My Weirdest Job

I meant to write this two weeks ago but I've been so busy with my random jobs that I've had no time to write about them. With Eric in school I now have 5 days a week where I can do random stuff, and on my first full day of freedom I did the best job ever, I was paid to put on a surprise Taskmaster party where I got to be Alex Horne. 

If you don't know Taskmaster it's a TV show on channel 4 where comedians and other celebrities do silly tasks. Some are creative tasks like recreating your favourite video game in real life, or painting a picture of a horse while ridding a horse. Some are more like logic puzzles; get a basket ball through a hoop without using your hands or empty a bath tub without removing the plug (or tipping or damaging the bath tub). Some even involve random members of the public that happen to be near the Taskmaster house in Richmond.

I love the show, I especially love the creative tasks where you can interpret them in different ways. I would love to be a famous enough comedian to be on the show. I'd love that much more than actually being a famous comedian, but the next best thing is coming up with a load of tasks for people to try. This is the 3rd time I've done a version of this. I first did a taskmaster day for the kids during lockdown which was fun but a bit limiting with young children. We did "eat your biscuit into a shape of a dog", and "invent a new Mr man." 

Then in Jonesfest (our annual garden festival) I hosted a night called "Mockmaster" where I got 4 comedians to do the stand up challenges from Mock the Week and some Taskmaster style games. The best of the games was called Burgle Our House. The 4 comedians had to sneak round our house in the dark and then fill their bags with the most valuable things they could find without waking 3 sleeping children. It's one of the most fun things I've ever done, and I really need to get round to editing down the footage of the whole night so I can share it. Anyway with 2 Taskmasters under my belt I managed to get the job of Alex Horne and the surprise birthday Taskmaster.

What made the day so epic was bribing my parents to go out for the day so I could use their house. Everyone should get to use their house because it was paid for by the government as my parents were forced to relocate due to HS2. So if you've ever paid tax you are allowed to borrow my parents riverside house. Its the perfect Taskmaster location...

The first task involved me throwing rubber ducks into the river every 30 seconds while they had to collect them in a net and put them in a bucket. We were all on some kind of boat.

Another one of the games I did here and at Mockmaster was blind connect 4. I scented the pieces so the red pieces smelled of peppermint and the yellows smelled of perfume and you had to play a game by picking your counter from the mixed box using your sense of smell. Every 3rd go a seeing person gets to put a counter in. It's surprisingly interesting.

And here are the results from the decorate your cake to look like a celebrity round.

All in all it was a lovely day. Thanks to Rob for letting me do my dream job and to Gemma for having great taste in birthday fun.

No job could compare but my other jobs at the moment are pretty fun too. I'm starting a new mosaic project at Woolton primary, even though I just made them the biggest mosaic I've ever made...

I'm doing a Super Mario kids room mural and will soon be running 2 after school art clubs. I was a Covid tester for a bit in a school, that was a lot less fun, and I've got 2 more comedy nights to run before I start getting ready for the big move to France. 

More about that in the next blog.