Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 4. Paul Chowdhry

Episode Date: November 5, 2020

This week on the podcast Ed is joined by comedian Paul Chowdhry. The pair discuss Paul's time on the show and his Series 3 alumni. As well as this they dissect the latest episode and give insight in to how they thought the Series 10 contestants approached each task and what they might have done instead... pear anyone?  Taskmaster is on Channel 4 Thursdays at 9pm and you can catch the family friendly version Sundays on E4 at 6pm. Taskmaster the Podcast is produced by Daisy Knight for Avalon Television LtdGet in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail] Visit the Taskmaster Youtube channelwww.youtube.com/taskmaster For all your Taskmaster goodies visit www.taskmasterstore.com  Sales, advertising and general enquiries:[e-mail]   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Welcome to the Taskmaster podcast episode 4.

Yes, it is the fourth episode of the podcast which means we will be discussing episode 4 of Taskmaster series 10. That's right, that's what this podcast is. As always, if you have not seen Episode 4, Series 10 of Taskmaster, do not listen to this podcast. It contains spoilers. I will be chatting with my special guest about what happens on the episode. So don't, just don't listen. If you've not watched it, go away and watch the episode. It's on all four right now, as well as the previous episodes to it go and watch all the episodes to catch up before you listen to the podcast it's very simple so uh it was another cracking episode i'm really enjoying this series uh and our special guest i think

enjoyed the episode as well i can't wait to talk to him uh remember taskmaster is on thursdays at 9 p.m on channel 4 and if you want a more family-friendly version uh because you got kids and stuff well i've been saying that every week go away and watch the family-friendly version on e4 at six o'clock on sunday if you want a more family-friendly version because you've got kids you might not have kids you might just you might just be a little bit of a prude you might have soft ears the old phrase you might have soft ears and jelly eyes and you can't cope with rudies so watch the family friendly version for those with soft ears at six o'clock e4 sunday so go watch all the episodes then listen to this podcast We've got a lot of fun chat to come. Our special guest this week is the wonderful Paul Chowdhury.

That's right, Paul Chowdhury from Series 3. I can't wait to hear what he remembers about his series, his favourite moments from his series, his favourite moments from this episode, how he was enjoying this series, all of that sort of good stuff. Paul is a unique and wonderful character. He is absolutely hilarious.

I can't wait to chat to him. So let's get on with it. Welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. Oh, I made Gamble, by the way. I don't know if I said that bit. Oh, a bit late now. I hope that hasn't ruined it for any of you. I made Gamble, champion of Series 9.

Current champion, as it stands. But that's edging closer and closer to not being true. And then I am nothing again. So here we go. It's episode four of the Taskmaster podcast see you in a bit welcome Paul Chowdhury to the Taskmaster podcast thanks for having me Ed Gamble you are very welcome my friend uh you are of course a Taskmaster legend. Remind everyone which series you were on and who were your fellow contestants please. I was on in 2006 I think it was

series 3. Yeah. Can you remember Paul who you were on with? This is a tough one. I know who was on this one? Greg Davis he was on this one he's always on it he's the host

that skinny guy next to him Alex Horne very nice of you to call him skinny rather than short lanky guy and he's about 7'6 yeah Sarah Pascoe. Yeah.

Al Murray, the pub landlord. Yes, although he wasn't within his pub landlord persona during Taskmaster. No, he just does that for, you know, it's a character he does, isn't it? Yeah. Dave the Gorman. Dave the Gorman Gorman.

I think this is one of his characters. And I think that was about it, wasn't it? Do you think so? Was there another one? There might have been someone else. You've named four people. There's always five people. There was another one, was there?

Oh, that was me. You know, you've named three. Right,ul rob beckett was the other one um oh yeah that's the guy yeah yeah don't worry i'm sort of here to be across all of those details paul we don't necessarily need to rely on your i erased that from my memory actually we we clashed yeah what's he doing now right you're on the taskmaster series with lots of great people yeah it was a good series, that was. It got nominated for a BAFTA, that one. It did indeed. I was on Series

9, which was also nominated for a BAFTA, and I believe won the BAFTA, but let's not start comparing BAFTAs. Do you have any fond memories of Taskmaster, Paul, that particularly stick out of your time on the show? Fond memories, maybe that bastard's crying in it seems to be repeated to me a lot. This was the snowman task, you had to get ingredients and build a snowman.

And yours was a particularly sad looking rabbit, wasn't it? You got a rabbit and put it in some ice and gave it tears and said, bastards crying in it, which has gone down in the Taskmaster Hall of Fame. Yeah, I'm not quite sure. I was actually trying to play that game quite seriously and I don't appreciate being mocked this way and taken for a joke. Well, I think that was to your credit, Paul.

I think that's what a lot of people really enjoyed about your performance on Taskmaster because people still do quote your legendary task back and I think no one knows quite what angle you're coming at it from whether you're taking it seriously whether you're taking it the least seriously out of anyone ever because you keep such a poker face that no one knows what's what's going on in your head paul i took it very seriously as i do with life you know i went out there to win the series and i didn't win i won one episode well you won one episode which is you know some people have never won an episode which which is uh which is very sad but yes you won one episode um and when you won that episode it was a big moment i remember

that being a huge moment that you'd you'd finally won an episode can you tell us how that felt you know it it was a long time coming when i when i finally won that episode and i just you could just see the look on the other contestants faces who never had any belief in me where are they now are they doing the ed gamble taskmaster podcast well no exactly you don't remember who half of them are anyway i don't even know who i don't i don't keep in touch with these people i'll be honest with you the only person i've kept in touch with is you and that's because i have to talk to you now so when when you say you saw the look on their faces and they never had any belief in you i when i watched it what i interpreted was that they were all very happy for you that you finally won an episode but do you see it as more of a they were really angry and you

were rubbing it in their face well let's put it this way none of them called me since to see how i am i don't know if you've heard there's been like, this virus has been going around. Yes, I have, yeah. So the times have been hard and not one of them has checked on. No one's checked on you at all. Have you checked on them? I've checked on them countless times.

