Ep 200. Laura Daniel - TM NZ S2 EP.10

Hello, and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast.

It's me, Ed Gamble, the host of It.

Yes, we are coming to the end of talking about Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2.

And this is the final episode of that little run.

We will be talking to the champion of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2, the wonderful Laura Daniel.

We've had Laura on the podcast before, of course.

She is absolutely fantastic.

She won this series.

It's been really fun talking about this series.

It's a bit of a fan favourite for obvious reasons.

It's a great cast.

We've managed to chat to all of them during this time.

But can't wait to talk to Laura about her victory, about her time on Taskmaster, and about this specific episode, which is a belter of an episode.

If you are in Australia or New Zealand or England, to be fair, you must go and see Two Hearts, which is Laura and Joseph Moore's parody pop duo.

They are absolutely hilarious and the songs are total bangers as well.

But let's crack on with it.

Laura might mention that in the show anyway.

This is Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2, Episode 10, the finale, as discussed by Laura Daniel.

Welcome, Laura, to the Taskmaster podcast, and we get to talk about you you being the champion of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2.

You're the champ!

Ayo!

Very exciting.

I understand it feels a little bit late to celebrate you being the champion of Taskmaster New Zealand, because there's been about, you know, three or four series since then.

So late.

I barely remember doing it.

That's where we like to have it.

Hey, a pleasure to spend time with you, Ed.

That's the way we do things.

A lot of podcasts, they like to be hot on the news.

They like to capture the sort of real feeling and immediacy of these things But we like we like people to just completely forget about what they've done and try and remind them over the course of an hour.

Yeah, I always say it's really good to dwell in the past

And dwell we shall we will of course be talking about episode 10 of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2 your victorious episode

Now look I don't know what the system is in New Zealand.

Is there going to be a champion of champions?

Has anyone talked to you about champion of champions?

Literally, no one has talked to me about it, but I feel like it's got to happen, surely.

It'll be a pretty sick lineup of,

you know, what we call it over here, Wahine, it's the Maori word for women.

And then there's Josh Thompson from season three.

And Josh Thompson.

And Josh Thompson's also there.

But doesn't Josh also direct quite a lot of Taskmaster now?

Isn't he well involved in the season?

Ever since he,

correct, ever ever since he was on Taskmaster, all the following seasons, he has directed.

So season

four and five, and currently they're filming season six.

How do you think you'd get on in that lineup?

As you say, it's a great lineup of very, very good Taskmaster contestants and Josh Thompson's there as well.

How do you think you'd do?

I'd absolutely crush them.

That's a very un-New Zealand-y way to act, by the way, is because New Zealanders are very much like, oh, no, no, no,

don't ever pump yourself up.

But, however, I will say, it would be like a, I reckon it'd be like a feisty-ass competition because you've got Haley Sproul, Angela Dravid from season one, and Melanie Bracewell, and as we said, Josh.

And though Josh is, he knows the ins and outs of Taskmaster now, of course, because he directs it.

So I I think we'd all need to team up, get him out, and then it would be like a real battle of pretty like evenly matched women, to be honest.

Angela always seems like someone that is, you know, pretty like reserved.

She's not at all.

She's so onto it.

And she's brutal.

Do you think that you're the most competitive in that lineup?

I would have said yes, but then you've got Haley and Mel, who are like extremely competitive people.

Even some like I'm I know I'm competitive, but they give me a run for my money.

Great.

Well, we need to see.

Well, everyone

has had a history of being like, you know, athletes.

I think that really

comes out.

Like, Haley's done, there's a really New Zealand-specific sport called Marching, and she's done it her whole entire life.

And extremely competitive persona.

Melanie is a netball player i was like a competitive swimmer growing up so everyone's got it in them and then josh is just competitive in general he's competitive at being funny i do like whatever we talk about it always ends with and josh and josh too and josh is there

did you did you know going into this series series two that um that you had a good chance?

Were you worried about any of the other contestants in your lineup in terms of beating you?

um

yeah i think i actually didn't think my goal was necessarily because i i love the show and and like whilst i

i think when i went into it i didn't really necessarily have the goal of winning the show um and then as soon as i started the show i was like oh you gotta win

it's like the competitive side came out because i do think like it's just it's more important to just like have fun and like be you know like funny and things like that and then this show has this way of pulling out that competitiveness in you to be like, I've got to like slay these tasks.

So, yeah,

I think, sorry, I actually forgot what the question was.

Were you worried about any of the other contestants in terms of, but if you're not going into it trying to win.

Oh,

no, yeah, yeah.

So, so I wasn't worried, but then after I did my first day, I was, you know,

I mean, all of,

I would say, it wasn't until I got to the studio when I kind of saw my friend Monty,

who also has a little bit of a competitive streak.

A little bit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just a little bit.

Yeah,

just a little bit.

It's almost more obvious with the guy because

his whole vibe is like laid-back, chilled sort of guy.

And then, and then when you see him do Taskmaster, you're like, that's not, that's not you.

There's something else bubbling under the surface.

Totally.

And you see him get that little excited like shake in his leg.

But actually I was surprised with our cast.

Like everyone is like so chill and funny and nice.

But once it came to like, you know, the studio and recording the actual tasks, everyone was super competitive and it kind of made it really fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It definitely.

I mean, this is a hugely popular series, as I'm sure you, I'm sure you know.

And I think a lot of it is the

chemistry between all of you in the studio because you are competitive, but everyone's got their own thing that you all play perfectly.

And it just turns in, I mean, this episode especially just turns into a mad family argument for most of it.

