you were thinking about things before you did them whereas I just like you say just rush into them like a madman I think that makes better telly maybe but I also I think like you say about trying to come up with the most original interesting thing to do in every task sometimes I think I missed the mark there because I just did the first thing that popped into my head and just went into it like a crazy person. So I think I did that, too, because you have no choice. That's the other thing, isn't it, is that you have no time to go with your second choice. You have to sort of go with the first. And it's usually the best. It's usually the best one.

Can you think of any any particular highlights taskwise or something that you made during Taskmaster that you think, yes, that's the best thing I did? I think my red teapot I'm incredibly proud of. Yes. It's on the shelf. I'm looking at it now. That felt pretty inspired. That felt like it could be in some surrealist gallery

in Berlin or something. I think that was episode... Was that episode one as well? It was the prize task in episode one, maybe. Yeah, it was early on. in episode one yeah it was it was early on i set a precedent right it was it was amazing it's most stressful thing uh and you um you have a teapot with has it got two has it got two spouts it's no it's it's the handle and the spout are on the same side that's it yeah yeah I thought that was amazing. I thought, oh no, I'm in trouble here.

Someone's come out all guns blazing. And it was downhill after that. I know that quite often during the prize tasks, you and Rose would have a go at Greg for only liking things if they were dick-based. Like phallic things, yeah. And then I really embraced it by bringing in that big wooden penis, which is, oh, put it away.

I know why I put it away, because my accountant came round. So the wooden penis, which, was that, what was the story behind that? Was it your friend's dad had made it or something? Yeah, it was my friend's dad imported them. So odd. I don't know if they went back out of the house the house they got imported into the house oh my god you've surely got to send some of them out the house you can't just import a load of wooden dicks and then just keep and hoard them i think well i probably didn't say in the show in fairness i think they are like a fertility symbol from from a culture

that i can't remember so you know we shouldn't be too disparaging no and i'm sure they work perfectly well within that culture but once you bring them into another one they sort of take on a different meaning right once you're like in a garage in swansea you're looking like face to face with a p you're looking face to face with a penis face. It's a different story. Can you remember any, I mean, I'm going to say low moments of the series. Of course, you were ill for two episodes. But when you were there, task wise, can you think of any sort of any low moments where you thought, oh, that's a bit disappointing?

I didn't enjoy the steamroller at all because I've never driven a car. I've never driven anything. And I'm definitely in the minority. So when someone says to me, oh, get on this thing, it's not a car, but you're definitely driving it. I'm like, but I don't even even i was just really sort of panicked that i was gonna kill someone because i have no you've never sort of had to steer anything yeah and it was fine it was just switch it on and go but i felt really like tense i felt worried for everyone else it was like my ego it was like i felt ashamed of how panicked I was and I had like the voices of viewers in my

head being like what the fuck's wrong with her it's just a steamroller I felt like I was just um like as long as I don't make a complete tit of myself everything else is just sort of fine I think I just thought as long as I'm sort of in the middle I'm not I'm not going to be the best I'm not going to be the worst just as long as I, as long as I don't stand out as this kind of complete idiot, then I'll be okay. I sort of, I sort of approached it in a different way in that if some, if I felt like something was going fine or wasn't going well, I would think, well, let's be the, let's be spectacularly the worst. Yeah, yeah. How much did you want to win? Oh, yeah, I wanted to win.

And I think that was pretty clear. I think I feel like me and Rose were clearly trying to win, which, I mean, apologies. It must have been. Oh, I wanted to win. Yeah, but I think you kept it quieter that I wanted to win. Yeah. But you, I think you kept it quieter that you wanted to win. Yeah. Or, you know, you were less sort of desperate.

I think me and Rose would, came across as quite desperate. Well, actually it wasn't until like, there was a point where I was quite far ahead. Like there was a point where it looked like I could win. Yes. And as soon as I realized that I thought, fucking hell, like I've been ill. Just let me win. Please universe. Does life change if you win? Like, does it make a difference? Isn't it the taking part?

I'd say my life is exactly the same. I don't think my life has changed. Apart from occasionally people will remind you that no one ever remembers who wins anyway. That's what they like to do. Someone said, this is really mean. I'm going to say, because I think you can handle it. I'm just saying this is the wrong thing to say. Somebody said to me, I think it's quite cringe to win. Yeah. Yeah.

No, but I do agree. That's really funny. If you look at the Hall It's not. It's not cringe. The Hall of Fame of the winners. It's... I mean, me, totally desperate to win. Lou won, but I think gets away with it because she won completely within her vibe.

