Ep 191. David Correos - TM NZ S2 Ep.1

Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast.

It's me, Ed Gamble, and we are back for another brand new episode.

Took a little break there, had a little rest.

Hope you enjoyed the best of EPS.

But today we return for the start of Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2 chat.

Yes, we are finally talking about Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2, a real favorite amongst the Taskmaster fan base, which does, of course, include myself.

Huge fan of this series, huge fan of everyone on the lineup.

Hopefully, we'll get to speak to them all.

But we are kicking off today with a real star from that series.

We've had him on the podcast before, but it'd be lovely to chat to him about an episode he actually features in, the wonderful David Koreos.

That's right, David is coming on the bod to chat about episode one of series two of Taskmaster.

We love David Krayos.

And of course, we have a new lineup for series 19 of Taskmaster UK, which will be talking about when it goes out on the telly.

You probably don't need reminding.

It's probably not a spoiler for any of you.

You all keep abreast with the Taskmaster news.

But we have Fatty Errol Gore, Jason Manzoukis, Matthew Bainton, Rosie Ramsey, and Stevie Martin.

A truly outstanding lineup.

You're in for a treat when the show starts on channel four.

But now, let's not hang around because we want to chat Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2, episode 1, with the wonderful David Karaos.

Welcome back, David, to the Taskmaster podcast.

Hello.

Hi, Id.

Thank you for having me back.

Of course.

Well, look, we had to have you back because we are finally talking about Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2,

which, you know, we're very hot on the tail of new episodes.

This came out in 2021, and we thought, bang, let's wait four years and then and then we can talk about it.

No, I love it.

I love that like you can, it just kind of works in cycles of like, please just let this blip my career and kind of remind that I exist.

Yeah, and you know what?

The tension has been building and I've got a nut.

Now I've got like a medium amount to say about it.

No, that's great.

That's, you know, we are happy with a medium amount, right?

To be honest.

Because you've been on the podcast before, but it's great to actually talk about an episode that you're on because we're going to talk about series two episode one of course a wonderful lineup your good self david we've got a guy montgomery we've got laura daniel we've got matt heath and we've got urzila carlson what a lineup what a series this is a hugely popular series amongst the taskmaster um connoisseurs if i may say

Yeah, and like, I think when it kind of came through, because we'll kind of find out like just before, and I think like that group of people, that was like, when you kind of put it together you couldn't really imagine it but then once it kind of came through we're like oh wow that was like special that was like oh yo getting to hang out with like someone like matt heath is is crazy to me yeah so tell us a bit because i think matt was probably the only one who i didn't know going in because obviously you know i'd met all the others i'd you know worked with them i'd you know seen them do stand-up or whatever so matt i didn't know can you give us Give us a bit of background on the Heath?

Yeah, Matt Heath is like, he's like New Zealand jackass.

And he was like the guy that you kind of watched at like 14 years old and he had the show called Back of the Why and I think there was one character on there.

It was Randy Campbell and he was like a stuntman and he used to be on Balls of Steel back on the day.

Like I don't remember that show.

So I think

we had that in the UK.

Yeah, I loved it.

I loved it.

It was so it was so sick.

The annoying devil was like, yo, ninja's urban sports.

Like you cannot do that anymore.

But I was like, oh, that's, this is, yeah, so Matt Heath was like that.

But the New Zealand version for us, he had like this sketch show called Pooh Man and Wheeze, which was like a Batman and Robot Robin type parody, and the main villain was Scat Woman, and her whole power was like pooping on people, and it was like nuts.

I can't believe I just said that out loud.

I really love hearing about things from ages ago from other people's comedy scenes, because Pooh Man and Wheeze does sound right up my street and Scatwoman.

But it does sound like you've just made it up now, David.

It was like, yeah, I think coming into it, like seeing that and then getting to hang out with that guy, that was like, yo, sick.

And he's got a bit of background with Jeremy as well, right?

They've worked together in the past because there seems to be some sort of fun animosity between them.

Yeah,

their show, their radio show has been going on for years.

I think it just, they just, they just split.

But that was like, that's been gone for ages.

Like, even around like my group of like high school mates, like, you know, they love, they love the Jeremy Wells Matt Heath combo.

Like, yes.

It's really deep.

And like, New Zealand like a lot of New Zealand love love those guys they're so loved

let's talk about the first prize task of series two of Taskmaster New Zealand the best green thing

now you bring in look I think this is such a good prize David I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you I think I we we are starting talking about this series and I am making a new year's resolution now I'm going to try and not question Jeremy's scoring

but

because the whole talking about the first series mainly me going how why has he done that he's done it completely the wrong way around that doesn't make any sense but he's the taskmaster we can't argue with him I don't know how this didn't get more than three points David you bring in the green screen which and some of the examples you use are fantastic the Vitruvian man green screen is just so brilliant the worst part is I only just learned that his name was the Vitruvian man as you just said it I thought we saw his I always saw him as like the the naked da Vinci guy so that was like

Thanks for teaching me something today.

No problem, man.

But

I think what you could have pushed maybe to get more points was that the green screen encapsulates all of the other prizes.

You can put whatever you want on there.

So any of the other prizes that people brought in,

you can put them on the green screen.

You've essentially brought in everyone's prize plus everything else in the universe.

Hmm, yeah, I feel like I was really limited to my phone because I just discovered Canva and I think I just really wanted to show off my Canva skills.

I was like, oh, yo, maybe I can do that.

But if I had a bit more time to mull it over, yeah, I definitely should have put like a weed in a balloon, like in a green balloon,

kind of coming out, and then like draw her as the green MM and then have like Chloe Swarbrick holding on to.

