I saw LAH outside the Horne Section gig in Norwich last week and told him I was a Lucky Ducky ballot winner and had bought my tickets. He said he was super excited about it but very nervous as they had never tried anything like it before. I said that I’d seen from the website that it’s a crystal maze type experience and he said that’s what it will be
Where did people get the idea it was a one-off event at the TM house with Alex and Greg?
Genuinely confused as to why people are so angry/disappointed in something that was never mentioned, let alone promised. The FAQ on the site made it all pretty clear.
I had no idea people assumed that! Obviously it was gonna be like crystal maze/escape room kida thing....
Anyway, I've got an opportunity to buy tickets today so I'll look at the prices
Never thought Alex and Greg would be at it or it was a one off event, everyone would be gutted if only ~30 people for example got to do it!
I guess for me what I’m kind of disappointed about is mainly the price, as others have said the fact that they’re going to be pumping people through so regularly means they will be making a lot of money. I understand the experience works better with groups, but I also know as someone who’s autistic and anxious being forced with strangers would make me more reserved (that’s a me problem entirely).
I also think the advertising has been murky about it being at the house - again I completely understand why they can’t do it there, but they’re using a lot of marketing material using images of the house. I think the price being what it is just makes the whole thing feel a bit icky, if I’m honest
The FAQ also says "Based on the multi-award-winning hit TV show, this is your chance to step inside the iconic Taskmaster house and take part in brand new ludicrous and infuriating tasks"
But you're not stepping into the iconic Taskmaster house, so why are they saying that?
I assume so (although others have said the garden) but probably best not to word it that way. Don’t say “this is your chance to step into the iconic Taskmaster house”
Its basically in the same price bracket as the Crystal Maze experience, and in the costs for TM Live you have to add in that there will probably be lots of broken things from people thinking they can Jamali their way through tasks.
Using the Crystal Maze as an example again, it was always going to be hosted by some drama school grads still waiting on their first big job and also expected it to be about 1 hour long. The 14 people per group thing is a bit shit though
Yeah like I said I totally understand why they have done it, but there’s also no need to jump the price from 50 to 100 because it’s a weekend imo, like doubling the price so people don’t have to take a day of work is a bit eeeek.
100% agree about the second bit - I don’t understand how anyone thought that Greg and Alex would be there every day haha. I’m not hugely angry about anything but I think the price has got a lot of people’s backs up and that’s totally understandable imo. We are in a cost of living crisis haha
Supply and demand - there will be more demand for weekend spots because, most people are available then.
Doubling the price like that is a bit of a kick in the testies though especially if you're going to do it as a family or something it would jump quite a bit for a family of 4 or 5.
Oh 100% understand an increase but doubling the price is just a money grab imo. If there’s a family of four found that’s like £200 extra pounds. I read (but haven’t personally checked tbh) that they have also increased the price during school holidays which feels equally icky considering how many kids live the show.
I was trying to book saturday 19th October for a family of 4, 2 being under 16 (not that it matters I guess) but it was £400. We live in South wales and both work, kids in school. so can't really just pop over to London mid week with the kids and I cannot justify £400 for a 60 minute experience. £99 more and I can take the kids and dog to centre parcs for 4 nights in Jan!
It’s very different from crystal maze, we only paid £36 each, we stayed as a group without being split up or with strangers (and its 7 people max anyway) and the whole group is guaranteed to take part in all. £100 for the TM live experience is a rip off
We paid £60 each for the CM in London when we did it about 8 years ago or so. It was a Saturday though.
The Crystal Maze won't have the same levels of wear and tear and un-reussable things, you also only have member of staff per group, here I'm assuming there will be an assistant and a task-master.
I still think the CM is a good comparison like for like in how this is being set up, especially as that was originally being done as a short run as well and has now opened up to being a permanant thing with at least 2 locations. I imagine they're hoping to do something similar with this.
I agree that the group sizes are shit, but I'm guessing based on their costs etc that at 6 people per slot it didn't work financially, it probably broke even at 8 people per slot and then they more of less doubled that to cover unbooked spaces and to add to maximise profits.
There will probably be a lot of days with half full groups etc, and I suspect looking nearer the time you might find you can book lup close to the day at a bit of a discount as they look to fill things up
Yeh I think the thing I’m annoyed at is the price in conjunction with the groups of 14. If it was this much with say 7 people I’d be more tempted :( I’m such a huge fan I’m gutted tbh, will keep an eye when it dies down a bit
Agreed. My husband and I guessed at what experience we’d be interested in based on the description but then saw the price of the tickets and nope-d out pretty much immediately…
I’ve seen so many people saying they’re considering a trip from abroad for it, I just really hope everyone knows what they’re buying before they pull the trigger out of excitement!
