Isy Suttie - Series 22 Ep.4

Taskmaster The Podcast

Ed Gamble interviews comedian Isy Suttie about her experience competing in Taskmaster Series 22. The pair discuss the chaotic nature of the

Key takeaways

• Isy Suttie used plastic fruit as models for her papier-mâché tennis task to ensure durability.
• The episode features a discussion about Ellis James' 'lucky pants' that are described as being in poor condition.

Main topics

• Taskmaster Series 22
• Prize Task creativity

Notable quotes

The playground already thinks you're the coolest kid in the world.

Conclusion

A lighthearted and nostalgic look at the behind-the-scenes madness of

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:12) Hello, Ed Gamble here, Taskmaster the podcast. Series 22, episode 4, that's what we're talking about today. Another great episode, really loving this series, fantastic lineup. And we have a member of that lineup, the brilliant Izzy Sooty, will be in the caravan talking to me about episode 4, talking about their experience on Taskmaster. Talking about this episode in particular, Izzy is fantastic. It's always nice to catch up with Izzy. So very much looking forward to this chat. Here it is, Taskmaster Series 22, Episode 4 with Izzy Sooty. Speaker 1 (0:44) Welcome Izzy to the Taskmaster podcast. Thank Speaker 4 (0:47) you. Speaker 1 (0:47) Delighted to have you here as of course a contestant on the most recent current series of Taskmaster. You're fantastic on it. Speaker 4 (0:55) Thank you so much. Speaker 1 (0:56) Enjoying it very much? Speaker 4 (0:57) Yeah, so much. Speaker 1 (0:58) Were you a fan of the show before they asked you to do it? Speaker 4 (1:00) Yeah, I really was. I'm very methodical about stuff. I'm very all or nothing. So I started from the beginning. Well, I wanted to start it and then we had a kid. Speaker 1 (1:13) And Speaker 4 (1:13) then you don't do anything for about the first seven years of the kid's life. Then I had another one that she was for. But then she came to an age where she was like, oh, I'd really like to watch more funny stuff. And I was like, I've been waiting to watch Taskmaster. So we started at the very beginning. That's great. Yeah. And I was like, we can't miss a single episode. So I didn't realize there was a bleep version until like... Maybe we'd watch like four series. Speaker 1 (1:39) But it's too late by then. It's Speaker 4 (1:40) too late. We got to Aisling's series and then I was like, oh, there's a bleeped version. And I was like, do you know what? You've heard absolutely every swear word under the sun. It just doesn't matter. Speaker 1 (1:54) It's far too late. Speaker 4 (1:55) The playground already thinks you're the coolest kid in the world. Speaker 1 (1:59) Does she have any favourites from the series that you've seen so far? Speaker 4 (2:04) She loves... So she loves Nish. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:07) I'm aware she's a huge fan of Nish. Speaker 4 (2:09) She's a massive, a massive Nish apologist. I Speaker 1 (2:11) mean, Speaker 4 (2:11) who isn't? Yeah. She, she loves Nish. I mean, who doesn't? Speaker 1 (2:17) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:17) He's the best. Speaker 1 (2:18) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:19) So Nish and she loves Kerry Godleman as well. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:23) So, Speaker 4 (2:24) and then she'll meet, because obviously it's quite a small pool, isn't Speaker 1 (2:27) it, Speaker 4 (2:27) of people. She will meet people and go, you're from Tassmas. And I go, that's, that's my mate. And then it's weird because she's meeting, she's kind of continually starstruck. Have you ever met Betty? Yeah, Speaker 1 (2:39) I have a couple of times, I think. So, I mean, at your wedding, of course. Yeah, Speaker 4 (2:43) of course. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:44) Where I, you know, I mean, she was pretty buried in revision for her speech, though, I would say. Yeah, Speaker 4 (2:49) we were all, so she, Ellis and me were all writing our speeches during the meal. Ellis was writing his on a laptop. Speaker 1 (2:57) And then John Robbins had obviously written his speech already and then had to go to Betty and have a long discussion with her to see if there was any crossover with the themes. Speaker 4 (3:05) Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:07) Which, you know, it was a long chat. It Speaker 4 (3:09) was. She did an Aristotle joke early on, didn't she? That I don't think... Just astonishing. Speaker 1 (3:15) Terrifying level of intelligence. Speaker 4 (3:17) But Speaker 1 (3:18) anyway, look, she's obviously going to be on Taskmaster in the future. I hope so. She's Speaker 4 (3:22) desperate to... She just