I should, yeah, I should have done that.

If Dali 2 was out at the time, I would have, yo, AI would have been a game changer.

You were limited by technology.

Guy brings in Chloe Swarbrick, who is Green Party MP in New Zealand.

I mean,

where's Chloe at right now?

How's her political career going?

We can have a little cat.

Still in the Green Party.

After that, she went on to have the OK Boomer fame.

She was the one that coined the term OK Boomer that went in the various.

Wow, that's amazing.

Chloe Swarbrick was a crazy pull at the time.

I was like, there's no way they got actual Chloe Swaz, because it's the first episode.

So you don't even know what's possible.

But getting her in, I was like, that was the one that impressed me the most.

Yes.

I mean, yeah, it's bringing in a person is always impressive, I think.

Getting someone to agree to give up their time, especially someone who's clearly very busy in government

or parliament, whatever it is.

I just had to download Canva, you know.

Laura Daniel brings in the sexy green M ⁇ M.

Is this your favourite M ⁇ M, David?

It's the most fuckable M ⁇ M.

Yeah, sure.

But, you know, we can't all be going through life choosing favourites based on fuckability, can we?

This wasn't the most fuckable green thing.

No, no, no, no, it was the bin.

It was the bin.

I think that's the thing I would have wanted to have sex with the most.

So even if it was the most fuckable green thing, the category was, you'd still put the bin, right?

No, okay, if we're going back to Eminem, I reckon the crunchy, like whatever the crunchy M is, I reckon I want to fuck, fuck that M ⁇ M Because I feel like the way that it would kind of like break on entrance like the way it crunches I think that on some genitals would feel real nice.

I can't believe I said that, but you know yeah peanut butter for me.

Now let's move on

Sure look the the green M ⁇ M is sexy

I I don't know if it is the best green thing because of that.

I find those sort of the human M ⁇ Ms quite creepy in a way.

I don't really

What are they hiding?

Yeah, what are they hiding?

Why have they got hands?

I mean, let's talk about that.

This is not good.

Just think of the amount of disappointed people who open up a bag of MMs based on their advert.

They're like, they're just round things.

They don't even have hands.

I can't wait to drink my Red Bull and get my wings.

I won't be disappointed by that.

Matt Heath brings in the fuckable recycling bin, of course.

Green recycling bin.

How did you feel about this prize, David?

It feels like everyone else maybe went with something quite inventive and quite fun, and Matt just went with a recycling bin.

Yeah, I don't know that you could be like that.

I don't know.

There were moments where you're like, oh, you can actually take all it that way.

Oh, you can actually put like, you can actually do like low effort, and it kind of works.

Oh, my God, I've tried way too hard.

But it's the bullshitting.

Like, the impressive part is when he starts, you know, getting his way through it, gets those higher points.

You're like, oh, God.

Yeah, he's very good at selling it for sure.

and urzula carlson brings in marijuana we simply wouldn't get away with this in the uk david we would not be allowed to bring in marijuana as a prize on taskmaster uh taskmaster uk i think really everyone seemed very chill about it yeah i don't know like what is the rules in you like what can't you put on uk tv because i thought taskmaster was like you can just kind of do whatever you want type show as long as it's not like malicious no but marijuana is an illegal drug So they would not I don't think they would like that.

They would see it as promoting illegality.

So I don't I don't think they would let us do marijuana.

No, for sure.

How relaxed is like weed culture in Tasmania?

And I'm not trying to be like a weak guy right now, but I'm genuinely curious.

Like how how relaxed is weed in UK culture?

Well, I don't know.

I don't see myself as really plugged into drug culture as a whole, really.

I don't think

I I guess weed culture probably is quite relaxed here, but

maybe around me, I think I give off the vibes of a narc.

So you've got like cop vibes.

I've got cop vibes, so I don't think I'm sure weed culture is very relaxed until I walk into the room and then

everyone sort of sweeps it under the rug.

You just get a real tense.

Yeah, very, very tense.

I mean, certainly amongst me and my friends, no, we prefer.

What I've found, David, is I can get as much of a good high from a brisk walk.

Do you snort that?

How do you do it?

What does this mean?

I mean, look, Ursula's cool.

Urzula gets away with it.

Marijuana.

Five points for the marijuana, which what a way to kick off Series 2 of New Zealand where the first thing getting the full five points is drugs.

Yeah, and

I don't know.

I feel like the combination of people that were on that show, I feel like, yeah, weed kind of like permeated throughout the vibe of the season.

I don't know.

I feel like there's, yeah, there's a lot of partakers of the green in that lineup.

Well, I mean,

obviously,

who's the most weedy on the lineup?

Let's have a look.

Ursula obviously brings in marijuana.

That's

pretty much holds her out as a stoner.

Not sure about Laura.

She seems quite together.

She seems quite, you know, and she's quite competitive as well.

Not very late.

This is like maybe in the show.

This feels like knock behaviour, to be honest, Ed.

This feels like you want me to knock on my.

So maybe, maybe, maybe her.

I'm on the speakerphone to New Zealand Police.

I mean, Guy Montgomery, obviously.

Absolute pothead, that guy.

Yeah.

I heard he's 80% weed.

You, I mean, you're on something.

I don't know if it's...

I don't know what drug you're on.

And Matt Heath, he seems more like an upstanding member of society.

Look, he brought in a recycling bid.

He does his recycling properly.

But yeah, do let me know if any of them take illegal drugs afterwards, David.

And I promise I won't pass on the information to the constabulary.

I'll tell you in person.

So it's one point for Guy.

It is, which seems harsh on Gloes Warbrick bringing her along and making her give up her time.

She gets one point.