I've looked at their Twitter feeds. I've seen a couple of their Facebook videos. Yeah. And, you know, they haven't seen how I am since so i want to see maybe i should i've been asked a lot on twitter to do a reunion taskmaster episode with the losers ah yes this is so we we put out a call for questions people email the podcast with questions and that came up a lot whether there would ever be a loser of losers episode is that something

that you would do or uh is it something that would uh sort of harm your ego a little bit too much well i mean i did taskmaster four years ago and as you're quite aware my career has gone well no you did in 2006 you told you told us yeah so oh yeah sorry 14 years ago I did it 14 years ago to Taskmaster it was a long time ago actually since then my career has gone on to look at look at me now yes you know you know obviously it's probably quite daunting for you to talk to me at this point in my career because you didn't expect me to reach these heights paul i mean i think you're being sarcastic and self-deprecating but you have done wembley arena that's what i mean yeah but i think also you're being sarcastic and self-deprecating so this is what i mean about never knowing where you're coming from i was being deadly serious there and then you put And then you put me down by mentioning Wembley Arena.

Now, Paul, in terms of my memory of your series, it's one of my favorite series. You're one of my favorite contestants, which is why I've invited you onto the Taskmaster podcast. When anybody asks me to sum up people's different approaches to tasks in Taskmaster, I normally bring up the one from your series where you were asked to disperse, I think bring up the one from your series where you were asked to disperse I think it was three or four items of your clothing across a wide an area as

possible so Al Murray was getting cabs there were people trying to throw them onto trains there were people putting them in a river and stuff like that and your immediate thought was to take off your shirt and throw it over the fence yeah because throw is it throw your clothes as wide as far as possible it wasn't throw your clothes it was just spread them so obviously people were thinking how am i going to get them miles away from me but you just went with dunked it over the fence which i love that to me represents the sort of difference in approach in taskmaster so you just sort of panicked and just went quite close well I didn't panic but I was more spreading the term spread means like spread that is in with within your vicinity of spreading and that was interesting within my vicinity you take spreading to mean

within the vicinity I suppose I suppose you're right in a sense because if you spread a piece of bread you're not you're not spreading it across a you know a nine mile radius are you you said to me spread yeah spread me some bread paul and you're in my house i wouldn't get in a cab i wouldn't get in a cab and then drive to oxbridge and then spread your bread and come back what kind of an idiot would do that but then i was seen as the idiot this is problem. I was doing stuff properly in Taskmaster. If you actually break, I think within, in about 20 years time,

they'll look back at my series and say, Paul wasn't an idiot. He did it properly. Paul was the only sane one. The only sane one in the group. Yeah. Now, if I did come to your house and say,

Paul, spread me some bread, what would your reaction be? I would say we're just friends you know if you throw a sock over a fence it's still just the other side of it you didn't see where it landed what the sock yeah i chucked it over the fence unless you did some sort of martial arts throw and it was just the other side of the fence but when you twist your hand it gives it a spin. It's probably still travelling now. OK, Paul, now let's start chatting about this episode of Taskmaster Series 10.

It's episode four of Taskmaster Series 10. The series is well and truly underway. We've got to know the characters across the series so far. But we kick off, as ever, with the prize task, which was who can bring in the cheekiest food how did you enjoy the prize tasks did you like doing the prize test did you like coming up with stuff for the prize tasks yeah i enjoyed those ones um most handsome relative i remember um and what do you remember what you brought in for that paul i think i brought in a picture of

me yep i believe years ago yeah technically i am related to myself that's true um my my abiding memory of your prize task paul was the uh heaviest thing and you brought in a box of melon yeah i don't know if you've ever carried a melon back from the supermarket obviously i just noticed before this you you're a lot more middle class than me ed so you have your shopping delivered i do i was actually yeah a little peek behind the scenes of the taskmaster podcast uh we started this a bit late because my ocado delivery arrived ocado yes not even asda not asda ocado i'm afraid paul you've moved up big time now isn't it a car man's getting akado deliveries and that that's what happens when you do taskmaster man if you if you had bothered to become champion you'd be on the akado now i'd be on the akado

now instead i'm a guest on ed gamble's taskmaster podcast. I sold out Wembley, mate. Wembley. But you did Taskmaster series, what was it? Nine. Nine. I did series three. See, I'm one of the founding fathers of Taskmaster. You are, I agree.

I absolutely agree. You're one of the OGs, Paul. And, you know, people don't appreciate that. People have taxed my style on that. They've copied what I did on it now. They're trying to be Paul Chowdhury. There's only one Paul Chowdhury, you know people don't appreciate that people have taxed my style on that they've copied what i did on it now they're trying to be paul chowdhury there's only one paul chowdhury you know that i believe that i'm well aware there's only one paul chowdhury who do you who do you think's copied your style on taskmaster and would you like to use it as a platform to call them out

probably johnny vegas i think it's more you think johnny vegas has copied your style i don't know what to do for this task all right then i'm just gonna play it oh sorry about that i'm over you know that's kind of more yeah that's sort of what you did wasn't it um so cheekiest food paul uh what what would you have brought in for cheekiest food it was an interesting one cheeky what's cheeky it's like a passion fruit one. Cheeky. What's cheeky? It's like a passion fruit or something, I would say. It's quite cheeky. How is a passion fruit cheeky, do you think?

