Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 93. Brynley Stent - S7 Ep.5

Episode Date: August 25, 2022

To discuss Ep 5 of Series 7 Ed is joined by comedian and NZ Taskmaster star, Brynley Stent! No only has Brynley been on the NZ version, she is also a TM mega fan so is more than qualified to talk all things Taskmaster. Follow Brynley on Instagram @brynleystent Watch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster Visit 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.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated

category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. It's me, Ed Gamble. Look, you must have listened to the Taskmaster podcast before. You're not just starting with this one, are you? If you are, this is what the Taskmaster podcast is. We will chat about a specific episode of Taskmaster. Today, we are talking about Series 7, Episode 5. And we have a special guest, as we do every week. And our special guest this week is Brinley Stent. Brinley Stent, a wonderful comedian, a wonderful improviser from New Zealand.

She was one of the stars of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 1. Very excited to have her on. She's currently at the Edinburgh Fringe performing in Snort, who are a wonderful improv group featuring many, many people who've been on Taskmaster New Zealand and just some other wonderful comedians from New Zealand. And Rose Matafayo regularly appears with Snort. We're excited to chat to Brinley about Taskmaster series seven, episode five, and about her time on Taskmaster New Zealand. So let's get on with it. Welcome to the Taskmaster podcast, Brinley Stent.

Thank you so much for having me. You are most welcome. One of the stars of Taskmaster New Zealand Season 1, one of the OGs. I think you could call yourself an NZ OG, right? Yeah, I don't feel old, but now that there's been three seasons, I feel like I'm old and I'm wise and I've got so much advice for all the young players. Did the competitors in season two and three come to you when they were asked to do the show to ask for advice and some sage wisdom?

Yeah, well, actually, I was living with one of the season three competitors chris parker at the time when he was doing and he was pretty he was pretty sneaky and keeping it very quiet but he did hit a breaking point and he came to me and was like let's just brainstorm please please now i've not seen any of season three yet very much looking forward uh to seeing it but let's not talk about those guys we're here to about you, and we're here to talk about this episode of Series 7 UK Taskmaster. Do you have any personal highlights from your series that you think we need to shine a light on these particular moments? Oh, what a lovely question to begin with.

I just think, I mean, there's nothing super in particular. I just felt like I had a great fun time. I realized i think it was like in episode nine that i wasn't able to win or i was like it was one of those moments where i knew that angela or madeline had to get all zeros and i had to get all fives and i think that was a beautiful moment because when you don't think you're going to win anymore you get a bit more archaic and so i think in that last episode i was like damn you all burn it all down um very fun i i had that uh realization in the champion of champions episode uh that we did

recently that there was well actually no i could have won right up until the end but i thought i couldn't win uh and i went a bit mad uh but also just quite quite sad i mean you you took it in the best possible way and really went for it. And I was like, oh man, what a waste of time. Meanwhile, you're like literally getting paid to be on a television show. Yeah,

yeah, yeah, exactly. Absolutely pathetic stuff from me. Got to say, if someone said to me, Brynley Stent, Taskmaster New Zealand,

my first thought is Gollum. That's a high, that's a real highlight. Please, for the people who may not have seen Taskmaster New Zealand Series 1, please explain what went on there. Describe it for us. Yeah.

Actually, that was one of my most proud moments. The task was for the episode seven, I believe, record, wear a costume under your outfit for the show. And it had to be fully concealed. And then at some point they were going to get us to reveal the outfits. And when I thought about it, I was like, I need to do something that isn't just like another outfit. It needs to have something to do with it.

And I watch a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race. And I know that there's some wig reveals. I was like, maybe I could do a wig reveal. And then I was like, maybe I should be bald and then I got onto the the Gollum thing and so yeah about halfway through the worst the best bit of the whole thing really was that I had to wear a bald cap and Gollum ears underneath a wig that looked like my actual hair for two episodes before yes the incredible thing about it is your what when i was watching the episode that precedes it a lot of the thought when it cuts back to the studio is brindley's done something really weird

to her hair and it's not explained so for a whole episode it's not explained and then finally it's revealed in the next episode that you've been wearing a wig for two two straight episodes yeah and it is totally worth it yeah i wouldn't have had it any other way in fact i what i wish i'd done is worn the wig from the beginning yeah oh yeah i mean that would have been that would have been real commitment but i you know i i think the commitment was enough um it was absolutely fantastic um you're also i think you have one of the great uh the great task outfits um oh thank you which i mean i guess is it called something different in new zealand is it is it is it a scout outfit girl scouts yeah well girl scouts and i guess more of an american

term we do have brownies in new zealand i don't know if you have them yeah we've got brownies yes yeah yeah so it's all encompassing terms but um And the attention to detail was incredible. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I actually really want to post, I haven't done it yet, but I wanted to post a picture of all the badges that I made on it because all of them were from one,

there was one for each season of Taskmaster UK that I'd watched in the lead up because I'm a fan. I'm a big fan of the show. Good to hear. So yeah, there was a task. I think from your season, maybe it was the, I did the dodo of the show. Good to hear. So yeah, there was a task. I think from your season, maybe it was I did the dodo from the ice cream,

or ice block. Yes, yes. Ice lolly task, yeah. Yeah, you must post those because we had a couple of emails about that asking for the specifics of each badge. So yeah, the commitment and attention to detail was fantastic.

