Maisie Adam on her time on Taskmaster: 'Chaotic, competitive, and with varying degrees of success'

After chatting with Ania Magliano last week, I'm continuing interviews with contestants from series 20 of Taskmaster (which you can watch on the Taskmaster YouTube channel) with Maisie Adam. Maisie is an award-winning stand-up comedian and panel show contestant who hosts the award-winning women’s football podcast Big Kick Energy. As the dramatic winner of series 20, that’s another award for her already-busy trophy cabinet.

Maisie made an immediate impression on Taskmaster audiences with her competitive nature, her unbridled confidence, and her barely contained rage at some of the outcomes (and some of her opponents’ lateral thinking). Maisie and I talked about her experience on the show, where that competitiveness and inner rage comes from, and the relationship between panel shows and sports.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I’d love to start with your background with Taskmaster. What was your relationship with the show, and how did it feel when you got the call?

Obviously, it was amazing to get the call. In loads of countries, but particularly in the UK, Taskmaster is the big show for comedy, and for comedians to be platformed as well. So when I got the call, I was absolutely buzzing, to be honest with you.

I’d watched the show before, not every single season, but I’d always enjoyed watching how various comedians responded to it and the sides they found of themselves. It was really special to be asked.

Have you noticed a difference in terms of your interactions with people in public since the show aired?

To be honest, even before Taskmaster went out, when people used to stop me in the street they would say When are you doing Taskmaster? I would just sort of smile and nod, but I always used to think internally, Do they think it’s just a job I haven’t applied for yet?

So now, when I get stopped, it’s the one they always say. Before, it was Oh, I maybe know you from this show, maybe know you from that, and then When are you doing Taskmaster? Now, pretty much every person that stops me says We really like you on Taskmaster. It’s definitely an increase. And I’ve not really had that abroad much before, but when Taskmaster went out, I was actually in the States. It was amazing. I was on the subway, and a few people stopped me to say that they were watching the show. It was really, really amazing.

The contestants on series 20 had very different approaches to the tasks. How would you describe your own approach?

Chaotic, competitive, and with varying degrees of success. I’ve always known I’m competitive, and it’s always been a thing with me that I can’t just switch off and sail through. But the sheer anger that came out was certainly something I didn’t know was lying dormant within. It was so funny to then be paired up with Reece [Shearsmith], who was probably the other person that was experiencing that side of themselves creeping out.

It was really cool, because I think my anger was just so plain and out there. And Reece has more of a bubbling anger underneath that’s just sort of brimming, ready to be brought to the boil. It was so fun to be working with him in the team task against a team that was Sanjeev, who’s so laid back he’s horizontal, Phil, who just sort of wings it and is just having a nice time, and Ania, who’s incredibly methodical and logical. It was great pairings for the teams.

Where do you think that competitive nature for you comes from? Is it your background with sports?

Yeah, I think so. I think I really have the vibe of somebody who loves sports but isn’t good enough to pursue them professionally, so therefore channels that competitiveness into every other aspect of their life. It’s incredibly toxic. I’ve always played competitive sports and always enjoyed that element of it. I was chatting about this with my husband the other day, actually, because we were saying how much we both hate running, but we play football recreationally. We were both saying, with running, [if] you're running on your own, you can’t beat someone to the line, so it doesn’t feel like a particular endeavor. So I think there’s definitely something that is inherent in me that’s about beating other people. 

I hate being bad at things as well. I think the only way I could have been more angry in Taskmaster is if I was doing the task in real time with other people, and I could see how well they were doing it. There was at least a saving grace – well, I say a saving grace, it really backfired on me several times, where I genuinely thought I nailed it after so many of the tasks. I thought Yeah, I’ve smashed it. That’s absolutely the way to do it.

Those two worlds of arts and sports are often siloed, but it feels like competitive panel shows are in some ways a mixture of those two things. Did Taskmaster feel like a sporting event?

Absolutely. I came up on the topical panel show circuit when I first broke through into TV, and one of the big shows that got me through into people’s consciousness was Mock the Week. That was terrifying to break through, because it’s basically a sport. I remember being warned about it by the elder comedians, especially for the end, Scenes We’d Like to See, where you had to go forward to the microphone, and you might be walking forward at the same time as somebody else. It’s basically a game of chicken, holding eye contact and continuing forward, proper elbows out.

I think as well, even when you’re sat down behind the desks at panel shows, it’s essentially word combat sometimes. I think the culture has changed over time, but certainly when I joined and before me, it was very much a culture of If you don’t butt in, you won’t get heard. The panel shows tend to be like a really gregarious family dinner where, if you’re an introvert, you won’t get heard. Which is not great, but I think that kind of competitive nature is fostered in that somehow.

Through your podcast and television work, you’ve met a lot of professional footballers. Is there a footballer you think would make a great Taskmaster contestant?

Do you know what? I saw when our Champion of Champions was announced that Jill Scott is doing the New Year’s one. I am so excited to watch that, because Jill is one of the most effortlessly funny people. We always joke about this, Jill and I, because Jill says that I’m the kind of person that reckons they could have become a pro footballer, but I think Jill is the kind of person who reckons she’d be a brilliant comedian. And the truth is, I’m quite good at football for a comedian, and she’s quite good at comedy for a footballer.

But Taskmaster is the perfect format for Jill, because it’s chaotic and she's chaotic, it’s competitive and she’s competitive, and it also really celebrates weird little talents and tricks and a quirky way you look at the world – if you’ve got a bit of a Phil Ellis brain, if you can come at things a bit mad, and Jill absolutely has that. She’s quite childlike in her approach to things. I hope she doesn’t mind me saying that, but it’s true, and I’m really excited to watch her.