If you cut it in half? What do you mean? Literally, it looks like a pair of cheeks or there's just something cheeky about the taste of it? And also the name. Passion fruit. Yeah, I suppose so. You could use it in a sort of wooing scenario.

Well, it's not very passionate when you eat a passion fruit because you get all those pips stuck in your teeth so it's more irritating fruit but they call it passion fruit because passion can be quite irritating so ironically passion fruit and the pips is quite irritating so I would have probably bought in a passion fruit or a pear because it you know people you know like a pear like physique oh okay so you've gone down the sort of the pear shaped bodies or yeah yeah sort of like the big arses big arses there we go so a pear looks like a big arse so you would have brought

that in yeah yeah because you're into arses as well aren't you sure yeah so you know probably would have brought that in you used to have a big ass in it before you lost all that weight um i actually you know what paul i never really the arse was never my defining feature um i was a big big bloke all around but i don't think anyone would have said here comes the arse i say that sometimes about me or or in general i used to compare maybe i should introduce you next time I compare, Wes. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the stage, Ed Gamble. Here comes the arse.

And I'll come on eating a pear. And no one will get it apart from me and you, but it'll be worth it. Arse first. When you eat a pear, do you start at the top or the bottom? Good question. I start at the bottom, but depending on the time. You're an ar an ass man that's

why oh right i see that's the key is it so if you start at the top you're you're ahead you're a head man yeah yeah a little head tiny head man because the pair doesn't have much of a top upper body does it so you would have brought in a passion fruit or a pear i don't know i my first thought was richard herring brought in beef cheeks and that's a very route one way of doing it. That was obviously my first thought, but I possibly would have moved beyond that. So Johnny's, I mean, Johnny's was horrendous, I would say, which was the pot noodle, overfilled pot noodle with a slice of bread in the top. He suggested it was cheeky because his son walked in on him eating it and he was so sad uh that he he had to just say cheeky um is a pot noodle and bread cheeky paul it's not really a

food item is it it's more of a ready-made meal it's like bringing in a microwave meal i know i think it's a food item isn't it it's food it's cheekiest food is the is the category i think pot noodle and bread counts as food doesn't it well i'd have just taken in a tin of soup and bread but i thought you were taking in a pear or a passion fruit well if i had to take in something like that pear and a passion fruit is something you could it's like an actual food it's not like there's many different ingredients in a pot noodle it's been made up by a human i see so your interpretation of it is cheekiest food it needs to be one pure ingredient pure ingredient so you also would discount katherine's bum cake would you technically unless that it's a natural bum cake like it was

grown in a garden and i'd accepted that are you is this something i don't know about have you ever seen a cake that's been grown in a garden people do grow cakes no but they don't grow the cake do they the hash cake or any type of cake they still need to then use that ingredient to bake a cake do you think so you could grow a cake from the ground and then just pick a cake yeah pick a cake out the garden yeah just that next to the potatoes i've picked a lot of cakes you never grow a cake from the ground and then just pick a cake. Yeah, pick a cake out of the garden, yeah. Just like next to the potatoes. I've picked a lot of cakes. You never had a cake before from the garden. I've never had a cake from the garden before.

This is amazing. Do you grow cakes yourself? Yeah, I've got mushrooms, cakes, everything. Mint, bananas, melons, pineapples. So we're allowing Catherine's bum cake because it could have been grown in the garden. Yeah, if she grew it, then I'd accept it. Okay, I don't think she did.

I think she bought it from a shop. Now, Daisy, who has traditionally just said crumpet, umbrella, she's been very simple with her prize tasks. This week, somehow, this is the most inventive prize task she'd done, was just the Billy Bear ham, which is the ham you can get from the deli counter which is they sell it as a long strip paul and it's a bear's face all the way through but it's just sort of faint bear's face uh like it's been sunburned on and you get slices of it uh have you ever had

billy bear ham before i never had it but i do know bears you do know bears okay so you're aware of the concept of bears and you know about ham yeah yeah i heard of ham yeah so you can work out what what that is really yeah yeah now moan won this round with his uh lentils and rice which initially didn't seem very cheeky uh but then we found out that he'd stolen the lentils and rice from his housemate and then he did a cheeky little face to go with it now i for me he was he was the winner immediately when he did the cheeky little face i think that was the right decision do you think muwan should have won the prize task this week well it's a difficult one that because i want to see the reaction

that his housemate gives him with that cheeky face because depending on who you're living with, you're going to get knocked out. You know, if he's living with some thug in that house and they realise that he's teeth the food, he's getting knocked out, isn't he? I suspect that Mawaan doesn't live with a thug. He looks like the kind of man that lives with thugs and gangsters. Do you think?

And he's like the token funny guy. Token funny guy and everyone else is bad boys. Yeah. Because he's a bit of a rude boy, but he's not, is he? Right. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So would it make it more or less cheeky for you if he got knocked out for teething the rice and lentils? I don't condone anyone getting knocked out on this podcast. No. But the problem is when you do live with people, I know there can be house politics. Yeah. rice and lentils i don't condone anyone getting knocked out on this podcast i wouldn't but but the problem is when you do live with people i know there can be house politics yeah so if you're stealing someone's food you know i hear a story that's why i live on my own yeah i don't want to get knocked out or knock someone out so it's just easier to live on your own than have all this kind

of oh who took my stuff out of the fridge? You know, all that stuff. Oh, I needed it for Taskmaster. What's Taskmaster? You know, then you have to explain you're on a TV show. That's why I never got married. It's amazing the insight that one small question can get. We're just talking about some stolen lentils and rice

and we've got into your living situation and the reason you're not married, Paul, and I appreciate that about you. I didn't realise it was this kind of podcast that would go this deep. That's all you, man. So we move on to the first task proper of the episode which is make the phone ring the setting was lots of different numbered lockers they had a phone and they had to try and make that phone ring and get there using the clues that were given now I would have absolutely loved this task i'm a big