Yeah.

And that was the other thing.

There was like a deep love for everyone in the show.

Like we all like.

Ursula kind of put it at the end of the series.

She's like, I've never bonded with a group of comedians because she's like, at the time, she was probably one of the most successful stand-ups in like our New Zealand circle.

And she's, she's like, I always spend so much time by myself.

And like doing a show like this, it actually meant I got to like hang around other comedians and I've never like connected in this way so it was just like it was honestly I think that was the best part of the show was like how quickly we all bonded

We should talk about this episode.

We should get stuck into it.

The prize task is the most futuristic thing.

A wonderful prize task category

with some very interesting reactions

to the prompt.

David brings in a calendar for 2022.

It's awful watching a show and the category is futuristic thing and 2022's mentioned, Laura, I'll be honest.

But David's calendar.

No, it's not.

David's calendar is, of course, involves him in his pants

made from images of his body.

I take it you knew David before you started, but did you truly know how David was going to approach the show before before you kicked off

I had my suspicions

I've always been a big David stan and they're like you got to get him on the show like

but yeah yeah it wasn't it it's it's a different thing like

having like worked with him in little tidbits this was like the the the first time that we've probably like done a full kind of season with the guy of anything

and so yeah it was really something to just experience how he is and all that energy like firsthand.

And yeah, I was not surprised in the slightest by his calendar.

I was like, of course you've gone to all that effort of making those shapes and photoshoping your body.

And

we've got, I think we've gotten so much tighter since the Taskmaster series.

We're about to go to Melbourne Comedy Festival next week and we're living together.

And I can already see him pulling apart his current comedy show.

I like looked at a picture on his close friends and he's got about 60 post-it notes like just out there

switching bits around.

He's a sucker for the craft, but the craft is insane when it comes to him.

Totally insane.

You would never watch a David Crayo show and go, oh, that's all been written down on post-it notes.

You'd go, he's just walked on and he's just done the most crazy thing that you could possibly think of.

But that's good to hear.

That's good to hear he's dedicated to the craft.

He does do a lot of planning to his bits, but yeah.

And then I think he also throws it all away and like feels the moment.

So that's why it's just absolutely hectic.

Ursula brings in a phone charger with a solar pack for the zombie apocalypse.

Love, I really, I really like this task.

This prize.

I'm surprised it got one point, but we've come to know Jeremy.

We've come to love Jeremy while talking about the show.

He does as he pleases.

He will not explain.

He does not mind.

Who knows why or how he scores?

There's a task later on in this episode, actually.

We will get to it.

When he scores it, all of you guys just look at each other like, well,

no idea why that happened, to be honest.

But you can't say anything because he's the taskmaster.

Absolutely.

But no,

I thought this was good.

But Ursula, in general, with the prize tasks and a lot of the film tasks, she sort of just goes with whatever she comes up with and

she doesn't really care how it does.

She'll try and argue.

No,

she's a first draft kind of gal.

So it's like, whatever comes in the moment.

First thought.

I was definitely like, go with the second or third idea.

Sometimes it's good to go off your gut, but I would be like, oh, that was kind of my strategy.

It's like, whatever comes out, comes out.

But I do find, I mean, she should be a first draft because quite often her first draft is absolutely the funniest thing.

Her first draft is always better than anyone's final product.

That's exactly what I was trying to say, but I didn't get it right in the first draft.

So there's a proof.

She's just a very natural comic.

Matt brings in a full outfit, a Road Warrior apocalypse survival outfit.

I mean, we didn't get enough time to hear about all of the different elements of this, but for some reason, the mannequin was wearing one knee pad I don't know if that was discussed in the studio

I actually look it was so long ago I can't remember but

I do remember he

yeah well he was really proud of it because his um his kids actually helped him make the whole outfit so um

he you can kind of see him in the episode I think kind of going to vouch for it quite hard because it was definitely like a little team bonding thing they did together

and those kids I actually saw them last week they are grown up now.

It wasn't that long ago.

Surely.

Surely it's not been long enough for a kid to grow up.

You'd be surprised.

Oh no.

Well anyway, I thought this was a good prize for Matt especially.

I feel like a lot of effort had been put into it.

He wasn't going into it.

Yeah, because sometimes he doesn't put in much effort, but like he does put a lot of thought into things.

But this one you could definitely tell.

I was like, oh, you've gone all out.

Okay, great.

yeah um yeah now laura you bring in a positive pregnancy test

um of course because having a child changes changes

changes the future in that moment i think the first time i saw it i was like this is crazy is this some sort of mad announcement is that is that i mean and even it even in the studio i think jeremy says something about he starts to ask a question about the pregnancy test you suddenly panic and realize what it looks like

honestly i didn't for a second think it would be taken that way

which of course yeah but it's just like oh yeah that's a funny idea it's like something that would really impact your future

and this was actually from your friend right was it your your your pregnant friend

My pregnant friend who hopefully, she's a comedian too.

Hopefully you'll one day see her on Taskmaster.

Who's to say?

But I would hope one day.

And she, yeah, so, so, you know, we love to have these full circle moments.

But yes, her pregnancy test has been on the show.

And I would say, since that pregnancy test, she's had another pregnancy and given birth to another child.

Oh, my God.

And

yeah.

Time.

Two.

Time.

You thought one is intense.

I really liked guys.

Again,

very poorly scored, I thought.

A rock.

There's an interesting way of thinking about it, that all that will be left in the future, when everything is gone, the rock will always, but as in, sorry, a rock will always be there, not the rock will always be there.