Laura gets two points for the sexy green MM.

You get three points for the green screen.

Matt somehow gets four points for the recycling bin.

And Ursula Carlson gets five points for the dirty illegal drugs.

Look at my lovely holiday that I went on.

Or

it's just me swimming with the fishes.

Or what about this?

Now a man of culture?

Look at that.

Strangely disturbing.

Well I've got one more Jeremy.

Actually we're pretty close friends.

I don't know if you know this but

looks like you've gone back in time about 10 years for that photo as well.

It was pre-all your son beds Jeremy.

I see how this is going to work.

Task one, knock over all the pins on the other side of the field.

You cannot leave the caravan.

Paul cannot deliberately knock over the pins.

Fastest wins, your time starts now.

Obviously, this is when we're introduced to guys' t-shirts, which become a running joke throughout the series with pictures of Paul on them.

Yeah.

Beautiful moment.

Really beautiful moment.

Such a funny t-shirt for him to wear during the tasks.

But then also, when we cut back to the studio, he's wearing another one.

And it spun me out the first time I saw that.

I was like, when did he change that t-shirt?

It seemed to really throw everyone.

Yeah, I love, I love, I love, especially with the season, just how many little meta jokes kind of like started to kind of form throughout the season.

And I love that there was like always a payoff kind of happening with Guy.

And I think that that really added like a nice, like full, I don't know, like full circle energy about the season.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, it was, uh, I think all of you understand the Taskmaster to a high level.

Like, there's, there's just little subtle things happening, which is great.

Um, now, this, this is what I would say is a tricky task, but everyone seems to land on a similar thing.

So, a few people land on, they look at the Paul cannot deliberately knock over the pins and go, right, Paul is going to knock over the pins, but we're going to have to make him do it by accident.

So, Guy asks Paul to play American football with an orange and tries to get him to run towards them.

And Matt blindfolds him and Ursula gets him to run towards them with a chair attached to him.

So all similar sort of things.

Do you think, watching this back, that Paul deliberately doesn't hit the pins for Guy more than he does for other people?

Do you think he's trolling Guy?

I did notice that.

Yeah,

I had thoughts of like,

was Guy like the first one to do that task

out of all all of them, realizing

what the beats are and then going, okay, for Matt Nurshler, maybe like have to

slow it down for the pacing type thing?

Yeah, yeah, like that kind of, if you're looking at like the nerdy type shit, like what's happening, I think that what's important.

I think that's a good shout, because I think Guy would be a good person to get to do the task first because I think he's going to approach it in quite actually quite a sort of ordered, logical way a lot of the time.

Because this makes sense to me, throwing something past the pins pins and getting Paul to run through the pins but I really I do think that Paul was being more difficult than he needed to be with Guy which is very funny I'm I I'm here for it and obviously he's just found out that Guy's wearing that t-shirt so so I think do it

extra sassy yeah exactly just get a bit sassy with the guy

but that would that would drive me up the wall in fact in later seasons of Taskmaster New Zealand I think Paul becomes less and less helpful to the contestants I think he becomes more and more like a petulant child, and I love it.

It's not what Alex does, but I really like that Paul is hugely unhelpful and detrimental at times.

Yeah, I think Paul's like, yeah, Paul's instinct, especially on

the first time when he goes running for Guy, and then he does the quick swerve right at the end.

I'm like, perfect.

Perfect tone center.

It would drive me up the wall.

I mean, it's sort of,

you very rarely see Guy in a flap or worried about stuff, but this is when he starts to get quite angry.

And then to the extent he tries to throw the orange again, and it just hits the top of the door and comes crashing down towards him.

But yeah, the other...

Great tiny moment.

Great tiny moment.

The others do slightly better with this technique.

The chair, the chair on the back that Osola puts on Paul is amazing.

Tries to imagine that he's hitting Wasp's Nest.

Paul is so...

is so funny, but I do think a little bit in this show, he gets out something in his personality that he can't get out in real life which is being unhelpful and being a little bit rude because day to day you know Paul he's the most polite man ever he's just he's not he's not trying to upset anyone he's just a lovely lovely man so I think sometimes when he's asked to be helpful in Taskmaster he does just he goes fuck it I'm gonna I'm gonna do something for me Yeah, this must be like some kind of like, you know, like that little pocket to be like, hey, once a year, I can just like really mess with people and kind of lean it.

I would love, yeah, I'd love a job like that.

It's that feeling of my friend who's like a drama teacher would be like,

the nicest people pleasing kids would always be the worst in improv because it was their first chance to just say no and just kind of block people and kind of lean into that.

It sounds similar to what Paul's, what Paul does.

Oh, no, that's perfect.

That's exactly what this is.

Did you just say you'd like a time

every year to really just mess with people?

Yeah, I think that's why

I do my thing.

I think you should probably do that quite a lot anyway, David, wouldn't you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's what my comedy shows are for.

Yeah.

Your comedy shows that you do all of the time.

Whenever you do a gig, yeah.

Yeah, and Matt blindfolds Paul and directs him.

This is the most straightforward way of doing it, and it gets results.

Just basically tells him to just run straight for the pins.

I do worry about Paul's safety in that moment

because he's slipping around on the pins.

and he did you notice when Paul falls he doesn't fall like a human being

he kind of braces himself well he kind of braces himself but he just sort of his legs go and he just flops he doesn't he doesn't really stop himself he doesn't use his arms to to stop himself i think i think what we're seeing there is an athlete at work you know he's a bustakedon he's a charlie chaplain like he he he will he i think he knows his body well enough to be able to to play into that rather than actually being like the bumbling, the bumbling oath that kind of falls over, you know, because you see him be athletic, you're like, oh, yo, you know your body from the tips of your fingers down to your toes, bro.

