David Ha of Taskmaster Minnesota - The Art Of Multi-Tasking - Production Value Episode 1

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to production value it's my podcast about the things that I like and the creators who make them I am so excited today to be joined by the Creator the director and the taskmasters assistant himself of Taskmaster Minnesota it's David ha David welcome to production value hi hello hi so nice to be here thank you for having me great reveal great stuff I'm so glad you're here thanks for uh responding to my random tweet uh I was so uh motivated watching Taskmaster Minnesota that I was like I gotta go back I gotta get this guy I have to talk to this man so thank you very much for being here yeah no worries I'm very I'm always happy to talk about myself so this a real treat perfect perfect well I just want to preface this by saying for anyone who doesn't know uh similar to like uh you know live reality games Taskmaster Minnesota is your creation it's produced by you you shoot you edit it and it's on YouTube two seasons uh we're in the middle of the second season it's hilarious and frankly better than some seasons of Taskmaster people love to tell you like oh this is the real us Taskmaster um and I don't yeah we'll talk about that but I also think it's genuinely better than some other seasons of Taskmaster uh abroad in UK um wow thank you it's the hot take starting it off what which season specifically would you say it's better then uh New Zealand one and three I just think those are toughies uh six for sure um maybe 10 tasm 10 those are just off the top of my head I think it's interesting because new New Zealand season 1 three and and UK 6 Are all uh are the three seasons that I took tasks from for and adapted into my version and you did it better obviously yeah honestly there was a couple that I was like I feel like we could do this one better and I think it was a I thought it was a good task design and I felt like it could have been done better that was like the pool the pool shot task for instance I was like I feel like we could do better with that one yeah I think also you've got a fun element of what series one cut out which is kind of like embarrassing the contestants in public um that plays into like the pool and the the bowling one um we're going to get into it but David let's start at the very beginning you were watching Taskmaster you became a fan of Taskmaster how how did you get into it and what clicked in your head that you wanted to make your own version yeah um I was introduced to it in uh I believe 2020 uh by uh a friend of mine who is on actually season one of tasm Max um I was living with him at the time and he was a big fan of James acter and then he had heard about Taskmaster I guess by uh through that and then he showed me uh a clip um the first so the first clip I ever saw of Taskmaster was from season seven uh is the task draw the biggest and best Circle so that was the first task I ever saw uh which yeah it's a good one so um and I was like oh this is yeah this is pretty funny and I I like um sort of game shows and comedy and uh uh yeah there's not a lot of uh intersection between the two largely so I start yeah so so I thought it was I thought oh this yeah this plays perfectly for me so I started so I started season one and just started washing through and it did not take long I I think I had maybe just finished season two when I was like okay I need to make my own version of this quickly um because I was just like oh this just so perfect like this is exactly what I'd like to do so I yeah it was not long so I'd watched maybe 10 episodes and I was already like let's go I think what fun fact that maybe a lot of people probably don't know from watching show is that season one I wrote the tasks and began shooting before I had finished the show I was actually only on season 8 and I think there was 11 seasons out at the time we were up to season 11 I was only on season 8 when I started writing tasks and shoo we we were filming before I had seen Seasons 9 10 or 11 so I was like not even really the biggest fan at the time I I there was so much of it I hadn't seen um and players yeah yeah there ended up being some like intersections too like I I did the like recreate a board game uh task in season 1 and I did not know that that was already a task that had been done in season 9 because I hadn't seen season n so interesting um of course now for season two now I've SE now I'm a huge fan I've seen everything I've seen all the international versions and everything when when was it when did you have like what year was it that you had that idea to start making testmaster um I don't know what exactly what day the the idea came into my head but I started writing tasks in April of 2020 no 2021 April of 2021 uh so yeah I think I heard about the show sort of late 2020 and then I started writing tasks in April of 2021 I have to take this moment to also uh shamelessly mention that I've also done a fan Taskmaster series um that I didn't quarantine with my friends and I remember my but our little Alex horn Phil um was I was asking him like what's the toughest thing and he's like it's the editing it's the the hours of footage that don't matter matter um what surprised you when you started making Taskmaster where you were like oh this sucks and I don't like this part of Taskmaster um yeah I film well season one filming was actually pretty tough um I think that was the first the first thing that negatively surprised me um because season one our schedule was pretty uh [ __ ] crazy uh we did 17 tasks I believe if I recall correctly um in one day of filming for each person so each person filmed 17 tasks in one day so with each person that was a 12h hour shoot with each person we started at 8 amm and went to 800 PM um do you think you were more grateful then for when Ben would just give up and not care because you like no I don't know um but I don't remember how I felt at the time it was was a long time ago I think I I don't know I no I think I was maybe frustrated I think I wanted him to put a little more effort in since we had driven all the way down to the VN but it was very funny um but I think I wasn't really worried by what Ben was going to do because Ben was actually the last person to film and I already knew at that point everything was going great so um yeah but just uh basically home after the 12 hour shoot and there was a couple weekends where I did a Saturday and a Sunday shoot so it was like 24 hours of filming and two days um and then I had to go to work the next day uh and I would just come home I would come home from that and just be completely destroyed my like I was physically exhausted you know from running around all day but I I've never been that like mentally exhausted before I didn't really I didn't even really know mental exhaustion was like a re was like really a thing uh like I just couldn't even think when I when I came home I just had to like sit in a chair and just stare into the middle distance for like a good a good while except I well I did have because I had to upload all the footage to my computer so while I just watch I could just watch the upload bar slowly load with like a glazed look in my eyes so that was definitely the first major challenge I didn't realize how taxing um filming would be when you try to film 17 tasks in a single day um which I think the real Taskmaster wisely uh does not do but we didn't have the luxury of having everybody make this like their full-time job we had could only do it on weekends so right your your contestants are only getting paid you know minimum wage all that oh J they wish they wish they were getting paid minimum wage they're getting they're getting paid in fame um internet Fame and Reddit points um yes I I was really impressed when you said you would film in a previous interview that you'd filmed it all over the summer at this one house and can I tell you I didn't even so I I just jumped into season two episode one and I went back to watch season one and I didn't even recognize that it was a different location it didn't even registered me I was just like you know there was a there was a lake missing did not process it for one second that it was a different location until you had said something um what was it like in this first location I think you said you didn't have running water how first location was really rough there was no uh it's mostly cons uh it was there's no water there's no air conditioning and no like and no windows so this was these were the big main problems uh no air conditioning and uh in particular Carter uh filmed his tasks in season one on the hottest day of the entire year it was about 90 degrees the entire 12-hour shoot with no AC and I just commend him so much for being able to film 17 tasks in a row so many of which were very exhausting involved running um and didn't die uh really really have to give major props to Carter for that one it was so hot and just going inside there's no relief and then upstairs too there's a second floor right and upstairs still no windows and then uh all the heat rises and stuff so upstairs it was probably it was probably 100 degrees upstairs um and luckily there's only two tasks we filmed upstairs but it was brutal I feel like you can see like when people go upstairs they're visibly like uh just more tired uh because it's so exhausted to be in that heat for so long um and then no windows is super annoying too there's one window there's one one window at the back of the barn but otherwise no windows in the building so the lighting was [ __ ] abysmal uh it was so bad uh and I would I would like I like brought like lights and stuff and turned on every light and it's still so dark if you go back and watch season one it's so dark and that that definitely annoys me so I was I was like if we do it again we have to go somewhere else because that location did not work for me these are these are the the details the fun facts that like nobody thinks it you know everyone just watches it on Reddit and all the people who are like oh I don't you know I don't really care and you're like I put so much effort into this and I struggled so much to make almost died yeah in the suit especially was the suit something where I I guess I'm very curious about getting into the mentality of being a Taskmaster assistant like you're you're really putting yourself in this moment of like I am a human servant I here to get this done and also you're you know holding the camera sometimes and filming is the suit like get you into the heads space what is it like to think about being um a human punching bag for 12 hours a day um I I like wearing suits to be honest um not in 90 degree weather but normally I do um yeah I don't know I feel like from the beginning we never really actually sought to make it the same sort of dynamic between Taskmaster an assistant that um the UK has uh and we especially leaned into it this season uh the current season because it just didn't it didn't wouldn't have make sense to like emulate sort of that style of humor that Greg and Alex do because we would never be able to do it as well but also because our personalities are so uh different and sort of mismatched from theirs like I I'm very like sort of dominant like comedic personality um I I definitely think the role that would probably fit me would be Taskmaster but uh and and Carter is sort of the other way around he's his style of Comedy is is more is also more submissive so like it was we we actively we talked about it you we made an active choice we're like let's we we're making our own version we have no obligation to stick to the format that they've uh you know established let's do our own thing let's make it something different let's do something that plays to our strengths let's let's play into what who we are so that was a very active Choice by us I think people say like people I see a lot of comments on the internet saying like oh this like this Taskmaster is like not as like you know dominant not as like mean it's like Yeah well yeah um it's true but it was an intentional decision although he he does have some I think Carter has some great moments this season and Luke does a good job in season one as well uh of uh braiding the contestants when needed I I feel like basically the dynamic we established was essentially instead of it being Taskmaster versus assistant we did Taskmaster and assistant versus the contestants we felt that would have work that worked better that was yeah season two is really a lot of bullying which I I I like you're you are really uh absolutely [ __ ] with your friends and season two and it's it's hilarious I've been I keep getting described as a sassy this season that's that's the comment I've been getting a lot which I think is fair I I have a lot to say about uh Carter as a Taskmaster all positive I I think Carter is my favorite contestant um he just there's something about his like he looks like a Victorian child who should have died but he didn't and he just lived and he's so funny to me um but he does sort of have that aura about him it's just so skinny like it's just something about it Luke I think uh I was rewatching season one and I think that you might originally equate Luke to being like oh it's like I I find that you know Jeremy from New Zealand is like a little too wooden it is what it is uh but I I think Luke does have some really great zingers at the contestants because I assume that I mean I know you're friends with him that Luke is also friends with everyone and that he is also able to just burn people just as quickly because he knows people yeah he's great Luke is great yeah everybody's great I'm I'm very happy with with how everybody's done across both seasons so let's talk a little bit about what is different between uh Minnesota and and the show Regular starting off with what I think is the best decision you've made which is cutting the prize task yeah I just I literally just watched champion of champions 3 last night and I was sitting there watching the priz being like I literally don't care there's a couple jokes in here I would much rather have like a 90minut Taskmaster episode with like 10 T you know why waste time on uh a couple jokes when you can just straight up do another task yeah um I think the what led me to make that decision was not watching the UK Taskmaster because honestly the priz is usually okay there because they're all comedians but I was watching other fan task Masters who had come before me because they all did prize tasks and they all sucked and I I think it caused a lot of people to sort of like stop watching them very quickly um and yeah and I leaned into it more this season so season one we did do a prize task in episode one and then yeah not and then didn't do it the handsomest of all the M&M's could have been a a episode title in itself um but this season we took it one step further where we we've moved the the prize test to episode seven um so there there will be a prize test next week is we're recording this between episode six and seven so we do have one prize test but it's in episode seven and I think what this episode you haven't seen but what this episode will prove is that having one prize task is by far the best decision because it means they could actually put some real effort into it they everybody brought in something really great but if I had made them do it eight times they all would have brought in [ __ ] every time so like I I think doing one prize task is the perfect like sweet spot um because our prize ended up being great this season so I'm very EXC I should have like pestered you for like can I get an early preview you know to real like a screener um you know I I think that like prize tasks especially when you what what I think task masterer lost a little bit is the idea that you were giving up something that might be taken away from you yeah I missed that from the old seasons for sure yeah yeah that whole joke of like Josh wh was like one was like had the best prize tasks of like the whole show because bringing in their own stuff yeah they thought that they could lose it yeah I feel like that that's also part of just you know I'll bring in some [ __ ] for my house I don't I like take it go ahead um it has no Stakes anymore I really enjoy that um and I I'm also really enjoying having six contestants I thought it when I started I thought it would be too much or that um when I think you watch a fan thing you always uh when you watch a fan show you're always like oh I don't know if I can get to know these people and then by the end you're always like okay here's everybody's personality and their quirks and I know everything about them and I thought people was going to be too much but it's it's a great number why six people uh it was a very simple reason for season one it was because I'd always been frustrated by how team tasks were scored on the original version I just thought oh what if we just had three teams of two that'd be so much better all I'd have to do is film one more person for the entirety of of all the tasks more hours what was I thinking but it yeah it worked out great but it was really just for the team task I just thought team task would score more easily if we had six people I just never understood why they only stuck to five in the Regular Show because the team of two and team of three seemed like quite unbalanced and the scoring is weird and then having three teams of two we can know all the teams are balanced and then it's five points for the winners three points for second place one point for third place it just makes so much sense yeah is really off the rails with his scoring these days I you know everyone talks about it but sometimes he'll just be like okay you get F this team task you get Five Points you get four points and you're like what are we talking about here and I but I sympathize with him there's not really a better way to score with two teams I I sympathize with him he he what what Greg doesn't know that he needs is he needs there to be three teams he just doesn't know it yet he doesn't understand yeah