Although, I get he probably will be.

He's pretty good, isn't he?

Yeah, he's a good, he's, yeah, sounds like a great guy.

Got a lot of money.

Loads of money.

If anyone's going to figure it out, immortality, it's probably going to be him.

But no, a rock was a very, very good prize, I thought.

But look, they were all good.

They have to be scored.

Ursula gets one point.

Guy gets two points.

You got three points for the pregnancy test, Laura.

Four points for David's calendar and five points for Matt's outfits.

Did you feel like you were underscored on that one?

And more generally, if you did feel like you were underscored, did you ever try and argue it in the studio?

I felt like I was underscored on like some other tasks, but I think this one was kind of like, yeah, that's actually fine.

Once I saw kind of like David's calendar and Matt's like costume, even though I was like, okay, what are we going to do with that?

But I think like, you know, three, it's in the middle.

It's fine.

You know,

I wasn't like necessarily once I, yeah, it's solid.

You can get pretty fars on the threes and fours in this show.

You can.

Did you know when, so were you starting this episode thinking,

I'm going to win this or I've got a chance of winning this?

Did it make you a little bit more nervy when you were going into it?

oh absolutely I was I felt so tense on this episode and that was specifically because I had been I think I'd made it out into the front maybe from like episode three and then just consistently stayed in the leaderboard um and then so it was kind of like mine to lose if you know what I mean

and like anything can happen with the scoring but then you come into the final episode and you're like oh I might actually win this there wasn't like heaps in it but it really feels like by the time you get to the final episode that maybe

i don't know it just felt like okay it's nearly you've nearly you've essentially been in front all these weeks and you just need to like finish this episode and then you might win the head which of course who cares but in the moment you care so much yes don't worry laura i'm completely with you on this there's no need to explain it to me i know i went into that final episode of the series i did being like I think I could win this slash.

I didn't know if I was in front.

They really don't tell you, do they?

But I knew that rose rose was the one to keep an eye on so it was it was tense yeah

my queen our people's princess

please but um well

a fun a fun behind the scenes little tidbit about that as well is i think i was feeling like a little bit extra stressed because i got a bit of ptsd because i was filming that final episode um in the exact same studio that i had been in i reckon uh maybe two or three years prior i had done um dancing with the stars which is new zealand's Zealand's version of Strictly Come Dancing.

And

I was in the finale and I was down to the final two.

And I was just like, all of a sudden, I got real PTSD, even though this is Taskmaster and it's a fun show, whereas like dancing, or strictly, as you guys call it, is very much like people are voting for you and you have to do well.

I felt all those same feels because I was in exactly the same studio competing for something.

And I remember, I think I said to Monty, I was like, this doesn't feel good, man.

What would you say is harder, Taskmaster or dancing with the stars?

Physically,

I would have to say dancing with the stars.

And maybe even mentally as well, because again, you're asking for public to vote for you.

But I don't know.

I remember sweating a lot on Taskmasters.

I'll come back to that.

Because they set up so many different tasks and you do so much for them and only like a small smidgen of it makes the edit sometimes like you'll be sprinting around a field or doing something and you come back like

um

so i would like to say i i do think ultimately dancing because we had to like train to be a ball dancer dancer but um Again, because I got the PTSD from Dancing with the Stars whilst I was doing Taskmaster, they're pretty on an even playing field.

That's interesting, the sprinting around.

And in the Taskmaster New Zealand house, there is so much more ground to cover.

It's in such a big patch of land.

The UK one.

Have you ever been to the UK one?

Have you popped in?

Have you had a

Yes, well, because we've moved to London, as you know, so we're going to

planning to come out to the actual house this year to have a look around.

But yeah, no, I haven't actually been yet.

You'll see how small it is when you visit.

There's really not that much ground to cover.

So if you want to go from one room to the other or go across to the other side of the garden, it takes less than a minute.

So, I do look at the New Zealand house and go, but

you need a car to get around that.

100%.

I actually drove, I think I remember in one of the tasks, I drove Paul's car just around the field, and there was enough room.

No one stopped me.

There was no health and safety in there because they're like, Yeah, there's heaps of room, just like gun it and then stop when you stop.

Well, that's very that is integral in this first task, actually, which is get the most footage of Paul on this camcorder.

You have 10 minutes, your time starts now.

So, you've got to cover this ground, you've got to run round, you've got to find him.

Um, you, I mean, this to me, depending on when you filmed it in terms of the other tasks, I think you and Guy both exhibit this.

It's just annoying when you keep finding other Pauls.

You're like, fucking hell, come on, why, why are there so many Pauls?

I do think we filmed it kind of towards the end,

so yeah, it is, it was one of those tasks where you're just like, fuck.

But I think specifically, so funny for Guy Montgomery, because he had the golden ticket on his chest the whole time.

He decided to do this beautiful gag for his task, for his Taskmaster outfit, that he has a photo of Paul on his chest.

All he needed to do was turn that camera around.

Didn't cross his mind once.

Oh, that's brilliant.

And that's not even mentioned in the studio, is it?

That's incredible.

He totally should have done that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I remember watching it in the studio and being like, my dude.

Is it

a TV?

I must have missed that bit.

I think it might be.

Yeah,

that's such a smart way of dealing with it.

But I guess in that moment,

you're not going to do it, are you?

And Guy wants to nail it.

No.

Absolutely.

And we're both running around like lunatics.

I actually can't remember what the other guys did.

You tell me it.

Well, I mean, everyone's really running around like a lunatic.

I think you guys do have to cover the most ground

to find Paul.