I'm so glad she won. And Kerry, obviously within her vibe as well, but just absolute desperation and chaos. And I suppose Lisa Tarbuck was pretty chill about it. So no, I'd say it's every so often it is cringe to win and I'm one of those, thank you. So hot takes on this series, Katie. Oh yeah, yeah.

How are you feeling about this line-up? I was... I think it's an amazing group. I was really, really excited. Particularly excited about Johnny Vegas, who I've always loved. He's such a genius. I was really relieved for Richard, in a way, because he's been talking about it,

wanting to do it for years and years and years is the sense I get really when I listen to some of his episodes of his podcast I feel like he really really wants to do it for so long so I'm really pleased for him um yeah it was a really exciting group yeah I couldn I couldn't wait to see it. And it's delivered. I thought Ep 9 was amazing. It's a really good episode. It is, I think, possibly the most stressful episode of Taskmaster ever in terms of the lineup of tasks. I think I would have lost it on every single one. So we'll come to those anyway. Let's start off with the prize task, which is the best bedding.

It's classic TM category, I'd say. I thought Johnny Vegas's bedding story was delightful and so moving. I loved it so much. And I bought it as well. Greg was really, Greg decided that Johnny was just making that up on the spot or he'd come up with it that morning.

I thought, I didn't think that at all. I think it has a grain of truth. Yeah, definitely. I think at some point he's definitely put Lambswall out for a bird. Yeah, he's delightful. He's such a precious, lovely man. That's what I get from him. I want to wrap him in Lambswall.

It's interesting, isn't it? I think older comedians, they really go one of two ways they either like the sort of bob mortimer johnny vegas get very kind of like sort of soft and more vulnerable or they get really bitter like yeah they get really like bitter and feel like younger comedians represent their own sort of self-destruction and death so um it's good to see he's gone that way he's kind of softened no it's lovely and he's lovely in the studio as well he really laughs at other people's stuff which is very important as well i think for some reason i really imagine him and daisy have this amazing friendship now of i just really project that onto them when i'm

watching them i really think they must get on well they do yeah i think they seem to have a lovely a lovely chemistry right um yeah yeah they sort of fit together quite nicely no I loved I loved the lambswool I was a big fan of the lambswool I actually think it was underscored I think that if I'm honest like it's really hard to beat Daisy's one of just like clean fresh bedding is the best and we all know that that's really hard to beat it's not a showy prize though is it i think if you're coming up against like so richard did the greg and alex bedding which is just typical i think he's so out there to win i felt it was funny i think it was a tiny bit i'm gonna say obvious because i feel like when the task is, you know, a specific object,

I feel like there's always the option of I'll go and get X put on the object. Yeah. I feel like that's always an option that I always would try and not do. Okay. Yeah. Catherine went with silk sheets. Oh, yeah. In our house, we have a catchphrase for every time Catherine does anything. We just go, oh, mummy, because she's just like a lovely mummy. And when she said silk sheets, that was a classic old mummy moment.

It was quite like 50s Hollywood. Yeah. It made me laugh because I have silk sheets. I like that it was seen as this luxury, unattainable item. I have silk sheets. I forget to use them because this luxury unattainable item I have I have silk sheets I forget to use them because they're kind of a pain they don't really stay on but I do have they slip about and you slip about in the bed because of them but I do have a silk pillowcase because it's meant to help with the old like you know you wake up with less like wrinkles yeah

it doesn't work I mean I look young as fuck but it doesn't work part of me when i saw that part of me went oh yeah i've got to get my silk sheets out the cupboard that's the most bougie luxury thing you could possibly reminded me that i've got to get my silk sheets out yeah that was my reaction sadly i had the had the same thing with the Greg and Alex bedding. It reminded me to get that out of the cupboard. When I saw that, it took me a while to work out that it was kind of like, here's a template of two men and then you provide the face.

It really did look like, where's this photo of... I can't imagine Alex Horne even putting one arm up behind his head like that. I've never seen him do that. I've never seen him pose in any way whatsoever. He's just stood there all the time. I've never seen him move his upper body independently. He is the most standy person I've ever met.