and I I think um the other thing is like I guess I had six friends who I wanted to put on the show season yeah oh yeah well I mean even even more now so many friends um I I was also um wondering for season one right like when actually so actually before you asking next somebody somebody did message me one time after uh the first season they're just like I want to make can you help me I want to make my own Taskmaster version but I don't have enough friends I'm like I can't help you pal that's that's something you got to figure out on your own oh no oh um yeah I want I want to talk about the Discord stuff off there but that was hilarious too you're you're really you're very helpful you know people come to you and you you you give them what you can but then at the end of the day you got to help yourself man um when it comes to filming your friends and we talked a little bit about the dynamic of tasm and testm assistant do you I feel like what was nice is that it's the same thing as regular Taskmaster Alex horn knew some of these people and they come in and they participate and they're his friends and it gets that sort of antagonistic uh connection between assistant and contestant how was it with each of your friends and were you surprised by any of the ways that they either like sort of reacted with you or just tackled the tasks in general for season one um yeah for season one specifically yeah we'll talk about season two I don't want to spoil too much of uh I don't want to spoil the winner of season one I think people should just watch and I don't want to spoil too much of season two um yeah I I think my like I didn't really put on a persona for filming ever I I think what you see in our in my interactions with the contestants is more or less our interactions in real life as well um it's sort of the relationship we have and it's s of a different relationship with each contestant as well which is uh you know always fun um who surprised me in season one I think Parker may have surprised me the most in and this is gonna sound unusual but Parker surprised me in how uh like grounded and normal he was in comparison to real life which to viewers of season one will sound very odd because he's of course quite unhinged that is nothing compared to how he's like in real life he is like his he he toned down his persona for the show for some reason he is like so crazy in real life and I was surprised at how put together he seemed on camera which obviously sounds like complete nonsense based on what he did in season one but he really he he honestly Ted it down for the show I have a I have a Parker quote written down which is this is quite the Mind Game David fortunately I have a very small mind he always says stuff like that that's just who he is tin foil the wise man's ban this just this stuff he says he's just spitting Insanity every episode like at least three to four insane quotes per episode um and it's so great I don't want to spoil but he because he's back for season two right I at first I didn't realize that and then I you know went back and then went and I was like oh amazing we have more Parker this is exactly what I want I knew what the people wanted they wanted more Parker um what he just texted me yesterday he just told me he just texted me a dream he had last night uh about yeah about how he was in a live a live tight a live musical that was on tight rope wires so you know it's just like yeah this just who he is um I'm trying let me try to think if I can can think of a good Parker story from real life that sort of explains um I guess he's unexplainable in some ways in in many ways this is true um I don't know in I don't know we might have to come back to that if I if I think of a good good story it strikes you yeah I'll say there's the task in season 2 where uh a prop was broken and I saw the broken prop and I was like oh that was Parker and it wasn't I was like holy crap this is this is shocking to me yeah he's just that kind of guy I think he's no if the prop had been burned that would have been Parker because he's he enjoys fire mostly um I try think if anyone else surprised me in season one I think um I think I mean Ben did exactly what I thought he was going to do uh I I I was not surprised by Ben's overall I mean there were definitely moments obviously that surprised me um I was surprised that he yeah couldn't drink milk that was certainly uh yeah that was surprising but it overall it wasn't surprising I I my my favorite thing about Ben is I every time I've ever hung out with Ben uh he has fallen out of his chair uh not like so hard he was laughing so hard he fell out he just like lost his balance and has fallen out of a chair every time I've ever hung out with him uh he chair he just has quite figured them out yet he's working on it there's there's the moment where you're trying to propel the Propel the grape Tas and Ben just gets hit in the head multiple times with like a little swing and every time he's like Ow like he just can't believe that the same action has hurt him again but it's also really slow too that's the that's the funnier part is it's it's like that was the first task we fil but I was like oh my God this is going to be [ __ ] great what a great day we have in store um I have I don't know if you have in your head some comparisons of like real show canescent to but the one I was thinking about most in watching season we back is I feel like Owen is very Rod Gilbert coded like the annoying David task is something that I feel like only Rod Gilbert would do um and I I'm not telling anybody you just have to see it uh but yeah do you have any other comparisons maybe while you're even watching them do the tasks or come out I love thinking about that I I found Owen more of a um Dave Gorman type oh sort of uh pretty athletic and always looking for how he can like cheat loophole every single task that was his main goal in every task um I found actually I actually wrote These down so let me I actually wrote down who I thought each person was in season one go the notes pull it up I wrote put it in a YouTube comments I have to find the video oh YouTube I I feel like also that while while you're looking I'll just say that season one is so quick and I know you talked about this a little bit that I appreciate that in your edit you're always thinking about get like cut like get out of here faster let's make sure that the the pacing is right because yeah I think you're right is that people find their friends funnier than random strangers on the internet will find them funny but you've managed to make your friends funny to random strangers on the internet yeah they they do a great job but yeah I think um editing is definitely the most important part of of the whole show yeah so I said okay these These are the comparisons I made for season one I had a lot more trouble doing it for season two if we're if we'll get there but um season one and I I made these comparisons after season uh 11 so I I only had the first 11 series of contestants to work with I made comparisons I said Ben was like a combination of Rosen conedy and uh Catherine Parkinson yeah generally incompetent at tasks but defending them so passionately in studio like roshi like just defending the worst tasks ever with a passion as if you thought that he had a chance of coming in first um I said Carter like Frank Skinner or Jessica nappet um generally straightforward approach to the tasks but so funny in the studio and that's that those are the two people I think of for that like pretty straightforward with the task approaches but so funny during the during the studio and a lot of funny things to say while doing the tasks as well I feel like Carter can also be he like a a little bit maybe like like Mike wnc or something just like so like like BOS I'm GNA do this and then I think that's fair um Henry clearly Nish like no doubt just laughing his head off throughout happily failing every single task and laughing the whole time definitely Nish no no doubt about that one um max I would say definitely jamali Maddox 100% they complete disdain for everything I did um very funny I really with Max the irony of him being the one who like got you into the whole thing and he just was so disdainful for half of it I love his football celebration task I like it's even more relevant now that he's trashing Aaron roders but it's like really a work of art you can't tell that he yeah that he was so excited about it but he I actually asked him to be the Taskmaster and he's like no I want to be a contestant so like that's yeah that's how invested he was even though it seems like he hated to be there every second of it he definitely loved it um yeah oh and I thought Dave Gorman and a little bit of Russell Howard but I think I just thought that because he looks a lot like Russell Howard I think that's maybe the bias yeah looks like him Parker um I said no nou Fielding at the time and somebody just commented on a recent video with I think a great summary which was Parker in season one is n Fielding Parker in season two is Bridget Christie which I think is so true I love that I I I think those are 100% accurate and and Parker like bring Parker brings such to light but I really loved everybody uh in their like I also love things like you know the constant pairing of like Owen and Ben and like how you could just see like what boneheaded decisions people were going to make from like a mile away I have a photo that makes me laugh so much um as I was rewatching which is from the uh Carter and Parker shoe task where the shoe task is incredible one of my favorites of that whole season I think I think probably my like top three of that whole season I love that test so much um what oh here we go it just looks like a dad disappointed in his son he looks like Carter was so done with that task fantastic complaining that this are too small the bar are too small too small I'm going to look like a cloud Parker says Parker fir back with you're gonna look like an antil Cloud because because clouds have big shoes not small shoes it's a great great comeback from Parker oh another great it literally I mean this is like the the not out of context but when he says um I think Luke says like uh Parker are are you a Rubik's Cube person and Parker says no I'm a human person that's quintessential Parker for sure I think what really helped season one a lot is that like Parker Carter and I all have sort of some background in like improv comedy and yeah it's very helpful for the studio recordings um able to fire back those lines um I want to talk about task writing and and what it means to like make tasks because in in the whole realm of producing you're doing a lot of what Alex horn does right on regular Taskmaster you're making up the tasks you're there on the filming days you're producing it in the the back end when you're writing tasks are you I I'm I'm so curious about the process and I know you had talked about a little bit of like walking around and just thinking what what do you run through in your head of like if I do this this will be a good task or this El like how are you testing it in your head as well and do you have anybody do the tasks beforehand or test them out that's a great question I think there's a couple criteria that I'm always looking for in a t in a good task um the main thing is really the main thing you're you're looking for is is there multiple paths to Victory is there different things uh that people can do uh yeah like uh I I if I can't think of it like at least three ways like do the task it's I don't think it's good enough so like I I I don't want everyone to do the exact same thing I want there to be multiple approaches to every task um that's like the most important thing I'm also thinking about um like how it's going to play on screen is it like a visual task like I like tasks where they have to move around or do something quite visual that like pops on camera um which is yeah that's that's important I don't know yeah I think just multiple approaches is probably the most important thing yeah I guess the other thing I think of is for the C that's for like the objective tasks um but for the creative tasks something that I try to think about is adding in restrictions because restrictions breed comedy um in terms of those subjective tasks um it's really difficult to think of something if you have no guidelines if you have no boundaries um unless you're like a professional comedian so Master gets away with it a lot um like uh let me try think of like a recent example um well I really I really like the dream sequence task that you did and yeah first I thought it was uh you know you have the set timer on like you know create this dream sequence also I thought Ian was very David Lynch inspired and I would not be shocked if that's what like that's what it felt like to me Ian I think he was going for like a a a a a homage to Twin Peaks is is what I've been told I've not seen Twin Peaks but that's what I'll tell I'll tell you I think it was accurate and I got okay Ian I saw your vision um yeah the dream sequence task was hilarious I also thought uh I think okay a good example of adding boundaries was like the original task for episode two of season two was like just create like a how-to video an instructional video that's not really enough guidance like people if you just give somebody The Prompt get make how-to video it's difficult to come up with an ideas because it's so broad so I added in that would ruin somebody's lives because then once you have a boundary that actually like helps you think of ideas it seems counterintuitive but like making it so that there's like a narrower point of view actually like will help people think of ideas particular if they're not like trained comedians it's not their job to like be thinking creatively all the time so that's that's something I always kept in mind for the creative tests I wanted to give them some guidance for all of them yeah so back to what you said about multiple paths to Victory are you also thinking about like the paths of most resistance versus least resistance like um you think that somebody's going to I don't know hit the ball a bunch of times at the golf club when they can just move it around you know are you thinking about like how to trick your contestants as well certainly yeah there's a lot of uh I mean I often build loopholes into it like I'm a aware that there's a loophole available it's not like I forget to put in a rule like for the um feather obstacle chorus this season I intentionally left out the line you're not allowed to move the chorus because I wanted them to move the chorus Al only Eric thought of that in the end but uh yeah so so I yeah definitely yeah consideration of what people might do although I often get it wrong I often am wrong about what what I think people are goingon to do do you do you remember a time where you felt like I cannot believe this happened I had no idea that this would be the the outcome I I mean most tasks uh yeah there's always there's always something that surprises me um like there's like two categories there's something where somebody thinks of a solution that I hadn't considered and I was like oh I didn't even like realize you could do that that's so smart and then there's the other side where I was like what what on Earth were you thinking i' never considered somebody could do it this badly like what what is happening are you um are you an escape room person do you guys do Escape rooms and things like that escape rooms yeah I I find there's a phenomenon with me in Escape rooms where I will have that same feeling where people will be like oh maybe it's like this and you're like it is the most obvious puzzle I've ever seen in my life and we just have to aim for the the most obvious puzzle I don't know where you guys people love to almost like what you're talking about with the restrictions they have these boundaries on them and they just go like Okay so I have to like 4D chest this moment and think I used to I actually used to work at an escape room so like yeah definitely that's a big part of the mindset uh Bri also used to work at escape room actually as well funny um um so we did escape room in season one of course light light a match um that task and we are doing one this season as well it's coming that that task is in next week's episode so beautiful yeah it's all it I and I you know I think there's it's interesting because you saw escape room task in season 1 came out so well that just came out perfectly where we had like two people actually do the escape room or maybe three well no two people actually do the escape room one person just guessed the lock on the combination one person completely fail just walk outside and wander around the house for a while and one person finds one hack I left in and then the other person finds the other hack I left in so that if I had scripted that it couldn't have gone any better that was just exactly why I wanted from that task it kind of reminds me of like and I'm sure this isn't but how different the the eat the grape task is from Taskmaster UK to Taskmaster New Zealand where New Zealand is like one of my favorite tasks especially you know David cros losing his goddamn mind versus like things can be so different and yet they're set up so similar um is there a task in particular that you took from Taskmaster that you thought you might have done better than the original show or just the results were better um yeah that's a good question I'd have to look at season two because we did not season one was all Originals um yeah I do think um let's see well luckily there's a Taskmaster Minnesota page on the Taskmaster Wiki um yes um I I thought the well I I was really excited to put a different spin on the golf task from New Zealand season 3 where they had the whole inside I'm like let's let's take this one step further let's put the hole in the middle of the lake and see how they get there it it turned out everybody just took a boat except for Ian which is fair I can see why everybody did that but I was really hoping I I was very much hoping that um I actually yeah