Ursula does have to try and

find him.

Ursula finds him because he blows the whistle to say the time's up.

But again, she does not rush.

She takes her time.

She goes to the Queen.

That's our queen.

Meets the other Pauls and finds one and says,

Close nerd, but not nerd enough,

which is a great quote from her.

And then to the other one who's looking out onto the lakes,

says,

What was the brief for you?

Stand here and look like a fuckwit,

which is absolutely perfect.

But yeah, she's not asked.

She's not that bothered.

No.

No.

Why would she be?

Guy just seems quite obsessed with how the guy sat in the Paul who sat in the caravan with the moustache is handsome.

He just keeps talking about how handsome that guy is.

And I wanted to know whether,

we don't know which way round, I guess, whether Guy filmed first and then you later on.

Because

every other time someone else walks into that caravan and sees him, I think he's waiting to be called handsome because Guy's really inflated his ego.

I actually don't know what order that was shot in, but yeah.

But he's really like, it's like he's sat further up, just waiting for his little compliment about how handsome he is.

The beautiful extra actors of New Zealand.

Oh, it's great.

It's such a fun task, though.

It really is.

I do remember at the time being just really like, oh, like, wow, this is clever.

Yeah.

Because I remember finding the first one and thinking, like, nailed it.

And then be like, oh, I get it.

There's going to be a million of these guys.

So, he's basically, Paul was on a circuit, I guess.

He had his like routine.

He, you know, got his cookies and milk, he went to the caravan to eat them, started in the shed, woke up in the shed, and it's about where you caught him on that circuit.

It reminded me of the video game Hitman, where the characters are often on a circuit and you have to do certain things before they get there.

Oh, yeah.

What I do want to know, because everyone found him at different points, apart from Ursula who didn't find him at all.

David finds

Angela Dravid dressed in a bear costume.

And the bear is there

for all of you.

Do you happen to know if Angela had to turn up every day?

Yeah, she did.

It didn't show up in the edit, but I found it was Angela as well.

But I never took the head off like David did.

I just looked into it and I was like, Ange?

So I was like, okay, but

I was too focused on finding the pause Pauls that I was like, okay, crack up.

Whereas David thought to take the hit off and, you know, like have a chat.

I think he had time.

I think because he'd already found Paul.

He decided, yeah, why not take the head off?

But that would mean Angela was there for like three days where no one knew it was her.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's dedication.

It's commitment.

I know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, there isn't like heaps of work going in New Zealand.

But it's fun.

I mean, there's.

Yeah, totally.

You get that call up, you're like, of course.

Especially when the pressure is off you.

If it's like, I can do something for Taskmaster that was not what I had to do the first time.

Great.

Yeah.

I mean, I would, you know,

there's more work going in England, I'd say, but I would drop anything to turn up at the Taskmaster house to do something like that.

Yeah.

Oh, well.

Hopefully the right people are listening.

Anyone's listening?

I'm happy to dress as a big bear for the next series.

Every day.

Every day.

Take note.

Matt sees Paul running and chases after him.

And Paul seems

quite upset by it.

He won't even look in the camera.

He looks really worried, and Matt's just chasing him down with the camera.

Do you think Paul reacted differently to different contestants?

Because everyone treats him a little bit differently in this series.

Yeah, Paul's very instinctive, so he goes with whatever's being fed to him a little bit.

And

it does surprise you, though.

Like, sometimes he'll really buy into what you're doing, and sometimes he'll just give you a complete nah.

I'm not going to go with you on this one.

So, he's very unpredictable like that, but I think that's what makes him so joyous to watch.

Yeah, I agree.

I agree.

Because it's not, I think he's not worried about being different with different people and that ruining the competition element because he's always, he's just always got something new that's going on.

It's great.

He's very good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ursula gets one point.

You get two points, Laura.

Three points for Guy, four points for David, and five points for Matt.

So I'd imagine at this point, when you're picking up two points, you're getting a little bit nervous.

There's a guy in the caravan, and you're handsome, but this guy was a dish.

Do you know the guy I'm talking about?

I think so.

Moustache.

Yeah, yeah.

It's ridiculous.

Hey, Paul.

Hey, Paul.

Hello.

Do you ever drink that milk just as it is, or is it just for dipping?

That's That's a lot of milk, Paul.

My breakfast.

How old are you?

Too old for milk.

What?

Well you're not a growing boy.

Milk is a man's drink.

Milk is for everyone except adults.

Thank you Laura.

Thanks Paul.

Now we need to talk about this because task two is only for one person.

It's follow these shoelaces, untie these shoelaces, fastest time wins, your time starts now.

I think this is the cruelest task for one contestant that has ever been done in the history of Taskmaster.

It's just for David.

Absolutely.

But how good is it?

So good.

Perfect person to give that task to.

Yeah, it really sums him up as well that he's all in.

He really goes for it.

He's so sweet, but so angry.

And, you know, he commits to it so much.

And he's just angry about the whole thing, but also he's he's trying.

And then Paul starts reading Rumpelstiltskin, and he's blown away by the story of Rumpelstiltskin.

He's so sweet, he's such a sweet boy.

He really is.

He's a sweetheart.

It is, baby, you are right.

It's such a such a mean thing to do to someone that, like, every,

yeah, I just feel like everyone at this stage just loves this man and like

would go into bat for David over anything.

But yeah, I was like,

you want to watch me or any of the others undo these shoelaces?

We'll probably just be like, All right,

sit in silence, just say, Get it done,

like, yeah, I can figure it out.