Yeah, I suppose you're right.

It was very buster keeton, actually.

But at no point did I shout, you know your body, bro.

I didn't say that.

Now, both you and Laura decide to go with the car initially.

So Paul goes to get the tow bar.

I mean, look, Paul can do many things.

He's a very talented man.

I would not trust him to put a tow bar on a car and attach a caravan.

He does not seem like that level of New Zealander.

Do you know what I mean?

Like a blokes bloke type.

Yeah, he doesn't feel like a blokes bloke.

This is not a Lee Hart situation.

You know, I'm not, I can't see him putting a tow bar onto a caravan.

And you realise that there's a wonderful moment where Paul goes to get the tow bar and you just look down the camera you're like this is gonna take ages

you know that so then you get him to bring the pins closer to the caravan I cannot believe no one else thought of this

yeah but like I feel like you kind of you have like these moments where it really works out for you but there's like 10 other moments in the season where it does not work out for you at all and I feel like I was so blessed to have that in like the first couple of tasks because I feel like the rest of them just like massive blowouts.

Massive blowouts, massive spiraling.

So just give me picnic basket bowling pins.

It was great though.

It was such a neat, a neat solution to the whole thing.

Whereas Laura never has that realization that the car is going to take ages, which it really does.

And then she gets driven over to it.

But she gets driven over to it still like a bit far away.

So she's still having to knock over the pins and doesn't quite manage it and then has to lean all the way out.

And I would say...

Yeah, she's leaning pretty far.

She's leaning pretty far.

And I would say, David, it probably wasn't much point punishing her at this juncture because she's already taken the longest.

I'd say she was leaning out that caravan, hands on the floor.

I don't think she was in the caravan anymore.

Yeah, she was quite outie.

No, no, no, no.

I'm pretty sure her body was in the, like, it was still connected to the caravan and it was like pulling out, right?

Like,

is that in?

Is that in the caravan?

Or are you half in, half out?

And I'd say if you're half in, half out, you're not all the way in.

I reckon where the roots are, and also I don't want to start a fight with Laura.

Knowing where your roots land, I think that's where you're landing in the caravan.

And so she was like, in the caravan.

Don't worry about starting a fight with Laura.

She doesn't even live in your country anymore.

I'm the one who should be worried.

Look, it was still, it was still, I loved actually seeing the car thing come off, so it was great.

You all did it.

It was a great start to the season.

But it was one point for Laura, two points for Guy, three points for Ursula, four points for you, David, and five points for Matt Heath.

Guy, what is that person on your t-shirt?

Who is that?

It's just a very cool t-shirt with a picture of Paul as a 14-year-old boy.

I would like to say, I still have no idea how he got that photo.

It sits in my parents' wardrobe.

So someone in my inner circle has betrayed me.

I'm also annoyed he didn't take the year nine photo, which is a significantly cuter photo.

I like that photo because you can really see you're in the grips of puberty.

Task two, this is a great task.

Fly.

Best flying wins.

Your time starts now.

This is great.

What Taskmaster New Zealand is very, very good at are these open-ended, very broad, creative tasks where you know you're going to get something different from everyone.

And this is a perfect example of this.

I mean, I see you as a bit of a daredevil, David.

I see you as someone who does not mind putting their body on the line.

And we see it later on in the series a bit more.

Someone who is, you know, shame is not something that bothers you.

You just throw yourself into things.

Which is why I was so delighted to see that this was such a

kind of touching, lovely, creative solution to this task.

I was genuinely expecting up onto the roof, take all your clothes off, jump onto the gravel driveway.

Yeah,

dude, I did have that moment.

Like, that was my first, that was my first thing.

But I remember my brain, that was one of those tasks where your brain just kind of like breaks and you kind of just go, but still, and it becomes a game of like, okay, like, think of the world you're in right now.

What's health and safety not going to like let you do?

And once you kind of come to terms, like you can't jump off anything and get injured and ruin the rest of the filming, once you block that off, the parameters are way more fun.

And I think that's how I got into the QT area because I was genuinely scared of hurting myself if I

tried to fly.

Yes.

Man, I thought about my arms, just got, I'm not strong enough.

I'm not strong enough to go up and down to do this.

Like, what do you want?

It broke my brain.

But

it was such a neat solution.

So you printed out a tiny little version of yourself, attached it to some helium balloons, and let it fly away.

And I thought it was such a...

such a lovely image.

And again, I think you were underscored.

I feel like, yes, I enjoyed Laura and guys,

but sometimes I think using a green screen for a task, it feels like cheating.

And

I've said this on the podcast before, using special effects in these when special effects are not specifically called for feels like cheating, David.

I know you're too nice to say that it was cheating,

but I found that yours was the most interesting, creative, and fun idea.

The thing that actually gets me that I didn't realize, like, with the screen screen that okay the gripe the gripe I have not knowing going into it was you could be sketchy with some of the tasks like you could look at the task and be like I'm gonna represent this through a sketch Yes or some kind of unless it was like make a film or something like that.

I'm like, okay, this this could be a sketch, but if I'm looking at fly It I didn't realize you could just go hey you can kind of like create a vibe than rather than actually giving this a good shot and I think I have yeah, that's yeah, okay, that's the gripe.

That's the gripe.

Look, they're very good.

I mean, look,

I loved Laura's magic carpet.

Again,

I think Paul's trolling the hell out of her because she's saying, where do you want to go on the magic carpet?

Obviously, thinking they're going to edit in all these amazing places that Paul wants to go.

And he wants to go to Nelson, where he grew up.

