-Our next guests are
very funny comedians who host the hit British comedy
show "Taskmaster." The 17th season premieres
in the U.S. on March 29th on the "Taskmaster"
YouTube channel. Let's take a look. -Well, I just can't believe
it's that time of year again. -Oh! -[ Gasps ] -Oh! -Ooh. -[ Gasps ]
-[ Groans ] -Hello, there, my old friend.
-Let's do this. -Yes! -You want to see my sausage? -You've got Papa's attention. -I'm a riot.
-Was it? -Go!
-Aah! -Well, well, well. -Are you ready?
-Whoo! -Chaos! What's that? -That was incredible. -[ Laughs ] -And I approve this message. -Please welcome to the show Greg Davies
and Alex Horne, everybody. [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Gentlemen, welcome to the show. -Thank you, Seth. -I am a huge,
huge fan of your show. Congratulations.
17th season -- 17th series, I guess,
as you would call it in the UK. That is an incredible
accomplishment. And this is a very novel idea
for a show. And real quick for people here
who might not know it, will you explain the premise? -Yes.
So, very briefly, we have five comedians
every season. They're in every episode --
so 10 episodes -- and they come
to a special place, and they compete
against each other doing tasks that I set to impress a giant. That's kind of how it works. -I am the giant.
-Yes. But the thing is,
they come in isolation, and they don't see
how each other does until they get to the studio, and then they realize
they've mainly been an idiot, and they take it
very seriously. But the tasks are
pretty ludicrous. So, they might open up a garage, and there's a boulder,
and they open an envelope. It's all unplanned, unscripted, and it says, "Get this boulder
as far away from here as possible in one hour.
Your time starts now." So, off they go, and that's it.
And we follow them. -And the boulder is
one of my favorites because someone actually tried
to get it on a train. Yeah. He's an iconic comic
in the UK, Frank Skinner. And he put the boulder
on a train, and he was heading for
the airport with the boulder. And the thing I love
about it most is we weren't filming him.
-No. -Because it's all --
-He could have just lied. -Yeah.
It all happens genuinely. So, we didn't have permission
to film on the train. So, it's just me and Frank
and a boulder on the train and people going, "What? Why has
he got a boulder on the train?" -The boulder is like six foot,
right? It's huge. -And he did it just to get --
he gets five points from Greg. And the comics take it very,
very seriously. -Well, I will say that is
the joy of watching, when you're actually
judging them at the end. Like, they can be broken-hearted if you feel as though they did
not accomplish the task. -I know, and the strange thing
about the show is that Alex and I always laugh because some of these people
are our friends, but there's something
about the show that once you step
into the "Taskmaster" world, that people do see me
as this despotic lunatic who's in charge, and I -- And it goes to my head. I'm like --
-I keep thinking, but you also are
sitting in a giant throne. Does that maybe...
-Oh, everything plays to my ego. Yeah, in my personal life -- it's ruined my personal life
because I -- because I start to believe
I have this incredible power. -You sort of do. Like, we got visas
to come to America for this. And we went to
the American embassy, and there are soldiers
outside with guns. And they saw Greg, and they put
the guns down and said, "Can we have a selfie?
Because you're the Taskmaster." -They were sort of,
"Sorry we've got guns." -Yeah, yeah.
-Now, this was an idea you came up with for
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. -Yes.
-And how did you come up with the idea of this, and how did it
work as a stage show? -Yeah, well,
the Edinburgh Fringe is the best place
to come up with ideas and to nurture things.
And I had a baby -- my wife really had a baby,
15 years ago. And I was at home thinking,
What do we do now? We've got to pay for this baby. And, um, so I decided
to set, uh, 20 comedians a task every month. And the first one was put
some money in my bank account. Most money wins,
and that paid for it. So, every month they did
a task for me, like find a hedgehog
fastest wins. And it was just a one-off
thing in Edinburgh. It was going to be a one-hour
show, and that was 15 years ago. And now it's
this weird telly thing. So, it wasn't meant
to be a TV thing. -But you came up with the idea,
and yet you decided to make Greg the Taskmaster, and you get to just be
the assistant. Why did you give the role
of power to your friend here? -Because he's a fundamentally
weak human being. -Very poor -- Yeah, he's right.
-That might be it. -He's creative.
I won't take that from him. -That's very noble.
-Yeah. No, my personality is dreadful.
Just very... -Well, I should note that,
you know, again, meeting you in person -- which I'm lucky to do
for the first time tonight -- you refer to him as
little Alex Horne on the show. Now, you are taller than Alex. But Alex is a tall gentleman.