Yeah, it's, I mean, look, he is incredible, and it's that moment where Paul does the ending of Rumpelstiltskin and says about the Rumpelstiltskin tearing himself in half, and David goes, What the fuck?

He's so into it, it's brilliant.

It's like that's that's like level art what was created in that episode

i agree and the fact the fact he actually does it and then he's gutted in the studio and then i think he's excited in the studio because he does it he gets a standing evasion and of course he gets an extra five points for it he deserves it he he deserves it and he was someone that maybe like i think throughout the series like he uh because of his like temperament

and being very excitable but also you know angry and all these things sometimes it like would score him down throughout the season.

And so he had like a bit of a roller coaster.

So yet he was brilliant at so many of the tasks that I think it was like the perfect thing to happen in that episode as well.

That it was like, there's this seat, well, you know, individual tasks that no one else got.

And I was like, of course, he deserves five points because I felt like there's other things he did that were so incredible that just he was like his own worst enemy sometimes and how he reacted to them.

Yeah, it took him two hours and 12 seconds which is

mad

it's mad I think the longest I've ever spent doing a task was 97 minutes and that was oh my god that that felt like you're looking at the crew going they're they're gutted about this this is this is taking farm two hours 12 seconds although in saying that when he did that he did that grape task the like caravan one the grape escape or something how long did he take during that one so long right that was long but i think it was like it was over an hour but then there was also

the

one later on where we're going to be talking about the milk and microwaves.

Oh, yeah.

You were supposed to wait, where he clearly has no problem taking a long time over a task.

So

we'll talk about it.

But it's a well-deserved five points for David in task two.

Now, as a competitive person, I think I would have been watching that if I was on that lineup.

Delighted for David, found it absolutely hilarious, but also in the back of of my mind going, Well, that's five points that wasn't available to me.

How are we justifying this?

No, I wasn't like that.

I was super chill.

Never crossed your mind, did it, Laura?

No, it was just like tight-lipped, big lip.

Yeah, really good, really good, really, really good.

They're actually also obsessed with that for you.

Yeah, so cool.

So, actually, actually, so cool.

Actually, no, but

I do think genuinely, I was like, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair.

And I think David and I, like, we bonded so hard in the studio that I remember we'd go backstage, we'd both be crying, being like, you're amazing, David.

So, on the, to reveal my very lame side,

I was genuinely happy for him.

But yeah, I mean, there was a little bit, a little bit of like, oh, interesting, interesting.

Okay.

Okay.

Who picks these into the middle of the morning?

Yes, maybe.

Maybe we've got to talk to us.

I wonder how we would have all done it now.

Thank God you won.

Thank God David didn't come through and win the series.

Otherwise, the after party would have just been you going, it's weird, isn't it, that

he won by one point?

Yeah,

exactly.

When we didn't all do the same amount of tasks.

Kind of weird.

Well, thank God for

my reputation that I didn't have to be that person.

Where did Paul go?

Where did you go?

Where's Paul gone?

No!

No!

Oh, Paul!

Oh,

Paul!

What the heck?

Let's talk about a task that you all did.

It's task three: perform an educational puppet show.

You must make the puppets best educational puppet show wins.

Curtains up in 45 minutes.

Your time starts now.

I do think

a lot of people talk about the rap battle being their favourite thing of this series.

But I think your puppet show,

The Authorized History of New Zealand and Puberty, is my absolute favourite thing in this series.

It's incredible.

And Odyssey, thank you for saying that.

I don't know if anyone's told you this before, but that was the first task we did on our team day.

So you do like a whole day of team touches.

Yeah, that was the very first task we all did together as a trio.

And I like, it was so hectic.

They're like, I mean, we kind of came together.

And like,

to be real, like, we are all in the same improv group.

So, oh my God, so lame to mention your improv group.

But, you know, Monty and I, we've been in an improv group together for a a decade.

Well, you know, nearly a decade at this stage, and then David was like kind of a newer member, so we're like, you know, we can feel it out, we can vibe things.

But after we finished that task, we all went back into the green room and we all kind of like sat there.

And I reckon there was like a beat of silence for a moment, and everyone said, right, we got to pull it together for the next

it was brilliant.

We got to actually start working like a team.

No, because I think

we thought we absolutely was such horseshit at it it was really funny though i think i think and then as we talked about it a little bit more we were like oh you know what actually we all did good things it all kind of came together and like as we kept talking it was fine but i remember i really remember the first beat everyone being like okay so we need to work on how we talk to each other

It was so great.

I mean, yes, you're all sort of individually doing things that you're all good at, but it does, it comes together.

like it is like it's very sort of reading out the history of New Zealand and also doing the puberty thing feels feels very guy when he's just like crouched over the book it feels very guy Montgomery 100% it's so good um it I

guess our um our London and international viewers won't know um but uh Jeremy Wells

he was kind of famous in New Zealand because he had a show called the

unauthorized history of New Zealand.

Right.

So that was kind of where that side of it came from of being like, okay, because the task was, if I remember, was like

the most factual.

Best, it's just best educational puppet show.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, something like that.

Yeah.

But I do remember Guy and I being like, We need to get the most facts out possible or the most education.

So that was kind of like bringing the, like, whilst we had this, like, David went straight to making the puppets.

And I remember David going like, look, I've made this one he can come yeah yeah i mean that is such a david correlos idea that i mean i've seen i've seen him do shows where he makes like cartoons come so this is

this is so so within his wheelhouse

a thousand percent and then Yeah, and then Guy found the history book and he was like, and then we both looked at each other and we're like, yes, so you spelt facts and that's going to mean we have the most education in it, even though we'd like agreed to do like a school kind of puberty show, and then we kind of honestly riffed it.