this is like multiple Pathways this is sort of a task that didn't really pan out the way I hoped it would but I did like the way it looks visually I thought it was a very appealing task but I thought it'd be very funny to put the hole on the lake because that's I I feel like that's a one step of escalation above the New Zealand version where it's just inside we've taken it one step further we've hidden the hole on the lake I was hoping somebody would like try to get it in into the hole like from the dock like just try to I that was gonna happen with this group of people I was like oh surely one of them is gonna I thought one of them might do that or I thought one of them might put the ball on the raft and then hit it in and miss the hole and hit the ball directly into the lake I was hoping one of those two things was going to happen I thought more people might swim or take the kayak um because I think swimming was probably faster than the boat so I had to start the boat up you have to like start it up back it out turn it around like there sort of a lot of yeah technical because it's facing the wrong way so I have to like back it yeah do a three-point turn I think F swimming could have been faster if anybody had been you know just a little bit more committed to that task but uh a lot of these contestants are like not very pressed for time it's funny you know very ofical season 2 sometimes where they'll just take a couple 30 minutes to wander around especially as we know the password task that we just saw um that seemed to have broken everybody emotionally and physically yeah which is great Parker was fine after it he was chilling um I think another one oh you know like uh did you watch Community you know the scene in community where abed's been left in the sleep study for like hours and he yeah I did it that's what Parker feels like to me where he would he would just sit there for hours he would not care he'd be fine with it and then he'd be like oh okay I just did that no big deal and walk out that's what he feels I know I think he was just trying to get through I think it was the opposite he was trying to get through it as quickly as possible because he was out in 30 minutes he just wanted to be done so fast okay I think another really good example of a task that changed from New Zealand was fly from New Zealand season two which is a great task in New Zealand season 2 I thought I thought it was going to be difficult to improve on it uh to be honest because that that one's already such like a great task but what I found really interesting is in New Zealand they had five uh like four different approaches among five people because they had uh because Ursula and Matt both jumped into the lake that was similar classic jump in the lake then we had a green screen attempt from Laura and Guy well I guess that's how sort of similar too like spe special effects and then David uh made a little picture of himself and then let it fly with some balloons and then we had six more approaches and a lot of them were different from anything the New Zealand people had done which was great so people who had already seen that task were not disappointed to see it again I think because we did so many different things Parker ended up doing the similar thing to David um with making a picture of himself and making that fly and Ian jumped in the lake as well uh but then we had yeah and then but then everyone else had a completely new approach that was not copied by anyone else in Taskmaster Minnesota or in Taskmaster New Zealand so altogether we've gotten to see like 10 or 12 you you 10 different attempts on that test so I think that's very exciting um that that kind of brings up a question of like copying the show or I should say using tasks from the show because if season one is all original this season has quite a few that are from the show what led you to sort of say you know what I'm comfortable with doing this and I'm not worried that people will think that it's like oh you're just doing the same thing yeah that's a good question I think I basically I mean there's just a few tasks from New Zealand that I was just like I really want to do this task I want to see how my friends will react to this task I think that was the motivation more than anything I really want to see uh my friends try to fly or try to or the stealth task you know running around and trying not to get caught oh my God stealth task is so good it's I for me I I still I still try to prioritize like the fun the contestants are having over like the overall production sometimes I just felt like that would be a really fun task for them to do so yeah um amazing but I don't know I guess I also just needed more tasks I don't know needed needed some more to fill out the the the lineup but season one I really wanted to like show people that this was like all original and like that was more important to me and I felt like I had established that enough with season one that I felt free to like make some adjustments for season two because I felt like I I had Pro proven my my my cred uh with uh with season one with okay I I can write tasks everybody knows I can write tasks now let's do some fun ones that I I want to do so I was watching and and reading back some of your your older comments and uh interviews and and you were like I'm not doing a season two I'm exhausted I'm sick of this [ __ ] this I'm not doing it and I I just want to say from a producer perspective it's incredibly relatable all of my friends they'll be like n are you doing Survivor New York season 8 I'll be like no I am tired I am sick of this do not want to do this yeah we we've done I've helped do uh Five Seasons now and it's it's a lot of fun but it's you know three you know basically 24-hour days in the summer and it it eats away at your brain um so what made you want to do a season two what did you improve upon from season one that said okay we're not doing this again because I can't do this again um that made it so much better for season two um why did I do season two I ask myself that every morning when I get out of bed uh I I think it was a combination of two things it was some of my friends wanted to do season 2 they they would have liked to be included in a season two M mainly Ian and and Bri were the two that would really have liked to do it although I don't know if Bri told me that actually before we started definitely Ian wanted to do it um uh well as soon as I announced I was doing season 2 Bri was very enthusiastic about it but um the other thing was honestly just YouTube comments like I I get notifications on my phone every time I got a YouTube comment and just so for a year I would get a notification maybe once a week maybe once every two weeks it would just say when is season I want to see season two when is season two and I never want to do it but when you get when you think about this when you get a text once a week for a year saying do something eventually you give in and you just sort of do it sort of a psychology thing I think um that was a big factor um and then I also had some tasks left over from season one I I had written more tasks that we filmed and there was some that I really wanted to do for season two uh that i' had written for season one we didn't have I didn't have you know we didn't have time to do all everything I wanted to do for season one yeah and then also I was getting more into Taskmaster as well because like yeah during season one I hadn't seen all of Taskmaster and I just watching more of it I was like yeah it's good stuff pretty good show um Show's kind of cooking I don't know maybe I should do more yeah they're honestly kind of cooking over here I could I could get back in the kitchen see yeah you're like you know what I could you know what I could fly better than this let's let's get about there watch this um yeah and then things we changed from season one to season two I was like well let's not do 17 tasks in one day again so we you know made the load slightly easier with eight eight tasks a day for three days um yeah and then Chang the location so that we would have running water and windows and light and a like just surprise sauna in the mix surprise sauna I would have liked to do more tasks than the sauna because I think it's interesting that we have one but um that I felt one was probably enough torture for one season one that probably almost killed Parker he and like it's enough yeah Jackson was the one who really almost died oh that's right yeah Parker was in his in his his in his jeans though right like I I think he was and they had to wear wear them the next day too yeah sweaty very sweaty gross uh yeah I was sort of trying to I knew I remember Bri predicted that Parker was gonna take off his clothes I was sort of trying to prod him to take off his clothes because then that would have been a very funny cut but um uh yes so yeah we changed the location you spread out the filming a little bit more we also did it we spread out the filming not just over multiple days but over uh we did it two sessions we had a fall session and then a spring session and then in the winter I was able to edit the fall tasks um so that was helpful as well um yeah I think those are the main things that we CH and better equipment obviously I was like that was the main thing I was like I'd love to get another shot at it and show what we can make if if I had the proper equipment so sort of a chance to Pro prove to the audience and prove to myself that I could do something better as well well I guess that was part of it as well so you had two camera guys for season one was it three camera people for season two what what changed equipment wise two cameraman for season one no just me for a lot of it oh my God for that's not true we did have I had one other person there filming but not for every contestant um right for for I remember for Owen and for Parker filming Owen and Parker's Tas in season one I was the only other person there I filmed everything what was the setup what what's the set I mean because I gotta tell you like I I do these Survivor games with like you know we we've done it with like four camera people but like if I had one camera person I'd lose my [ __ ] mind like how someone someone who's also an actor in the show as well yeah yeah uh and I was in some tasks occasionally as well so that was diff we had no cameramen uh that was difficult um we had two tripods I set two tripods and then I had a handheld but there's a couple Tas I was in um like annoy David um where I would just set up two tripods and then just hope that hope to God it covered everything and sometimes it did and then whatever it didn't cover it was cut from the episode so you didn't see that those parts um yes uh and then I think for team tasks I was also the only camera person for all the team tasks as well so uh in season one so yeah set up Tri just set up two tripods uh yeah covering the shoe task was difficult two tripods and a handheld because I didn't have to be in that one for the blindfold task I had just set up one camera near one contestant and then run after the other with my handheld I just hope that the camera shooting the blindfold the contestant is working and doing okay no and I had no idea what was going on over there until I edited it you like a month later uh so so when you have all your footage first of all I want to know how big the footage files are like how many gigs of [ __ ] do you have and where are you putting it where are you keeping it while you're you're editing I think it's I think all together I have about three terabytes of footage um for one season or for two seasons no for for both seasons combined because yeah because I I use dropbox I have to pay for a I have to I was paid for a pro account and then I had to upgrade it recently to a a like a professional account like a like a premium business account because even the pro account I was paying for was not enough St it was only two terabytes of storage um yeah for a single contestant it was probably around um well with season two with the password task uh I mean the password task alone would be Pro actually I can just look it up uh because you're not petting right you know I think what people don't realize when you're making a show is that you don't want to cut because it's more work for yourself in the edit um yeah if if the video feeds are not like the same length and don't have the same content you have to resync it which is a nightmare um right and so you don't want to cut but then you're filming like an hour 30 minutes of footage not cutting this is the everybody wants know not just me yeah for one person for the passwords task it was about 30 GB of footage for one person oh my God so so stressful uh yeah um yeah quite lost store so yeah I use Dropbox for um all those storage stuff um so uh what was the camera setup change to season two yeah oh yeah um I forgot to yeah follow that so yeah season two Luke generously uh offered to help film the whole season uh and so he helped film all of the apartment tasks in the fall um and then uh and then when we started filming in the spring um I I got a girlfriend over the winter and she also uh helped agree to film uh she volunteered to help film uh and uh so we had two camera operators um at the cabin yeah so we had two two camera operators plus me and often I would operate a camera as well but if I needed to be in the task then it was really have two people they filming um yeah so the life hacks are easier six friends and then get a camera or sorry get I've ruined my own joke get six friends and then get a girlfriend and that's how you can improve your tasm yeah highly recommend yeah good good T um yeah yeah filming season two was um a lot uh easier to have other people set up the cameras and they they they also helped set up the tripods and stuff I have to do all that on my own uh which was really nice um so yes well season one actually my other camera person was was also my girlfriend at that time as well so yeah I should mention that too um don't to don't want to walk over you know women's effort in the in television and film making um yeah what else changed um microphones yeah having microphones in season 2 we actually had a laugh mic in season 1 um but we just didn't really use it that much to be honest and obviously I wish I had but it was just kind of a hassle I was like it's fine I can hear I can hear everything on the cameras so it's fine I basically would just have people turn it on if we were going outside or if it was windy yeah and then otherwise I was like if we're filming inside I was like it's fine you don't need to turn the microphone on and definitely I should have of course but um uh yeah and then for the studio session uh C microphones for everybody uh so that was good because yeah a big feedback was that the audio was definitely bad in the studio sessions in season one that was definitely a big feedback I had so we had um nine microphones I believe for the studio sessions for season two because yeah every contestant was miked Carter and I were both miked and then the room was miked as well we actually uh Ian happens to work in uh in uh AV like his professional job so you know I could have I could have guessed that uh but I love that about Ian I I love that's also a big big you know big tip for everyone is get friends who work in this industry and that way they'll help you make your show that was helpful uh so he was able to bring in a nice microphone uh to capture the audience um laughter yeah it's it's hard I just I'm just so clueless about that stuff you I've never before season one I I've never made a video before I've never I'm not a YouTuber I never made a YouTube video I never edited anything I it was completely new to the whole world and I was just figuring out as I was I was just L looking up tutorials as I was editing or just not looking up YouTube tutorials as I was editing just just would edit um I used I used Adobe Premiere for editing and I was just gonna ask I want to know all about the edit I want to know how how you make it um because I have and I say this as a a huge compliment dmaster minota one feels like um a video you made for class but in the best way where you're like we're going to talk about this for the rest of the year like this video was so funny like a class video project um and you know two is really a step up but I think that you did a really great job with one where some people I think do like you talked about earlier either too long edits or the audio is like even worse and you just can't keep going um so what was the edit you're in Premiere um are you like messing with the audio otherwise what was your edit system like yeah I'm trying to figure out the controls I'm trying to figure out what buttons do what uh you know that's a lot of it yo youo what's so sad I just discovered um there's this feature called um RI Ripple delete where you can remove all the space in between two cuts I just you just found out about Ripple delete oh I found out about that after two years of editing it's the most useful thing I do it's I I it's the most I I didn't find that that out inels eding the studio sessions for season two so i' already eded all the tasks so I just found out about um do you know about B about pressing B in the sort of like no I've never hit the B button okay we'll we'll talk about premere off you know anyone wants premere tutorials I used to I used to teach journalism students how to use Premiere when I was in college I you I found out after you I found out after Ripple delete is on episode when I was at episode studio session for like episode four I found out control shift k cuts the whole makes yeah the whole slice yeah I I learned that a couple years in I had been individually cutting every track and there was 11 Tracks every time I made the cut I clicked 11 times it turns out there was a faster way to do that can you believe it you can also just have the you can have the cut tool active with c and then I think you can just hold shift and it'll cut everything like where you put your marker tool it's the same idea I think it's just that you