At some point in the early ‘90s I formed a team at my primary school and filled in the application form to enter the fantasy peril-based kids TV game show Knightmare. We were not selected, or even replied to. It was devastating.
But what if you could simply pay to be a participant in your favourite game show? I don’t mean that to sound grubby: Taskmaster the Live Experience does not involve you slipping Channel 4 a bung (though it’s not cheap - more on that later). But it is a lavish immersive recreation of ‘Little’ Alex Horne’s delightful absurdist game show, currently on its 18th series, having blossomed from cult beginnings on Dave to fully fledged C4 mainstay.
Or rather it’s a recreation of the fun bit - the ridiculous, clever, infuriating tasks that happen in the so-called Taskmaster House, as opposed to the bit where the season’s comedian participants sit in the court of the Taskmaster, aka Greg Davies.
Given that anyone willing to pay £50-£100 for a ticket to Taskmaster the Live Experience is surely going to be familiar with the source material then it can afford to avoid bogging us down in context or rules or the undue focus on the contestants. We’re here to do some Taskmaster games because we like Taskmaster and think it looks fun.
The key thing is to make it funny as well. I’m not going to spoil what any of the tasks actually involve. But while somewhat ridiculous they are not necessarily particularly hilarious in and of themselves. Unlike the show, you can’t rely on the participants to be funny. But Taskmaster the Live Experience nonetheless nicely captures the humour of the show. This is partly achieved by some very slick video and projection work that heavily integrates a pre-recorded Davies and Horne into matters. But also shout out to our live guide. Dubbed Little Little Alex Horne (as are all the guides), she was nominally just there to stop us walking the wrong way and to make sure we understood the tasks. But ours was also drolly funny in her own right, a perfect intermediary between ‘our’ Taskmaster and the glitzier telly one.
It’s also worth noting that while I think it would be borderline unethical to do the show a second time (it would give you a huge advantage), there are currently two completely different sets of challenges available (dubbed Melon Buffet and Absolute Casserole) and a plan to introduce new ones if the show gets a long enough life.
If it was £25 a go I’d be imploring you to get down. At £50-£100 with the only difference being whether you’re deemed to be attending a peak or off-peak show, I’m more sceptical. I wouldn’t pretend to have an insight into its profit margins – clearly it was expensive to make. But unless the money is no object or you are a total Taskmaster obsessive, it feels quite thin to drop £200 for a pair of tickets on. Yes, the prices are comparable to the top end of the West End, but West End shows have cheap seats too.
Anyhoo - you know your budget better than I do and maybe my cynicism is just a function of my only being a fairly casual Taskmaster fan. Would I pay £100 to go on Knightmare? Sadly, I probably would