I mean, you could tell, but it is brilliant because that timing of every time, like, there's some puberty stuff, and then suddenly Guy will go back to the history facts, and then there's a song, and then one of the puppets comes.

It's just absolute chaos.

I loved it.

Yeah, it was everyone kind of playing to their strengths,

but also being like, what the hell are we doing?

We actually all have very fond memories of that task.

Like, I do remember us being really stressed about it afterwards, but then when we thought about it, we're like, actually, that was pretty funny.

It's pretty funny.

Yeah, it's very, very funny indeed.

I mean, you're all playing to your strengths, as you'd say.

Do you think that Ursula and Matt were playing to their strengths with the Marmite and Vegemite puppet show with the cameo from Peanut Butter?

Yeah, they were absolutely playing to their strengths.

The reaction in the studio was amazing.

Just everyone laughing about how terrible this was.

I think, yeah, it like very accurately portrayed both teams.

And the arrogance with which you guys watched this, because yours hadn't been played yet, going like, well, we thought ours was bad.

That was absolutely terrible.

We were kind of, I do remember, yeah, we were kind of dreading it.

Yeah.

Because we had all remembered the task, like, in a way.

And then as soon as we saw it, we're like, we did, we did good.

There's an amazing shot.

Get that, on a tour bus, take it around the schools.

There's an amazing shot of Paul in both of these, actually, when he's sat on the sofa watching yours, like slightly baffled and, you know, taken aback by the explicit hair content.

And then there's a shot of Paul in this one

crouched behind the puppet theatre.

It's so bleak.

He's just sort of staring off into the distance and it zooms in on him.

It is perfect.

It's perfect.

Yeah.

May I ask about...

There's quite a lot of hairs everywhere in yours.

Was that, did David start

plucking?

Can you remember what the

origins of the hair were?

Yeah, actually, sorry, I can't quite remember.

Was there human here?

It looked like human hair to me.

I was stuck on the puppets.

Okay, yeah, if there was human hair, 100% it's from David's body.

There's nowhere else it would come from.

That was my

assumption that

David gladly gave up his own pupes.

It was five points.

It was five points for you guys.

Well deserved.

And this is the moment I'm talking about.

Then Jeremy just gives the other team four points, even though he's slagged the whole show

for ages.

I remember exactly what you're talking about.

Yeah.

We're like,

excuse me.

Yeah, it's bizarre.

But then it's just like, well, it's a little bit like, well, what was the point?

Yeah.

Yeah, you're only separated by one point.

What is honestly the point of that?

But look, I feel like, because it's the last episode, he's just like, yeah, throw some points out.

Why not?

Hey, that's Taskmaster.

Starsmaster New Zealand, definitely.

That guy is loose with the points.

We still haven't got him on, and and I'm worried that that's because I've been slagging his scoring off for the last 10 weeks.

Nah,

nah,

nah.

He's just a busy guy.

He's just a pussy.

He's a pussy.

There you go.

You can tell him I said that.

I was going to say a busy guy, and you went with pussy, and that's fine.

How are you, mate?

I'm Marmite.

Good to see you, Veggie Mite.

Did you call me Veggie Mite?

I called you what you are.

You're Veggie Mite, are you kids?

Isn't she Veggie Mite?

Veggie Mike?

Yeah, you're yeasty.

Well, you're just salty.

You're very salty.

Tom Hanks liked you, but Brad Pip hated you.

Leave me alone!

Vegemite!

It's the best!

It's the best!

Freeze!

Oh, children, what just happened there?

Vegemite and Marmite were focusing on their differences and not on their similarities.

We are all the same.

We are all a yeast.

Now, do you want to invite out Vegemite and Marmite again and see if they've learned any lessons today?

Come on out, Vegemite and Marmite.

We are just spreads and we are all the same.

Whatever spread you are, then you're fine with me.

Yeah, we are the same.

Oh, no.

Oh.

No.

This off me and her half-sister.

No!

Her half-sister!

You're not right!

Not safe!

Crunchy!

No!

Task four, it's the final filmed task of this series.

You walk into the lab, Paul says, I wouldn't open the task if I were you.

Then eventually, when it's opened, it says, lift two milk bottles and hover them directly above their respective microwaves.

Longest time wins, your time started when you entered the room, your time stops when you lower the bottles, you must lift them now.

Now, eventually, UK Taskmaster did copy this

in

series 14.

Wouldn't be the first, wouldn't be the last.

Absolutely not.

i i think it should happen more to be honest there's loads that i'd i want to see in the uk series um in fact in the uk series sarah millikan pours the milk onto the floor uh and uh and it stinks so badly in the lab that people mention it you can see people mentioning it like weeks later

going

that's so good that's so good um but yes let's talk about let's talk about all your efforts here now tell me what you're doing pouring the milk out is such a good idea

It's good, isn't it?

See, but the most pathetic thing about me, Laura, is I watch this task and I go, well, I would have fucking crushed it.

Here's my workaround.

I'm really strong.

I feel you.

And look, I had a similar kind of brainwave to you because I am a girl that does weights, you know?

Yes.

Strength training.

That's the vibe.

Again, I was like, yeah.

I've got good arms.

Kill it.

I'm going to absolutely kill it.

Smash it.

Crush it.

But the initial thing to get over in this task is walking in and Paul saying, I wouldn't open that task if I were you.

What's going through your head at that point?

Because that's a proper mind game, isn't it?