And it's good to hear that you're a fan of the show in general because we're going to talk about it now great we're gonna talk about series seven I think I was one of the few people in my because we were season one I feel like I was one of the few people who was actually a fan you know I feel like Madeline and Lee and stuff like that were like what is this yeah I can't imagine Lee I can't imagine lee being a sort of enthusiastic fan of of anything really i mean that's the vibe um in fact remembering his um outfit reveal was just him wearing the same black t-shirt and jeans under his black t-shirt and jeans which was just perfect yeah he also got all his prize tasks from the boot of his car and he just just sold them like he didn't prep almost anything great it works for him though it does yeah

oh but let's talk about i mean series seven is that is that one that you is i mean you mentioned briefly briefly before we started recording that um yeah you used to watch it on bootlegs. Yeah, yeah, we don't have it. It's becoming a little bit more mainstream in New Zealand now that we have it on our television screens for the New Zealand version. So it's easier to watch now. But for when I was trying to watch it back in the day,

a few years ago, whatever it was now, it was, yeah, not free to air in New Zealand. So I had to go on like you know watch tv.com and like all of those things and like click out of 10 different porn ads in order to get to this thing and then yeah i'd just be missing some so somehow like i'd get into like episode eight and i'd missed four five and six and all yeah yeah do you have any any sort of standouts from this series in terms of in terms of competitors any any favorites any sort of particular memories from this series that you're like yeah that's that's series seven yeah i i mean i first of all jessica

nappet is one of my favorite contestants of all time she's just a ray of sunshine i've never met her before in my life but i feel like we'd be best friends. I mean, she's not changing anything for the screen. Like that is her, that's her general vibe. So I'm sure you'd get on very well. Yeah, and I also know James. I, you know, there are just some standout moments there, the underwear on the stick and the way he kind of,

I don't know, it's very, very funny. The whole thing is so good. It's a really, I mean, yeah, it's a great series. I mean, this in particular, watching this episode back, there's some absolute classic moments in this straight away. Let's talk about the prize task, but let's talk about prize tasks in general. Did you have a prize task apart from,

no, in fact, it wasn't a prize task, was it, the Gollum thing? It was just a normal, it was a normal task. Yeah, normal fact, it wasn't a prize task, was it, the Gollum thing? It was just a normal task. Yeah, normal task, yeah. One of my favorites was actually on the last episode, which is I handmade the – because we actually did the tasks and then we went into full lockdown in New Zealand. So we filmed all the tasks and then we went into lockdown. So we had the prize task list for like the whole of um the sort of lockdown time so you

had some time to mull over it but mainly i got crafty so i did a lot of paper mache uh so i made my own taskmaster trophy with paper mache i made the fiji mermaid out of um some clay and um yeah babushka dolls and yeah there's something's something so specifically New Zealand about that as well. Like your particular set of comics who are all in snort and do the improv thing. And same with Rose as well, just like a specific sort of crafty, genuine enthusiasm for stuff as opposed to my generation of British comics,

which is, we're a miserable bunch. We wouldn't make anything. Yeah, yeah, there's a difference there I think I mean there's uh there's pros and cons to both really I mean I love I love I love the cynicism of of the UK um comedians well I mean even within this prize task Phil brings it Phil's prize task is used toilet roll. So not hugely crafty or enthusiastic, I'd say. Because this is the worst present from a named relative, which is a great category. Great category. What would you do?

Oh, God, I've got so many. But I'd worry as well. Wouldn't you worry about it that you're going to upset someone? Yeah, true. Although I think it's worth it's kind of worth it isn't it i mean if it was like a grandmother or something i don't think i could do it but you know if it was like your dad or something it's fine just yeah drag them for the points drag your dad um i mean even james is so james is the one i worried about the most because

his nephew he's he loves his nephew so much and he's like mates with them, even though they're small children. And to then bring, bring on the calendar that his five-year-old nephew clearly invested a lot of time in that James clearly loves as well, but he is willing to sell his five-year-old nephew down the river to try and get points. And it doesn't even work.

I know. I know. It's so good. Although I do like at the end when they, when they kind of call his bluff and he goes, nah, I actually do like him. That's so good. Although I do like at the end where they kind of call his bluff and he goes, no, I actually do like him. That's a very heartwarming moment.

It is. I'm not sure how it actually went down with his nephew because I think he has now seen that and I think was a little bit taken aback that he was even being presented as a bad president. He could have been an artist.

He could have been a calendar maker and now James has ruined his life. Yeah, it could have been. The broccoli with pearl on its face could have been hanging in the Tate Modern by now. Yeah, or be a comedian. And now he's like, I'm not funny. Exactly. Well, that's the way James gets rid of competition, is crush their dreams at a very young age.

So it deserved two points. Phil's, I mean, Phil's definitely, they use toilet paper. I saw what he was trying to do. He thought he'd been really smart by getting his sister to gift him that but but as james says it's the perfect gift i really like with this cast and i think you find it more so with certain casts than others and especially i think it was really good with your season but where people are willing to call people out you know they get a bit i you need, you need an edge of competitiveness to, to be able to call people's bluff.

And I really like if they have, if he'd got through that without someone being like, hang on, did you just ask her to gift you some used toilet roll? I absolutely love the picture as well. It makes me laugh so much. They had to set that up. They had to get someone else to take it as well.

Absolutely brilliant. They had to put something on. I don't know what is, it's an odd color, whatever's on that toilet roll. There is times in your life as a comedian where you just do, you kind of, you kind of have an out of body experience.

And I bet Phil did, as he was trying to find something that looks like human defecation. Human defecation. Yeah um i yeah i mean that's so very true i i was in a double act many years ago and i found myself at home trying to make a human stool um yeah yeah a friend of mine uses snickers bar which i was like okay this yeah it's good did i use a snickers bar i definitely used a sort of nut chocolate-based scenario and sort of remoulded and then put in the freezer. But yeah, different times. I don't think we ever did it again.

I think it was one joke and done. No joke's good enough to make a shit every day of Edinburgh. Oh, God. No, we did a show in New Zealand a while back, which included Chris Parker and Coda Forrester, who were both on season three of New Zealand Taskmaster where at the end we ate a kiwi bird

and because it was not cooked we all got food poisoning and shat ourselves and that was the whole end of the show. Yeah, I think there was maybe like a marmite based it was, yeah. Let's not get into it.