know you one you'd have to have your marker accurate and the you can just click yeah so I'm trying to preface for people basically how little I know about editing how much outside of this world I am um what I had was a lot of effort a lot of heart I put into do I was doing it slowly but like I was getting to where I wanted it to to be just not very efficiently um because I think I think of myself I think as more of a director than an editor um particularly in season 2 when I had some experience under my belt whenever I was filming something I actually had right away as we were filming a very clear Vision in my head of how I wanted the final task to look when I was editing and that was a huge help and I I think that was a great like ability I guess I like sort of trained through doing season one I was like I would be like filming like the feather task or something and I would be like I know exactly how I want to cut this I know exactly where why I want these shots to look like and I'd be able to get the camera in the right spot um so I was very happy with um yeah my own ability to do I was very proud of like myself for like having that sort of like Vision as um really nice yeah so would you would you be able to see like which contestants you wanted to pair together you know like pair together in a in a cut like I I got a lot better at that during season two I often knew um who I wanted to pair together as I was filming um obviously I mean I don't know till everybody's gone but there's a few that were tricky there's a few few tasks that I didn't know how to pair them up but a lot a lot of them I would say like 70% of them I knew exactly as as soon as the last person finished editing I could basically already see the T I could was already watching the task in my mind basically as it is in final a lot of times with M with the right music and all like I often knew what music I wanted playing under it so yeah yeah does the music yeah the music I have found first of all I now like can identify tracks that other people use in fan survive like you just you suddenly um it's almost like you're a sleeper agent in some ways where you're just like oh I know what that's called now I know what that track is like I I can hear the cut in in the music um I was watching champion of champions last night and I was like oh they're using the season 11 music for Sarah again that's so fun because she's from season 11 you just you break your brain in new ways I think when you make a show like it just what um what is your favorite like Taskmaster track to use do you have like a i i really appreciate you use like the alien one sometimes that always makes me laugh um and then sometimes you'll just use music that's like the Wario task with Parker that's just very appropriate but not at all Taskmaster related oh yeah some royaltyfree yeah music for that one I remember I remember that um yeah I have some I definely have some favorite tracks um well yeah there's a couple tracks I just had to stop myself for using for every single task because I just like it so much I really like hery Gertie um which is uh ATT track from season 12 that plays during um uh well the big time it's it's used is not has not aired yet uh but when else did we use it um oh Eric and Parker's bowling attempt that's the song for that attempt um and that's I also use it during the charades task when it's uh everyone but Parker and Jackson That's Eric Bri Cole and Ian all going that same track for that as well uh but they use it one more time in the finale that I it's a use I really enjoy that is one I really enjoy I also really like um swingy thing from uh season 13 uh it's just I love swing music so like it's very that's a very good track it's so catchy um that was used for oh sorry that's no that's a that's a custom track by uh Vine Vine whip I think I meant to say I do like that song as well I think Vine whip is really cool I love that you have somebody making music for Vine whip does an excellent job and I I really love that that one is is great but I didn't mean to say groove groove thing a similar name uh which I used for Bri and Eric moving their feather in the episode one and then oh and then it was really I think the biggest use of it was during uh the pool trick shot task with Bri Cole and Eric and I line up their shots with the music and that was really fun as well so uh uh I think those are probably my two favorite tracks if I had to choose yeah um I first of Al thanks for asking about that I was not expecting a question about what my favorite track was and I know I don't think anybody will care but I I I I'm glad you asked I think that's the honestly that's the premise of this podcast is like nobody cares the target audience for this episode is the two of us and nobody else exact exactly exactly I mean it's like things that people don't think about out um and I think once you like work in TV production or you work in like making your own show it it just kind of comes to mind of like the logistics and and things like um I loved when you did the bowling alley tasks I was like how the [ __ ] did they get to film in a bowling alley and then I I want you to tell the story of like getting yelled at in the bowling alley yeah how do we get to how do we get to film in a bulling alley well we brought we went to the bulling alley and brought some cameras and started filming um that's what happened uh you just kind of hid the tripods behind our backs as we ordered a couple games and then we just set up in the lanes hope nobody said anything about it um as people were you know blindfolded spinning around wearing oven mitts throwing the ball you know pushing you down the lane yeah pushing me down the lane uh I mean people I mean the spinning was spinning was a big one that people were looking over at us for um we got some days like we were the only people in the alley but then other days when we filmed Jackson for instance uh we actually had to wait all the lanes were occupied we had to wait for one to be open and then we filmed at the very end and every other single there was like a bowling league game that day there was like a league doing like a League match and we were just over and Jackson was just spinning me around blindfolded with oven mitts on and I'm just we're we're like squatting down near the near the line and rolling the ball just ridiculous and yeah so when we were filming Jackson's um attempt so nobody really said anything to us um during anyone else's attempt that and and and then we would film The the pool task that's in the same room the they're they're across from each other so we would we filmed the bowling task first and then we would go over and do the pool task and the reason we filmed it in that order actually was in case we got kicked out I wanted to get the bowling task done because I cared about that task more than the pool task so we' always did PLL in first in case we got kicked out I'm like okay let's try to get this one quick through and if we're not kicked out we can go and do this other their pool task um but people were mainly fine with us I even during Parker's attempt uh actually for these tasks he was the only person there when we filmed Parker and I actually like went up to the counter I'm like can you guys just turn the music off we actually don't want the music played and they're like okay and they they turned the music off for us um hell yeah which was so weird during the time because it's just completely dead silent in the whole building and the employees are there it's completely dead silent everything Parker says can clearly be heard throughout the room because there's nobody else there uh so that was weird but it turned out great during editing because I didn't have to edit over music that was playing in the background yeah again like things that that don't matter to anybody else but the minute you get into an edit and you're like oh my God there's music playing this sucks is like yeah suddenly this matters and they're playing it so loud during Eric's attempt but anyways so during Jackson's attempt uh an employee did come up to us and was like hey where are you guys where where you guys doing and we're like oh we just thought he was like Curious we're like oh yeah we're we're filming this like uh YouTube show it's called Taskmaster Minnesota and he's like okay well you're not supposed to be filming in here and we're like oh he's like did you get like a permit to film in here we're like no he's like yeah but it turned out and he's like well I I am actually a big fan of Taskmaster so I'll let you guys keep doing this but for next time please please get a permit and so so lucky he happened to be a Taskmaster fany let's keep filming um so that was yeah big shout outs to that guy I don't know if he's watched it um watched it but that's I hope he has um I hope he sees how worth it it was when he watches the boy tests boy what a task it was um it's a great one and uh I think Jackson was the last person to film that test I don't think we had to get a permit for the next time because I think he was last for the yeah I mean really you just this is my really you just need permission you don't need a permit a permit is mostly for like the outside um especially if you were like setting up like lights you know if you had trucks or or uh impeding traffic or pedestrians but the reality is if you're filming inside private property you just need a you just need permission from the owner to film in private I certainly would not have tried to get a permit if I had to film someone else I would have just hoped that employee wasn't there that day because everyone else seemed fine with it um so how are the graphics made um I know it there's like a a Plugin or like an app that that you can use to make like the scoreboard but how are you sort of making these graphics and and working on like things like the title sequence um oh and another question I just have in general is are you getting flagged are you getting audio flagged I'm very impressed that like everything stays on YouTube and nothing's gotten taken down um yeah I'm amazed as well yeah um wh which Graphics specifically the so I guess I'm curious about um and you know I'm sure other people are about how like the scoreboards are made right because it looks exactly like the Taskmaster scoreboards um in real regular life and the fact that you can not only have the contestants but have like the baby and have other random things sort of getting incorporated into I'm not going to explain the baby at all I just have to say that the baby is a perfect one two punch payoff and people need to watch the first couple episodes SE I'm very happy with how that came out um I didn't realize people were going love it so much but I'm I'm very happy I decided to edit it in that way um well the scoreboard yeah is just um yeah somebody on the internet somebody just made that um and just put it online for people to use I have no idea who they are so yeah um guess I guess uh maybe a fun fact is the fact that we were able to have the baby on the scoreboard on the day in studio was only because I'd done a run I'd done a practice run through with Carter of episode one we so Carter had seen all the tests for episode one but none the other ones no other episodes same with Luke Luke and I did a run through of episode one and then he was and then they were blind for the rest of it but just to like know how it goes and he had made a joke about giving the baby a point and I was like oh that's brilliant like I I'll download a picture of the baby and have it ready to go so you can do that joke in studio and I'll put it on screen so I so so yeah I was very happy we done a run through of that because then that ended up being the greatest joke of the entire season uh due to the fact that we had rehearsed it so that was lucky it makes me wonder like what other bits could we have had if we had rehearsed everything beforehand I beened if there was no spontaneity how could we make this better yeah I mean just with Carter but yeah I mean I don't know maybe it would have been better yeah yeah I don't know but it's nice to see Carter's genuine reactions in studio and Luke's genuine reactions in studio as well particularly Luke Luke Luke had some great reactions in season one he's a laugher so I cut I cut to I cut to him a lot in season one I didn't cut to car Carter was more a silent appreciator he has a big grin on his face a lot I cut a Carter quite as much in season two um but I like the reveal when you cut a Carter like after Tas and he's like crying laughing you know like it's almost like better to just not know how he's feeling because he's he's also a little more um mysterious I think like he's so uh you don't know how he's going to interpret something um I feel like with Carter sometimes he can really love it and sometimes he can be like what the [ __ ] are you doing so it's it's a surprise every time you cut to him yeah and then for the title sequence graphic you also asked about um that was made by my friend Emily who does some graphic design on the side so so and then she also designed my tattoo as well so I'll just show that really quickly for the for the fans at home there it is wow so you're you're more committed than I am hilarious I just thought this would be very funny it is funny I mean there's nothing I know people who have Survivor tattoos it is like it's cool you're committed to the thing um that was such a great bit I was very happy with that it was big pressure for Emily to design something that was be the logo and then also I was like by the way I'm gonna tattoo this on my body and she's like what I have to like make this good now when it comes to making the thumbnails are are you picking out the thumbnail frames what are you looking for when you're making a thumbnail interesting question the thumbnails um yeah I I I crowdsourced a few of them I did post in my group chat just like a couple options I was like what thumbnail do you guys think looks better it h yeah I try to pick just a moment from a task that I want people to remember um I'm trying to balance who's in the thumbnails get equal number of everybody and then uh the tricky thing is is that the the action has to be on the right side of the frame because the title's on the left side of the frame uh so it's hard there's a lot of things I would have liked to use as as thumbnails but the person was on the left side of the frame and I couldn't like crop it enough to make it work I just had to use something else so that's sort of tricky so yeah a lot of thought went into the thumbnails and especially the episode titles L thought went into those as well um we argue a lot about the episode titles actually yeah that's a great we we'll get into the episode title discussion in a second I will just say you know if anybody is watching this who actually likes tasm Minnesota I would say if you uh mirror the image and the left goes to the right I wouldn't mind if it if it was backwards I'm sure some people would be like up your people love to be so personnic about something um I'm sorry this is mirror reverse but I wouldn't mind I think if it's people have complained about the episode title every single episode which oh my God uny about except except for what except for hog job Emporium people are in unanimous agreement that that was that was the title oh my gosh um what do you I guess what is the process for for picking a title what's are you thinking about when it comes to um decisions it's hard yeah it's hard and I looks towards Alex hord and what Al and Alex and the Andes have said about episode title selection um something they said is they never pick something from like the first task they try to make it from later in the episode which is sort of interesting and I'm mostly stuck to that I think I maybe have one that's from the first task of the episode but I think I'm most mostly actually stuck to that um I they try to pick they try to pick something that was underappreciated in studio they said that they said in an interview they try to pick something that would did not get a lot of attention in studio and they wanted to highlight I did not do that so much I tried to pick some that did get attention in studio something that was memorable something that people laughed at um sort of trying to balance the who says each one but prioritizing a good title over that um yeah did not get one from everyone this season um but I think um it should be funny at uh I I I like generally what I'm looking for is something that's funny out of context like if you just see the episode title and you don't watch the episode um it's still mildly funny um which I think we've nailed has to be short under five words is what I was going for which I think did I did I have any there over five I see I'm I'm on the the wiki right now and I see that there's nothing under under five so I would assume every you mean everything's under five everything's up uh the only one I've wanted that my entire life is six but from season one um uh yeah and then the other thing is it's nice if it has an additional meaning in context as well so funny out of context but then in context there's an additional meaning that makes it funnier um but also not something that would spoil the joke um something that wouldn't uh ruin ruin the punchline um which is uh something I see something that people don't understand actually I I see a lot of people both in regular Taskmaster and my version recommend episode titles I'm like well that would have ruined the joke at the if people knew that joke was coming um I think the prime example I always think of for that was people say that uh for season 14 episode three the sa with the sabotage task uh dafty in the middle I believe is the the title they went with good good title A lot of people say the episode title should have been divide and Conga which is what M says when they're introducing the task is it should the should have been dividing Conga uh which I agree is a better line it's it's funnier it's really good but if that had been the episode title people would have seen the punch line coming and