fan of escape rooms paul and uh and it had a sort of vibe of an escape room like a little treasure hunt uh like spy type thing that's very exciting have you ever done an escape room paul no um ed gamble yeah you're a middle-class white man so it's okay for you but i've been kidnapped in my life you know i have been kidnapped really yeah um this is my college days and uh was that me what oh there was a sound there sorry oh don't worry no i hope no one's breaking in and kidnapping you again it's gonna be like taken yeah i don't know who you are i'd have to do that if you were kidnapped yeah i don't know who you are but you're not very nice and i'm gonna find you and i'm gonna get paul chowdhury back why would you be doing a margaret

thatcher impression that's just that's my normal voice oh sorry for the podcast oh i thought you were yeah no this is your this is your like sexy voice now yeah yeah big sex yeah ed gamble thug life so so when were you when when were you kidnapped to you kidnapped at university no this was back at college days you know i come from a hard life and my background isn't like yours ed i've seen the world yeah i'm an old man now so you know that when i was growing up kidnapping was uh it wasn't as popular as it is now right like it was more underground it wasn't as big and i when i got kidnapped i got taken to the bank to get some money i was taking i was kidnapped for about a day it wasn't that long it wasn't like right it wasn't or years. You were taken on a day out.

Yeah, it was like a day trip, kidnapping. The accommodation wasn't included in this kidnapping. Most kidnappers do provide accommodation and living conditions and food and stuff. Yeah, no one ever talks about the advantages, do they? No, they don't. So you've never done an escape room because you've been kidnapped in the past. That's enough i've never been kidnapped so i love doing escape rooms

um would you have liked to have done this task in your series of taskmaster i would have liked to have done this task it was a hard task johnny was quite quite interesting with this task johnny was very interesting with this task uh he had i mean it was a full meltdown let's be honest uh he was panicking immediately he hugged what locker do i open which one is it i don't know where i am it's like he's here in the room it is it's a brilliant impression um he was just like a piss bloke who'd lost his car keys wasn't he he was just desperate desperately searching not really using any logic he was just looking in random lockers. At one point, he opened a random locker and Alex had to say, why have you opened that locker?

And he said, I'm just storing my stuff in there. Yeah. I felt like you would have kept a cooler head in that task, Paul. Interesting you say that, Ed, because Taskmaster is a show where you can't take on any personas. Yeah. You can't take on your stage persona. You're not doing stand-up. You're not performing. So you do get to discover the true human being

behind the comedy persona that they portray. You know, this is the real me now. But people think I've put on a character. But they realised, oh, I didn't realize Paul was like that that's really weird because I've been watching him do stand-up and he's quite different yeah because I'm performing on the stage and from the thousands of people you turn it up a bit yeah of course you've got you've got to at Wembley right yeah Wembley there was 10,000 people there

I had 10,000 people turn up at one tour date. That was one tour date. Yeah. No, look, no one's denying you're doing well, Paul. I was doing well. Oh, right. Sorry, yeah. This was back in... Pre-COVID. Pre-COVID, you know. So you're saying you wouldn't have kept a cool head,

or would you have panicked? That was a tough one. The room was quite scary. I've noticed that the production values have gone up quite a lot. Yeah, they have. I mean, they've certainly, they find more and more sort of unique locations to do the location tasks, I think.

Incredible room, that was. And that room was amazing. I don't know where that was. I'm sure Alex can let us know, maybe on next week's episode, where that was. But yeah, it was like something out of one of the Saw films. Yeah. You must find the number in one of the boxes.

I don't know where it is, mate. Paul, you don't get enough credit as an impressionist. People know you as a sort of hard-hitting, satirical stand-up. No one's thinking of you as the next Les Dennis. I want to play a game tonight. You will see yourself head tied to a chair. You must get a bear, eat that bear, and talk about your diabetes.

I don't get it, mate. Oh, no, Johnny's there as well. I think Johnny had the most disastrous attempt at the task. Mawaan, I think, thought outside the box. He was the only one to try and think outside the box in this task and tried to call the phone from that phone to get the number and then call it back. And he tried to run through the phone to get the ringtones

to see if he could just play the ringtone. The only person to think outside the box there. Yeah, an interesting way to approach that task because I don't know if you ever you know when you're like you ever got like you have a chirpster girl once you know and and then you know i know ed that you're a bit of a ladies man so you've probably done this before but when you get someone's number and then they give you their number or they take your number, there's a trick that people do. Let's say I gave you my number and then I would take your phone or I'd make you ring me and I'd get your number.

Yes. I'm not sure it's a trick. I think the other person knows what's going on, right? Yeah, but someone doesn't want you to have their number. Let's say after a show you came up to me ed and said hey paul really enjoyed your stand-up mate what's your number yeah and i'd say hey just give me your number i'll give you a call and i'll take your number and i'll try and walk off uh paul come back can you just ring my phone mate right then i'm in trouble then i'm in big big trouble because then you've got my number yeah and i Then I'm in trouble. Then I'm in big, big trouble.

Because then you've got my number. And I can't control this anymore. And then I'm calling you 24-7. Yeah, then we've got problems. Rather than doing the podcast through a producer and several different agents. Yeah, there's been a lot of hurdles to get to Paul so he could distance himself from me a little bit.

Which is fair enough. I'm an annoying guy. But I think Mawaan had a good idea there to do that. Johnny's was a disaster. Daisy more and more every episode now seems like a four-year-old girl at a fancy dress party. She's just sort of romping around in her little costume, just screaming at the top of her voice.