He's a little wooden man. Oh my God, he's like a figurine. oh my god he's like a figurine so Mawaan went with uh the the weird travel pillow the ostrich pillow thing where you put your head and hands in it do we believe that he actually travels with that because Johnny was underscored because Greg didn't believe the lambswool thing but I don't believe that Mawaan has ever used that pillow while he's been traveling did believe well two things my first thought was oh Tash Dimitri's got one of those that was my first thought so then it didn't seem mad that he would have one maybe like they were at a gig together and she was like have you seen this um I think she probably bought it

as a funny prop but I have tried it on and it is incredibly comfortable. I mean, it's a little bit anxiety inducing and that you, you know, if you're in public and you've got that on, anything could be like, you know, anything could be happening. Yeah. I was thinking, because if you have that on a train or something or on a plane,

like I wouldn't, I wouldn't like to be cut off from the general public. No, it's like, I think if you're on your own, the plane could have crashed and you'd still be there kind of in the ostrich head going, guys, guys. So they are very comfortable. I mean, I can't, it's hard to imagine him actually wearing that on sort of, yeah, on the sort of London buses.

Totally, yeah. I believe he owns it though. Or, you know, he Googled like funniest pillow and that came up because he hasn't Googled funniest funniest pillow and that came up. There is an element of that. Who hasn't Googled funniest thing when they're coming up with a prize task? I did that so many times. Funniest long thin thing.

Funniest pebble. task one make the biggest beer mat house on this table whilst making your biggest beer mat house ring the doorbell after exactly one minute then after exactly 58 seconds 56 seconds and so on until zero seconds biggest beer mat house wins If you make more than two mistakes with timing, you are disqualified. Your time ends when you press the doorbell for the final time. Stressful. So I would have lost my mind doing this. Oh yeah, loved it, loved it.

I think getting the doorbell was so inspired. Oh yeah, let's straight away kick off with that. Mouan absolutely, absolutely absolutely nailed it i didn't see it coming i didn't think about it no why the episode wasn't called blood on the doorbell i don't know because i was kind of obsessed with that shot um i loved so much about it i love the fact that of course johnny vegas is good at this like it just feels like the kind of thing he would have done like in the 90s in pubs. That made so much sense to me. It was so tragic when it fell apart. And Catherine made a comment really quietly under her breath

about in the studio where she said, you even use cement. And she meant like, the saliva to hold it together, which is such a sweet thing to say. Yeah, getting the doorbell was incredible. And I was really kind of torturing myself I was like but would I have thought of that honestly can I honestly say I would have thought to get the doorbell yeah probably not because you look at the house and you don't think oh that doorbell comes off no I'd never think to take a doorbell off the wall I tell you what I did think though and this is this is the way I think I I've nailed it. I've thought laterally. I thought take the whole table outside.

Take the whole table outside. Turn the house inside out. Yeah, make the house outside next to the doorbell. It is kind of smart, but it's basically a version of what Mawaan did, but a much more clunky and annoying version because i would have had to push a table outside but i thought of taking the thing to the thing just the wrong way around see my mind immediately went to construction of the um fastest best house yes made out of beer mats and i got really into that and think the tower method was good

and I got really into that and think the tower method was good I wouldn't say it was a house it was more like maybe a skyscraper or a building but yeah but the lighthouse it was beautiful the lighthouse or as Catherine thought it was a windmill yeah it's funny what I loved about the rotating light was this sort of fuck you of um look how much extra time I had, you know, because of the doorbell to make, you know, to do this like flourish on the top. It must. I mean, Greg said everyone else in the studio just like gasped when he brought the doorbell in. It's so frustrating to not to not see things like that. So Richard cut himself. Oh, it's funny. He managed to injure himself uh during during a task i think it somehow managed to do a paper

cut on quite a thick cardboard mat yeah no that that was yeah that was beautiful um he also i felt slightly like oh god i feel like i'm being really mean to him this whole episode i felt like when that's normal for the podcast by the way we're always laying on richard yeah we he he and he listens to it as well so really oh no don't tell me that because i would have done the same thing i felt like he showed alex in this like like when you're in the playground and you show a teacher and i felt maybe there was it was like there was an element of like he was expecting everything to stop. Like, right, something's gone wrong. Richard's cut himself.

We have to stop the task. It felt like there was going to be some sort of like repercussion of him. What I loved was the rendering of the houses. That was a really nice touch. It was a lovely touch. The architecture sort of drawings. That was a really nice touch. It felt like it was a real sort of of drawings that was a really nice day it

felt like it was real real sort of piss take yeah it had it had a sort of a bake-off vibe to it none of the actual cakes went right yeah yeah yeah i mean daisy's daisy showing again that she is very competitive and if she's decided that something's good and you say it's not good she gets genuinely angry like she thought that house was good and you say it's not good, she gets genuinely angry. Like she thought that house was good. Yeah. She pulls a lot of good faces. Yeah, she does.

