'It was completely unexpected'

Mike Wozniak proved such a smash hit on Taskmaster that he seems the obvious fit to co-host spin-off show Junior Taskmaster, alongside Rose Matafeo.

But Wozniak insists the decision came as a complete shock, with Taskmaster creator and co-host of the original show – Alex Horne – phoning him at the most perfect time.

Wozniak told the Always Be Comedy podcast: ‘It’s very exciting and completely unexpected.

‘Alex just called me up out of the blue on quite a funky day. I’d been doing the show [Zusa] and had made the mistake of looking for a review and discovered that The Times had given Zusa two stars.

‘I hadn’t read the article; the slugline was something like "The show isn’t ready." I didn’t read it because it’s behind a paywall. I’m up for self-harm but I’m not going to pay for it.

"I was in a wrangle of confusion, pacing around South East London thinking: ‘Well, maybe he’s right’. But the whole point of the show is that it feels like it’s not ready and it’s a shaggy dog story and there are supposed to be apparent errors.

‘And then Alex calls me up with this amazing bit of news – and I’ve been on Cloud 9 ever since!’

‘We made the pilot and were really lucky because they let us make two non-broadcast pilots, which is a very rare thing in telly these days – particularly for me. Most of the experience I have on camera is doing comedy acting stuff. Hosting is something I do rarely anyway.

‘So it was all a bit foreign and nerve-racking. But then they had this lovely thing where we were able to do trial runs, and Rose is a seasoned pro and so she was amazing.’

Wozniak also revealed that Dave’s sci-fi movie We Are Not Alone, in which he starred with Joe Thomas, will not be returning for a sequel or spin-off series.

‘It looks like it isn't coming back. I mean, never say never with these things, because they'd written quite a lot of what was to follow, Larry Rickard and Ben Willbond; I really like those guys, and they're such good writers, so I was very excited about that, and had a lovely, I just had such a lovely time with Joe and the rest of the gang making it, I was excited about giving that another go, uh, but no, that doesn't look like it's happening, sadly.’

However, Wozniak may be stepping in front of the cameras to commit Zusa to film.

‘I've really loved it,’ he said of the show. ‘It’s sort of kind of over now, but it might reappear – I might record it. I'm in two minds about it because I've never recorded a stand-up show and it sort of feels too final because even though the show was done and out it went, there might be the odd twiddle here and there.

‘The idea of actually putting it down on tape, and uploading it, or something, fills me with dread.’

Published: 4 Jul 2023