Which is very funny, but I think I'd imagine Laura was a bit like, oh, right, okay, fine.

It's not going to be as impressive as I'd hoped for.

They go to Nelson, then they fly back to the Taskmaster house.

Yeah,

and then you look at Guy's One, and you're like, what is like, how did you come up with this so quickly?

Like, how?

That is beautiful.

Guys one is stunning.

Yeah, Guys is like,

yeah.

Oh, my God.

It was so well made.

And would not think to present it that way at all.

Yeah, it felt very

80s film.

Yeah, 80s or 90s kids film.

The jumping and taking off was so exciting to me.

And the music, the way the music is paired with it, and the little shot of his cheeks blowing back.

I thought it really, and even the landing,

it didn't look that green screen to me.

I thought it did look pretty impressive.

Yeah,

what I liked about the season was you really got, I think Guy had like a clear taste of

what he liked.

You kind of like picked up on, you know, like the other

tasks that he does.

you're just like, oh, yeah, you like, you like Monty Python, oh, yeah,

I can see it.

Yeah, there's definitely an element of that.

No, I just thought it was so it was so good.

Let's let's talk about Ursula and Matt at the same time because I think this is an example of what happens on Task Mouse, and it happened to me loads where you have that first idea, you can't get out of your head, and you can't see if there's that there's any other way of doing it because they both ended up in the water.

They both jumped off the dock.

Matt

tries to cycle with no arms whilst flapping his arms and realizes quite quickly that that is impossible.

So has to be thrown out of a wheelbarrow straight into the water.

And huge respect for Ursula.

She just holds a model plane and jumps off as far as she can.

I think it's a great representation

of our age.

On like you can tell what we kind of watched, like or like what we kind of grew up with.

Like with Matt and Ursula, it's like, okay, you kind of grow up with the pranking type thing where, like, it's the big prat fool, but then you can tell with Guy and Laura, like, like, the YouTube influence of, like, hey, let's actually

make a sketch, like, make something.

Let's create a narrative here,

put a narrative in there, and then I'm just watching Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson do their thing on a

rush hour from yours, to be honest.

Totally.

Oh, wrong movie.

Wrong Steve Klugan.

Sorry, Steve Klugan and Jackie Chan.

Sorry.

No,

all of it made me laugh.

I would have ended up doing something like Ursula and Matt, I think.

Trying to build a ramp and trying to just go into the water and just thought maybe I'd get extra points for

allowing myself to get absolutely soaking wet.

But it did not work for them.

And probably rightly so, because they didn't fly, they jumped.

And they didn't even jump very far.

It felt very like the Ridball flying competition.

Yes, it did.

I can't remember.

It's got some weird name, that thing, hasn't it?

But those, it's called like the

flugel flap or something.

They went.

The flugel flap.

They do go further in the flugel flap than Matt and Ursula managed.

They have better ramps, maybe.

Yeah, they didn't have enough time.

But it was one point for Matt, two points for Ursula, three points for you, David, four points for Laura, and five points for Guy.

Did I get eggs on?

A little bit.

There's definite sewage in here.

That's a long way to fly.

Get far up, Moe.

That's like 10, 20 meters.

Maybe three meters.

Are you happy with that?

Peeing in the water.

We did it!

Okay.

Okay.

We did it.

Yep, thank you.

Where you you doing it?

Okay.

Wow.

We did it, buddy.

You and me.

Yeah, I'm glad we did it.

I think that went well.

Yeah.

Probably going to get an infection somewhere.

Thank you, Matt.

Task three, another very, very good task.

This is great.

This is a really good episode for you, David.

I just want to say, like, there's some really creative stuff coming out in this episode.

Did you feel after you'd filmed this first one in the studio, were you like, those were three of my tasks I'm most proud of?

Yeah, I felt like, I think, because it was the first time I was kind of like properly doing like TV.

Like besides like seven days, besides seven days and stuff, I hadn't been given this kind of like, do a show over and over again type thing.

And so I was like, I was pretty nervous to feel like, I don't really have a skill set for this.

But I think that first episode kind of like calmed me down at least a little bit but I think the whole ride of like filming that season was like it felt like a crash course and like learning how to do panel show so that was quite nice to just have nice tasks kind of lined up yeah but it's also like yeah it is it is a crash course I guess but also there's no other panel show like it really is there

like being in the studio I guess you know it helps you get used to that sort of thing and I'm sure we talked about this last time we were on the podcast but we did seven days together do you remember yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I remember that and yeah I like oh man every seven days episode it just makes me cringe why you were so funny you you ate a whole brief two drum what do you drag

on that show Jesus Christ I absolutely loved it I was like this guy's brilliant just eating a whole brie

Everyone else trying to make wry jokes about the government.

I look over and you weren't even asking for any attention.

You weren't going, hey guys, look at me.

I'm eating a whole brie.

You were just eating a whole brie.

Yeah, because I think I was trying to do like subtle.

I think I was trying to do like subtle comedy, like office, I don't know, like office-style comedy, where you're like, oh, maybe the camera like satellite donors in the corner might come to come to me, but it's like, no, that's not the format of the show.

That's not the show.

We're talking about the news.

And you're

munching away on a big old cheese.

But

I love that

Taskmaster kind of came to New Zealand because I feel like there was no real shows for people who could do

weirder stuff every time you kind of put up against questions of the news and stuff.

I'm just like,

I don't care.

I don't care about the news.

I don't know how to write a joke about the news.

I don't know how to write a joke at the time.

I don't know about you, but it takes ages to learn how to write a joke.

I'll get there one day.

We've got our fingers crossed.

