Paul Williams is the guy keeping the straight face and the stopwatch on Taskmaster NZ, currently in its fifth season of finding which comedians are smartest at doing stupid stuff.
But it’s not just at home that the show has given Williams — the quieter, deadpan but occasionally musical brother of comedian Guy — a profile.
The NZ version of the show – the first overseas version in English – has been screening in the UK on Channel 4, home of the original. That has introduced Williams and the Kiwi comics on it to British comedy fans. Of the dozen NZ comedy acts at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, which include Melanie Bracewell, Ray O’Leary and Williams’ big brother, about half of them have Taskmaster NZ in their programme notes.
“In 2022, I think I saw quite a jump in ticket sales from Taskmaster and there’s a bunch of Taskmaster NZ contestants coming over this year for the Fringe, and I think they, too, will reap the rewards of the Taskmaster bump,” Williams says from London, where he’s living.
He returns to Edinburgh with two shows – 18 stand-up performances and one music gig. He has already played a release show in London for his sophomore set of straight-ish, electronic pop songs, Summers in Salzburg, despite not having quite finished the album.
“With music, it’s nice to be able to go at your own pace. My own pace is just very slow.”
He likes being at the Fringe very much. So much, he struck a deal with wife Simone Nathan, a screenwriter and actor, that if he wants to go, he can, no matter what.
“It’s funny, because a lot of the UK comedians really don’t like it. They kind of treat it like a stressful, exhausting month. But to me, it’s like summer camp, where you go and all your friends are there. You do a show, you go have food with a friend, and you go see a show, and then you walk up Arthur’s Seat.”
Williams can also be seen in two seasons of Kid Sister, the Jewish-Kiwi, autobiographically inspired sitcom written by Nathan. It stars her as Lulu and him as boyfriend Ollie.
In the second series, he converts to Judaism before they can get married. Williams also converted in real life before his nuptials. Did the art-imitating-life thing feel a little exposing?
“A little bit, yeah, but I think there was enough difference. There was the odd scene where I was like, this is pretty similar to how it went down, like meeting different rabbis definitely struck a chord.”
The real-life conversion may have some career benefits. “I guess now I’m technically a Jewish comedian. I’m part of an elite, a long line of comedy legends.”
Taskmaster NZ’s fifth season is now screening on Tuesday and Wednesday nights on TVNZ 2 and streaming on TVNZ+. Kid Sister is on TVNZ+.