Let's just move on. People are going to be like Brinley Stent's yeah Brinley Stentz episode of Taskmaster Podcast was disgusting she was talking about shit the whole time Kerry brought

it's very straight down the line from Kerry as usual just effective bosh just the perfect thing really but quite straight down the line the dreamcatcher

yin yang earrings with so many feathers on them dreadful truly dreadful dreadful yeah yeah she didn't have a great episode quite straight down the line, the Dreamcatcher Yin Yang earrings with so many feathers on them. Dreadful. Truly dreadful. Yeah, yeah. She didn't have a great episode, this episode,

which I, I mean, she does well in the whole series, but I do love how Greg just actively calls her out. He's like, you've been doing so well, but this is so bad. The Dreamcatcher earrings,

I reckon I could have, in three guesses, got that her mum's friend made them. It's such a thing that a mum's friend would make. Yeah, yeah. It's exactly what you'd see in a gift shop when you're on a long road trip. Yeah, yeah. Really bad.

I mean, three points, fine. I think that's as much as it deserves. Rod, I mean, this thing is the ceramic candle holder. I don't even know what's being depicted. Could you work out what was going on? I thought it was maybe some sort of fountain or fairy garden. That's kind of the vibe I was getting from it. Yeah.

Fairies live here. It had spiritual vibes. Yeah, it did. It could have been the same woman that made the earrings. Yeah. Yeah. But I feel like Rod's definitely playing into the old like oh i know i'm i'm close personal friends with the taskmaster yeah yeah that happens a lot this series um

and i think they do they do have a thing running maybe i might be wrong about this about buying each other awful awful ornaments i think it's like a running joke that they have and it it means quite a lot to them which is why I think at the end of the episode, Jess drops and destroys that candle holder. And you see Rod stand up when she's about to drop it. And I think he's genuinely devastated that she smashes it. Yeah. Which is great.

I love it. It is great. That's the spirit of the game. Spirit of the game. If you don't want it broken, then don't make it a prize. The prize task. Yes, exactly.

They do genuinely warn you as well, don't they? They say, if you do want this thing, don't put it in as a prize because it could be taken by the other person. Yeah, yeah. Did you keep any that you won? Because you won three episodes, I think, which I think was more than anyone else in your series.

Yeah, yeah. it's weird. I had some high highs and some clearly low lows. I think I ended up with everything except for Lee and one of them had this amazing guitar that was like a prized, prized possession of his. And he came up to me afterwards and was like, do you think I could buy that guitar back off you? And I was like, mate, mate, it's all yours.

I'm not going to be that mean-spirited to take your guitar. That's very sweet that he offered to buy it as well. Yeah, yeah. But I think I got a box full of rubbish mostly at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you think, oh, these will be lovely memories, and then you're looking at them six months down the line and go, I don't even remember what this was.

No, a used condom? No. Lovely prize. Yeah. Jess won jess got the five points uh for i mean this this definitely deserved to win because it is horrific and it felt so real it really did the senior school disco wearing purple opera gloves and a feather bow that is brutal it's so vulnerable i think sometimes with price tasks is amazing when sometimes when people are clever they get rewarded for it but then other times if you just do straight down the line and you just say this is the thing then you'll get rewarded because it's like you're not trying to be clever you're just like this truly is my worst my worst thing yeah

and that was horrific yeah i think if you're really overthinking it and thinking outside the box and trying to do the cleverest thing it has to be really good in the end otherwise it's sort of you get marked down for that a bit i think but yeah this was straight from the heart this was i bet she came up with this straight away as soon as she saw the prize style she was like i'm getting the purple purple opera gloves and the feather boa yeah it was giving me real jessica rabbit vibes actually but i'm sure it didn't look that way when she was at her high school. Are you sure you didn't think that because her name's nearly Jessica Rabbit?

Oh, my gosh. My mind is blown. We've uncovered something. Jessica Rabbit. Jessica Rabbit. Yeah. She's got to dress as it. She's got to dress as it for Halloween one year.

Yeah, got to. It was one point for Phil's used toilet roll, two points for James, three points for Kerry, four points for Rod and five points for Jess. A very good episode for Jess. Gorgeous.

I've chosen this sartorial nightmare from my mother. I was 14 when I received this. It was 14 when I received this. What happens when you wear long opera gloves and a feather bow at the senior school disco? You do not get fingered. Task one, deliver this task to Alex in the most spectacular way alex is in his caravan you have one hour your time starts now these are these sorts of tasks are great but do i mean they made

me panic immediately me too i didn't like the i i like i actually really like the ones that are more like um count this out or something like that Whereas the ones where it's like creative and fast, oh, hard. I don't know about you, but did you do a lot of wandering around in the time where your brain was just going? Running around. I'd just run, run up and down as fast as possible, looking everywhere, but like opening the shed to look in the shed and then looking at all the stuff and not zeroing in on any of it and then

just running into the kitchen i did so much of that i mean you had more ground to cover and you know the taskmaster new zealand house is like seems to be set in acres of grounds it is do you want to hear an interesting fact about the new zealand taskmaster house it was originally built because the person wanted to own giraffes in New Zealand. I'm not lying. That's why it's so weirdly laid out. There's a huge balcony, and then the kitchen is in a really weird place. There are weird stable kind of things downstairs.

It was because the person who built it wanted to own giraffes. Wow. I can get to. And they never got the giraffes? They never got the giraffes. They never got the giraffes. It's got some sheep. Some normal-sized sheep. Yeah, yeah.

Sorry to divert, but... No, please, you must. And I just realised, I just want to go back and say, I said giraffes. I know that the plural of giraffes is giraffes. I don't think you'd change it to giraffes. You've said it now. No. Yeah.

