We gave the Taskmaster’s assistant a task, and it went… weirdly.
As a comedian, actor, writer and musician, Paul Williams is a man of many talents. He’s performed everywhere from the Edinburgh Fringe to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and was nominated for the 2017 Billy T Award. You might recognise him as Ollie in TVNZ’s comedy Kid Sister, or sing along to his catchy musical stings on reality TV podcast The Real Pod, but these days Williams is probably best known for playing the meek and mild Taskmaster’s assistant on Taskmaster NZ.
Yet for all his fame and success, Williams largely remains an enigma. Who is the real Paul Williams? What are his passions? His dreams? His favourite local TV ads from his childhood? In the hope of plumbing the depths of his psyche, The Spinoff put a series of deep and probing My Life in TV questions to the Taskmaster NZ star. He diligently completed the task, and at long last, is ready to pull back the curtain, break down his walls and bare his authentic self to the nation.
My earliest TV memory is… Writing my first pilot at 3 years old. A period drama set in Austria’s Fortress Hohensalzburg. It was called ‘Anna’s Wish’. I followed that up with ‘A Gentleman’s Kiss’.
The TV show I used to rush home from school to watch was… I didn’t do that. My life is a movie.
The TV moment that haunts me the most is… In Cool Runnings when the guy says it’s his dream to live in Buckingham Palace and the other guys laugh and tell him he can’t do that because it’s where the Queen lives. When I saw that my heart broke. Technically it’s a movie but I watched it on a TV.
My earliest TV crush was… The Sony Qualia 005. It was the first consumer flat-panel LED backlit TV. Unprecedented colour control and a really bright, clear picture. Changed the game for TVs.
The TV ad I can’t stop thinking about is… I liked the Think Safe one where the woman falls through the coffee table.
My TV guilty pleasure is… Whenever I stay at a hotel I make sure to throw the TV out the window. I learned it from movies about rock bands. It’s a guilty pleasure in the sense that in 2013 I was found guilty of causing serious injury to a man who was struck on the shoulder by a Panasonic GT50.
My favourite TV moment of all time is… Top Gear.
My favourite TV character of all time is… Richard from Top Gear.
The most stylish person on TV is… The Top Gear boys. Can’t pick one. If I had to pick one it would be Richard.
My most used streaming platform is… In my last year of high school, some boys in the year below me built a jetty at Sunday Hole. All summer I’d go down and jump off into the stream. Eventually the council found out and took it down but I’m struggling to think of a platform I’ve used more when it comes to streams.
My favourite TV project I’ve ever been involved in is… I played the role of Young Man on Shortland Street in 2015.
The TV show that defined my lockdown was… Had no time for TV. Spent all my time trying to crack the vaccine.
The TV show I wish I wrote/directed/starred in is… The news. It’s been running for over 50 years. I’ve been constantly committing crimes of increasing seriousness in the hopes of getting on.
My most-watched TV show of all time is… NBA.
A show I will never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… Shamu Goes Hollywood. I don’t believe Seaworld’s treatment of Orca’s is appropriate at all. Also, this show stopped in 1974 when they replaced it with Shamu For Mayor, so I couldn’t see it even if I wanted to (which I don’t).
The last thing I watched on TV was… The final episode of Seinfeld. The second the credits ended I punched my hand through the screen and vowed to never watch TV again. Haven’t seen a single frame of TV since 1998.
Read the previous My Life in TVs here.
The fourth season of Taskmaster NZ screens on Mondays and Tuesdays at 7.30pm on TVNZ2 and streams on TVNZ+. All seasons of Taskmaster NZ are available on TVNZ+.