wants to... Yeah, she really wants to do it. And obviously, you know, there is the kids one. But I keep saying, well, they won't let... you on it because you're the child of a contestant now. Speaker 1 (3:34) I think just let her on the proper series now, really. Yeah, Speaker 4 (3:37) just... Speaker 1 (3:37) Quite frankly. Get her on before Ellis. That's all I want. Speaker 4 (3:41) Yes, that would be great. I Speaker 1 (3:42) want her to beat Ellis the Taskmaster. Imagine Speaker 4 (3:44) if she'd beaten John. Speaker 1 (3:47) That would not, no one's life would have been worth living. We should talk about Ellis briefly, not to, you know, we'll get him out of the way. Should Speaker 4 (3:54) we say his surname in case people don't Speaker 1 (3:57) know Speaker 4 (3:57) what we're talking about? Speaker 1 (4:00) Do I want to give him that level of publicity? Is Speaker 4 (4:02) there another Ellis that we could pretend? There aren't any other Ellis's. No, there Speaker 1 (4:05) aren't. It's like Cher. He really should just drop his surname anyway. Speaker 4 (4:08) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:09) Ellis James. We'll say Ellis James. Ellis James. Just because you, I think you threw him under the bus delightfully early in this series by bringing his horrible dirty old pants in. What Speaker 4 (4:17) episode is that? Speaker 1 (4:19) Two? Yeah. Yeah, I think it was episode two. And is Speaker 4 (4:21) that for things that Greg doesn't want? Who Speaker 1 (4:24) wouldn't be jealous of, yeah. Speaker 4 (4:26) So yeah, these lucky pants, which... Speaker 4 (4:31) are ripped to shreds, aren't they? They're really old and they're... I mean, I think he's had them since, like, the 90s. Speaker 1 (4:38) They don't function as pants anymore. Like, nothing that you would want to hold in a pair of pants would be held by those pants, I don't think. Speaker 4 (4:44) Yeah, I think you're right. I suppose it's like, if a house was, like, just stripped down to its foundations and its frame, when is it not a house? When it loses its roof? Speaker 1 (4:55) When it's cock and bollocks are dangling out, I think. Yeah. That's basically it, isn't Speaker 4 (4:59) it? Speaker 1 (4:59) Through the windows. Speaker 4 (5:00) It's got lots of tiny windows, that parent park. Yeah, Speaker 1 (5:03) loads of tiny windows. You can see whatever you like through those things. They're like Speaker 4 (5:06) medieval windows, like the slits. The slits, Speaker 1 (5:09) yeah. Speaker 4 (5:10) So Speaker 1 (5:10) they're lucky pants. I'm so glad I get to speak to you about this. They're lucky pants that he wears every time whales play. And he feels like if he doesn't wear them, then Wales will do badly. Yes. Speaker 4 (5:22) But Speaker 1 (5:22) Wales do really badly. Speaker 4 (5:23) Yes, I know. And I don't know how he explains that. Speaker 1 (5:28) No, because it might be the pants' fault. Speaker 4 (5:30) But then how do you explain them winning maybe once or twice while he's wearing them? Could that be chance? Maybe you have to look at what's happening the majority of the time. If they're losing the majority of the time, then maybe the pants are bad luck. Speaker 1 (5:43) Or maybe, and this is crazy and I don't want to seem like a nutter, maybe the pants have got nothing to do with the Wales track record. Speaker 3 (5:52) No. Speaker 1 (5:53) No. They must be connected in some way. Yeah, Speaker 3 (5:55) yeah. Speaker 1 (5:56) How well did you know the others on your line-up? You obviously know Greg from Man Down. Know Speaker 4 (6:01) Greg from Man Down. Know Greg from, like, the early days of gigging as well. Like, when he was in We Are Klang, the sketch group, with Steve Hall and Marik Larwood. And did, like, Edinburgh with them in, like, the early noughties and stuff. And then Alex. I know... I sort of knew Alex less well than Greg. Speaker 4 (6:23) and Chloe I had gigged with at, I think, Old Rope, like the New Material Night in central London, but maybe only met Chloe like once or twice. Nina sort of similarly gigged with her a couple of times. Speaker 1 (6:37) That's really weird to me that you didn't know Nina really well because as soon as you are on a team with her, it's like you've known each other your whole life. Speaker 4 (6:45) Yeah, I felt like that too. I can Speaker 1 (6:48) see you. in later life, as sisters, just like two old sisters who live together, and solve crimes. Oh Speaker 4 (6:55) yeah, I'd love that. Speaker 1 (6:56) I think like a cosy crime type thing. Speaker 4 (6:57) Yes, like a Richard Osman scenario brought to life. Yeah. Would he live next door and watch us? Yeah, I guess Speaker 1 (7:06) in a less creepy way than you put it, I think. Yeah. He'd live next door and... Speaker 4 (7:11) And observe us solving... Why is observe so much better than watch? Speaker 1 (7:15) Watch is really bad, isn't Speaker 4 (7:16) it? Speaker 1 (7:17) Observe, it feels like, for a purpose. There's only one purpose that a man is living next door to two ladies and watching them. Watching them. Speaker 4 (7:23) They are solving crimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're old. Yeah. Well, he'd be older than us. Speaker 1 (7:27) He'd be older than you. The crime would mainly be what he was perpetrating. Oh, Speaker 4 (7:31) yeah, that's... It's so meta. A man's watching us and we've got to solve the mystery of who it is. Oh, it's Richard Osman and he's writing a book about us. Yeah. That's it. That's Speaker 1 (7:40) it. Yeah. So he wants you to solve it for the book, but he doesn't want you to solve it because he doesn't want to go to prison. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:47) And also he doesn't want us to solve it quickly because then he wouldn't have the book. Speaker 1 (7:51) Yeah. So Speaker 4 (7:52) it's straddling that. Speaker 1 (7:53) That's good. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:55) Quite Speaker 1 (7:55) a complicated story in the end, really. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:58) I think you can make it work. I definitely, I'd be up for that. I really, really liked Nina. Like it was genuinely lovely sitting next to her in makeup and. Speaker 4 (8:09) chatting to her. She reminds me of Bridget a bit. I think she's like a true clown. Yeah. Like Speaker 1 (8:16) completely. I mean, she does a couple of things. She's done a couple of things in the series already where she just goes, I'm not going to do any prep. Speaker 4 (8:22) Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:23) She's so trusting in her own instincts that she can just sort of let go and free and know she's going to do something completely unique because of that. Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 4 (8:31) Yeah, I adore her. And Speaker 1 (8:33) did Speaker 4 (8:33) you Speaker 1 (8:33) work with Matt before? Speaker 4 (8:34) No. Like he had done Fancy Football League with, Ellis. I'm still trying to think of another famous Ellis that could carry Ellis. We might have to move on to Alice. When I do predictive text, it comes out as Alice. Speaker 1 (8:47) Yeah. Still? Yeah. Your phone hasn't learned your husband's name yet. Speaker 4 (8:52) No, I don't say it enough. I say L a lot. Speaker 1 (8:54) Yeah, okay. Speaker 4 (8:55) So if Speaker 1 (8:56) you're... On what occasion would you go full Ellis? Speaker 4 (9:00) Oh, to like say, so at the moment someone's doing our garden. To them I'd say Alice and then they see Alice and they say, oh my God, Izzy and Alice have split up and she's now living with a woman called Alice. Whereas Speaker 1 (9:13) we know that's not going to happen. You're going to live with a lady called Nina. Speaker 4 (9:15) Absolutely. If there's any lady I'm going to live with, it's Nina Conti. Elle, Elle, Elle Macpherson. Speaker 1 (9:23) Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Elle Fanning. Elle Speaker 4 (9:26) Fanning. Speaker 1 (9:26) Yeah. Speaker 4 (9:27) Lots Speaker 1 (9:27) of L's out there. Lots Speaker 4 (9:28) of L's. Speaker 1 (9:29) We're going to find another Ellis by the end of this. We must. So Speaker 4 (9:32) yeah, Matt I'd met properly through L. I don't think I even met him before he did Fantasy Football League. Actually, I had. I've never spoken to him about this. When I was at drama school, when I was about 19, I was in the centre of London and I saw Matt and he was on like Shooting Stars and stuff then and I knew who his agent was. I don't know how because the internet didn't really exist then. And I went up to him and said, hi, Matt, I'm a singer-songwriter. And at that point, I was trying to do really serious things. Can I send you a tape of my songs? And he went, OK. And I said, are you still with... I can't remember who he was with. And he went, yeah. And then I sent him this cassette tape to his agent. And it was all these, like... really kind of angsty songs and there was this weird song about a guy called Martin who was really lonely and he smeared himself with the contents of a fry up before he went to sleep and stuff like Speaker 1 (10:24) that and Speaker 4 (10:24) this Speaker 1 (10:24) was one of your serious songs yeah Speaker 4 (10:26) because Speaker 1 (10:26) that sounds exactly like the sort of song you would have done on the circuit as well no I know it does Speaker 4 (10:30) yeah he smeared himself with Speaker 1 (10:32) a Speaker 4 (10:32) fry up Speaker 1 (10:33) before he went to bed yeah Speaker 4 (10:34) and I was always doing gigs with like really