Well, because I,

yeah, it's a hard one, this task for me, because

you do shoot these all at like different times of the days and stuff.

And for me, this task came like last in my day.

And I knew, I was like, oh, surely it's not a...

Because I heard the wording and I was like, sounds like you need to wait him out.

And I'm like, surely not.

They've put this at the end of the day.

Surely I'm not here to wait out Paul.

So my like, my behind the scenes brain was kind of being like, nah, they wouldn't do that.

And I was also like, Paul's got somewhere to be after this.

Surely not.

But I waited like a kind of medium amount of time just in case.

So I was like, oh, I'm like, surely it's not going to penalty me if I wait a little bit.

Yeah.

And then as I was kind of like, I kept kind of, I think in the task, he kept being like to Paul, I'm like, do you

like, should I start?

And he's like, you know, all the information you need is in the task.

So I do remember just kind of being like, ah,

no, surely not.

Surely I'm not supposed to be here and just wait him out.

So I pick up the, I open the task.

And then as soon as I see it, I'm like, damn it.

And also, you do.

God damn it.

You waited a while.

You know, it was over 15 minutes.

Yeah.

But it's probably not long enough in your head to be like, oh, I've won or I've done well because you just don't know what anyone else is going to do.

Totally.

And well, in the back of my mind, I was kind of like, you know, we've got people like Ursh who would have just been like, yep, sweet, done.

Yeah, correct.

That's exactly.

And

I kind of thought the same of Matt at the time.

And so, yeah, afterwards, I was like, well.

you know you could have gone longer but you did okay

and that's kind of how it went really is that like i waited a little bit and then

Yeah, but I just didn't really have the like kind of foresight to I mean David we got to talk about David.

Yeah, he did great right?

I mean David did amazingly because I think a lot of it is and I'm a huge I'm a huge fan of David a lot of it is because he's so trusting of Paul as well.

So if Paul says don't open that task, he's like, Yeah, okay, I won't open it.

Let's just sit here and have a really nice chat and get lunch delivered and talk about our families.

It is adorable.

Again, it was beautiful.

It was like the perfect,

of course.

He's like, I do remember him saying like later on in the piece, he was like, Paul never lets me down.

And I was like, what does he mean by that?

I was like, yeah, Paul's a friend.

He's all good.

But he's like, Paul never lets me down.

And then I didn't realize like how loaded that statement was until I saw the tiles play out.

I was like,

get it, kid.

Get it, son.

I mean, and he waited long enough to be confident that he didn't need to hold those bottles up for very long.

He waited, yeah, I think, did he wait like an hour or something?

Hour and 24 minutes.

An hour and 24 minutes.

That's crazy.

Yeah, and then so he looks at the task and then realizes that he's like nailed it and he just drops them straight away.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well,

he doesn't even realize

Paul says

you've done this time.

And only then does he twig.

It's no,

he doesn't realise after he's done that.

Yeah, and then obviously, yeah, puts the bottles down.

Even though I would have loved to have seen him attempt to hold the bottles up for a long time, wasn't he a professional weightlifter for a bit?

He was a professional weightlifter, yeah.

So he's, you know, he's got, if, if it was purely, if the tassel was purely hold these for as long as you can,

he probably still would have taken it out.

Still an hour and 24.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

But no, he was, that was incredible.

That was a wonderful moment.

I was very surprised with Guy that he opened the task so quickly.

I thought Guy's sort of bloody-mindedness would make him wait it out for a while.

You would think, but in saying that, I think it's like you just never know, like, depending on where you're at in the day, like, and what you've just come from or what you've done.

Like, sometimes you're just like, there are so many tasks sometimes that are like, actually, do this as fast as you can.

So you actually just, you just never really know.

So, sometimes your brain's just like not there.

I always remember like the tasks that I thought I did really bad on were the ones that I did actually really good, like you know, in miserable tasks.

And then the tasks that you're like, I fucking crushed that, they were always shit.

But I think I actually just wanted to get out the room, to be honest.

So, I think she's just like, Yep, open this task.

Um, she tries to mess around for a bit, she microwaves a carton of milk for ages.

Um, I, in my mind, I think she's trying to blow the microwave microwave up because she's just an absolute chaos demon.

But yeah,

she doesn't do great in this, and Matt somehow does even worse.

But I love it.

Matt's vibe is so funny, though.

Just like failing at stuff with a massive grin on his face and acting like he's going really well.

I think I remember we were all talking after the series, and he was like, Someone DM'd me and said, like, gave me like a serious ADHD diagnosis from Taskmaster.

Like, I'm a psychologist, and I just think you need to know the way you approach tasks

is a sign.

I mean,

I think that should be a whole series in itself.

Is

an expert, a psychologist, watches all Taskmaster back to back and diagnoses everyone with something because it's the perfect test, isn't it?

I mean, our season, we were all deeply undiagnosed, still are.

well it was one point for matt of course it was uh two points for ursula uh three points for guy four points for you laura but another well-deserved five points for david in i mean it'd be good to do a calculation of how much longer david spent doing tasks than the rest of you in this episode alone because he's got like two hours more um but this was kind of like david's real comeback episode wasn't it yes too late unfortunately for david um but uh but he ends up third.

He ends up third.

He does very well.

Shit.

Should have trusted you.

Never let me down before.

I appreciate you trying to help out.

Luckily I'm

quite strong.

It's really stressful when I come in here and you've got that stopwatch going.

Sorry.

It looks like.

That's been two minutes.

Come on.

You know I really want to win this thing.

I think it'd be really good for my family.