She's very like readable. When Greg says, well, what's the hole in the middle for? And she says, well, it's living space. That was great. Genuinely angry about that. But Mawaan, quite rightly, gets the five points there. I think thinking outside the box, bringing the doorbell in and then managing to pull off having the lighthouse.

What I loved was how relaxed he was. The doorbell was just there. He just sort of occasionally pressed it. It was like the Queen's Gambit. Pressing the thing. Pressing the clock. Poor Johnny, so desperate. But I think Greg's got to stick to his guns i think he greg gets it in the neck if he doesn't mark properly and johnny didn't

johnny was disqualified there so he probably didn't deserve a bonus point just for trying hard i think he did deserve a bonus point you do okay i do i do because i think it was really impressive what he what he did it was like three stories but then it fell apart and he didn't he didn't do the timings properly i think it fell apart because of the wafting of the door every time he went out which you know isn't you isn't his fault the waft i'd say the wafting is his fault because he's what he's doing the wafting isn't he if you if you go the door, you should have taken the waft, the waftage into account. But if you've got a few seconds to get to the doorbell,

I don't think you're thinking, oh, I, but also I better not waft the door because I'm up to three stories on my house of cards. I, I wish, I wish for him that the task had just been build the house and none of the

doorbell stuff. Yeah. Cause you would have just liked to have seen him have the task had just been build the house and none of the doorbell stuff. Yeah, because you would have just liked to have seen him have the time and just build a beautiful house. I would have liked to have seen him have some peanuts, a pint and then just get on with building the house. You just want to go to the pub with Johnny Vegas, right? In his black cap, yeah. Yeah, basically. But a pub in the 90s when you could smoke, etc. Yeah.

Unfortunately, it was nought points for Johnny, nought points for Catherine. Daisy got four points, amazingly, for something that was just a pile of beer mats with a tiny living space in the middle. Actually, yeah, that's pretty... Yeah, that was pretty good going. Yeah, for what it was.

Yeah, for what it was. And Richard got three points, and he was a very brave boy. At Uber Eats, get almost almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. 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. I've lost many a bar job. Just standing there licking beer mats. I once repaired a bicycle puncture with my hospital. It's amazingly strong. So, task two.

Again, stressful. Complete the most tasks. There is one task behind each door. You may choose the order you open the doors. They get more and more complicated, the tasks, don't they? You may only move when the doors are moving. You must stay behind the line. During the task, you must tell Alex what door to open

within one minute of the previous door closing. How'd you feel about this one, Katie? Would you have enjoyed doing this one? My, my first thought was I would, I would have been so shit at this.

I would have been so shit. It's sort of like when, you know, it sort of reminded me of when like the gimmicky end of sports day it was like beanbags beanbags in a bucket kind of vibe would you have been bad at it because you i mean immediately you're showing disdain for the task would would you have been like oh no i'm not doing this this is paid in the ass or is it one of those ones where you need that puppyish enthusiasm that you described that me and rose had i mean i would

have tried for sure i guess it's like it's just i think when it's a speed thing i just kind of i always think it's like my thinking is so self-defeating because i just think i'm not going to be the fastest what's the point it's just like i know my limitations but um i mean i would have had a good go i would have hoped that I would have done it in the same order as Daisy did it. That was pretty good. I mean, I was thinking stupid things like, well, what sort of shoes does Catherine have on? I can't remember. But, you know, like they're probably like laced up boots to the knee or something is what I was thinking. I got really into, you know, the stupid details you think about. And I was like,

oh, my shoes would have been very quick to take off. OK, I would okay with that and but that's the thing yeah you could have been you know people were screwed over by shoes that they picked months before so Johnny was wearing you know lace up quite hard brogues I mean to the point that I think he he didn't take his shoes off he put his shoes in the bucket by putting both his feet in the bucket yeah that was inspired it was really funny how bad everyone was at kicking as i would have been but it's quite hard to get like a little flimsy little plastic thing like that that was funny but also what was funny was um like at one point johnny like kicked the ball the other way just like out of frustration when he couldn't get it in the thing he just kind of the garage door closed and

he just sort of kicked it anyway just somewhere else just out of sheer anger yeah it made me laugh um i would have been so i would have been so stressed at this i think but this is one where you need to throw yourself into it which was even more surprising that daisy managed to do it quite methodically because that's not normally her vibe necessarily. But she thought about taking the bucket with her to each door, which was clever. Taking the bucket was really smart, yeah. I had total admiration for that.