You've said it. People think you're dumb. People think you're stupid. They do anyway. It's fine. Let's talk about Carrie first because this is not only Carrie's worst task in the whole series.

This might be one of the worst. The worst of season seven. Oh, at all. I think it's so bad. It's so bad. It's so bad. Do you think it was maybe her first day or something like that? I think it might have been early because it was early

because Phil suggests it was early and we'll come to that. But it's the dancing around and the singing just makes it, she's clearly not thought it through. And the poor crew, whenever people involve the crew in something they she's clearly not thought it through and the poor crew whenever people involve the crew in something they've not thought through

it's so horrible it's so it's hard to watch you can tell that they're like we're not getting paid enough for this

you can see sadness in their eyes yeah yeah definitely well apart from Andrew who's also featured in James's and he absolutely

loves it he loves dancing around he thinks it's great yeah really bad the definite one point but very I mean absolutely incredible that Kerry still argues the point when James's comes up that she didn't get fireworks

and Andrew was dancing more for James than he was for her how would you stand by something that bad? Did you have this at all? Because I had this favoritism thing in mind as well a couple of times. Paul Williams can play music and he just flatly refused in one of mine. And I was like, please, please help me. And he was like, I can't.

And then I saw him doing it for Madeline. It's no rhyme nor reason for these jokers. It's tricky. I mean, I guess it's no rhyme nor reason for these jokers it's tricky I mean I guess it's when it depends when you film it in the order right so if he's already played music for two other people they have to put their TV heads on and think we can't just do that every time like I had a couple of times where I suggested doing something and Alex was like

is there another where you could go maybe but that rarely happens you've got to say. They mainly just let you do whatever you want. But I think if everyone does the same thing, it's pretty bad, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Unless it's all people do the same except for one.

Then it's great TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Phil got a crew member again to wear a Taylor Swift mask. Taylor Swift. And then... That one was haunting my nightmares. Scary.

Well, what will haunt my nightmares is Phil running in slow motion because everything that happened in slow motion in that outfit was dreadful. Yeah. Oh, great. You know, glorious, one would say.

I'm here for it. Fantastic, actually. Yeah, actually, yeah. It depends who you are. For me, dreadful. But for Wang fans, glorious one would say yeah i'm here for it fantastic actually yeah actually yeah it depends who you are for me dreadful uh but for wang fans uh definitely good stuff um it's interesting that i think they actually had an agreement before him and james that um they would have a feud and then phil did it once and then james never did anything to do with a feud and then they just completely forgot about it so it's really out of place that he's written F.U. James Acaster on a sheet of paper.

That must have been his first day. It's really funny. It's just really funny because it's like you do just give up on it because your brain just goes somewhere else. But I wish they'd continued it because I do love a friendly rivalry in this show. Jess, this is quite straightforward, I think. But I think this doesn't get as much kudos as it deserves

because the basket, the balloon basket, it looks amazing and is kind of enchanting and that's why it gets silenced in the studio. I think people are just enjoying it. I agree.

I think it was beautiful. Sometimes you need those moments of just like something done simply, something done well. Also, in that moment, it made me realise

one of my favourite things is Jessica's accent and the way that she says Alex. Because she says it in this, but she goes, Alex! Like that. And I was like, this is the most charming thing I've ever seen. Yeah, it's lovely, I thought. I think it cuts back to the studio and Greg says, oh, they're in silence, it can't be that spectacular.

But spectacular doesn't need to be explosive and loud does it it can be it can be quiet and spectacular as well that's what i like to think when people come to my comedy shows and they don't laugh i'm like they're just in absolute awe wow they're just sitting there really appreciating the moment fair point but what was um explosive and spectacular was rod's effort which is the javelin task which i don't know maybe one of my favorite moments yeah one of my favorite moments but i think also one of the most genuinely psychopathic things that's ever happened on Taskmaster. Yeah. Yeah. How quickly he comes to it as well.

He's like, well, I'm just going to... What is it he's got as well? Is he sharp? He's made a shank. Yeah. I was wondering if it was an actual javelin, but it's clearly like a broom or something, and he's whittled it into a very sharp point. Truly, if I was Alex, I think i would be scared yeah i i would be

absolutely terrified and also i think all of that stuff where he makes him wait in the bin and hold on the shield and put on the helmet rod's not suggested any of that that's all the production team have said well he needs to do all of these things otherwise we can't let you do that i bet he suggested have alex stand with his legs wide apart and i'll get in between them truly truly truly truly thank god for health and safety it is incredible and so that whole still exists in the taskmaster caravan and there's like two uh two pastors just oh that's beautiful over it i love this yeah everything's there everything's there it's a museum it's a museum to everything that's ever happened in there um but yeah genuinely terrifying but god what a what a great what a great interpretation what a great one i would never have thought of

it but i loved it just yeah absolutely but it's very rod yeah thunk. And just the way he calmly walks away. Absolute nutter. Yeah. He does that quite a lot, actually. I just, there's some pure psychopathic confidence there. Totally. We love to see it. But yeah, just, you wouldn't, I mean, God, you wouldn't want to be on the other end of that.

Really, genuinely terrifying. But bravo, bravo, Rod. He looks shocked to not get the five points. Yeah. Which I understand because you do that. You think, oh, I've got the five points nailed on. I've literally thrown a javelin through a wall. Yeah.

But James just goes for the option of just going with as many sort of big sparkly things as possible. And it works. It does work. Yeah. It's very charming, I i thought and the dancing really added to it and you know you don't see james really um really celebrate as often he's quite dry so something about maybe watching him dance around as well made me made me feel very joyful yeah i think you're right and i think this episode especially you see james in a mode you don't often see him, which is trying in a very obvious way.