it would have ruined the joke so that's actually a big it's a big consideration even though it's a funnier line you can't use that as the episode title it would have ruined the joke at the time and dafty in the middle is like this moment where you can totally miss it if you're not paying attention to what Fern says because she doesn't like she doesn't she she doesn't eat it up yeah no she's just she's just calling John that and being like yeah this guy's a [ __ ] idiot anyways movie got like and I think you're it's interesting I I I never heard Alex describe it like that but I think it's really true you don't want to you almost what I have found with Taskmaster is like I once watched um the the song task I watched it like five times the season five song task and there's all these little things my favorite task of all time by the way my favorite task of all time I I think my favorite task of all time is the the tie the tie yourself up and then boiler suit task I just I lost my absolute mind the first time I but that I saw somebody dunking on that task yesterday I was like what an idiot my God that's that's that's a top five task for sure when um when you have a task any task there's so many moments that are under the under the radar funny where like there's there's a moment in the task where um in the season five has where like hello lady they're just talking to one person so they just say like hello lady they don't even say like ladies and gentlemen yeah yeah yeah and it's things like that that you wouldn't notice on the first time maybe or you're not looking for the you're looking for the big punchline and I think Taskmaster is also all about the little jokes in between the big punch lines um yeah and you have to watch it with close eye so it's it's interesting that that really plays into to naming episodes yeah I have all the alternate titles here for the episodes if you want to hear those I I would love to hear those I have you posted them before like I feel like they're uh yeah sometimes I put them in the in the Taskmaster Discord um or in the live chat Discord which you youve plugged and blown up in some way I didn't mean to yeah I didn't mean to plug it and blow it up I I I felt kind of badot T people started joining it I was like whoops I joined I was like hell y'all I'll be in here yeah um but anyways yeah for episode one um I had uh some alternate titles I had from the bowling task uh so the episode one was public information sauce which I I really like um some other ones were utterly defeated Pikachu uh when Brie says Pikachu After Rolling the the gutter ball Al and then par Parker describes it in studio later as I liked Bri I liked your utterly defeated Pikachu was good and then of course President Michael Obama of course which is what I actually wanted the episode title to be but I couldn't use it because there's like this weird right-wing conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is is a man and the name of that conspiracy is the Michael Obama conspiracy because Mich oh my God so I couldn't use that because I didn't want people to like find that when Googling it so uh so that was unfortunate I would have liked to use those episode title I didn't want to cross wires with the weirdo um episode two sweet sweet sweet iron from Cole's how-to video very good um I also had Rippling hunky Sigma from Jackson's video of course very good but I felt like that was not really an understated moment that was definitely the moment of the episode so it didn't really need to be highlighted necessarily um and then just more from when Jackson asks Parker more pickles just more more pickles umon two Adam context video is going to be off the charts I can't wait yeah and then I think we have one other good one from episode um from episode four the painting task it's at least you're smiling it's a quote from my mom and I knew that the episode I had to be from my mom but there's so many good ones that she had I all the alternate are just other things she said during that task I had um from a place of real fear describing KS um and that is one version of you describing how I jerk off so you know really really good stuff yeah this this task was I think like Elite tier like I was laughing so hard watching it I have to say I I was looking forward to season uh you know champion of champions 3 I am I was more so looking forward to the next two episodes of season 2 I don't know what it is I think that you just know that there's going to be more like it's longer I think you said it's 90 minutes right yeah episode and I just it's it is much more satisfying I think when you have more content per episode than than I mean champion of champions going down from two episodes to one is like a crime I feel yeah I'm glad you think so I I'm not super happy about the episodes being really long but then I posted I posted like these episodes year long and everybody was very excited I'm like really okay great I never know how people are gonna react to anything that's one thing I've learned this season for sure um I I want to ask about uh the art of ordering tasks per episode and putting them um in which episode but also kind of in tandom with the structure of live shows like okay I think creating the live show is actually the most difficult part of Taskmaster because you have like ordering the tasks well like putting on the whole shebang of like getting people to watch the show getting everybody riffing but also like kind of moving through the the filming so let's definitely start with like ordering the tasks and putting them in in an episode structure okay what are you looking for when you're putting episodes uh together um I'm trying to balance between objective and subjective tasks good good mix um so we have at least one of each at least one subjective task per there's there's more objective tests than subjective tests so at least one subjective test per episode sometimes there's two um I usually like to begin and end with an objective task or at least end with one um that's more if I have to choose then I I'll end I'll try to end with an objective task um because I never really like it when the real show ends on a subjective task because then sometimes it feels like Greg's picking a winner so I like to end on an objective task um just sort of seems more it's more like when there's one task we've seen the scoreboard there's one task left to earn some final points but there's nothing you can do you just got to sit back and watch it see who did that test the best I sort of like ending with an objective task are you doing do you have like a ratio of subjective to objective in like the overall task number are you doing like slightly more objective or are you doing an even yeah slight slightly more objective I don't have the exact ratio I think it's about two3 to oneir I think um uh yeah and then I like mixing up uh I tried to have only one I tried to even out the [Music] um the adapted tasks I guess I'm mostly just talking about season two because that's what's more recent for me um I tried to even out the the the adap adapted Tas there's only one or two per episode U and there's none in episode one I was intentional about that I want episode one to be all original tasks as well um and then the team tasks of course just spread them out that's not too difficult um yeah it's hard and then there was just so that was like the basic guidelines and then a lot of individual tasks had I had actually what I did is I made a spreadsheet of all the rules of this task has to be before this one this one has to be after that one because a lot of them reference each other um so I had like a lot of rules like um doing the compliments and insults task uh had to be on the same episode as the sabotage task because one of Ian's compliments is he compliments uh Cole's lack of perception during the uh during the egg task uh so that had to those had to be in the same episode and then in the same episode had to be the stealth task because that's the same episode I give Jackson the wrong task and he reads the um the compliments and insults task instead that's the that's the one he opens up and reads so that so that's sort of a joke as well so that had to go in the same episode too um and then yeah so that that was just some sort of yeah rules there um one thing I learned one philosophy point that changed between seasons one and two of how I ordered the episodes was season one I saved a lot of good tasks for the end and I tried to make every episode sort of equal in like how many tasks I really liked I tried to spread them out um which ended up being a huge mistake and I changed that in season two because what happened I didn't realize what was gonna happen season one is I every was G watch episode one and then sort of stopped you know the views sort of went down after episode which is like natural for any any YouTube series so this season I changed it up I just put my eight favorite tasks in the first two episodes I was just like what are the best tasks let's put them all in the first two episodes and it's just all downhill from there um so uh so season so episode one is in my opinion the four best tasks of the Season steel candy from a baby the feather obstacle course make the pizza make the best pizza and the bowling task uh and I'm very happy that I did that because yes indeed in fact episode one has about three times as many views as every other episode so very happy with that I I I think this why I love taskmasters you you say those tasks to me and I'm like yeah those are all really funny and I kept watching after that but things like the you know the portrait task or um yeah the the it's pretty easy since all the tasks are pretty good so yeah it's like great but I'm like oh wow there's so many others that I like really love um and uh I thought it was great I also really like your decision talking about the live show again to do like one or two live tasks but not do a whole I think the live tasks are also not unnecessary I think with a with an audience they're really fun and interactive but sometimes coming up with a live task I feel like gives you a a moment where you're like okay that just happened and um it is what it is yeah where I think more yeah there's just basically there's just some live tasks that I wanted to do and that was the rationale I would like to see them try to do the convince the Taskmaster to give you six points T ask I would just like to see them do that [ __ ] the entertainment value I want to see it so um yeah and then we had one every other episode because the studio sessions were filmed two at a time so every audience got to see one live task so yeah every audience got to see one live task and one team task so I felt it worked out pretty well um yeah no I cannot I cannot I think for season one had a better job of predicting how the audience was going to like certain things or certain tasks or certain episodes or certain contestants season two the audience has totally defied my expectations um somebody just said somebody like a lot of people are saying episodes five and six were their favorite two episodes so far and I'm like those are definitely my two least favorite episodes of the season I cannot anticipate what people are going to like and what people aren't going to like this season in particular I've just been so wrong um favorite tasks and favorite contestants too I've gotten all of them pretty much entirely wrong of what I think my favorites are um and what uh the audience's favorites are it it's baffling I I've been truly baffled at the audience response of the season season one I pretty much had a handle on it but yeah I don't know so I saw you talked about how um making a live show you have everything in a Google slide and that's how you're sort of uh showing you just you just reading all of my comments I make everywhere that's that's something I said in a you in buried in a YouTube comment somewhere right yeah I I I kind of Love YouTube so like again I'm I'm you know logged into my Survivor New York account and I love reading YouTube comments it's my favorite thing because it just is like a really authentic response from an audience member um and what I appreciate about you is that you're responding to a lot of them and when people I don't understand why other creators don't do that there's not that many to respond resp to it's pretty easy to keep track of them I don't understand why other creat don't like respond to comments it's very fun I don't know yeah and and I think maybe it's maybe I'm privileged because I have like lots of positive comments there's almost no negative comments so maybe that's why maybe other people don't want to read the negative comments but we just don't have any so yeah I I I I like reading the answers because I think it it's also again I have these questions about what's going on and then I can get the anwers from from YouTube comments so walk me through the process of like prepping a live episode what are you doing ahead of time um like how are I know you got like audience members but maybe for season one you've never done this before how are you how are you thinking about making a live audience and and making a live show happen yes okay yeah it was definitely a different process for season one season two for sure season one um was pretty uh I mean it was just very fun and sort of casual because uh I didn't realize people were be watching this so I just invited my friend friends and family but I happen to have a lot of friends so we filled up that room pretty quickly yeah you know I'm just so popular it's truly such a curse sometimes um but I mean but honestly I mean season one is just my friends so and there's like 20 203 people there so um pretty good uh and it was scheduling it was stressful there was only two days that everybody was available so we had to film in those two days um yeah getting people to show up on time was difficult to you delay the start and I guess the most stressful thing about season one is I just had no idea how long it was going to take I had no estimation people were like how long is it going to run I like I I can't tell you I have absolutely no idea how how long this is going to run uh it was about like two hours per episode so it turned out to run pretty long but um I uh definitely misjudged I thought it was going to be shorter yeah it took it took a long time um say the cameras was a little bit stressful I wasn't sure where we wanted the cameras what sort of angles we wanted we were not thinking about audio at all so no stress there we kind didn't even think about it just assumed it was going to be fine um and then um I guess the biggest thing was prepping the contestants for it um because most of them had not seen Taskmaster before and I was pretty explicit in explaining to them I got them all together and I was like let's this is what basically we're looking for here there's um it's a very delicate balance between uh competitiveness and humor and like uh trying to to or trying to argue you away from more points without going overboard um I basically uh because I know like a main reason that people point to as to why the US Taskmaster failed was because the contestant were too competitive and they they yelled too much cared too much about the points that's a main thing people point to as a reason for that failing I'm like well here's the second chance at an American Taskmaster we need to you know uh I mean I didn't really think people were going to watch it but I'm like if people watch it what they're going to be looking for is are these people acting like obnoxious Americans or do they understand what Taskmaster is about so I'm like I so I think why I said I don't remember exactly what I said to them because a couple years ago but I think I said like Embrace losing you know uh often people really like the losers like that's almost every season the fan favorite is whoever comes in last so Embrace losing try to argue for points you explain your point of view but do so in a humorous way try not to get worked up over over the points um and like and definitely step in when other people are doing attempts step in and insult them that's what people like you know people like sort of the snarking comments about other people's attempts and sort of uping your own but then accepting the Judgment if if you know like what it should be is like arguing like oh yeah mine's great and as soon as somebody else says no it's terrible you're like yeah true like that's that's what the spirit is is say it's great until somebody else says it's bad and then be like yeah it is is kind of bad actually um because you're also gonna have like wins and losses like it's it's kind of like playing sports where it's like you're not you're not going to win everything and in fact if you do win anything it's not as fun like if you have somebody who's just getting five stars five points every single time then there's no uh there's no conflict it's just like oh they're winning and nobody else has a chance of winning yeah what's what's interesting though is that Ben was like definitely emerged as like a fan favorite from season one despite the fact he was doing everything I told him not to do T taking the scoring you arguing very passionately for his score it's not agreeing with the Taskmaster judgments always saying that he should have gotten more points for everything so I don't know but he I guess I think what it was is that he was giggling and laughing and smiling throughout all of his arguments I think that's maybe what aded people to him um for season two the approach to the live shows was a little bit different yeah obviously I put out something on YouTube asking people to come to the shows we had a great response people came from all over uh people drove in from Iowa and Michigan um I mean nine-hour drive from Michigan some people um uh some my sister flew in from North Carolina um spicy uh flew in from California uh but we were sort of friends but then what was really surprising is the people that flew in from uh California who I didn't know uh no not where are they from um you somebody somebody who I didn't