And again, I think in the moment, in the sort of panic. And in fact, the only time I feel like I haven't done a task well is usually when I've been distracted by my sort of thinking like overthinking and so in some ways you've got to be so zen and so blank and also think at the same time yeah it's really hard it's really hard and a lot of people panicked on on this task I mean it was hard not to panic on something like that uh it was really it was a really clever it was really well done it was like really well thought through um and alex standing there closing the doors it was really funny like he ran a garage oh god something to take away from this task is i think johnny vegas

with a mouthful of banana sounds more like johnny vegas than when he doesn't have a mouthful of banana oh yeah that was like that was a revelation how everyone sounds with a banana in a mouth i was obsessed with that that was a highlight thank you for reminding me of that i love that i love that daisy eating that banana was incredible yeah just straight down absolutely and also what greg said it's so true about like you put a chocolate orange in any situation everyone's like oh i never thought i'd see a chocolate orange smash against the corrugated iron door but it was quite beautiful wasn't it the way it all just came out perfectly came out of the packet and and segmented yeah against the

door it was wonderful yeah i loved it but also just the speed at which people managed to actually get like the flesh out of the orange was quite incredible tearing an orange in half basically um daisy got the full five points which is well deserved i think she approached it in the right way uh four points for richard three points for johnny two points for Mawaan and one point for Catherine. Yeah, very good. Some definite technique there. And nice to have it confirmed that she eats like a psychotic tiger. So let's move on to task three. Guess how many balls are in the basket? A seemingly quite easy task. And it was the first task they did which they mentioned um but obviously uh something deceptive was going on there were different sized balls within the basket there was some ball bearings um i think this is tricky very stressful i don't see how it's possible

to find out the smaller balls and get them all back in the basket i think it's an impossible task yeah another really stressful one i don't know what I would have done. I really don't. Especially day one. I think that's what it showed, that it was day one and quite a few of them were a little bit timid. They were just counting and then coming up with a guess. A tricky one to do first off because I'd come out of that thinking,

I've not done that very well. I've not done that in a funny way. I wasn't sure what the rules were. So you could go, cause I probably thought, well, I would have maybe got like, like gone and got loads of black bags and like tried to count them and put them in

so that I could like immediately like empty them back in really, really quickly. But that doesn't yeah, help with the stupid ball bearings. them in so that i could like immediately like empty them back in really really quickly yeah that doesn't yeah help with the stupid ball bearings but also if you put them in black bags and you just put the black bags back into the into the thing because what was stressing me out was if you take them all out there's all those small balls that are in the box if you then try and put the small balls back in to the cage they're all going to fall out the bottom that was really stressing me out imagining that happening right

yeah so that was my smartest thought was something to do with black bags very smart it was four minutes i don't know part of me thought i would have just sat there and counted them really intensely like a moron and then like you know three minutes 58 would have just like guesstimated the rest. Bang. I think I just would have done that. I think that's a good way of doing it. No, but that's a good way of doing it. It's better than doing what a few people did, which is trying to count them while they were still in the box.

Because obviously then you don't see the different sizes. Yeah, it was. What was really sweet is trying to imagine the maths that they were like attempting like trying to i really wish i could have seen people's workings i'm like okay well there's this many by this many times you know like i yeah but yeah i i wouldn't have tried that i think i would have taken some out but i think i would have got very frustrated it was lovely to see daisy start her taskmaster journey so we know that's her first task and she puts them in a baking tray that was so painful to watch because it's just not holding

that many it was so sort of like pointless like skimming the top but it was quite methodical and i could see she was trying to stay calm it was her first task she was like okay here we go we're starting to do taskmaster and then she dropped one of them and she went oh fucking hell i was like okay here we go we're starting to do taskmaster and then she dropped one of them and she went oh hell i was like okay there's straight straight away she's let it slip immediately a day one day one that there that would have been that would have been tough one to face on day one um i think two tasks in this episode that he's yeah he's got close and probably deserved a bonus point because he guessed 1100 he was 92 balls off that was astonishing i wouldn't have guessed that many if i just decided to guess and leave the room i would have been clueless um yeah that was that

was and it is it is funny how invested you are like you do genuinely feel really affected when you've done really badly like yeah it does really affect you for like the next sort of hour and it's not until you've done one that you think you've done well that you feel better about yourself it really is your self-esteem is really dependent on and you never really know how you've done until the studio did were there any that you thought you'd absolutely nailed and then when we got into the studio you uh against everyone else or the way gregor reacted to it you're like oh that's not as good as i thought it was the water feature one the ceramic pig yeah i remember thinking well you know someone would kind of have that in their