Yeah. Yeah. Like he's like genuinely like Q, yeah. Q fireworks. Like he's put effort into it and he's showing the effort. Yeah. Do you think maybe also I I'm,

I'm starting to think that this does must've been early. Cause I think maybe he gets more ground down as he goes on. Yeah, I think so. I think I definitely think he's ground down and a bit more sarcastic by the end but this yeah he's so enthusiastic yeah and richard osmond obviously turns up uh to hand alex a task um and i don't know i don't know about you brinley but i've seen this a few times now i'm pretty sure richard osmond says when he says his own name

he says richard osmond i think he gets his own name wrong or is it a joke yeah it might be some sort of matter joke but he looks down the camera and he goes Richard Osmond it's very funny though we'll never know and we'll never find out it's going to be one of the greatest mysteries if we were to ask them I bet they'd just be like no no, it was on purpose.

Yeah, you must have heard it wrong. He says Richard Osman. But people love it when old competitors come back to guest in a task. It's normally Al Murray, to be fair, who does that. Yeah, do they live close? Is that the vibe? Yeah, I think so. I think so.

Just knock on their house. It's a lovely area where the Taskmaster house is. So really the only people you're going to get are sort of comedians, broadcasters in their mid-40s onwards who are doing very well. Yeah, who can own property. You're not going to get any of the young ones guesting because it'll take them over an hour and a half to get there from outside of London. I think Angela did a guest on one of our ones where she was in a chipmunk

costume and um they got her out for every day that they were filming that so five days in a row and i think only one person took the head off the chipmunk and saw that it was angela but the production must have been like we've got it we've got Someone's got to do it because she's been there every day. It's so funny either way, though. It's funny that it's one person and it would be hilarious if absolutely no one did it. And they had to show her at the end going, that was Angela that whole time. She completely wasted an entire week doing that. Yeah. I think, look, James deserved to get high points.

But I feel like Rod should have taken the five personally. I agree with you, actually. You know, that's putting people's lives on the line and i wouldn't have been able to throw it that hard to hit the thing i think mine would have ricocheted off so it's just pure athleticism that should have been rewarded there i wonder whether it was the first attempt it felt like it might have been i think because if i'd done it like you i think it would have gone straight into the floor a few times. I would have maybe speared my own foot.

So the fact he does it like that, that's five points for me or at least five points for both of them, you know? Yeah, yeah. It was one point for Kerry, good. Two points for Phil. Three points for Jess.

Four points for Rod and five points for James. Well done, James. We'd better get this out of the way. I'm livid. You seem angry. I am livid. Yeah, why? Because I asked for fireworks and I didn't get them. Secondly, that's one of the blokes I had dancing for me. He's dancing better for him.

Why wasn't Paul Kerry allowed fireworks? A couple of things. She made the decision to want fireworks near the end of the hour when there was no time. He was immediately, I want fireworks. Also, his was done on November 2nd. Well, sounds very reasonable. Well, it had the lot, didn't it? Fireworks.

Fireworks. Very easy to get. Beardless Santa. Dance wonderfully, cos he said some people don't ask him very nicely to dance. It's easier to get Richard Osman than it is to get someone with a beard I found.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means.

I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Task two is a sort of team task. Make as many white circles on the target as possible. You must not step beyond this rope you must not move this rope or the target phil has 20 minutes everyone else has five minutes and their scores are combined interesting way of doing a team task i love it it's quite intriguing and it ends up being very close so it means that it's a it's a well-designed task because sometimes with

it you think to yourself what's the like if they haven't tested it and they don't know, it could just go fully one way. And you're like, oh, well. Whereas this one was nail-bitingly close. So it means that they really thought about the time that he had and who he is. Yeah, it did work. And the thing is, because as Alex said,

it should be an advantage for Phil because he has longer to think about it before he gets his system. And then he could technically just do loads within that if he's had 15 minutes to think about the whole system. But what they also didn't bank on is Phil is one of the slowest competitors in Taskmaster history. He's never in any rush to do anything. No. And here was no different. No, and he kind of came to the same conclusion that a lot of people

did it's not like he sat down and used that time extremely wisely to like make some sort of contraption he just did the same thing he just had longer well he had longer and then he didn't use any of that time really he he stopped seven and a half minutes before the end and went and counted all the circles himself even though that's not part of the task he was like oh i think i'm gonna stop there just want to just don't want the circles to be connected which is fair enough he had a good point yeah but his technique was good i thought yeah it was he's got a good wrist on him he's got a good wrist on him and he made so many mayonnaise circles with that good wrist yeah yeah and more slow-mo yet more slow-mo for phil uh i think they just that i think maybe

they're just like they had a standby camera at any given moment for phil as soon as they saw his outfit they were like let's just have the standby slow-mo on standby for every single task every movement he does needs to be slow motion yeah uh. And it was good. It was good. And obviously there was some other good techniques. I thought James actually did quite well for bearing in mind he's normally quite chaotic. Yeah. Kerry just really went for it. Rod's system was intriguing.

It didn't necessarily pay off, sort of trying to create the white canvas. Yeah. Yeah. And he was doing anti, he was almost making like like anti-circles yeah sort of negative circles yeah yeah yeah i guess they're still white circles but he only got eight because then rather than just sort of throwing small things he went with the whole bucket to try and make a massive circle it wasn't a good display from rod but still better than Jess. Yeah, poor Jess. Just having a lovely time making this long, long,

what looked like chopsticks all tied together. And then, and then, we've all been there though. We've all been there where we're like, what is the time limit? And then like, it's 30 seconds to go. Like, no! My favourite bit is when she finds out it's 30 seconds, obviously then goes, well, I need to do it quickly then,

and starts to run back into the house. And then something in her brain goes, there's no point. So she just stops. She just stops still and looks around. It's incredible. And obviously gets no circles. Yeah, yeah. She was very lucky in this episode, actually,

now that I think about it, because if that was a singular pass, she would have come dead last. Oh, yeah. Yeah, she wouldn't have had any on the board, but, yeah. To get five points from this is fairly incredible, and Greg absolutely relishes giving Jess five points and giving Phil nought. I know.