kind of you know, very serious musicians on the open mic music circuit. I'd do the song about the fry up. But yeah, that is the first time I met Matt. I've never ever mentioned it to him. Speaker 1 (10:45) No, but I don't think, I think just don't. Speaker 4 (10:47) Yeah, it's better not to. Speaker 1 (10:49) Yeah, I mean, he might hear about it on this, for example. Yeah, he Speaker 4 (10:51) might. Speaker 1 (10:52) And we've not had him on the podcast yet. So obviously I'm going to tell him. I'm going to pass that on. You Speaker 4 (10:56) should. I mean, I wonder if he'll remember. Would you remember someone Speaker 1 (11:00) approaching him in a town centre saying, will you let me send you a cassette of songs and one of them was about a man called Martin who smothered himself in a fry up potentially potentially Speaker 4 (11:09) it Speaker 1 (11:10) would stick out in my mind might Speaker 4 (11:12) do we don't know how many times it's happened to him maybe loads of teenage girls have sent in their songs about fry ups over the years Speaker 1 (11:25) Let's talk about the prize task on this episode. The juiciest thing. Let's talk about yours first, Izzy, because I think it's the best prize task entry this series. Do you? I love it. I think so much thought and effort went into it. The fruit playing tennis to the point of juice. People try and do double meanings on the show a lot. It's rare that they're successful, I think. Thank Speaker 4 (11:46) you. And Speaker 1 (11:46) I think even the insight that you tried to use tabloid newspapers originally. Because they're with juicy gossip. Speaker 4 (11:53) Yes. I Speaker 1 (11:54) just think you put in so much effort to it. It just felt very you. And yeah, I loved it. Speaker 4 (11:58) Thanks. I absolutely loved doing the prize tasks full stop. And when I've watched it in the past, I've always thought about what I would have done for the prize tasks. And I'm also very, very anal about like deadlines and about like our house is such a mess. I'm very, like I've got Excel spreadsheets for everything and I often meet deadlines like a week before the deadline. So with the prize tasks, as soon as I got them, I was like, right, I'm going to do that for that and that for that. And Speaker 3 (12:30) I Speaker 4 (12:30) kept saying to the producer, right, I'm thinking about this and that. And he'd be like, we've got three months till we, like, just like, yeah. Speaker 1 (12:40) They're Speaker 3 (12:40) used Speaker 1 (12:40) to other comedians, which, I mean, other comedians are the complete opposite. Most comedians I know are the total opposite. So they have to be like, sending them three months in advance knowing that they're only going to come up with it the day before yeah Speaker 4 (12:52) well they probably really regretted it with me they'll be Speaker 1 (12:54) like Speaker 4 (12:54) we should have sent it the day before i could sleep at night without all these questions should i do an orange and a lemon or a lime and a lemon you know i can't sleep till i decide but i i really did love doing them i loved it so much so with the juicy one um my first idea was to do a video judy murray yeah um talking about giving a message to alex about uh a deuce because I love absolutely love Wimbledon I can't play tennis but I love watching it and so I thought of deuce immediately and then I thought oh Judy Murray maybe I could get Judy Murray to but I was like actually it'd be nice to do a visual thing do Speaker 1 (13:33) you know Judy Murray no Speaker 4 (13:34) so Speaker 1 (13:35) you're gonna have to find her on high street and say he's still with this management Speaker 4 (13:39) Yeah, could I send a cassette tape of myself requesting that you leave a message with the word deuce in it to your agent? Speaker 1 (13:45) And then please smother yourself in a fry up. Yeah, Speaker 4 (13:48) that's your reward. Although I haven't met her, my sister, when I had a break from stand-up, I'm having a break from it again now, but I will go back to it because the kids are really young. I just hate leaving them at night. So when they had the first break from it for a few years, I then was going to tour and I was quite nervous about going back to it. odd it's a bit like muscle memory yeah I don't know if you've ever had a long break have you not Speaker 1 (14:11) since I started doing it no well Speaker 4 (14:13) it's weird but it's quite you think it feels like starting all over again yeah Speaker 1 (14:17) but Speaker 4 (14:17) um when you've done about sort of seven or eight gigs you're like okay I remember now yeah Speaker 1 (14:22) but Speaker 4 (14:22) for that getting back into it and knowing I'd have to write an hour I was like oh god and my sister bless her um went on um