Season two of Taskmaster Australia is in full swing and Jenny sits alongside fellow comedians Anne Edmonds, Josh Thomas, Lloyd Langford, and Wil Anderson as they compete for points and, more importantly, the approval of the titular Taskmaster, Tom Gleeson.
Each week, the comedians face a range of tasks set and overseen by the Taskmaster’s trusty assistant, the lesser of two Toms, Tom Cashman. Tasks can range from inventing and promoting an original conspiracy theory to simply being told, ‘Don’t do it’.
Before getting the call that she’d be joining the Season 2 cast, Jenny had only seen clips of the global series. When it was confirmed, she only had a few weeks to cram in as much ‘study’ as possible.
“I spent two weeks cramming Taskmaster New Zealand Season 2 and 4, Taskmaster Australia Season 1, and Season 16 of UK,” Jenny told 10 Play.
The Australian version is shot in the same house as the Kiwi version, so she decided that one of the best courses of action was to study the house's rooms, watch different approaches to tasks, pick up on patterns, and most importantly wardrobe choices. “I studied the outfits to be like, okay this is what I want to wear on TV,” she laughed.
“There had only been one season of Taskmaster Australia so I had some sense of it, but I still didn’t know the flavour of tasks they would throw at me,” Jenny explained. The UK series has been running since 2015, airing 17 seasons and 7 specials in that time.
"Because it's so far along it's at the stage where the tasks are so convoluted with so many steps," Jenny added, "whereas when I was doing the tasks they were deceptively simple and I overthought a lot of it."
Tasks often have a time limit or are scored based on who can successfully complete it the fastest, and in the panic to outsmart the series many comedians find creative -- often ridiculous -- ways to meet the brief.
"Something just happens in your brain where you have an instinct and go, 'I'm just going to do that!' You don't have enough time to think of anything else," she said. "That happened a fair bit where you'd think right, now's the time to be smart, rational and coy... but your brain just does things to you under that level of pressure.
"In the moment, you don't think you're overthinking. You think you're nailing it and outsmarting the Taskmaster. You don't have time to doubt yourself or hesitate. You just do stuff."
In one particularly glorious moment from the season so far, the comedians had to 'interrogate' some ducks before correctly accusing one of secretly being a goose. There was no time limit on the task, instead, the comedians simply had to make their accusations after asking the fewest questions. Taking this in her stride, Jenny settled in -- resulting in the second-longest task attempt in the Aussie series so far.
Taking over one hour and 26 minutes, Jenny took Tom Cashman on a walk (explaining she needed to "think about something that wasn't ducks for a moment"), she drew multiple complex matrices, discussed the Matrix trilogy, pontificated on Wordle obsessions, got a coffee, and extensively outlined what constitutes an accusation. And then she got it wrong.
"I thought everyone would take a really long time, obviously that's what you'd do if there was no time limit! Also, it's a complex task and I'm a smart person so if I'm struggling, everyone would be struggling! I thought everyone would do the same thing I did, and when we watched it back I saw how many of them solved it. I was like... oh man."
Later in the episode, contestants received a task asking that they "fluke" something. Jenny decided to re-do the duck task and fluke it, redeeming herself and succeeding in two tasks at once. Then she got it wrong, again.
But the beauty and magic of Taskmaster is that there is no such thing as failure. If you fail at the task, you succeed in being hugely entertaining and, for a comedian, isn't that always the goal?
"I feel like the moments where you fail are also the ones where the audience laughs the hardest," Jenny said. "Either way you win, you either look smart because you solved something or you look stupid but it's hilarious and everyone likes it.
"My favourite contestants and the ones I was most endeared towards were the ones who failed because it showed that they're human," Jenny added.
"I remember, before the series, I'd watch the competent people and think I was relating to them like, ah that's what I would do as well. Only to do actual tasks and find out I'm not that person at all," she laughed.
"I tried so hard, you don't know how hard I tried on every task," she continued, "the duck one is bad, but I think the ladder one was also really bad!"
Referring to another task earlier in the season, contestants were asked to draw a man with a ladder they had seen just minutes earlier. Hoping to catch another glimpse of the man, Jenny wandered outside to find a man with a ladder only to convince herself that it couldn't be the same man. It was.
"His aura was off! It was a different dude! He was so polite and kind and then, when he was posing with the ladder, he was like a sturdy person," she exclaimed.
"I've seen other Taskmasters where they try and trick you with a different person and that's obviously what was happening and I wasn't going to fall for their tricks! I thought every time, I'm outsmarting these fools!"
Watching herself complete tasks through the show has allowed Jenny to see how much of a creative force she is, as well as a few other realisations. "I used to think that I was really cool and switched-on but now I've realised I'm kind of dorky and sometimes unaware of myself," she said.
"I've started leaning a bit more into that with stand-up and discovering my persona along the way," Jeny said, adding, "I think I've discovered myself in some ways."
As for advice for any comedians who'll be taking on the challenge of Taskmaster Australia in the future, Jenny said, "Just have fun and enjoy the moment because it goes by so quickly.
"Also, if there's a guy standing with a ladder... that's the guy."
Taskmaster Australia airs Thursdays at 7.30 on 10 and 10 Play