How’s your Sunday League going?

It’s good, thank you! I played last weekend and it was our sixth birthday, and we won 6-0, and I scored the sixth goal. So I was very, very chuffed to bits with that.

I’d love to do some word association for your fellow Series 20 contestants. So I’m going to name a contestant, and I’d like just one word for each of them that pops to your mind. Starting with Sanjeev Bhaskar.

Chilled.

Reece Shearsmith.

Terrifying.

Ania Magliano.

Methodical.

Phil Ellis.

Chaos.

When I was talking with Ania, she mentioned that in one of the last episodes, Phil turned to her and said “Oh, I kind of want to win now.” At what point did you think I might actually win this?

I thought I was smashing it at the start. I was like, Oh my god, I’m weirdly good at this. I think I can win this. And then the wheels came off, and I started having an absolute shocker. There were certain tasks, like the weight jockey one, or the one where we had to pull something out of a bag, where I thought, Well, I’ve lost it.  Whereas at the start, there was that task where it’s just who beeps the horn first, I was like Oh my god, I’ve smashed it without even realizing.

So yeah, I think whereas Ania and Phil started to feel like they might have this in the bag toward the end, I felt it leave my clutches.

But then it came around!

Yeah. Sometimes I want to go All because I managed to guess a random number. But actually it’s because Sanjeev opened the door. That’s what made me win, was Sanjeev being as lovely as he is, and offering to make a cup of tea for his friends.

Would you say there’s anything you learned about yourself doing Taskmaster?

Yeah, the anger. The anger is there in perhaps bigger droves than I thought. Also, I always like to think, as somebody who loves their sports, that I’m competitive, but I’ve got a plan. I’ve realized I don’t have a plan. I panic the moment I hear "Your time starts now." I just panic and go with the first thing that’s in my head. I think that was very reflective of my scores, because it was either the best thing in the world to do or completely lost me a task.

You were on Series 20 of Taskmaster, and you’ve got Champion of Champions coming out in a few weeks. But you were also on the pilot episode for the never-aired spin-off Foodmaster in 2023. Are there any memories from that you can share?

It was such a while ago now, but I do remember it being really good fun. I know, again, that I had a disaster, because I tried to do an all-roast dinner that was three courses in one. I think I covered a roast pork in sticky toffee sauce or something. It was a heart attack on a plate. It was the kind of thing you’d eat as a challenge in Las Vegas. It was that kind of vibe.

I think [Foodmaster] would have been really fun, actually. Ed Gamble was the Alex Horne in that. It’s been really fun working with Ed, doing the Taskmaster podcast afterwards. A lot of people drew comparisons with me and him of just how furious and competitive we got. We’ve spoken about maybe going to do an escape room together and filming it just for Taskmaster fans.

We sent Jason Mantzoukas across the pond for Taskmaster series 19. If the roles were reversed, is there an American reality or competition show you would like to be on?

Oh, that’s a great question. If I could go on any of your shows, I think I would have really liked to have been on the last season of Dancing with the Stars, because I’m a little bit obsessed with Robert Irwin. He’s captured the hearts of the nation. In the least creepiest way possible, I’ve been following him for a while, and I really love him. I just think he’s so wholesome and he’s so passionate about everything, and he just seems like such a lovely lad. I would have really liked to be friends with Robert Irwin.

Are you a dancer naturally?

Oh, god, no. I’m obsessed with our UK version over here, Strictly Come Dancing, and in fact we’ve got a former Lioness on it at the moment, Karen Carney, and I’m loving watching her. But I’ve got no rhythm, and I’m actually very inflexible for how much sport I play. I haven’t ever been able to touch my toes or anything. So I think I’d constantly look like I’m just going in for a slide tackle.

Athletes tend to do quite well on these shows, it seems.

Well, I think I would very much be a comedian rather than an athlete when it comes to dancing.

What do you have coming up next?

I’m going to be on the new series of Last One Laughing, which is on Amazon. That’s got a great cast, it’s such a varied group. You’ve got people like Alan Carr, who has just won Celebrity Traitors over on this side of the pond. Bob Mortimer is back, but there’s also David Mitchell, who is incredibly deadpan. It was a really, really fun but difficult thing to record, because there’s nothing funnier than being told you can’t laugh at something. That’s going to be out in the new year.

I’m doing more stuff with Jill, it was announced today that we’re doing the FA Cup, which is the most exciting cup in football over here. Any team can win it, and there’s no league structure, so you can have an absolute giant team like Chelsea playing something like Lewes Women’s. It’s really, really exciting, and hopefully we'll be able to bring our chaotic madness mixed with football knowledge to the forefront.

You’ve mentioned before that it’s a dream of yours to write a sitcom. Do you have an idea you’re working on?

I’ve got a little idea I’m working on. I can’t say too much about it because I’m in meetings with various people about it. It’s exciting. And it’s definitely a different pace and a different format and rhythm to stand-up. So it’s been quite fun to explore that side of writing.

Maisie Adam recommends: I Swear

I watched an incredible film last night with my husband that had us both in tears, but it was brilliant. It's called I Swear. It stars an incredible actress over this side of the pond called Maxine Peake. Basically everything she's in is incredible. 

It's a true story about a guy called John from Scotland who has Tourette's, discovered it when he was a kid in the 80s, and has gone on to achieve phenomenal things educating people about Tourette Syndrome. It's a real tearjerker, but it's heartwarming, and it's a really special film.