You please reach into my left pocket.

What's in there?

Starting to burn a little bit now, Paul.

Thanks, Paul.

I'm going to open it.

I'd advise against it.

No offense, Paul.

What the fuck am I going to do then?

Fuck.

What's wrong?

I'm furious.

I'm furious with everyone.

This is a disaster.

You must lift them now.

Okay.

I see why you said not to do it.

Yes.

It's going to be like one of those put your hand on a car things where I'm just here for two days.

Why don't you trust me?

I trust you, but you're just hard to read sometimes.

Oh, I so wish I trusted you now.

Is it starting to burn?

Yeah, a lot, actually.

You're sort of here to not help, but.

Damn it!

A nice glass of milk shouldn't help out with the recovery, though.

Is that touch?

Yeah, touch.

Touch.

Ah!

Fuck you, Paul.

The live task,

this one grossed me out.

Start preparing your salad for the Taskmaster.

You have 100 seconds.

And then part two, the taskmaster no longer wants his salad.

Return your salad items to their original order.

You have a further 100 seconds.

Your time starts now.

Horrible.

I mean, especially Matt's, because he just mashes everything up and then it's all covered in dressing.

It's gross.

Oh,

no one ate the salads.

And why would you?

Why would you?

I do remember feeling, you know, as someone that was still, you know, in the lead in this episode, like just, like just, it was like, I was like, well, well it's going to come down to the live task and i remember being in the live task and kind of like almost freezing and being like

what am i supposed to do with this salad

yeah because you can't think i don't understand what the task is

it's a very difficult it's a surprising task this one it's a it's a difficult one to try and second guess because i think guy even says there's definitely going to be a second part to this and matt says it's going to eat the salad you know but you don't it's it's a very surprising one

a lot yeah, I think, I think most of us thought it was going to be eat the salad or recreate it or something like that.

But it was like, okay, I do remember being like a bit conservative of how I made the salad because I was like, oh, maybe it's going to be like, yeah, I just remember we had people like David that was like,

because David, fun fact about him, loves to cook.

Yeah.

Again, the times we've lived together during festival season, he's just like, he gets the knives out and he's like,

and I do remember it being like, he was going for taste.

Yeah.

Well, at one point he says, when you have to, you know, put it all back, he says, oh,

I've balanced all the acids and the fats.

He's livid that he has to ruin it because he's balanced all the acids and the fats.

Incredible, right?

And in hindsight, he should have got the points.

Yeah, for nicer salad.

Make a salad.

I'm going to get the balanced salad.

Someone that's really thought about it and put in the effort.

But yeah, that wasn't the the full task, so he doesn't get them.

No.

Well, Matt still got the one point, of course, because it was total

horrible, creamy dressing chaos.

And David gets the two points.

Three points for Guy.

Four points for you, Laurie.

Really, really got everything pretty much in the right order.

And somehow.

And a four-point gal.

Four points.

And somehow five points for Ursula.

And I'm wondering whether that's because she just didn't move much in the first place.

She just sort of left it where it was and just threw together a salad.

She would have seen the task and would have been like, I'm not making you a fucking salad.

Make your own.

But it was five points for Ursula, meaning this episode, David wins.

A huge comeback episode for David.

25 points, beating you by seven points.

Matt's on 16 points.

Guy's on 16 points, and Ursula on 13 points.

But it was not enough from David, not enough from Guy.

You are declared the winner of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2 with Guy in second place, then David, then Matt, then Ursula.

A great feeling.

How did you celebrate?

What was...

That's the crowd going wild, by the way, for listeners.

There's the crowd going wild.

They were, if I remember correctly, the audience were on their feet standing.

They weren't.

No, but yeah,

it was kind of crazy.

Honestly, the feeling at the end was kind of just, we all got really like super like, oh my God, we just all did this thing together.

And then we all went and had a private party in the dressing room.

Like religions we are.

Did it get pretty...

And let's just say we got to know Jeremy the Taskmaster very well.

Oh, that's why he wouldn't come on and talk about this series.

It's too scandalous.

Oh, we know too much.

What a bombshell to drop right at the end of the episode.

Laura, thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast to talk about your championship win.

What are you up to at the moment?

Is there anything that our listeners should know about that

they need to come and see you live?

They need to download anything?

What's going on?

Well, if there's any listeners that are in Melbourne, I'm about to do Melbourne Comedy Festival.

I'm with my comedy duo Two Hearts.

We do musical pop comedy.

That's going to be there.

And then that's going to be touring around Brisbane and Sydney as well.

And then also, if there's any listeners, oh, well, the second half of Melbourne, I will be doing my solo show.

I just went back into doing some solo stand-up last year.

And then after that, I'll be back in London because I have moved there.

So just like, I guess, keep an eye out.

Maybe follow us on social media because we will be doing gigs and more shows in London later this year.

There we go.

And we always ask Laura for our guests to rate their experience on the Taskmaster podcast between one and five points.

We hope you've had a nice time.

But please give us a point score and be honest about it.

Okay, for you, Ed, full honesty.

Five points.

Yes.

And that's full honesty.

You heard it.

Full honesty.

It's a perfect episode.

Thank you so much, Laura.

You're welcome back on, of course, to talk about future series of any form of Taskmaster.

But for now, thank you very much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast, the champ.

See you again.

Thank you so much, Delaura, for coming on the podcast again.

Welcome back anytime, of course.

And lovely to chat to the champ, the champ of series two.

But thank you for listening to this.

It's been a blast talking about Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2, and we will be back very soon.

Goodbye.