Cuckoo actor Greg Davis proves a tough taskmaster.
Greg Davies, the host of comedy panel show Taskmaster, talks to Sarah Nealon about the show’s success and why he is shirtless on his website.
Official websites of actors usually contain flattering photographs. Not so with Greg Davies. On his website I was confronted by an image which is hard to forget. There he was shirtless (and quite possibly naked) with a lake behind him.
“I think if you’ve got it, you’ve got to flaunt it,” says Davies, a British actor and comedian.
The website and that photo is to promote his UK comedy tour which is titled You Magnificent Beast.
“A very drunken student threw himself through my car window in the middle of London and came really close to my face and said, ‘You’re such a magnificent beast’ and that made me laugh for about an hour,” says Davies.
“Then it made me think– a middle-aged man who has really let himself go is far from being a magnificent beast. It was just shining a light on the ridiculousness of the title.
“Just for your information, when we were having that photo shoot I had to keep running in and out of the lake because there was a really aggressive swan attacking me between takes so I really suffered for that picture.”
Davies, 49, is a former high school teacher who has starred in sitcoms
The Inbetweeners and Cuckoo. He is also the host of Taskmaster, a comedy panel show created by comedian Alex Horne, who appears on the show as a sort of umpire.
Here, guest comedians compete in silly tasks to find out things like who can eat the most watermelon within a minute or who can throw a tea bag into a mug from the furthest distance away.
The show has proved a hit in the UK and Davies says that is down to a couple of things.
“I think it’s incredibly childish and puerile but some of the tasks take real lateral thinking,” he says.
“They are not straightforward things which is why the contestants end up making such a hash of them.
“When you’re under that sort of time pressure, the brain does strange things.”
Unlike other game shows there are no flash prizes up for grabs. Instead the comedians must bring something which fits a particular theme.
“The prizes reflect the ridiculous nature of what they’re doing,” says Davies.
“If the comedians had the chance to win a speedboat, I don’t think it would add to the show.” PRITVHG_e2b0e1l7i_e2v1es20t1h7a-t06ju-1s5tTb1e1i:n03g:5n5a+m12e:d00 the episode’s winner is enough. On Taskmaster, Davies assigns tasks and passes judgment while he is seated in what looks like a throne. In the comedy The
Inbetweeners the actor, who stands at a towering 2.03m, played a sarcastic headmaster called Mr Gilbert and he draws parallels with that role and his
Taskmaster duties. “That’s the similar thing I like about
Taskmaster (in) that somebody has done a thing for television and handed me some authority,” he says.
“I haven’t had to work for it, I’m given it. If you’re not a very authoritative person in real life, it’s nice for someone to hand it to you. In Taskmaster, I’m drunk on the power.”