Watching Telly: Le Maître du Jeu

Here’s some fun, FOTB Ryan Vickers went and saw the new Quebecoise version of Taskmaster being filmed and he’s written a report. Take it away Ryan:

Taping occurred on Friday, August 5^th at the Rialto Theatre in Montreal.  We were let in early and I sat in the balcony (limited standing space was downstairs).  We saw two eps being taped starting around noon; finished up around 3:30 pm.  Taping went at a good clip; never really did it feel like drag at any point.

The panelists are Mehdi Bousaidan, Ève Côté, Christine Morency, Matthieu Pepper and Jo Cormier.  French-Canadian “petit Alex Horne” is Antoine Vézina; your Maître du Jeu is Louis Morissette.  I have to be honest; I didn’t know any of these names – it’s a bit of an odd thing in Canada where French and English sections of Canada have vastly different “star systems” as it were.

Anyway, onto the details:

• Early on in the taping the warm-up comedian Simon asked where people were from.  It turns out that I wasn’t the only person who had come far.  When I said I travelled from Toronto one of the players (Jo) piped up and cracked a joke in French wondering if the “Anglophone would understand any of it”; I responded in French saying that I’m a French teacher and know the show inside-out! This seemed to please him!
• This then led Simon to explain that all games are taken from the 13 UK series.  I’m kind of on the fence about this – part of the fun of Taskmaster NZ is that there’s stuff that hasn’t played before.  My hope is that they’ll develop some homegrown games from Series 2 onwards.
• The Taskmaster house as well as all of the “outside” games seem to have been taped at parc National du Mont-St-Bruno, just outside of Montreal.  In the games that I saw, there wasn’t anything that was done off property.
• While I won’t spoil any games (they said pictures were fine but please don’t spoil so I definitely won’t) I will say it was interesting that a game that played on the UK version was adapted for a foreign version that I’ve seen that we then saw play out on LMDJ; it’s interesting to think that possible loopholes were closed depending on the wording of the adaptation of other versions.  I’ll share after that game airs.
• Format fans: don’t worry – it’s the same format as the UK version (prize task, 3 filmed tasks, live task).  Due to spacing they just remove the panelists’ chairs and then replace for the finale.
• Set: same thing pretty much (see attached picture)
• Some stylistic changes – they are NOT seated in the same order for each episode.  Also, we were told we were seeing two episodes but they were NOT going to air in order (save for the last ep where they would declare the winner).  We saw episodes 7 and 8 – there were some references to certain performances earlier in the series so I’m wondering if maybe they just will air them in shooting order.  Cumulative scores across the series as a result were never mentioned; I’m thinking it will get dropped in during post.  Introductions done closest to the TM and then towards audience.
• Antoine Vézina is PERFECT for the assistant role.  Humour is drole (he starred in the Quebecoise version of “The Office”) and thumbs up for him being nice enough to have a bit of a chat with me and grab a picture.

Overall, a solid adaptation (and worth the numerous hours it took me to get there by car, suburban train and subway)! Scheduled at this point to air Thursdays at 8 pm starting in mid-September.  Quick turn around time to be sure.

Side note: if you’re so inclined, I was interviewed by Lou Sanders and Jack Bernhardt for “Taskmaster The Peoples’ Podcast” episode number 17, Is there an Argument to Say Entrancingly? about my love of all things TM including the fact that I’ve played it with my students.  It was an absolute pleasure to become part of the Taskmaster Universe.

Thanks to Brig for letting me write this up!