their their garden it's like a standalone genuine water feature and then when i saw the the the alex mermaids yeah monstrosity that you created i was like oh that's so much more fun you know like why didn't i just do something more kind of like outrageous but you were going for uh something that you could recreate as a commercially available water feature. And then I think with things like actually Mount Rushmore, I remember thinking really arrogantly, like you won't get better than this. And then I think Rose did an incredible one carved out like Mr. Potato Heads, which was I thought was like incredible. I think I should. I can't remember if it won or not but anyway um and the other one I thought I'd done really well at I will like there

was one that wasn't shown I was really disappointed in which was something like use one piece of fruit to make it look like another piece of fruit yeah you had to basically disguise a piece of fruit right as another piece of fruit yeah and I spray painted a couple of oranges to make them look like grapes and then found this other big thing in the house and put it next to it so it got so it looked like a for a sense of scale and then put it on a tablecloth anyway and then I just went on and on and on I think it was a cheese board next to it at one point but um I've got so into I've still got photos of it on my phone so I've got so into it. I've still got photos of it on my phone, so I've got the memories. So let's move on to the studio tasks.

Did you enjoy doing the studio tasks? Yeah, I loved them. Yeah, I really loved them. I've got really fond memories of the saying whether there was a horse or a... A horse or laminator. Yes, I loved that one. I loved the one where we had to draw on each other's backs. Do you remember that? Yes, I mean that all unspooled because I was on a team with David Baddiel. You guys

were pretty good at that. Drawing yourself on a thing. I think a lot of I like them because they were there a lot of them were drawing so I always liked them um yeah all of that I've mentioned this already I mean that your your art tasks were pretty incredible and we did have a lot of drawing ones in the studio so we had the back ones they were incredible uh and drawing on the the faces and the longest snake we had to we had to draw the snake thing i don't think i won the snake though because i i didn't have any stripes or i didn't have a tongue or something i don't know and also you're drawing a famous couple on the knees or elbows i remember being a particular standout yeah well i remember the frida carla was very

successful and the diego was a bit shonky. But what I do remember about that episode was they showed a picture of it. And I remember saying, have we got another picture of it? Because I don't think that picture is doing it justice of how good it was. But then they showed it from another angle. And I was like, yeah, that's a better angle. So I don't know if you're allowed to say that see that sums up how much you you did want to win but in quite a sort of uh in a way that you're trying to disguise it just being like yeah sure guys have we got another shot of this

I remember being so worried that you were really slagging me off quietly during sometimes because you I just hear you say something in the studio but couldn't quite make out what it was and i thought she's speaking directly into the microphone so it's picked up in the edit and i thought she's just destroying me it's so stupid looking back because i don't do many of panel shows and stuff like that and because i haven't really done stand-up for years and years i feel like i'm so out of practice of sort of coming up with funny things to say in the moment that I feel like I sort of thought who I think Lolly I talked to Lolly she said the same thing I said I would just say I said well I'll say the thing that's in my head but I'll

just say it like really quietly therefore if no one laughs it no one's heard it and if someone hears but then they sort of said to me oh we turn up in the edit we turn up the things you say because we found these little gems and we started to move up but weirdly Lolly said that she would do the same thing that she would just like say it to the person next to her like it wasn't tv like I'll just I'll just try this out on Rose and then I'll say it to the audience. You had my favourite quip in the studio, which was making Alex nod if he was being bullied,

saying, nod if you're being bullied. And then he nodded and then you went, why are you telling me? Oh my God, I forgot about that. I absolutely love that. I think about that Oh my God, I forgot about that. I absolutely love that. I think about that all the time. I forgot about that. That's really funny.

Not even being bullied at all. This studio task was draw. It's another drawing one. Draw the monster that the taskmaster is going to describe. Most accurate drawing wins. You have two minutes from when the taskmaster starts talking again quite stressful but i think you would be very good at this case i loved it i was so jealous i actually drew along at home did you yeah i can show you yes please oh i love it oh it's brilliant

i mean you definitely need to take a photo of that and we'll we'll tweet it out when we release the episode that's awesome i i mean i did all right i got quite a lot of them the cold representing cold to me is the hardest bit of this yes how you represent cold i did like wavy lines like there was sort of you know the northeast wind was blowing. It's difficult with wavy lines, isn't it? Because that often represents stink as well. What did you say? Stink?