No, you, I mean, look, you were very funny on that show as well.

But yeah, I think you're right.

I think this is such a good format.

And it works the same here for like slightly, you know, more off-beat comics, more alternative comics and sketch comics.

I think it works really well.

And also shows that, obviously, they can do the tasks, but then are also very funny in the studio format as well when what you're talking about doesn't have to be the news.

It doesn't have to be, you know, viral clips.

It can just be...

talking about stupid shit they've done and it's there's always every year uh on taskmaster uk there's always a comic who comedians love who gets booked for it and we're like, great, we can't wait.

And they just like steal the hearts of the nation and then they're selling out big rooms.

So it's fantastic.

That must be, is that still happening in New Zealand?

Are there, you know, comics coming through and appearing on Taskmaster New Zealand and they get a bit of a boost from it?

Yeah, like it changes, like

it changes careers, I reckon.

You know, like when you kind of talk about like that, sometimes when you get like that flip moment, I felt it.

I felt like a flip moment and like, oh, I actually have people want to come watch me now.

And it's not like a gamble for every show.

So I think it's, yeah, I think a lot of comics kind of look to it to be like, oh, this could really help my career.

Yeah.

I mean, it's, and it, and it rages on.

Some of the most recent episodes are fantastic.

Have you been keeping up with it?

Do you still watch the show?

Yeah, I watched a couple episodes.

I mainly see the clips online as well.

But I love Abby Howells.

Abby Howells is one of my favorites.

I mean,

at this rate, it will take us about a decade to get to those episodes, but Abby Howells is so funny.

She is so funny on that series.

Like,

what an individual, funny person she is.

Yeah, yeah.

And she's like, really her own style.

And I think everyone kind of noticed.

I think, yeah, as you said, beloved comedian in the industry and just gets kind of shown.

And everyone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

we knew this.

Let's talk about task three.

Brush pulls teeth from the furthest distance.

Furthest distance wins.

You have 20 minutes.

Your time starts now.

Another very, very good task.

Let's talk about your effort first, David, because I did really enjoy this.

Everyone else went for

the long thing and holding it pretty much.

Apart from you and Laura, again,

both of you thinking outside the box.

You attached the brush to a piece of string.

You cycled away holding the other end of the string, and then you just pulled it.

142.7 meters and I particularly enjoyed you read you read into the task brush pulls teeth everyone else thought it's got to be a big old brush clean thing the way you interpreted it if the brush goes across some teeth and literally just brushes the teeth then you've completed the task I'm I'm starting like now that you start to put it all together I think what was happening was like that one and the bowling pins tasks and and the flying task were all filmed very early on in the series right and i think at that point my brain was still a little bit straight in terms of like, hey, I know that there's going to be loopholes.

It's going to be very loophole focused.

And so I think with some of the tasks, my brain was already in like loophole mode.

But then as the series went on, like the weeks went on, the way it like twists your brain because you want like back-to-back tasks and like it's the whiplash that kind of starts making your brain doubt how to approach tasks.

I think I was very lucky in that first episode because

I just kept flipping.

I just was looking for loophole.

I remember trying to figure out that loophole, making the connection that

you pull teeth out with a piece of string with the door.

I remember that came into my head straight away.

And I went, oh, I could use the same logic.

It just gets to be as long as I want.

And so I, and I just went overkill.

I was like, I need to, like, get this as long as possible.

And just finding string, I was like, oh, yo.

As long as I want.

Well, string becomes your downfall downfall a little bit later on in the series, if I remember,

where you have a task that it's only you who has to do it, right?

You have to untangle all of that string.

Meany, meany piece of string.

And you do it.

You do do it, but it's just you.

But yeah,

I thought this was a fantastic interpretation of the task.

And yeah, it's exactly right.

That's what it reminded me of, the whole thing of attaching a tooth to a piece of string and maybe attaching it to a door and slamming the door.

I'm glad you didn't go with that method particularly for Paul.

I think I'm glad you stopped and then pulled it out quite gently rather than attaching it to the bike and cycling top speed away.

I think that

could have ended in disaster.

I remember thinking the thing that could screw me over is if I pulled that string up and it released up, it might not technically brush the teeth.

So just having to do it carefully and make him be like, hey, get it, yeah, get it down.

Yeah, it might have not not brushed the teeth, it might have taken a couple of them out.

Yeah, scary, scary, which is exciting.

I mean, look, it it would have been one point, but you know, people would have remembered it forever.

Um

Urzula and Guy use similar, similar uh methods.

The swimming noodle comes out to play again.

We've had a it's been a very swimming noodle uh heavy episode, actually.

Um, and a piece of wood as well to create a big, a big long handle.

This again feels like the first thing you might think of to get to get distance um but it does just look very funny i think everyone should be brushing their teeth at at a distance from now on yeah great physical comedy yeah i love that there was a pipe and a noodle it was very like

um remembering how the shed was kind of laid out i remember like those pipes and noodles kind of first thing that you see so i think that's what like dictated a lot of the the themes and there's like oh yeah it's at the front of the shed don't have to dig to get this

yeah a lot i mean i'd say series one of New Zealand Taskmaster feels like the Leaf Blower season.

And I'm sure the Leaf Blower makes an appearance in this series as well.

But so far, the swimming noodles winning out in Series 2.

Yeah, Noodle and Bike.

Noodle and Bike.

Noodle and Bike.

Big uses for Season 2.

Matt decides to go from above.

Which I think is a smart idea, although he knows it's smart.

He announces the idea.

He's very happy with this idea.