Very excitable. Daisy May Cooper's quite interesting because she's such a superstar in comedy now. Yeah. And she's quite low-key on this. Quite low-key, that's how you describe her, right? Low-key. Is there anyone out of the competitors in this series

who you would like to be on a team with? If they were in your series, who would you most like to be on a team with if they were in your series who would you most like to be on a team with in Taskmaster Catherine why Catherine I like her calming aura yes I think on the surface she's quite calm but then just bubbling under the surface I think she's panicking all of the time and I think that's a bit sexist man you can't say that no it's look that she is i think she's panicking i'm i'm not saying daisy may cooper's panicking all the time katherine uh especially on this task i think with with the hens trying to work out uh trying to work out why there were three french hens there trying to work out that number and she was just going round and round in circles doing the whole song i think she i look i think she's great on this i don't think she'd necessarily be a good teammate i think uh i think she'd worry me on a team who would you

pick then well i think you know richard herring he did this fastest it was an amazing effort from him he really just gets on with it doesn't he just gets his head down and gets on with it i've said that on the podcast before i'll say it again he really wants to win he's very competitive and I don't think he he doesn't panic so much he looks very undignified while he's doing every task but he doesn't panic yeah Richard Herring is like the he's like the swat of school isn't he he is like the swat of school I mean you know he's an intelligent guy he he went to Oxford he was a high achiever you know absolutely, absolutely the swat at school. Do you think you would have got on with him in a team? Well, saying that, in my series,

there were a few people from Oxford. Yeah. Dave Gorman, Al Murray. Al Murray, yeah. Al Murray's definitely from Oxford. Yeah, so. I think he was at Oxford with Richard Herring, wasn't he? And Stuart Lee at the same time.

Yes, I think so. I think so. All that lot. But then Rob Beckett won, who will proudly tell you that he didn't go to Oxford and Cambridge. So, you know, it's not all about that in Taskmaster. You need nows. You don't just need book smarts.

Yeah, it was an interesting turn of events on that. It was. So that was Richard for the victory there. He managed to do that in 10 minutes. But the times were all over the place, as Greg mentioned. Daisy in 11 minutes and 20 seconds. Then Mawaan was third.

Then Catherine. And then of course, Johnny last because he had that full meltdown. Channel 4. 2, 3, 4. Hello? meltdown the next task is uh is a team sort of a team task they were in their teams but they were against each other um which was fascinating i'm not sure that's ever really happened in in taskmaster before the task was uh you had 10 minutes to find something amazing to put in your bag. And I thought, that's not a very good task.

There's got to be more to it than this. And of course there was. They then had to convince a security guard to look in their bag. He was only allowed to look in one bag of each team. And they had... It was a task of persuasion, Paul. Let's role play it now. Say you've got something amazing play it now say you've got

something amazing in your bag and you've got to convince me to look in your bag how would you get me to look in your bag i would have said you've got about five minutes before we're both in trouble look in the bag and would you expand on that would you tell me why we're in trouble or would you just say we've got five minutes until we're both in trouble looking in the bag? Do you want to live beyond five minutes? See, to me, that makes me think there's a bomb in the bag. That's the implication.

Yeah. So, but why would I want to look, why, why would I want to look in the bag if there was a bomb? Yeah. You may well run. You may well run by a distance then.

Or look in the bag if you want. It depends if you're selfish or not. If you're selfish, you'd run. Yeah. If you want to save lives, you or look in the bag if you want it depends if you're selfish or not if you're selfish you'd run yeah you want to save lives you'd look in the bag and detonate the bomb oh so sorry so the implication of your persuasion is that the bomb's going to explode in five minutes so i may as well look in the bag and detonate it early into my own face well not detonate it, but deactivate it. Oh, so looking in the bag deactivates the bomb? Yeah.

You should specify that in your persuasion because then I'd definitely look in your bag. I'd put that in the small print. So, look, Ed, open the bag. I don't want to open the bag. Open the bag. Why do I want to open the bag? Because there's something in the bag that i want or i'd

just say to you there's a you know something that you'd enjoy in there a butt plug or something right okay okay now i think i think some sweets some sweets some sweets or a butt plug, yeah. You like sweets. Daisy's persuasion technique. She went, I mean, quite flirtatious, I'd say. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you, my love. She's not allowed to talk to you now. I was obeying the rules. She's just saying goodbye, Richard.

Well, she's buttering up the... Call me. Bye, Richie. Bye, Richie. Bye, Dickie. Would that have annoyed you if someone used their feminine wiles to get them to look in their bag? No, if she did that to me, I would have been fine with it. Yeah, OK.

But if you were against them, would you have been annoyed with Daisy's technique? People have got to use what they've got to use, man. Why is Richie getting annoyed with her? because that's who she is yeah that's true these are the real people coming out now yeah and for richard to be annoyed with her potentially is it could backfire you could see how competitive he is it's all it's all coming out but he did look in daisy's bag of course so much more convincing than richard who did just say he had uh he basically had naked pictures in the bag um

which i don't know would that have convinced me probably not i still i still would have gone with daisy um but on the other team uh johnny was victorious with a bit of reverse psychology which i very much enjoyed said don't look in. Said, don't look in the bag. Just don't look in my bag. You don't want to see what's in this bag. And of course, as soon as someone says that, you want to see what's in the bag, Paul. Yeah, I mean, that was another way of doing it.

Don't look in the bag. And someone says, no, I want to look in the bag. But is it going to work? Well, it did. It did work? Yeah. He looked in the bag? Yeah, he looked in Johnny's bag.