It's so sad. It's so sad. And after he's been ridiculed for saying y'all as well he has everything picked apart yeah yeah y'all i love how mean he is though i think um jeremy as the seasons have gone on has gotten meaner but i think with my one he was quite polite and that almost i truly it hurts more yeah it hurts more because if greg is just like and he's like outrageous, he's just throwing things willy-nilly, you go, oh, well, I just, like, I can't expect anything. Whereas if you feel like you've done a good job

and the polite man even says you did shit, then that hurts. Like, oh. It's more real then. It really is. It really is. In your series, Jeremy is quite... I think he tries to be fair.

Yes, he tries to be fair. It's not good. Yeah, it's really just not good stuff. Yeah, it's more embarrassing. I agree. So everyone else got 42 combined and Phil got 38. So it's right.

It's so close. And he gets nought points. Devastating for Phil. Just for Alex, who has to count them all up. 38 so it is it's right it's so close and he gets nought points devastating for phil um but i think it's for alex who has to count them all up yeah i think at this point phil has realized it's possibly not going to be his series um which is which is sad see even though his studio outfit this this week great love the shorts oh i thought the same thing look at that styley man yeah very very stylish guy really making up for the task outfit you took more time counting they did making but that's not the official count it's not Mike I thought I presumed the the y'all would count them out like a computer. Y'all? What's happened there?

You all? Yeah, I know what y'all is. Oh, right. What all did count them up again? LAUGHTER What all got 38 as well? Oh. 38.

Well, I've got to say, it seems very mean-spirited for that lot to all get five points, especially Jess. LAUGHTER Oh, my God! And for Phil to get nothing. It does. And yet, them's the breaks.

That's the way the cookie crumbles, y'all. Oh. Task three, cheer up this former traffic warden. You have 20 minutes.

Your time starts now. This is a gorgeous task. It is, but I would have gone to pieces. I don't know about you. Oh, a gorgeous task. It is, but I would have gone to pieces. I don't know about you. Oh, oh,

absolutely. As soon as another person is involved, I don't know if you remember, we had one which was that make this mum proud and that was my worst of all of them. It's like as soon as you add

this other person into the mix, it's like I start panicking because I start thinking about small talk. Yeah. Make them feel comfortable. Yeah, and it's,

it's so difficult with this guy because I believe i i think i'm right in saying he is a father-in-law of one of the one of the production team um and he he had obviously been briefed to be quite tricky yeah and i would have just absolutely folded because i would have been desperately trying to make him happy from the start. And what definitely made him happy was not people sort of tiptoeing around him or desperately trying to... Tickling him. Keri tickling him. I was like, don't touch him. Don't touch him.

He doesn't want to be touched on his sore knees. Squeezing his knees after he said he had sore knees and he genuinely winces. It's so embarrassing. It's so embarrassing it's so embarrassing it's so embarrassing but you know you panic you do you panic you think maybe this is a trick maybe it's like a it's a thing where when he says no i have to lean in harder maybe the secret task is to squeeze the man's knees that's always what you worry about um it's great i mean obviously carrie absolutely flames out in this one um yeah rod i think i think can't be bothered is is the

impression i get that on that one he doesn't want to do it he feels awkward about having to talk to this man and has decided his loophole is to go cheer up all right yeah you feeling good all right bye and just leaves i think he can't be bothered no i agree i agree he's tired this is near the end of the day probably it's just clocked out yeah yeah definitely what would you have done out of interest if you were faced with jeff the traffic warden apart from panic once you'd stopped panicking what would you have done remind me again how long they had. So they had 20 minutes they had. 20.

Well, I think I probably would have just dragged them along on something that I found fun. So I think I would have failed. I think I would have played some board games or cooked them something, to be completely frank. Well, look, that sounds great to me, obviously, but I'm not Jeff the Traffic Warden. What would you have cooked them in 20 minutes? toasty i don't know no i i think he would have liked that yeah i think you know he

seems like a man of you know simple pleasures something nice you know like a cheese toast he would have would i think put a bit of a spring in his step and no one thought to do that so i think i i think that would have been i think you would have been onto a bit of a winner there um and it's straightforward what would you do i think i'd ask him more questions about himself i think not a lot of people did any research really into what makes him happy yeah or maybe there was nothing maybe they just asked and he said absolutely nothing he had that vibe about him as well yeah he did a soulless man yeah just soulless man um i i james asked some questions i think he he did it his was pretty good i was impressed with james's he this is again this is more enthusiastic than i've seen james it is it is it's his like happy

chappy episode which is maybe got good news or something yeah maybe he has got good news or something. Yeah, maybe he had some good news. A little happy chappy. And then since then has seemingly never had any good news. No. His persona is very dry, like you say, and his genuine personality. So it was lovely to see James on such good form. Tucking them into bed. Oh, the water.