know did like a six- hour drive to come uh and I was like oh my God why um and they just like turned around and went home after that like they just came to see that um and then the biggest thing and this will be revealed in the finale I don't know if you want cut this from the podcast because maybe a spoiler but in episode8 we have a fan fly in from London to come to tasm Minnesota wow and so I was so touched I I invited him on stage for the banter section for episode8 he comes on stage at the beginning of the episode and I asked him uh why did you fly here from London and he has a very touching very wholesome response um uh that was amazed he flew from London to see Taskmaster Minnesota I'm like you I'm like you know real Taskmaster is over there right like that's crazy um I guess you you get invited on stage at regular Taskmaster you get inv Minnesota you get the honorary sort of like almost like a fake fake degree just like yeah you were a contestant because you showed up here on stage I mean I I was a little sad to because I saw the video I was like oh yeah here's when we were filming and I was like oh man it's like December if I was to months earlier like maybe I could have gone and seen an episode like that would have been really funny um it was fun I everybody who came was very happy they did so it seemed like it was a lot of fun um and do you guys do like like parties afterward or you like because I I I really love also the cast photos that you have um the sort of group photos I think are really emblematic of of everybody having a good time are you guys like going out afterwards are you sort of celebrating like people are are excited to to celebrate the hard work you've done yeah we went out to dinner after every um studio session um although not not everybody came and some people didn't come to any of them but um uh Ian and Bri came to all of them and uh Parker came to two of them Carter came to two of them Jackson came to one Cole came to zero uh Eric came to zero I think as well so um yeah Eric yeah Eric didn't come to any yeah unfortunately but yeah we did have some some some uh group dinners which is nice and obviously we're all friends so we you know still see each other I did love and we're and what we're doing now actually is every week we are having a watch party online of the upcoming episodes before they come out we're do it on Sundays the the week before uh so we just had one yesterday actually um for episode seven we all got together and watched that online uh which is nice um uh yeah and we share share our thoughts we do lots of and whenever we see each other we're generally talking about tasm so it's like about we just love talking about it that's the the thing about all of these shows is that uh I have friends who will talk about Survivor games that have happened pre pandemic they will still talk about the intricacies of those games and you're like wow we can't let anything go but I'm still thinking about the Taskmaster that I did and being like actually I was kind of robbed on this task and I like don't want to talk about it but I do want to tell you that I deserve more points and you just it doesn't leave the brain whatsoever yeah it'll be with us forever I think um some other things that were different to get back to your original question some other things that were different about the stud the season 2 Studio shows was I actually sent everybody a few episodes to watch and to prepare for banter I specifically chose not the best episodes but I picked the three episodes in the whole series that I thought had the best banter sections or the best in studio banter um and they were season 7 episode one The mean being um season nine episode six another spoon where Carrie Subs in for Katie and Ed gamble says you're you're not even supposed to be on this show um I set that specifically because I knew Cole wasn't gonna be at some show I want to show them how that would work and then season 13 episode two the noise that blue makes um because where AR is super about everything um I I just want to say shuo I think shoo yeah whichever episode Ardell was snarkiest then that that was the one yeah I'm like just be like ell exactly the thing about Taskmaster 13 that people are undervaluing is ell Handlin is [ __ ] crazy and he everything like you have Sophie and Bridget being insane you have Judy love being insane Aro henin is also insane he's just like a little bit under season 13 is the is the season I have the most trouble picking a favorite contestant from I think every other season I know who my favorite is season 13 it's like a it's like a yeah complete tie between everyone um Ardell is probably my number one contestant of all time in terms of studio uh in terms Studio he's so everything he says in studio is so funny number one contestant in terms of yeah being in studio say funny [ __ ] he's so funny who's the number one just overall who's the all around pick ghost con's my number one overall uh everything ghost said during a task or outside made me die laughing like nobody else ever has so yeah definitely goes um yeah I kind of have that same problem with you have a 13 with with New Zealand too because there's just something about like guy Montgomery in particular like really tickles like that part of my brain that's like oh this guy's [ __ ] hilarious um especially the I feel I find the Casual Taskmaster contest contant is so entertaining and I I do think that's kind of what you have in this cast where everybody's not being like loud or showy or like they're not professional comedians or attention Seekers so they're not like uh trying to be as campy as possible everybody's just at this level of like yeah hey I don't know if you know this but you're insane and the things you say are insane are hilarious and they'll just they're very calm uh about it which I think people like guy mon have to their nature and their comedic Persona yeah it's a good season guy guy is my favorite from That season and guy is my fourth favorite contestant overall you got the tier list in the head I got I got I have a top five but yeah yeah what did you learn about your friends as contestants what did you is there anything you discovered about them that you thought was unexpected or or just you learned more did anybody like subvert your expectations or or stick exactly to them um yeah I talked a little about with season one right already um I'll say Henry did much worse than I thought he would going to because he had watched the second most Taskmaster out of that entire cast and he played the game like he had never heard of Taskmaster before so that was surprising Henry did yeah much worse than I thought he was going to do I thought he was a contender until we started filming um I I mean I knew Parker was going to do well um max behaved exactly how I thought he would oh and predict behaved exactly as I thought he would I think Carter yeah Henry is really the only person who surprised me in season one I think everyone else I know my friends pretty well and I think they did exactly as I as I thought um I think if I had done a a score prediction I don't think I did a score prediction before filming but I think if I had I definitely would have put Ben and last and Parker uh in first or are we not spoiling that I'm not sure what we're doing here but we'll live you'll allow it um season two we're almosts in if somebody's listening they've watched this whole season I feel like yeah that's my thoughts as well why yeah why would I watch SE um um season two um the most surprising person by far was definitely Eric um for sure um and uh it's hard because his most unhinged moments have not appeared yet is seven and eight I think is where he really show although wait we've seen the pizza which is in episode one so okay we've seen the pizza and we've seen the fish head right oh yes yes um so yeah uh Eric um is an interesting contestant in that I didn't know him that well um we had actually met um uh after season one uh I met Eric in a in a class we were taking a comedy class together um and we were put in a group project where we had to make a video which is in fact what you said the vibe of season one was and this is funny I was gonna butt in and say that's how I met Eric was we did a group project where we had to make a funny video together and I mentioned I had some video making experience I mentioned tmas moo season one and he like watched it and he was like he like went home and watched it and came back the next day in class he's like that was so like so funny oh my gosh and so he sort of became friends through that so we didn't really know each other and then we became friends because he watched Minnesota season one yeah um we ended up hanging out a little bit outside of class but I didn't know him that well we hadn't hung out that much but when I announced I was doing season two um he was the first person to respond actually he was the first person to respond out of anybody he said please let me be on season two please please please um and such an enigma when he started speaking Russian this last episode I was like who the [ __ ] is this guy it was great just yeah I was like okay uh yeah so um right so we did that and then he uh was I was like so basically when I cast Eric I was like I don't know about I don't really know him I don't know if he's gonna be that funny like I don't know if he's a funny person at all I I was under the impression that he wasn't really that funny of a person like he like moderately not someone I would have thought to cast but I was like you know what we've got six contestants I I trust five of them are going to be great so I guess we'll just take we'll take a risk on Eric we have six contestants we can always just cut him with other people it'll be fine and then we did the fall filming and it was the most like after the filming I was like I like turned to Luke I was like that was the most unhinged filming session we've ever he's the most unhinged contestant we've ever had including Parker both seasons um his most in the finale episode he does something particularly um that I mention this is the one of the F this is the second task that we filmed and he does something so crazy that I wasn't expecting and the first task we filmed was yeah the fish head that was the first thing he did on Taskmaster and I just thought he was gonna be this sort of shy sort he was sort of shy I knew him as like sort of shy guy polite young man yeah very polite young man and the first thing he filmed was the fish head thing which was so so funny and then we filmed uh yeah the pizza task where he's the only person in the whole cast to make me eat something [ __ ] disgusting and he's just so delightfully on hin so he was my favorite contestant to film this season um yeah unexpectedly even though I didn't really know him and we haven't even we haven't I I hate to say we haven't hung out much since the season ended but he was so fun to film I he was my favorite contestant of film this season uh in ahead of all my friends that I've known for much longer longer I the person I really enjoyed filming was Eric um he was the true surprise of the season um by by a long shot it really really surprised me of of who he was uh in Taskmaster so funny um other people that surprised me for this season I think similar to season one Parker Jackson was a little bit well no that's not true no Jackson was pretty unhinged as well which I was sorted uh I was talking about this last night with some friends I was saying yeah Jackson wasn't as unhinged as I thought he was and they're like what are you talking about do you remember the paint Tas do you remember the feather test do you remember the bowling test do you remember the I'm like okay yeah good point he was actually pretty unhinged but he he does it in such a calm manner he he you can't tell that he's being unhinged because he keeps playing it completely straight but yeah he's just got that like Midwestern like sort of voice and he's just so totally normal yeah um somebody who I think I think subverted my expectations a little bit is Bri I thought that Bri was gonna be um this is gonna sound like an it's I thought Bri was gonna be so logical to the point of like not funny but actually Bri is also illogical and also sometimes takes the insane choice and they're very funny but I thought they were just gonna be like so smart and that it wasn't wasn't gonna be entertaining yeah I yeah I don't know I I'm surprised that like bri has sort of been emerging as a fan favorite it's not anything that any of us here in Minnesota were expecting least of all Bri Bri felt very bad that they were like not very entertaining on the show and it turns out that people [ __ ] love him it's it's great so um that was unexpected yeah um yeah they got they got a subtlety to them it's like very yeah you have to listen for it but they're they're they're just as funny especially um this the dream sequence where just off camera laughing thought you're G to cut that out not yeah it is there you go um yeah um yeah uh Cole was an interesting casting as well um just because I know he's such an interesting person I know that he thinks differently from everyone else I just wanted to see how his mind would react to tasks he's obviously very different from any person if you ask me like who the who the analoges are um in the UK Taskmaster regular Taskmaster with contestants from our season I don't think there is an analog for Cole I think he's one of a kind uh I can't think of anyone who ever acted like him on the regular Taskmaster yeah prove prove you're smarter than the other contestant was such a funny like coal moment where he you almost want to be like stop stop like you're going too far in the wrong direction you don't want to you want to do derail him almost but you like let him cook let him cook he's got something insane up his sleeve yeah I um Ian surprised me with how bad he was at a lattest I thought he'd be better at stuff I love Ian I think Ian's so funny yeah yeah that's good stuff I think that's everybody so a question I I had uh is is what do you think makes Taskmaster Minnesota motan what kind of is the influence of the state of Minnesota because I think uh Minnesota is a great state to be Taskmaster connected I feel like it's such a quirky place um compared to a lot of the Midwest and I I think I you know I I love Minnesota I love uh that my friends from there and I think you guys all really fit the energy of Taskmaster well what did you try to to how did you bring the Minnesota to Taskmaster Minnesota oh what a great question I don't know yeah our personality seems to work pretty well with it um I don't know but our personality is made up of a lot of things Minnesota which is one aspect I think being young really helps uh people who sort of I think the Gen Z style of humor is actually pretty on brand with Taskmaster um pretty self-deprecating you know things like that um and uh finding the joy and like edits you know funny funny cuts and stuff um I was having this conversation with um with uh uh somebody online uh recently about how it seems like our sense of humor is more inspired by the internet than by TV which the regular seems more more more the the AUD the humor plays more for TV and ours plays more for the internet there's a very like clear distinction there which I think I agree with um I think uh minnesotans tend to be have that sort of Midwestern uh bit passive aggress passive aggression which works well for the studio sessions uh that's like a very Midwestern thing um but also like General politeness for very kind uh everybody I I mean all everyone who's on the season is just like the kindest people ever which is very valuable for making the production in the first place and then just in studio there's I feel like there's a real sense of heart uh underneath I think yeah play into Minnesota stuff um we're pretty direct we're direct people I think uh well are we no I guess Minnesota is actually known for not being that direct but you what else it is is uh this is my cousin's Theory my cousin's he had an interesting thing to say about because he hates the UK task M he does not think it's funny but he loves our version we are we are way funnier and his theory is that I am Jewish and there's I'm injecting a sense of Jewish humor to it um and that's the directness the bluntness the self-deprecation the uh fight the sort of rebellion against Authority um sort of Jewish uh infusions but I don't know I don't know how I this I think he tends to view lots of things through that lens that was like jism yeah he did he did his uh senior Capstone project on uh Jewish comedy so he I think he tends to view things through that lens but it's I I think it's a funny I like I'm also Jewish I think that's such a funny lens to look at Taskmaster through um it is interesting it's definitely interesting to think about yeah I I work um on a TV show hosted by uh Phil Rosenthal who's like you know a a Jewish comedy writer who like I think made a living off of the gripes and you know groans of Judaism that I and you know like someone like David bedil who I think even like makes jokes about being Jewish during Taskmaster like it it is there in a lot of ways um yeah and also just like complaining I think that there's such a um a willingness to just complain to somebody to their face and also be able to take that like people are just like literally being like David I [ __ ] hate this why did you make me do this and you're just like yeah I don't know you're here so you have to yeah just take it at face value I also think the lake plays a really big part into this season um you know there's there's the lake in New Zealand which I think creates a lot of Great Moments and I think that obviously Minnesota is such a a lake not a lake-based economy but a lake lake based society lake lake based culture for sure yeah and um the sauna uh Lake saying was a great like yeah that was fun yeah had to honor that side of my Heritage too because I'm also part Finnish so um okay how much time do you spend uh on the product as a whole uh so I I want to talk about like