Stink, yes. I put it sting. Yeah. For me, whenever I put wavy lines, it represents sting. Also, my monster's got breasts. Because at one point he sort of said it's female, apropos of nothing. And it's a bit very, very binary, but I's got breasts because at one point he sort of said it's female apropos of nothing. And it's a bit very, very binary, but I gave it breasts. The thing is about this, it was how many characteristics you got on, not necessarily how well you did the drawing.

So Richard won because he got 14 characteristics on, but his wasn't the best drawing. Yeah, won because of good admin, basically. Yeah, exactly. Rather than artistry. It was, yeah, it was a pedantic win. Daisy was quite methodical and wrote a list first, which is not something I would have thought to have done. Yeah, I couldn't work out whether that was a good idea or not.

I feel as though that would have taken more, like writing takes more time than drawing in my head. That would have taken more time, I think. and then the writing would have been slightly illegible but what are you what are you going to say about Mouans oh um yeah the big maple leaf that was really funny that he said he tried to draw something that was less Canadian looking it was just so unexpected like a big leaf it was really great I really loved it it's a great taskmaster task because at no point in any other tv show has anyone done a drawing like that it's only in that moment that things like that have come out yeah yeah but that's what I love about

this show is I feel as though it's like like where else would you kind of get away with these very surrealist things that you know would somehow be alienating but it's like they creep in what starts off as something that seems so logical yeah these people are just kind of doing this thing and then you end up drawing a kind of leaf monster with six eyes like i love that kevin parkinson had one extra eye just like why did she waste time drawing a seventh eye? Oh, mummy. She has two eyes and two more eyes and one leg and a huge tusk that looks like a tree. What's a tusk?

Fuck off, I'm not telling you. That is cool. It's a tree. What's the task? Fuck off, I'm not telling you. That is cool. It's a competition. And I'm losing. But she got three points at least because it's not been a good points show for her. Daisy also got three points. Four points for Johnny and Mawaan

and five points for Richard. He got in 14 characteristics. Well done, Richard, which won him the episode narrowly over Daisy, the 21 points and 20 points respectively. 18 points for Mawaan, six points for Catherine,

unfortunately, nine points for Johnny. So Richard wins this episode, which puts him out in front in the series with 145 points, but only two points ahead of Daisy. It seems like a race between those two now with only one episode to go. Do you have any predictions for a winner? It's hard, isn't it, to choose between those two?

I think it might be Richard. You think Richard? He wants it. I think Daisy wants be Richard. You think Richard? He wants it. I think Daisy wants it as well. So I think this is the right two to be out in front. Obviously, Mouan or Johnny could still do it. There's 134 points and 130 points for Johnny. Mouan's on 134.

But it feels like Daisy and Richard have got the bit between their teeth now and now it's time to hear from our BFF bonus fact finder Alex Horne. Hello everyone, it's Alex Horne here, your BFF Bonus Fact Finder. But today, I am your BFF, your Bonus Facts Finder. Yes, two facts today. Strap in. finder. Yes, two facts today. Strap in. Okay, the first fact is about the bin of balls task, where they had to work out or guess how many balls were in the bin. And your fact is that this was the first task undertaken by the contestants in their time in the Taskmaster house. And the reason that's

interesting is that that is very unusual. We normally set them a warm-up task which we don't show on the TV. For the first time, however, with this series, we showed it on the TV because we liked it. In fact, it represents a change of policy for Team Taskmaster because I found it interesting to see how the contestants cope with their very first task. That's interesting, isn't it? The second fact for you today is about the studio task where they had to draw the Taskmaster's monster. And the fact, or at least half fact, is this. That task was invented not by the Taskmaster, not by the Taskmaster's assistant, not by a grown-up. It was invented by a child, not any old child, because you can't get an old child,

not any child. It was the child of a future Taskmaster contestant. That's your fact. Do with it what you will. Goodbye. See you next week for the final. Oh! now we've had lots of emails in we're going to rattle through these because there's some some really good ones actually some really good questions okay um here we go uh we've sort i mean we've sort of covered this but we'll we'll see if you've got another angle on it um this is from chloe in berlin another one of our international listeners uh dear katie how did it feel to be in the studio with two of the most competitive taskmaster contestants rose and ed thanks i mean i can

handle it just you know it's fine i didn't really i didn't care because i knew that i was going to uh you know i knew that i was going to give you a run for your money. I wasn't just going to sort of keel over and let you all win. Totally. So, yeah, I didn't care. I think, if anything, it made me feel more competitive. Yeah, that's good. So rather than it putting you off, you used it to your advantage.