The champagne that he thought was the cider. Yeah, love that. Phil doesn't leave the caravan, which is an interesting way of doing it. It's the same as Kerry does it. But he seems to hit on the fact that Jeff enjoys his jokes, which is unusual yeah he almost like deserve more points from just like he didn't he didn't you know find any tricks or anything

like that but he just genuinely yeah like made him laugh he's just comedy skills and phil seems quite taken aback by that phil's sort of got a smile on his face bigger than ever i've ever seen on phil's face where he's like oh i'm making this guy chuckle yeah yeah i mean he probably performs to like these huge huge rooms but then it's like this is the guy you know this is the one who's finally going to give him the the reaction he deserves yeah we actually we had an email about this uh this task and phil's attempts particularly uh from kylie in australia kylie from australia obviously hello kylie from australia i know i'm who who i'm hoping that that is but we'll never imagine fingers crossed she's tossed us a bit kylie says uh big fan of the podcast uh thought

you may be able to help me and other non-UK fans by explaining what the joke is that Phil makes, lot of soup. What does this refer to? So he's saying, Phil says, if you remember, Brindley, he says, oh, you're from Campbelltown, lot of soup in Campbelltown. Do you understand that joke? Is it because of the Campbell's soup can?

Yes. Is it Andy Warhol? Is it him? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just the Campbell's soup is a brand of soup so that's so that obviously that's the one that Andy Warhol used so you would have thought I mean that's fairly globally famous the Andy Warhol thing oh uh our friend Kylie here does not did not put two and two together there sorry Kylie maybe maybe they don't have any Warhol or

soup in Australia maybe not and you know what Kylie's life's been a whirlwind since Neighbours so of course there's not been a lot of soup

on the table I'd imagine no she's eating the top tier stuff no canned soup yeah she's got her own rosé

she doesn't need to eat soup but thanks for the email anyway Kylie keep in contact thanks Kylie I'm a big fan big fan yeah big fan big fan big fan thanks kylie um james and uh james and jess get the five points uh kerry again gets a deserved one point it's a really bad episode for her really bad yeah rod can't be

bothered uh so that's that's two points and well-deserved. And Phil, we think Phil should have got four points, right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, he did pretty well. I mean, the guy was a hard crowd. He was a hard crowd. And that Philistine Philip Wang joke is so weird. So he did well to crack him with that.

Although you never know, maybe he was a Phil Wang fan before. Maybe he had an upper hand there, maybe. Yeah, and the Wang fans love nothing more than Phil Wang saying his own name, so he absolutely played on home territory there. You're sort of making me feel a bit sad, actually, Jeff, to be honest. Yeah, I can see that. Might make me smile, though.

Does it make you happy to make other people sad? There's a certain amount in there. Oh, got it! Shall we do a little bit of roleplay? Ah! Where's my car? Uh, in the police pound. Why? You don't see the sign, no waiting, including disabled.

Where's... I need my car! I've got to go to the butty! £525 and go and get it back. You're enjoying this? Yep. We got there in the end, didn't we, Jack? We did. Task four is a proper team task.

Make yourself look as little or as big as possible. You have 20 minutes. Your time starts now. Great task. Great task. Feels almost like it should have happened by. It's one of those ones where I'm like, surely season two or something, they would have come up with this. But they've been sitting on it. It this, but they've been sitting on it.

It's great. They've been sitting on it. And there's not many ways to do this, I'd say. They sort of do every single way possible with camera trickery to pull this off, I think. It's a real masterclass. And it's like we've gone to film school again and working with perspective.

Exactly, the perspective the perspective uh tricks um i mean the the boys team make james and rod look tiny but the twist is phil's not under his plant pot um he's a giant um now if i'd been in the studio brindley i don't know how pernickety you were um the task says, make yourself look as little orbic as possible. Is there an argument to say you need to stick to one? I would have assumed when I read that that you had to stick to one. But I don't want to ruffle any feathers, Ed. I see.

See, my main aim was to ruffle feathers. Yeah, yeah. I didn't want to see any other ruffled feathers. No, I think you're absolutely on something. You and I make a great team. Good cop, bad cop. Well, would we have made a great team when we were doing the tasks? Because then we would have stuck to the rules so specifically

that the results might not have been that impressive at all. True. And just running around, not looking in sheds and not actually doing any action and then just stopping um but the results were good i think sometimes you just kind of ignore those those little uh those little language uh things in the tasks and i'll be finicky as well and say i i thought james genuinely looked like he was standing on the little pot ledge but rod didn't you could see him standing in the grass and i don't want to be too funky but i was like well you've lost me there you've lost me i'm seeing the perspective i don't think that is uh that is

too that's too picky because the whole task is look tiny right and the whole basic thing is you need to set the camera up so it looks like he's standing on that plank and he's clearly on the grass and i think a point should have been knocked off for the lack of attention to detail there i agree i agree and also as a sidebar the the actual task the little envelopes they did that fantastically that was great i mean they know that was if if you're if you're giving out points to the to the crew it's five points for them straight away i think yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then Kerry and Jessica were just quite charming, weren't they? It was charming again.

It was in the same vein as Jess's balloons floating down. It was quite calming and nice, and they did a good job, but it wasn't explosive. Do you know what I noticed? Do you know what I noticed a lot on this episode in particular? The power of background music. And I feel like in this one, if you'd left that silent,

that would have been awkward as all hell. But they had this lovely sort of like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding kind of in the background. But imagine if you just watched that in utter silence. Yeah, it was the gaps in between their lines, I think, was the thing as well.

They'd not edited it like speedily. So it was quite like they were space for laughter that was definitely not there. Yeah. Oh, hello, Kerry. Here's a bracelet. Thank you, Jessica. Also, because once it had happened the first time, you know exactly what the joke is. There's going to be a bigger version of a thing. And they didn't switch it up.

Yeah. All I could think, though, was looking, I was looking at Jess and her being like, oh, what are they going to do next? And trying to think through my, the Taskmaster house. And I already picked the picture. I was like, surely. Yes.