It worked. Don't look in the bag. You don't want to look in it why not why not because there's something in there you don't want to say what you don't know uh taskmaster fans is that um at the beginning of every series of taskmaster paul develops an impression of everyone on the show just in case they can't do an episode and he can be drafted in to replace them something which is genuinely true of my series series nine uh you'll remember there were two episodes that katie wicks wasn't there for uh because she was ill uh she was replaced by uh kerry godliman from series seven uh and uh katherine ryan from series two uh but then there were two more episodes where it was still up in the air

as to whether Katie could do them. So on those episodes, Paul Chowdhury was just at the studio roaming the corridors waiting for his opportunity to pounce in. Won't you, Paul? People don't realise what they were about to see right there.

Yeah. I was ready for those two episodes in my dressing room watching your series. I was watching you on the TV monitor there thinking I'm about to get called on any minute yeah oh did you think you were going to get called on instead of me did you not instead of you instead of instead of katie yeah because you know kate i'm katie stunt double yes you are very similar for the if you look at katie and you look at me the reason i have to keep a beard is so I don't look like Katie as much. People say, oh, Katie Wicks, nice to see you.

I say, no, I'm Paul Chowdhury. That's the other one. That's the other one. So then I grew a beard and now it doesn't happen as much. Now I get compared to Jihadi John. I like that day when you were at the studio, Paul, because it might have even been a couple of days actually because I'd finished an episode and then in Pinewood I come to the bottom of the

stairs to go to my dressing room and you just be stood at the top top of the stairs just going some funny stuff in there some funny stuff yeah yeah I always got a little compliment always got a little compliment from Paul it was nice it was really you know and I'd watch you and I'd think you know this Ed think, you know, this Ed, this back in the day when I used to pompel out the creeks and all the comedy clubs and you know, used to come on and you've come a long way, Ed.

Yeah. Smaller ass. Yeah, smaller ass. You were a bigger guy then and you were, hey, hey, Paul, I've seen you stand up. Good to meet you. And I was like, Ed, one day we'll do a podcast together. One day.

I knew it. Even before I knew what a podcast was, I knew that we'd do one together, Paul. It's winter and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls? Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

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At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. And now it's time for our regular feature. It's time to hear from your new BFF, Alex Horne. Oh, it's BFF time with me, little Alex Horne, your new BFF bonus fact finder. And today's bonus fact is all about the persuasion task, where our contestants had to persuade a security guard to look into their red shopping basket bag thing. Now, the fact is because this was filmed at a bandstand in public, and only a few of our tasks over the years have been filmed in public,

and one was filmed in public, and one was filmed in public, and it didn't make the show, because it was too in public, and it felt more like a prank show than Taskmaster. So alongside the high-five a 55-year-old task from Series 1, which was one of my favourites, but did make people feel uncomfortable, we also made Tim Key, Frank Skinner,

Roshan Conaty, Romesh Ranganathan, and Josh Widdicombe, the champ, do a task where they were dressed up as a parrot, no one could see them and they had to make as many people sign a piece of paper as possible in 20 minutes. It felt uncomfortable. It didn't feel like our show and we didn't

show it. However, I still have the footage and for a price, I will share it with you. One billion pounds. Goodbye. Final pre-film task of the episode, drop the water balloon from the greatest height without it bursting.

Now, this is a classic Alex Horne Taskmaster task where I think they've hired the equipment before they've decided what the task is. It happened in mine with the steamrollerroller they've obviously found this winch situation and they've thought well we can do something with this and it was great I loved this task it's it's all about holding your nerve it's all about estimating it for some people it was all about testing for Catherine she didn't see it as a winch Catherine immediately assumed it was all about testing. For Catherine, she didn't see it as a winch. Catherine immediately assumed it was a machine designed to stretch children,

which is not something I'd heard of before, but she swears it happened to her friend. Do you know anyone who was stretched, Paul? It's an interesting one. I think the other guy in this show, you know, the guy who sits next to Greg Davis. Alex Horne. Yeah yeah he looks like he's been stretched he does a bit because when when people see him and then he he actually says on

twitter a lot that i'm actually about six foot four yeah because people call him a little guy yeah but he's not a little guy he's a stretch little man you'd imagine him to be this little guy yeah and all probably because he's stood next to greg davis who's about nine foot seven yeah so everyone's a little guy next to of course yeah but what people don't know about alex horn is he was he was stretched i mean if anything that's probably what it was that piece of equipment and catherine got it too close to the truth that's what Alex Orne was stretched on and he's decided to repurpose it as a water balloon dropper yeah have you been straight how how tall are you now I'm six foot one you're six foot one now I'm six foot one now

yet I was last time no no no I was six foot one last time you saw me it's because you're at the top of the stairs no when you were bigger oh no i've not i've not grown in height since i've lost weight so when you lost weight you didn't change like you just became i didn't change height as far as i know um the comedian rob deering he's also lost a lot of weight in the past uh he swears that um his foot size has changed and that uh his arches on his feet have raised up he used to have very flat feet and then he lost weight and now his feet have pushed back up again which i don't believe are you talking about a werewolf uh yes but rob deering specifically rob deering he looks like a werewolf yeah yeah yeah he's definitely got that vibe um so moan it incredible another incredibly different episode for moan he's thought outside the box for the prize task and making the phone

ring and yet with this one he thought so within the box it was insane he didn't he he didn't think to put anything to shield the water balloon and he didn't think to put anything around the water balloon he just dropped it yeah which surely the first thing you do is you work out how you're gonna wrap the water balloon and uh and put a like a bed down for the water balloon to land on so it's got as little impact as possible paul is that what you'd do exactly exactly what you just said there is what i would do yeah so if you dropped a balloon you'd work out the science behind it exactly you've got to take a moment you've got to think about it even though he tested it he was doing all the tests and experiments but he he just dropped it straight onto the ground uh in an interesting uh panicked moment from from the one and but to be fair to him it didn't burst