how much time you spend like filming and editing but then also um what's the edit schedule like between filming the live studio because you know break it down for anyone who's listening like you have to edit the tasks ahead of time then you have to air those tasks for the audience and then you have to take those tasks and cut them into the filming of the audience and then you have to put the whole thing out so curious about how long it takes you to edit the tasks and then how long it takes you to edit the uh studio and then are are you you know what's your airing to to finishing schedule like you finish an episode where does it um when does it get published on YouTube but let's start let's start with how long it takes to edit the tasks um editing the tasks takes a long [ __ ] time uh it's really brutal it is the part I I dislike the most for sure um uh uh you for oh man for a single task it will take me uh anywhere between well single task attempt let's break it down as as far as we can go so a single task attempt so either one two or three contestants doing a task that could take me anywhere between I would say of just editing of minutes editing it's probably anywhere from like two hours to like eight hours yeah for a single attempt um so for a task it's can be uh two to three days of editing um in terms of the entire show uh season one was edited from um you know what actually give me a second because actually somebody asked me this and I texted them I wrote them the answer I emailed them so actually I have an exact timeline here because I looked it all up people could reach out to the email with all their intricate questions well that's literally what happened somebody emailed me and just asked me how long did that any take and I wrote he he asked me what the timeline was here's here's the timeline this exactly I emailed him so season one I wrote tasks in April we filmed from May through July so editing was basically from June through August the studio sessions were in August so I edited pretty fast season one two two to three months um because Owen had to go back to school in Wisconsin at the end of August so we had to get Studio done by then so I was just editing as fast as possible and then we released the first episode in October so the studio sessions were in August and then released in October I think I'd only finished episode one and I just released it and I was just like I'll just edit the rest of them as they come up because I because people just wanted to see the episode really quickly so yeah you know people have been hearing about it my friends they're like I want to see the people who weren't able to come to Studio shows like I want to see I want to see it so I was like okay I'll just release it but then I was trying to keep to like a one a week timeline and that didn't work out so I think I think a couple episodes in season one got delayed I don't quite remember um okay season two we film tests in September and October of 2022 and that was editing throughout the winter I think I finished editing in maybe February um and then we filmed cabin tasks from May through July of 2023 uh so three months there and then we filmed the team tasks in August and then there was just editing throughout um all the way through through September so really June June July August September was all editing um and then we filmed in October um and then the first and then October November December I edited the first five episodes in studio to give myself a little bit of a buffer this time and the first episode came out in December with with four in stored in the bank and I was editing I'm not done editing I'm halfway through the finale right now so I'm almost done but yeah you're you always reach a point where you're just playing catchup and hoping that nobody cares if it comes out a day later in terms of how much I was editing um basically while I was editing I would basically edit anywhere from 20 to 40 hours a week while also working a full-time job um uh pretty much a nonstop for the entire I was really editing throughout um the year um I estimate around 300 400 hours of editing I think overall for season two do you have anyone helping you at all like watching footage or is it really just like it's easier if I just do the whole thing um I did all the editing by myself I sent the final I sent rough cuts to Luke and my sister Vivian and they would give feedback and I'd re-edit but no I did I did every single moment of editing was all me I mean in insane amazing this is and it's funny because I feel like then it all people offered to help but I am kind of a perfectionist I really yeah couldn't I couldn't hand hand over the Reigns to anyone else even for a moment I I really cared so much about the the product and I wanted to see the whole thing through myself so I I want to ask about um developing like your relationship to the contestants as their filming and then also taking the relationship so like I'm really interested in what happens with Carter where Carter goes from being a contestant on season one to being the Taskmaster um he goes from like giving you a massage in this awful attic to like 100 100 degree attic yeah to becoming your boss uh you know quote unquote um and I think you guys I think you and Luke have a very nice report but I think it it um gets really bolstered with Carter in season two um so how do you develop that relationship um and and I guess I'm I'm kind of asking like the esoteric questions right the sort of like uh yeah what is it like to go from a contestant to a Taskmaster and have him sort of change that role yeah he wasn't supposed to actually it was originally supposed to be Max was going to be the one elevated to Taskmaster status between the seasons um he uh unfortunately had to back out about a month before Studio filming uh which sent me into a panic a bit of a flurry uh and well well Carter was already going to be involved I I had Carter booked to be the replace the sit in for for for the entire back half of the Season it was just to be Carter um sitting for Cole because I felt that's where Carter shined was in studio uh like defending tasks um but then yeah Max backed out I said Carter can you be the Taskmaster and he was like No And I was like please I who else am I gonna ask and he's like uh I guess I don't know so I guess I'll do it um I don't know who else would have been able a to do it because I don't know maybe Luke again but he is the camera man so he'd already seen everything so sort of would have ruined a little bit of the um reveals and such so um so Carter is very gracious enough to accept uh he did not feel comfortable in the role at all I don't think um I wouldn't even go so far as to say he enjoyed being the Taskmaster um I think it was very hard for him it's really not his personality type he struggled to we had to keep telling him after every episode the contestants would come up from like Carter you can be meanor to me like Parker was like Carter be meanor to me and you can see there's a distinct shift when Carter starts being meanor to Parker after Parker told him to be Meer to him um it was right before episode four where where Carter takes away the point from Parker for the painting task it was because Parker had asked him to be meanor to him right before that that task and then after that episode car Parker was like thank you for taking that point away from me like that was great um it's so fascinating to me because I think Carter to me of course not knowing him very well fits so perfectly into this role of like he almost oh my God I don't want to sound like I'm bullying Carter because I'm not but he feels like um do you remember like in kids next door like the delightful children from down the lane or like those like characters where it's like like he is quite creepy I agree yeah like I see I I read it as like rich and evil like almost like a like a rich or like just you know these characters where it's like it's a child in a suit and you're like that child's evil and I don't like that energy um yeah that's almost how I see his Taskmaster Persona where he's just sort of it's hard for him because he's in real life he's so sweet he's such a sweet yeah like he wasn't as mean in the in season one in his tasks I found um he was just pretty genuine and upfront but that's that's his Taskmaster energy not his real life energy it's just Taskmaster is like almost like looking down on everyone Snidely and commentating yeah yeah oh man I think he did a great job as s master um yeah yeah I mean my faite get a lot of really great lines I think yeah yeah I I need like a compilation of him just someone was like oh there's the best of Carter doing Tas I was like no no no I need his like Taskmaster lines I need to like him sniping at people although the Carter doing like the M like thrust is my favorite moment of season one I laugh every time I see it I think because he when he does like the pants M with the Rope I I just lose it every time that and also of course Monopoly task which I don't want to spoil and people should just watch yeah that's a great oh he saved that task so hard that task was like so mediocre until Carter went that was great um I also wanted wanted to talk a little bit about like the dynamic that comes from like Max when Max calls you just straight up cringe it felt very reminiscent of when like Alex Horn's friends were like what the [ __ ] are you doing how does it feel to have your friends sort of commenting on this Persona that you're putting on in order to put the show on it was yeah that was fun because he Max was the most Taskmaster Savvy you know and he uh I really enjoyed playing off him that that sort of um banter between us it's sort similar to what I'm doing with Eric this season um having somebody who's quite antagonistic to me was definitely Max in season one and Eric in season two has has sort of picked up his uh his torch and it's really funny um I like and I liked my favorite moment of filming with Max was when I got to turn the tables on him because he had been quite mean to me but when he um my favorite moment of Max in season one is when he realizes the die that he's rolling is all fives there's no is a fake die and he's like oh my God and he just laughs because he can't believe it that's such a genuine moment from him um I think I don't know I think our relationship in the show is very similar to our relationship in real life there is a lot of snipping back and forth uh and it's very it's always just so fun I think the most accurate I think Max and a nutshell the moment that sums him up the best is the the fort the fort task um where he's where we're arguing in I think somebody mentions it in studio you weren't we weren't arguing we were arguing at the time while we were filming it about whether or not he left the fort during his martial arts exhibition he's like oh yeah well no but I but like I didn't leave the the realm of martial arts mentality you know I didn't leave that that that head space in the moment so that doesn't really count out and like um and I'm like but but you're saying you did leave the 40 like well I wouldn't really well you know you sort of have to understand martial arts to understand so I wouldn't really expect you to understand like that it's just so classic Max very I I poor Max when Max is revealed that he's the only one who correct sort of correctly followed the uh the path of um the the puzzle the the escape room I it's a great like that's what I I enjoy about taskmasters is those moments where um you're so it reminds me of like the kids in school who like always did their homework and then you have somebody who like just didn't study and gets to a on the test you're like what the [ __ ] like I did way more work and I deserve more points but sometimes it's just not how it works and he he was especially upset because he knew I'd hidden a lighter in that room he's he noticed the lighter was gone he's like you hid this somewhere in here didn't you I'm like I don't know and he was looking for he looked all over for the lighter and couldn't find it so he was especially frustrated with walked in and found it within a minute that was he was he was flabbergasted so just just to to to wrap up about um tmn um what do you think works about your show when trying to emulate Taskmaster what have you found is um is successful whether it's in the process or whether it's in like the creation that like you feel you're really um evoking the spirit of Taskmaster that is getting Taskmaster fans so excited about about watching people are like I I am gen again genuinely more excited for the end of this season than I am for season 17 or for champion of champions so what is it that you're like you find that you're evoking in I think I think we owed our success to a few things I think the first thing is Task design which um I'm complimenting myself here but the task design is really great I think that's I mean it's something people have said a lot the the the tasks are have been I'm really proud of the tasks they're really I think they're really creative um I think they have all these opportunities I think they invite all these people to I think not only do they invite the contestants to like try wacky things I think I also try to design them to make people at home think about what they would how they would do them um I think like a really good example is the bowling task I think it's impossible to not I think it's impossible to watch that task and not think about what modifiers you would choose if you were to do that task it's it's impossible to to watch that task and not think about how you would have done it differently and that was something I had in mind when I designed it I'm like people are going to love watching this task um so task design is the first prong second um the cast and um has just been so funny um I think it's hard without professional comedians but I try to edit everything to look like they're being very funny I cut out all the all the jokes that don't land and such um but I I think uh it but it'd be impossible to do that without there being good material without people having said the funny things that they do say um I mean yeah I mean of course the first people I reached out to are Parker and Carter just because they're so funny and I just have always wished my whole life I've wished that more people had gotten to see how funny my friends are how funny um they can be and just the the ridiculous things they say all the time um I think if you just had a camera on Parker 247 it's it's just a joy to be around him always and I just wanted to share that Joy with more people um and but everyone is I think just everyone has their moments which is really great um and then I think the other thing is um editing I think the edit the edits have been good I think they I've been editing in a way that's very engaging uh easy to easy to keep watching um I think that's thing the other I mean regular Taskmaster is very good at that as well um I think uh all their fantas masters struggle with the edit a lot whenever anybody comes to me and asks for advice on how to run their I get a lot of people asking me yeah there's always like one person in a community it's you know my friend Austin from Survivor Maryland like when you put out like what is basically like the Pinnacle of the fan version everybody comes to you and is like how do I you feel like almost like the and what I always say is my number one chice is edit it shorter make it shorter make the edit shorter uh that's the number one thing you can do I I don't know why uh yeah I mean I think that's what we have on other taskmasters uh fan Taskmaster versions I I don't know I don't know what draws people to this particular version in comparison to the regular show I I would ask you as a fan I mean I know what draws me to it it's my friends I would have to ask you what what why why do you think this is so great what what yeah is the Tas design the contestants or I don't know I think I think this setting is is really fun which sounds weird but I think that there's something kind of like summer campy about it in a way yeah um where people will talk about doing like Taskmaster part I've done like the Taskmaster like Zoom you know i' bought like the charity I did that one as well yeah and and that was really fun um and I think there's something exciting about watching friends interact um when when they're funny I I I don't know how to describe it like I've watched all these I I've watched so much College Survivor so much fan Survivor um and I just think that uh we love to look at people on television would be like oh these people are funny because they're on television but I think that people are funny in general and inherently and it's just that some people end up with careers that put them on TV or some people just get cast on reality TV but lots of people are funny and entertaining um yeah and I think people are so people are so quick to dismiss fan versions but I also think that the like you talked about with the tasks earlier the limitations sometimes make like the funniest things like how you couldn't get an entire fish for Eric so you have to just use a fish head and it is vile and it's elements like that that when your restrictions come out that's a great Point yeah so much funnier um and also like to to take Taskmaster and and make it uh creative I make it more creative than it already is but make it suit you and and your tasks um I think is really entertaining uh but I I I don't I don't know I like I I was I was like oh maybe I'll like this maybe I won't and then I just was like immediately oh yeah I'm in I'm sold I'm telling people about it you know like you guys got to watch this after you finish New Zealand yeah nobody I don't know why my friends are [ __ ] and don't want to like um watch illegal streams like I I've been watching New Zealand for like I I've watched that for like a full year now and people are just watching it because it's on YouTube what are you guys talking about like our panel show exists what are you guys doing yeah so true um I I I one other actually I thought one other