Surely the picture. What I thought was quite impressive is that there was a bracelet that looked exactly like a hula hoop yeah that was pretty lucky it was very lucky very lucky indeed because otherwise they would have only probably only had two two or three things yeah exactly and it was funny when they cut back to the studio and carrie said to jess it felt funnier on the day because that happens did you have any of those tasks where you were so sure that they were going to absolutely storm it in the studio and then

they play them in and it just gets that silence and it's it's pretty mortifying oh god yeah heaps of them but then there's also there's also the opposite though where you I don't know about you but you do a task and because you're by yourself you do this task and then you go back to your little room of isolation and you think to yourself i'm a i'm a hunk of garbage i did so awfully and then sometimes it plays better in the studio than you would think like the one that i really thought i screwed up was the one where it was make the biggest thing disappear and i had to make this cow disappear and i did this theater thing and i just remember afterwards being like that was the worst thing i've ever done in my entire life but actually sometimes the worst thing you've done in your entire life is is uh is art

yes exactly yeah and and then sometimes you really you really get in your own head and think oh they want something outstanding that I can't achieve and then you do it and then you realize people's tastes are a lot simpler um the boys team uh got three points and the girls team got two points but i think they should have lost a point for the for the rod situation there i agree i think on another day um the taskmaster would have had more of an eagle eye on that yeah i mean if i got i got a i got a point deducted for spitting some dip on a chip. I think that, and that wasn't even part of the task. It was just for being gross. And I'm like, you know, we're seeing grass here.

Yeah, we're seeing grass here. That was in the green room after one of the episodes, wasn't it? No, no. I'm incredibly, incredibly true. I thought that was awesome. Guess how we did it. How the hell was it done? Me and Rod weren't as close to the camera as it appeared.

Let's talk about the live task. I think some of the New Zealand live tasks are really where the show truly shines as well. I think there's some incredible ones. Yeah, they're really fun. Yeah. Did you have any particular highlights of the live tasks on your series? I liked the one where we had to paint with Marmite.

That was very fun. And, yeah, there was – oh, no, make the third worst dog or second worst dog. No, second best. Second best dog or something like that. I loved that one because it was like, you don't want to be too good, but you also don't want to be too bad. Yeah. It's so difficult to pitch it. We, I think we had make the second longest snake.

Oh yes. And it's impossible to work out what people are going to do. Yeah. You just kind of have to go balls to the wall and just go, oh, anything. And just hope that it's luck that you yeah exactly yeah second um i like this task yeah it's really it's it's it's really good and if it had worked i would have loved to have seen it um taking it in turns each team must dangle one of these items on the hanger a different member of the team must dangle each time once you touch one of the items you must dangle it and you must

dangle within 20 seconds of the previous dangler the team who doesn't cause the items on the hanger to fall wins what i love about this is there's always a discussion that takes that long in the studio about what the task is and what you actually have to do but it always gets edited out because there's there's you need to include the actual task happening. Yeah. It's over so quickly that they include all of the chat about what the task is. It's so funny. I know. I know. And Kiri putting her hand up.

Yeah. Assuming that no one else knows what's going on either. Yeah. What does that mean? Also, dangler sounds like a slur of some sort. I don't know why. Yeah. um also dangler sounds like a slur of some sort i don't know why yeah i mean it sounds like you're talking about phil's uh phil's task outfit is what it sounds like phil's the dangler yeah yeah

and of course he's that it's his dangler that uh it's his dangle that that ruins it again topples the pile topples the pile and he's had a rough episode and then for alex to make the joke about there being one person who ruined it i that must have hit quite hard i think i think so too i think do you think he's um he's quite thick-skinned or do you think he was genuinely sad i think he's fine with it now i think at the time that probably that episode in particular must have been quite tricky because he's already got the you know had the n the nought points in the white circles task. And then it's him who means that his team gets nought points as well. I think it must've been tricky.

And it was five points for the girls and nought points for the boys, which means that completes quite a good episode for Jess. She wins the episode 25 points. Really great. Your favorite as well. You'd be very happy about that. Yeah, team Jess.

20 points for James, which is a good episode for him uh 18 points for rod 17 points for carrie and then nine points for phil that's a small amount of points that hurts and he's so far behind in the series at this point um 68 points and then the next person is james on 82 um and this is pretty much how the series works out where we are now on episode five halfway through kerry and jess on 93 very close right to the end rod on 85 james on 82 and this is the positions uh that it that it ends in uh and 68 points for phil real real bad stuff um for phil but a great episode brindley thank you so much for coming on the taskmaster podcast thank you so much for having

me it's been a dream come true we always ask our guests on the taskmaster podcast to give uh their score for their time on the taskmaster podcast rate it between one and five points in the style of the taskmaster have you enjoyed yourself and how would you put that into points um okay let me see if i can do his voice oh no i can't he's kind of well i can't no my accent's not i'm going northern i'm going northern i'll just do it in my own voice okay um i score my time on the podcast um yes please thank you very much and lovely to hear you bail out of the voice so quickly as you're a consummate improviser and you, you yes, I did it,

but then very much no butted yourself straight away. Truly true. I'm not going to embarrass myself any further on this podcast. Well, thank you so much. You've been absolutely brilliant. Is there anything that we need to look out for that you're doing at the moment?

Is there anything that listeners can, can seek out straight away or come and see you somewhere i've got some new zealand shows you can find out all about them on my instagram page thank you so much brinley thanks ed there we are wonderful talking to brinley there if you are in new zealand you must go and see her shows check out her instagram for details of those but also go and follow her on social media and keep an eye on what she's up to and it is the tail end of the fringe now so if you are going to the fringe you might have time to go and see Snort if they're still doing shows do go and check them out they're absolutely brilliant and I say that as someone who has very briefly performed with them they have people doing sort of guest

monologues and then they improvise around that. And they really do turn it into absolute gold. And I spoke some total shit and they really did spin it into some wonderful scenes. So go and check them out. And like I say, if you're in New Zealand, go and see her shows. Thank you very much.

We will be back next week to talk about Series 7, episode six. But for now, goodbye. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer.

I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.