right it didn't burst richard uh dropped it onto some bricks which surprised greg quite a lot some rubber bricks he was very lucky that they bounced out and onto the mattress but three meters 48 Richard got um but all of the others got it up to the highest they possibly could the seven meters 35 and it worked for all of them now in this situation I wonder if Alex Orton gets a bit peeved that no one's water balloon burst but it's it kind of didn't matter to me i think it was still an incredible cinematic task the director andy devonshire this was so up his street what what a great opportunity to film some slow motion water andy devonshire loves playing with speed when he does filming he does slow motion the slow motion not the not the illegal substance we just want to let that know

that doesn't happen on the set of taskmaster. He does. He loves playing with slow motion. Daisy's in particular was incredible because it looked so majestic falling from the crane and then landing in the bath and the sploosh that ensued afterwards. And then it cut to the full speed version of it and it was the least cinematic thing

you could possibly imagine. It was just a woman screaming at some water. That's Andy right there. That's Andy. Andy Devonshire is, there's two andys on this double andy there's two andys that work on this andy c and andy d andy c and that was the problem with task but i don't want you which handy that we're talking to yeah yeah when i kicked the ball up into the air and i ran around the house yeah several times that was all fast motion and a little bit of slow-mo. And a bit of slow motion at the same time.

Yeah, that was very memorable, that one. Yeah. I don't think they get enough credit, the production crew and Andy Devonshire, for what they actually do with the edit as well and the editor. I'm thinking of my chickpea film in my series wouldn't have been good if they hadn't have done an amazing uh amazing job

on it afterwards they do such an incredible job making it look nice paul and like you say your ball in the air no offense paul but that would have been rubbish if they'd not dealt with it afterwards well unless i ran around the house that's true you did run around the house at that speed didn't you yeah yeah i mean actually there was no i'm giving away secrets here but i have to say that so people don't think I have the ability to do that in real life, but I did actually do that. In 2006, there was none of that stuff around in the editing.

So, in this case, it was five points for Daisy, Johnny and Catherine, who all got it up to the top height and didn't smash the water balloon. It was four points for Richard, who got it to 3m48, and three points for Mawaan, who dropped it to the top height and didn't smash the water balloon. It was four points for Richard who got it to three meters 48 and three points for Mawaan who dropped it from the shortest height but still didn't smash the water balloon. So everyone escaped with an unscathed balloon. so we're on to the studio task which was roll the edible sphere you had to roll it over a certain line but not over another line and it couldn't have been the first one to stop rolling I think it was a lot of these tasks seem simple but then when you try and explain them out loud they're actually quite complicated Alex is obsessed is obsessed with uh getting food within

a certain distance because we also had a studio task uh where we had to throw something from a table in between two lines and the first thing i picked was a rubber egg unbeknownst to me it was rubber i thought it was a real egg so when i threw it i thought it was going to land exactly where i wanted it to and it bounced off in a weird direction. It was very frustrating and I screamed at the top of my voice in anger and my girlfriend

has since told me that is the, one of the only times on television I've truly been myself. So that's good to know what she thinks of me. Yeah.

An angry competitive of her boy. So I met your girlfriend and she seems very calm. She is. She's very calm. That's why we go well together because I am a ball um petulant anger narcissistic maniac narcissistic maniac exactly

that's what she calls me uh and she is a very calming uh influence she's like a babbling brook um so uh it was a victory for johnny uh which i never expected the studio task I always expect he's gonna unfurl and have a nightmare Catherine four points Daisy three points Mawaan two points and Richard one point interestingly normally does very well in the studio tasks but came unstuck with this one which means another episode victory for Daisy which is impressive I think at the start of the series people were sort of thinking that Daisy might be a Baddiel-type character. I think Alex said it himself, that that's, you know,

certainly if you watch the first episode, you think she's not going to do well. She's going to be very funny, but she's not going to do well. Now very much coming into her own. It's second place for Johnny, then Catherine, and joint last for Moana and Richard. Richard losing a little bit of the lead there, which puts Daisy in the lead in the series.

Now, Paul, we ask everyone this, who do you think, having seen this episode, who do you think is going to win this series of Taskmaster? Daisy was quite surprised at the end of that, wasn't she? Yes, she was. She couldn't believe almost that she'd won it. But I think she's got a good contention to win this series. Is she your prediction then?

Do you think Daisy's going to win the series? I was going to say, yeah, Daisy or Richard, I think. Daisy or Richard. Yeah, they seem to be the front runners. I mean, obviously, we've got a long way to go. That was only episode four. We we got six episodes to go but daisy and richard certainly seem to be uh have their eyes on the prize now richard more obviously now paul uh we've been we've had loads of emails for you um so we're going to run through a few

of them now if you don't mind answering some questions from the taskmaster viewers sure hello ed and paul do contestants really take home the items from the prize round at the end of the show cheers joe now paul obviously you only won one episode do you remember what the prizes were uh when you won your episode yeah it was some kind of actually it was a ipod an ipod yeah sarah pascoe bought in her ipod and did you keep that and take it home i tried to take it home and she kicked up a bit of us... She started complaining to the producers. I remember I took it home and then there was a big thing and the agents got involved and I said, I'm not bringing it back, it's part of the thing.

And she said, no, I need it, it's got my music playlist on it. I said, a deal's a deal when it's been done. And it's been going on for 14 years now. I believe the rule is that the person has won them you can take them home but quite often you don't take them home because they do mean something to someone else or now more than more than it used to be in the past you just don't want to take them home like the things have got weirder and weirder like i wouldn't necessarily want to take home a slice of billy bear ham uh i think when the show started, people put up things like their house or

a car. They'd really go all out and in the hope that no one would actually take them home and be cruel enough to do that. But now I think they've become more inventive and weirder so you wouldn't necessarily want to take them. When I grew up, it was like you'd get kidnapped if you didn't go

through on the deal. But you come from a different world paul you know different world man yeah you would you you know you've been kidnapped you've this is not the world of me and sarah pascoe i was hoping you wouldn't bring that up again ah this is great this is from luke in the us uh dear paul what was going through your mind when you were having fun on the bouncy castle uh For people who don't remember that, I'm sure you do, though. One of Paul's individual tasks, no one else was given this task, was to have as much fun on a bouncy castle as possible. Do you remember what was going through your mind whilst that was happening, Paul?