Using the crutch as well to get even more uh dangle on it and also sort of a little pulley system to control it what he really seems to enjoy doing is torturing paul um uh pouring the water off sort of like you know distant waterboarding uh and i'm surprised he didn't do it with a toothpaste as well he actually put that on the brush um but paul did not enjoy this did you did you enjoy um maybe putting paul in precarious awful situations for him or did you want to look after the guy yeah i kind of i think i think what i got like i got pretty good treatment from paul because I never wanted to hurt him.

Yeah.

I think there was like, there was this feeling of going, of going, like, oh, when I go off the rails and I get really aggressive and I think I'm funny, that's where I start to go over the line.

And so I just remember, and like, especially in those task areas, I was like, oh, I gotta, like, I can't hurt Paul.

I cannot, like, go to Hyundai's because if I do, it's like off-putting and it's like not fun for like anyone.

But it was, yeah, great, great training.

And I'm glad that, like, Matt and like Ursula's a master at it.

Ursula's a master at balancing, you know,

being aggressive, like, you know, roasting Paul and getting away with it.

If I do it, they're like, yo, your tone's off, bro.

Like, it's kind of, it kind of bums everyone out when you try to roast people because your tone's off.

Yeah, I mean, Ursula does have that nailed down because she's a very warm, like, likable personality when she does it.

Like, you almost don't notice she's absolutely torn you apart.

So I think, I think, yeah.

And when you go full on, I agree.

It would just end in disaster.

You saved it for the diss track, so I think we all appreciated that.

It was good to build to the diss track, which we've talked about before.

Go and look at some other episodes of me and David.

Laura gets someone from the crew to brush Paul's teeth, which I think is a very, very good idea.

And she coached her through what to do from a distance.

Now, two very funny things about this.

I think it's a great idea.

One is that for some reason, she went away she was on the phone the friend still had the toothbrush on a big handle there was no there was no need for that so she's going brush it and giving the instructions and it's just still on a massive stick it didn't make any difference but it was still there um and also she went 10 meters closer than you this is the thing this is what you were saying about you have to go as far as you possibly can because you never know what someone else is going to do

yeah and i think that that was part of like, I think the reactions in this studio, like when, like, I don't know, but you get so invested in like what the points are to the point where, like, you look at you, like, oh, I was a bit of a dick at that point.

But I just, I remember thinking, she so has this in the bag.

Like, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know, you can go a K, you can go a K away, and it still counts.

Yeah.

So that was, that was nuts.

Yeah, the surprise was crazy.

The only thing I'd worry about in the Taskmaster New Zealand house looks like it's in a slightly remote location.

I'd be worried about like service, like the reception

around there.

Yeah.

It seems like the service was not good.

A the service was not like the Wi-Fi was like not good.

So you like you couldn't like, you know, you know when you want to like chill and shit and you can't work on your phone?

Yeah, I couldn't even do that.

Like I spent most of my time just refreshing like social media apps.

I'm like, it's not freaking loading.

I've like sucking, I've only got like three videos that have loaded on Instagram and it's just 15 seconds of the start of it.

I just have to to watch this.

And that's not good, is it?

Because you want to be relaxed in between each task rather than going in all hyped up because then it's Paul who's going to get hurt.

If you've not had time to watch your little videos, you're going to go mad on him.

But very, very, very strong effort from Laura, but unfortunately, only 132.7 meters.

Meaning, Ursula gets one point, Guy gets two points, Matt gets three points, Laura gets four points, and you get the big five points, David.

And yep, that's a good brushing.

Getting your molars, now I'll do your canines.

What do you reckon?

That's about 100 meters?

Yeah, I'll hear me with that.

All right, thank you, Paul.

Finally, let's talk about the live task.

Build the tallest tower of toilet rolls in front of your bin.

You may not interfere with any other tower.

You have 100 seconds.

After 100 seconds, you will be brought down to the lower stage and you will be allowed to throw a shoe at a tower.

Once all contestants have thrown a shoe, the tallest toilet roll tower wins.

And this is one that was used in series 13 of UK Taskmaster in 2022.

It happens now and again.

UK sees what's going on in New Zealand and thinks, we'll have a bit of that, please.

Big win for New Zealand.

Big win.

It's always a big win for New Zealand in that situation

now the toilet roll tower talk me through your tower David because everyone else went with what I would consider to be a conventional toilet roll tower tried to make a strong base so it couldn't be knocked over and built it up high from there you decided immediately from from our vision as as viewers to unravel a toilet roll and just sort of pile it up what what was going on there okay i'm so glad we can talk about this i've been waiting four years to talk about this um leading up to that task, everyone had kind of like, I think we were just kind of like hanging out and talking.

And I think people were starting to click, oh, David's a lot because the task had been like lined up that way.

They were like, oh, David's smarter than he's been letting on this whole time.

And it feels like everyone in real time was like, oh, is he like, is he like really good at this?

And they were like, and I think that pressure at that final moment kind of got to me.

And I kind of drank my own Kool-Aid for a little bit and thought, I guess I am a genius.

I guess I can do whatever I want and like it'll work out.

And I started like, I think I started leaning into like, hey, let's do, let's do weird things because this will probably be really funny.

And so that's why I was like, okay, maybe I need to come up with an out-of-the-box idea compared to everyone else.

And that was like, I just need to rip.

Everyone's going to be stacking.

I need to be ripping and I need to show a different version of building a tower.

And it just backfired.

Like, it just, oh, oh, and like with the way I pulled the fingers at Matt, I was like, no, shut up.

Stop.

Stop it.

Stop doing that.

I sort of understood your logic, but then also I think quite often with these

quite often with the live tasks,

you don't need to think outside the box.

There's no loophole.

You just need to do the thing, right?

Hmm.