thing that we do that regular Taskmaster does not that I think is a shame and they used to do it but cutting back to the contestants in studios while the tasks are oh my God yes I read an interview by the Andes and Alex where they said they they always hated doing that and it was Dave the channel Dave that made them cut to the studio for reactions and once they moved to channel 4 they were like finally we don't have to do that anymore I'm like you guys are [ __ ] wrong on this one is so much better and I'm glad and I always see fans say the same thing they're like why don't they cut to where I'm like hey you know what version you should watch that still does that ours it's way better it's so it's really true it there's something I think that is part of Taskmaster is not just watching the tasks and seeing how they're executed but seeing like somebody be completely baffled by another person's choices that's the most important part of the show and they've cut it out since season 10 it's the heart of the show and they don't do it anymore it's insane I cannot do not know what they were thinking it's the dumbest thing they've ever done oh my God that's what killed season 10 not Co was not coming back to Studio I I you know I think also season 10 everybody said what if we brought in the shittiest prize for 10 episodes I think they should have after season 10 I think they should have just cut the prize tasks because like even though they're funny I think that like season 10 was like oh yeah this is how bad it can be so you should stop doing like you don't want to risk this being bad again oh man I I think um yeah it actually comes to like theory of comedy and uh like like people [ __ ] on laugh tracks all the time uh people say Big Bang Theory friends you know are garbage shows laugh tracks um laughter having but Taskmaster has a laugh track nobody says Taskmaster is a [ __ ] show uh it people uh people are unfair to laugh tracks I I guess the idea is that if it's like an artificial laugh track but even like things with Studio people [ __ ] on shows that have like Studio audiences yeah I think I I I think it's a controversial opinion I think they're good I I think uh and people don't think about the fact that Taskmaster has a studio eyes the same way that those like trashier shows do um it's not the laughter that's the the problem laughter I think is actually really helpful I think um it makes the show better how hearing people laugh there there's something um like biological I think about hearing other people it's it's like when you watch a movie a funny movie by yourself and versus with friends when you watch it by yourself you often don't laugh or a funny YouTube video you often don't laugh when you're watching it on your own uh and when you're watching with other people you laugh a lot more because laughter is um like biologically and like evolutionarily like a a social activity right it shows it's it's about how it's how you signal to other people that you enjoy something that you think something is funny um and when you hear that signal from other people uh your body wants to do the same thing so and then showing the faces laughing as in studio uh is part of that it adds it adds to that effect that's why I think it's it's so effective There's real science behind it I real I think there's something to be said about like you know why America doesn't like panel shows and like you know the the whole like debate that's been raging on for years and years about like British comedy versus American Comedy um but I think it's it's true that like the panel show environment breeds I think like better performances and it and it creates like a a need to please the audience that um makes it a better back and forth that I'm so glad that you guys have a live show um because think that a lot of Taskmaster fails without the live show and without like people laughing at your decisions because otherwise it's just it can just be like um almost like a vlog where if there's nobody laughing and there's no sound it's just watching somebody be kind of funny and you're like okay that was kind of funny sure they made a little witty joke but it almost feels forced versus having the audience to observe it and feel like it's just um this person's insane mind on display yeah and that's what I said and well that's what I said verbatim to every studio audience before we started filming everything you just said that's exactly what I said to the audience you said please clap yeah yeah I did I literally said please clap for each I have footage of be saying please clap four times yeah it's so important I just also the last thing I want to say is the yeah the hardest I've laughed is the song task uh with Carter and Parker I think it is uh genius birday song yeah the birthday song is so so funny and it takes this dip in the middle and then it comes right back around I think like those two it almost feels like um it feels like like having like little brothers and then they've just like hey we have a show for you they show you the most insane thing like oh okay who taught you that you should watch YouTube unsupervised anymore they're great thank you yeah that's a great task that's that's one of my favorites from That season um okay so I want to ask do you think any of your editing was influenced by The Genius or the style of the genius do you think that you absorbed anything from such a highly edited program and and took it to heart for for a different show maybe the flashback sequences in the uh oh wait have we had those yet uh we had one during the baby task like steal candy from a baby when I flash back to me hiding the the uh or put moving the step ladder to the uh to the spot there's another flashback sequence next week that I so I guess those maybe but yeah I think I was more inspired by The Amazing Race actually that's by that's the I don't watch I don't watch Survivor but I watch a la of Amazing Race um and when we were watching when we were doing when our our group was doing a live watch through of the golf task in episode two my sister was like this is amazing race editing isn't it I'm like yes it is like I did the split screen and like the yeah that was definitely that was directly inspired by Amazing Race for sure um otherwise I try to take yeah yeah otherwise I mostly take inspiration I think from Taskmaster editing I I watch especially if we're doing a task that's already been done I'll just watch that task again and try to edit it in sort of a similar way I I I use the same music a lot for the adapted test um I use the same music that they're using for that test because I'm like well worked so there we go um I think all the for all the live tasks I believe I've used the same music that was playing in that live task in in the actual episode so uh so mostly I take it inspiration from Taskmaster a little bit from Amazing Race I'll say not so much The Amazing Race is underrated although like you know the Amazing Race is underrated and I think what it executes is it like it's a fascinating show I want to interview somebody who worked on the amazing race so badly I want to know the logistics of everything um it it's the best so David if what if you want to like like we I think we're at our natural conclusion but I want to ask like what um maybe other taskmasters you've watched like You' talked about Roblox Taskmaster on the season mcraft Taskmaster Minecraft sorry this is this is how you can tell that I am a millennial and not a gen Z I see D you about Minecraft Taskmaster um and and I'm curious you've given them a platform like what other things do you like what shows or or content do you like to watch that that you think deserves a spotlight or some some recognition that's a great question actually that reminds me of one other actually you know what there is a there's a YouTube channel that I took a ton of inspiration for how I edited the show from and I had never heard of the YouTube channel before until I started until I was pretty well through editing tasks for season two so I didn't really start doing it till yeah I I I learned about it in the winter between the fall and spring filming sessions and it inspired both the way I filmed the spring sessions and edited um whatever I hadn't edited yet um there's a YouTube sketch uh Comedy Channel called Wizards with guns um have you heard of they're a pretty small Channel they only have like uh 200,000 subscribers or something maybe 100,000 I'm not sure how many subscribers they have 300,000 but yeah pry pretty small um YouTube channel I just discovered them this winter so pretty new to me and they have become and I I've watched I've been a YouTuber i' I've been watching you not YouTuber I've been someone who's been addicted to YouTube for many many years I have a lot of YouTube channels I subscribed to and this Channel that I only discovered six months ago has become my favorite Channel on YouTube they are by far the most talented comedians uh like comedic Minds I've ever seen on the channel um every single one every single one of their videos uh is laugh out loud funny and the way they edit them really inspired me I realized how much comedy they were getting out of zooms and Framing and I and uh and Luke was the person who introduced me to the channel and I came back to him I'm like let's start filming like these guys do and we and we talked about how we can film the way that they film their videos and they get so much comedy out of zooms like that's that's a huge thing and like pans and people popping in and out and like uh there's so much visual humor um I mean obviously the the the scripts and stories are very funny um but I think something that doesn't get but something that that's maybe harder to notice is how much of their humor comes from the way they shoot things uh so that was actually a big so thank you for sort of reminding me about that that was uh yeah that was actually a really direct inspiration where I specifically said let's film like these guys do because they're so funny um criminally underrated Channel I mean they nobody knows who they are but they're so funny um and uh other stuff I watch um TV I mean yeah so yeah Minecraft Taskmaster um is it yeah for my money probably the best fanade Taskmaster that's not mine um and uh there's an Italian Taskmaster as well and I he's on the he's on the next episode I invited him to send it he sent in a video um pretty good um I don't know most of the fan taskmasters I don't really like that much to be honest they're I think it's I think it's fair I think that for every hit there's like flops there's one that was quite good it came out a long time ago and it only has 300 views on YouTube but it's the best this was the best one I'd seen before my that when I made mine that was the only good one i' seen I don't remember what it's called unfortunately um it's like Ben's Taskmaster or something I don't know it was just some guy and there was it only has 3 views this G be very hard to find so I apologize to any viewers who are trying to look for it but uh Ben if you're listening uh what about outside of of Taskmaster anything just in particular like like Wizards with guns that you are either influenced by or just really love watching and and tuning into their stuff um yeah let me think I um I don't know I I watched jet lag that's pretty good I don't know if that's so much of an inspiration um I think you you know actually you know what another inspiration is is um I think a lot of my personal style of humor like just who I am as a as a person in general like out outside Taskmaster as well but as well as inside Taskmaster I think a lot of humor comes from Jake and Amir uh long running College Humor web series that's like uh my favorite web series of all time um I think defines a lot of my humor I I don't I would say that my entire life is is heavily influenced by college humor and heavily influenced by everything that they did on that site I almost did a college humor video when I was in school and like my my mom wouldn't let me go to the city to film it and it was Hur pretty much I jir is like such a I think college humor in general is a great example of like working with a short time frame and and being fast as funny being funny as fast as possible yes yes true that's true I think it also starts Parker and I are both big fans of jakc and Amir and I think it defines a lot of his humor as well I feel like you can tell L he's very air like um I he I'm very jig and he's very air so yeah I think it yeah it's it works pretty well um and uh one other thing I guess I'll say is I will say um going back to like laughter as um a tool um my two favorite shows in the whole world both use laughter as a huge tool as like a main part of the of the show first being Taskmaster obviously L um but the other show like really actively very obviously uses laughter as um the main probably the main selling point of the show uh which is my second favorite show of all time is Impractical Jokers ah I think people get people give it a bad rap but it is so good um it's really good if you what do you have any opinions on it I just I love S I think s's hilarious that's why kind of laughing as a as a major tool of the show the funniest things is when they're laughing at at the guy that's that's the funny part is them laugh s falling down laughing so that's my second favorite show in the world is imp I think it I think it's a good it's a good elaboration of what you're saying because you're looking to them to make you laugh you're saying oh this is so funny that it made Joe laugh and I think it's the same thing where you're like this task is so funny that like Fern Brady is in tears or like that Frankie Bole is laughing at this and sort of breaking his facade and I think it's and it's the same sort of vibe as task master Minnesota where it's just friends hanging out making each other laugh which is what people like to see right so incredible you guys are the next Impractical Jokers I'm calling it now oh gosh yeah that would be more difficult to recreate yeah it's true that would that would just be that would be brutal and you know an element of like what didn't work on Tas at all of course like interacting with the public and filming in public um yeah I didn't play for the British audience I guess I don't know I feel I feel like it was it's a there's something about Taskmaster where you're watching the contestant struggle that doesn't feel right like when like Sam Campbell runs outside to try and get somebody to interact with him and like nobody will you're kind of like you guys don't want to talk to this comedian like what's wrong with you yeah so I I just want to well I want to thank you for being here with me I also want to plug the thing that I'm the the production the thing that I'm most into right now which is Quinton reviews on YouTube so if anyone has not watched his he has like a nine-hour long video on the TV show Samm and Cat and I I think it's a great history of Nickelodeon and a great history of the transition from cable television being the largest place for kids to get their entertainment to the transition to YouTube and how um television dealt with that and how they fell behind the eightball on getting kids to to tune in um his videos are incredible and also talks a lot about the Janette mcer and her book um I'm glad my mom died which is also a great piece of content that people should watch so if you're looking for a way to spend like 48 Hours of your life Quinton reviews YouTube videos are the place to be oh that's great I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life now that Taskmaster is coming to an end after spending 40 hours a week on it for the last year yeah so well I think this begs the most important question David which I'm sure uh people ask you all the time do you want to do a season three do you think about it have you considered um I I will say I'll say this I I will never do uh a production at this scale again um yeah I in some ways I'm glad that we made a season two um I I don't think I'm going to do a third season um I I could see myself perhaps doing one episode Special in a couple years but I I will definitely never do anything at that at that scale again that was it was too much I I I think uh Eight Episodes was insane I don't know who let me do that it was not right uh so it we it'll never be anything at that scale again but I would be open to maybe doing a one episode um special in in a in a long after I have a long break sure well I'm I'm glad that you did it in the first place thank you for for making all these because I think it it has been uh a real highlight to end the year and start the year and get to be familiar with everybody it's been cool to be sort of famous that's like quite cool just wre it in the YouTube views probably no money right you can't monetize your stuff no but I've been recognized uh once so that was cool yeah that is cool it's exciting and and Alex has acknowledged that you exist so I feel like that that ex yeah yeah uh yeah thank you so much for having me on it was a real pleasure to come and talk about Taskmaster it was it was so much fun thank you for listening you don't need to hang up right away but sometimes I say okay thanks everyone and then people will just leave like oh that was thank you David for being here thank you the audience for listening um make sure to look in the description because that's where I put everything um I don't need to plug anything in the end if you know me you know me thanks for listening to production value I can't wait to be back with my next guest who is I don't know yet but they will be there and uh thank you for listening [Music] bye

Channel: Naomi

Views: 1,318

Keywords: reality tv, naomi podcast, naomi, podcast interview, production value, david ha, taskmaster, taskmaster minnesota, taskmaster AU, taskmaster NZ, taskmaster's assistant, greg davies, alex horne, british comedy, uk comedy, panel shows, panel show, cats does countdown, james acaster, sam campbell, taskmaster MN

Id: 7062ke5FggE

Length: 154min 32sec (9272 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2024