That was torture. That was, I think, one of the torture methods they used to use at Guantanamo. It was waterboarding. Yeah. And there was bouncy castle. I will do anything, not the bouncy castle. Have the most fun on this bouncy castle. You have one hour.

One hour. Your time starts now. This is from Caron. Dear Paul, were you really as baffled by the tasks as you seemed, or was that all a big ruse for the sake of comedy? By the way, I think you're a Taskmaster legend. Was I as baffled? I didn't think I came across as baffled. I think I came across as, you know,

dealing with them in the best way humanly possible. Look, Carone seemed to think you were baffled by the tasks, Paul. I don't know what Carone is. It sounds like something Michael Jackson used to say in between some of his lyrics. A Caron! Or was that a Jamon? I don't know what he said, but he said something.

He said Shamon, I think, wasn't it? Oh, was it? I thought it was Caron. No. And this person is called Caron, so... Caron, that's an unfortunate name. It is in this day and age. In this climate. Sorry to hear that coron

coron i think is that a made up it's a made-up name isn't it i don't know but they think you were baffled i mean you were baffled by their name so it would sort of play into their theory what's his surname vire dear ed and paul my question is whether you have ever had any nightmares or anxiety dreams about a particular task or being a tasker in general that's from matt rose any nightmares yeah i don't imagine you have paul you don't seem sort of it didn't feel like the experience affected you in a negative way really no i quite enjoyed it um you know we do have nightmares um this is to break it down is more of a nightmare than the actual show itself this is when you have to explain what you're doing yeah you're having a nightmare now this is the nightmare yeah i've

got to wake up and i've got to talk to you was the nightmare thinking oh now i've got to have to explain why and years later yeah you know i've got 14 years later 14 years later people are still asking me questions watch it enjoy it and don't worry it's magic you don't know how magic happens yeah you don't you don't ask magicians how they do things we are modern day magicians we create this stuff out of our minds. You don't want to know how and where this was created. Paul, I agree. People don't want to know what thought goes into dumping your trousers over a fence. No.

That's the magic, baby. It's divine intervention. Yeah. When they asked me to do that task, the first thing that came to my mind, what was sent to me, and it worked. You can't explain that. I didn't get into a cab

it didn't work you came bottom but yeah I didn't get well that's that's not the point though is it the point is it was done in the best

it's unfortunate I didn't win that I should have won that series yeah and I agree I agree agree i agree it's been a nightmare breaking it down sure going through the new series talking about your the time your time on the series it's been a nightmare so as always we ask our guest could you rate your experience on the taskmaster podcast uh between one and five points please one there we go it's our first one of the series uh they've all been five so far but paul chowdhury as always not afraid to speak the truth i feel like the others were just being polite paul's gone with the one pointer you know what

paul i've had a i've had a five point experience with you oh thanks man you've been a wonderful guest thank you so much for coming anytime you need me ed you know i'm there for you as always you're the backup in case someone can't do it you can come on and do an impression uh so it's goodbye from me ed gamble it's goodbye from paul chowdhury thanks for having me on the show today johnny vegas what are you doing here i don't know i just came into paul chowdhury's house and I said, get off the podcast. You're talking absolute rubbish. Thanks very much. Bye-bye. Thanks, man.

Incredible. But who's won this particular episode? Well, it's the highest scoring episode so far. And the winner was Paul Chowdhury. No! Well, there we go. That was Paul. What a wonderful chat we had with Paul. I'd be interested to see which bits made it into the episode

and which bits didn't. Paul said some pretty racy things. There is certainly no family-friendly version of this podcast on E4 at 6 o'clock on Sunday. It's not for soft ears or jelly eyes. That was rude, some of it. Sure, but, you know, I'm a a cool guy i like a bit of edgy chat now and again paul was brilliant it was so funny uh it was wonderful to have him on maybe slightly

less dissection of uh the current series of taskmaster than there is normally on the podcast uh but i think we went down some pretty good avenues uh and i hope you enjoyed it um so remember if you want to get questions in email us on taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com that's where to send your questions and i'm very happy to say that next week's guest is james acaster yes from series seven of taskmaster i already do a podcast with him so it should be a fairly easy chat uh if you don't listen to the off-menu podcast go and listen to that as well uh myself and james acaster will be on the taskmaster podcast next week discussing episode 5 of taskmaster series 10 the halfway point always exciting the competitors

really begin to knuckle down or panic depending on who they are and what happens. So make sure you download that episode next week with James Acaster. Also remember the YouTube channel for all your Taskmaster content, youtube.com forward slash Taskmaster for outtakes and little compilations and things like that. They've done a compilation of the best songs

ever on Taskmaster and the biggest failures and all of that sort of stuff. It's well worth a look. And also taskmasterStore.com. Look, we may be in lockdown. We may not be able to get out to the shops, but the TaskmasterStore.com has things that you can't even find in the shops. Taskmaster related, by the way, not like flour and milk and stuff and toilet paper.

Although, should look into it. Alex, if you're listening, come on, buddy. Taskmaster Toilet Paper. The public are literally crying out for it. Thanks very much for listening. We will see you again next week. Remember, Taskmaster, Thursdays at 9 on Channel 4. Bye-bye!

Bastard's crying, isn't he? You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.