Yeah, and I wish I knew that kind of going in because it is a completely different vibe, like being there live.

And I feel like, yeah, just when you're in that studio, I haven't fully like learned the whole like that performing mode in front of an audience compared to when you were just doing it by yourself it just created a different yeah different vibe but it was very funny to see your tower just the the pile of loose toilet roll with one perched on the top which you claimed made it a tower everyone else i think ursula says it's a pile of shit

and you said no it's a tower because i've got that that one toilet roll uh on top of the pot on top of the pile of shit um but yes very funny and what i love i love taskmaster live tasks that are set up for people to do something and then nobody can do it.

So the fact you all threw a shoe and no one hit a tower, it makes it unlike any TV show in the world because no one said, okay, we're going to try that again or we'll move you closer because we need a shoe to hit the thing because otherwise it's not a good telly.

You just go, nope,

no one hit the tower with their shoe.

That's the end of the task.

No one got it.

You just couldn't do it on tower height.

And there's something really,

I don't know, just something like really authentic about that, you know?

It's so great to kind of see that kind of TV.

Exactly.

And, you know, you've got to credit the viewer with some intelligence that they know that things don't go to plan sometimes.

And that is funny sometimes.

Anticlimactic stuff is as exciting as climactic stuff.

Yeah, very, very, very good.

But unfortunately, it meant that your pile of shit only got one point.

Urzula's Tower got two points, three points for Guy, four points for Laura, and five points for Matt Heath.

Very strong opening episode for both you and Matt, actually.

The final scores of this episode.

It's Erzier and Guy joint bottom on 13 points, Laura on 15 points, you, David, on 16 points, and Matt wins the episode on 18 points.

But so far, feels pretty evenly matched.

We got a good spread of people there, I think.

People with different skills.

Would you say?

Did it ever feel like someone was running away with it during the series?

Yeah, Laura.

I feel like Laura was really consistent throughout the series.

I feel like it was always like Guy and Laura at the top and then kind of like me, Matt and Ursula kind of like just swapping places

for a lot of it.

I'm kind of just going off memory though.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

I mean, look, we'll find out.

It's been five years.

We're going to watch the rest of the episodes.

It's fun.

It's like a retro dive.

David, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.

You're of course welcome back anytime.

But we need to talk to you about your show that's coming up you've got a brand new show called noise noise zealand

talk to me about we talked a little bit about it off off the air but i do want to hear more about this because it's not a traditional stand-up show is it nah nah so i i feel like one thing i'm kind of well one thing i'm really grateful for is like audiences come to my show now which is like nuts um i feel like in the last kind of like three years i've been trying to get better at like comedy craft and like joke craft um and i feel like i finally got to the level that i like but now i'm starting to get not like bored but like i want to do something that really scares me and i think the thing that would scare me the most is um learning how to dj and making that into a show and trying to like make a rave for a comedy show because it's something i really i don't know it's something i've been like really passionate about for like the last like three years

so stupid and i just yeah i just want to make a techno party

How's it going?

How's learning how to DJ?

Yeah, it's like, I think what it is, is like, I want to use it as like a vehicle for all of the wild stuff that I do already.

And I think it's like lining that up so that the transitions are way more slicker, like a DJ, and then putting that with comedy.

So it's just like bang, bang, bang, transition, transition, transition.

I think that'll be really interesting.

And I think this year

I want the show to feel like

a year of like progression.

So I want to, I think the very first shows that I do will be completely different to the very last shows that I do.

And I kind of want to explore that for a year.

And where can people come and see this?

I'm sure there are people listening in New Zealand right now.

Can you tell us where people might be able to see the show?

Yeah, you can see it in New Zealand.

I'll be going all over Australia.

I'm moving to Australia this year.

So I'll be doing a lot of Australia.

And then hopefully we'll be going to Edinburgh Fringe and bringing it there.

Great to the end.

Keep an eye out for that.

Go and see David's new show.

It's a year of progression.

He's learning how to DJ.

I can promise you you it will be brilliant.

David is fantastic.

Thank you so much for coming on, David.

We always ask our guests to rate their experience on the Taskmaster podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster.

Feel free to give us one point if you'd like.

I hope you won't.

But just be honest with us, David.

I think this time, I think, okay, going off the last podcast, I was like, man, I screamed way too much.

My game was all over the place.

So this whole time I was like, look, just like, don't do so much.

Just chill out

and and for that I reckon I reckon like it's it's hot.

I reckon it's like a four

It's a four because I could have done more.

I could have done more, but I'm also stoked that I did less.

You were great.

You were great last time.

You were great this time.

We love having you on David and hopefully we will get to catch up in person soon.

Looking forward to it.

Yeah, yeah.

Also, you know what else made it really good?

I realized anything I say on this, like you would just agree with me and go along with it.

And I like kind of love it.

but I kind of get like evil brain a little bit.

And like, but I don't want to like test it and stuff.

But, like, I know, having that realization, oh, you go 4.5, just a little bit higher.

4.5 because I am a disgusting patsy who will just go along with whatever you want.

Look, it's your experience.

This shows your experience.

I can't be going, that didn't happen.

No, I disagree with that, David.

I'm a good interviewer.

Not in the challenging way.

I'm not a challenging interviewer.

David, thank you so much.

We'll see you soon.

Hey, thank you, Ian.

Thank you so much to David for coming on the podcast.

You are welcome back anytime, my friend.

Thank you very much for listening.

Stick around because next week we'll be talking more about Taskmaster New Zealand Series 2.

And one day down the line, we'll be talking about Taskmaster UK Series 19.

Plenty more coming at you this year.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll see you next time.

Bye-bye.