-Big guy. -He isn't. [ Laughter ] The guy's 5'5", tops. And I defy you
to prove otherwise. -Yeah. That's annoying. My children call me
little Alex Horne. -Do you have some other
favorite insults you've had for Alex
over the years on the show? -I don't really know
where it comes from, but there's some -- I've got this theory that
Alex irritates me on purpose because it suits
the character on the show, because, you know,
I'm quite gentle, really, but he needs me to be cross
on the show. So, he says oblique things
to me that annoy me and I don't find funny. And I find myself being cruel
to him. -Yeah, you are mean.
You are mean to me. -I've said some
fairly awful things to him. And your mother-in-law
really hates me, doesn't she? -Um, yeah.
Well, recently he said -- Recently he said,
"This is Alex, and he told me recently
in confidence that he is sexually attracted to
his next door neighbor's wife." And they'd only just
moved in next door. -But that was true.
-It's not true. -He did tell me.
He did tell me. And he also told me
in confidence that if he gets onto a plane
and there's a woman pilot, he walks off immediately. [ Laughter ] He did say that.
-I don't think that -- -He said because --
-I feel like you don't understand
in confidence. -Yes. Thank you, Seth!
I was saying that to you. -But I think
it's character building for people to know
who he really is. -Whose character's being built? -He said that women
don't have the character for it. [ Laughter ] -I'm worried they don't know
if this is a joke or not. -It's always tricky
being ironic in America. -You know,
I write these little insults, and it's my favorite part
of the whole show. Every season, I sit down
and go, "Oh, yeah!" Which group
could I offend this time? -You mentioned Edinburgh, a great place
to come up with new ideas, and a lot of triumphs
have come out of that place. And yet I know so many people
who've had triumphs there that have also had failures. Did you have Edinburgh shows
that went less well? -Of course. I mean, you've done Edinburgh. I see the whole city
as a place of PTSD for me. I found it so stressful.
-Yeah. -That's -- you know.
-Well, every comedian, there's so many comedians
you respect that are all doing shows
every single night. So, it's not -- you're never
the only show in town. And I find that part is
both thrilling but so stressful. -And what's the smallest
audience you have? I've played to two.
-Yeah. -One of whom was a reviewer. -Yeah. I played to nine once, and seven of them
were blood relations. -Wow, that's a tough gig. -[ Laughing ]
Yeah, that's a tough gig. -The biggest gig I ever had
that I got reviewed, my door let in a 10-person
bachelor party, and they were all dressed
as animals. [ Laughter ] And I had every reviewer
in town... -You guys are also doing
shows on your own right now? Is yours a band, Alex? -Yeah, weirdly,
I'm a singer in a band called The Horne Section,
and I can't -- -Are you a fan of the band? -Yeah.
-Really? -Okay.
-I'm a fan. I'm a fan of the band. [ Laughter ] I mean, I think a singer should
have some level of ability, but they're very funny. I'm a big fan
of The Horne Section. -And then you're doing
a stand-up tour. -Yeah.
-Here's yours, right there. -There it is.
-That's a good picture. [ Cheers and applause ] -A friend of mine accused me of
that picture was a thirst trap. [ Laughter ] I said, "If you think
I think that looks good..." [ Laughter ] -You guys also have a VR
version of the show coming out. -Yeah.
-So, this is for other people to play at home, I guess.
-Yeah. So, they've got versions of us. We had to wear the things
on our faces, and we've done all the voices
for it. So you can come
and be in the Taskmaster house, and you'll slag them off,
wouldn't you? -Yes. If you want me
to insult you personally, you can put some VR goggles on.
Yeah. -Gentlemen,
I'm so happy you're here. I should know real quick -- and I'm not saying this
and being insincere at all -- the staff of this show
was more excited that you two were coming here
than anyone we've ever had. And I think that now when people
say, what's your staff like? I'll be like, "Their favorite
show is 'Taskmaster.'" That's --
-Honestly... -[ Indistinct ] [ Cheers and applause ] -I mean, genuinely,
we've been blown away by the greeting we've had
in New York. It's been incredible. We cannot believe
that people know who we are. We did a show last night and
met so many wonderful people, and we got free cheesecake.
-In a diner. -Free?
That never happens here. -You don't get free stuff
in the UK. -They are -- on your way
out of JFK, they are going to charge you
for that. That's how they get you.
-I got you a present, though, because we're in New York.
-What did you get me? -Well, we took ages finding it. -There's amazing shops where
you get all this NYC stuff. We got you a personalized, like,
a number plate for your car. -No, really?
-With your name -- well, we couldn't get your name,
so we got Steve. -Oh, my gosh. -They didn't have
they didn't have Seth today. But that's for you.
-That means the world. That means the world.
Thank you, gentlemen. -It's a pleasure.
-Just from us to you. -Yeah.
-Anytime. -You guys,
Greg Davies, Alex Horne! 17th season of "Taskmaster"
premieres in the U.S. March 29th on the "Taskmaster"
YouTube channel. We'll be right back
with more "Late Night."