You harnessed some of that energy. Yeah, I could sense it, but I thought, well, you know, I thought if they're so, if they want it so badly, then that's fine. They clearly need it. Hi, Ed, I have a question for Katie and have my fingers firmly crossed

it may get answered during the next episode. Well, let's see, friends, let's see. Katie, when you were ill during season nine, you were represented by Katherine Ryan and Kerry Godleman during two of the episodes, who obviously did a brilliant job at it. If you had been able to choose

any former Taskmaster contestant, apart from those two to substitute for you, who would you choose and why? It's a great question. It's a great question. I think Lolly, because I love her. Yes. And either Noel, because I love him,

or maybe Bob, because I think he would have had an interesting interpretation of what I was doing. And maybe Tim, probably. Yeah, yeah. You never know with Tim. If he's in a cheeky mood, though, he might deliberately run it into the ground, right?

Oh, yeah, sure. I think it's probably Tim and Lolly for me. Yeah, I think you're on similar pages to them right so they would have understood what you'd done and uh knew how and knew how to interpret it not that carrie and katherine didn't i think like like franz says they did a wonderful job they did absolutely i was very grateful we'll uh we'll finish on on this question hello katie and ed uh this question is for katie which of the characters you have played do you think would do best on taskmaster oh that's a really good question isn't it archie's got archie's got his own answer he says he thinks carol from staff let's flats yeah

well i was literally just thinking that i think yeah think, yeah, Carol would be, yeah, I think she would do really well. I don't know how smart she is. So I think she would have been sort of furious when she wouldn't have understood something. But she would have been so officious and pedantic and aggressive that I think she would have been really, really good. But I also think she's got no imagination. So I think it would have been really, really good. But I also think she's got no imagination. So I think it would have been really good. I feel like there's a programme in there somewhere. I mean, Stath doing it is obviously incredible.

Well, the full, so the full character cast of Stath Let's Dance doing it would be a great series. I'd definitely watch that. That is the dream of my life. Wowee. Thank you so much, Katie. You've been absolutely brilliant. I always get the guests on the Taskmaster podcast

to rate their experience on the podcast one to five points. It started off as a four and it ended a five. Oh, that's good. That's what we want. I was worried it was going to go down and it ended a five oh that's good that's what we want i was worried it was going to go down but we we hit five out of five that's really going to bump up the average thank you so much katie i i just i love talking about it you know i'm so geeky i could just talk about the show all day it's so much a lot of fun people love listening to it as well and that's whenever you think oh i'm gonna say something really boring about taskmaster this is what people enjoy they love the minutiae there's no such thing as a

boring thought or words when it comes to taskmaster exactly thank you lovely to chat to you bye bye well there we have it that is episode nine of the Taskmaster podcast and episode nine of Taskmaster series 10 all done and wrapped up. We are so near the end. There is only one more episode. It's all down to the wire. Feels like it's between Daisy and Richard. or Johnny with one stunning episode could pull it back. Mawaan has done this in the past. He's had brilliant episodes. Could it be another one? Catherine, it feels like she's there for moral support. I'm sorry, Catherine.

I think you've been a brilliant contestant, but I don't think you could win it now. I think it would be a miracle if you did, but miracles have happened in the past. Fingers crossed. So we will find out next week who has won and my guess next week will be the winner of taskmaster series 10 so get your questions in taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com obviously we are not saying who that is because we do not know yet so get your questions in they better be. Maybe send in an email with a question

for each potential winner. And then I will read the actual winner, the question for them, and we will attempt to tackle the other specific questions as well. But the winner will be on next week's episode. Email taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com with your questions. Don't forget to go to taskmasterstore.com

specifically for the brilliant Taskmaster charity download you can host your own Taskmaster night this festive season you get your own little Alex Horne assistant on a charity download video little Alex Horne he's on loan from Greg Davis you greg all the money raised will go to homeless charities across the uk via homeless link you can give a 10 pound donation you can give even more than that if you're feeling generous this christmas so go on to taskmasterstore.com for more details on that but apart from that i think that's all the admin done again we're going to see you next week for the final the final it's so exciting it's been a brilliant series I can't wait to find out

who wins but I think we all agree they are all winners that's not true there's only going to be one and they're going to be right here chatting to me okay see you next week bye and very tall. Alex is fine, not quite as tall. Will there be eggs? I like tossed with eggs.

This is the song that plays at the start. Good luck to you all, the people are taking private touch today. Thank you. 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.