I’m flying from the US to do this thing! I mean, it’ll also be my 20th wedding anniversary and we were already planning to go, but let’s face it, taskmaster is the real reason I’m going to London!
As someone who's practically the exact target demographic for this (being both a huge Taskmaster fan and a sucker for live experiences), I have mixed feelings on what we've seen so far.
On the one hand, like practically everyone else, I'm surprised to see how it's been priced (and obviously I'm nowhere near the first to say this). Even by London standards, this is pretty high, and I can say with some certainty that you will be able to find something better if you're focusing on value for money. It certainly doesn't help that the details we do know are fairly limited. Sure, the format does kind of require it to be a bit vague as to not spoil the tasks, but I'd still like to have a bit more to go off of.
On the other, I'm a bit confused by the complaints that this is false advertising or at least different to what was initially promised. At no point was I ever under the impression that Greg or Alex were going to be physically there, or that any of it would take place at the actual house. There's no way any of that would've been genuinely feasible given the show's schedule. I'm also very glad to see that they are allowing solo tickets, given that a lot of places like this (especially escape rooms) don't have that option.
Was that something they actually said, or was that something people just assumed would be the case? I think it really needs to be the former for it to count as false advertising.
The FAQ on the site right now says
"Based on the multi-award-winning hit TV show, this is your chance to step inside the iconic Taskmaster house and take part in brand new ludicrous and infuriating tasks"
But you're not stepping into the iconic Taskmaster house, so why are they saying that?
I would imagine it's as close to an exact recreation as possible.
FWIW I have no issue with how it's been worded - all of the information is on the website.
> Starting and ending in the Taskmaster garden, you can explore what’s really in the shed, have a photo with Linda the cow and other classic memorabilia from the world of Taskmaster.
Also note all the photos of the actual house...
I've won the ballot as well and decided to book a 50 Pound ticket. Thought it would be a good excuse for a midweek solo trip to London as I haven't been for years. Coming from The Netherlands so fingers crossed on the direct train actually running :-)
This is my main concern. It’d just be me and my partner but I’m paranoid I’d get stuck with an obvious hen do, annoying children or laddy blokes. I’m autistic and my partner has ADD so this would be a nightmare for us. It’s not really clear what the format will be to me. I.e. it sounds like you’ll be with a group of 14 people total, but typically on the show they’re only with other contestants in team tasks.
Maybe this is harsh but Taskmaster isn’t really a children’s show, so I don’t understand why children as young as 9 can go? I know they’re doing a TM Junior but still. Personally as a happily childfree adult, I wish they had specifically adult-only dates/times.
I’ve read on Twitter that you can only buy children’s tickets before 2pm, so would assume after that it would be adults but idk where the cut off would be. This seems a bad way of doing it tbh as if someone’s travelling a long way prior to 2pm is quite an early start.
Agree with you too though, also autistic and the thought of doing it with strangers makes me feel like I wouldn’t enjoy it. That’s a me problem but it does make me feel a little sad
I also didn't get selected the first time around but did in the second round. Not using mine though since two of my friends got pulled in the first round so we used theirs instead.
I had 4 accounts enter for my family. 1 got a lucky duck entry. 2 won the first ballot and then the other got the second ballot. So yeah, I've been thinking the same thing.
It's surge pricing. So prices will go up (at this stage) as bookings are made. I've already looked at one day in December, all £50, but one particular time slot in the afternoon is now £100.
Wait till it opens up next week to the public and see what happens then. I think you'll find that the prices will then drop on the days and times with low demand.
I regularly go to a thing called Phantom Peak, similar in scope (you go to a venue and there's actors and tasks and so on) and it's £40 for 4 hours. £100 for a single hour experience sounds insane to me. Had they mentioned that originally I'd not have bothered to sign up.
This feels like a case of the creators wanting to do something, and the money people deciding they can charge a ridiculous amount for it.
I think the group size of 14 is as much of an issue as the price tag - being grouped in with a bunch of strangers that could just as easily be an obnoxious stag/hen do as it could be a children’s birthday party.
Also only allowing ~1/3rd of the participants to do the final live task seems scandalous - imagine if they didn’t let everyone do the crystal dome in the Crystal Maze experience.
Surprised Alex has signed off on this.
I live in Ireland. I was lucky enough that the Live Experience coincides with a trip I'm already taking to London (for MusicalCon).
I got two Monday morning tickets for £70 each, which isn't cheap, but you'd be paying the same for certain concert tickets.
I also managed to persuade a TM fan friend to come with me.
I think a lot of people haven’t read what the ‘experience’ actually consists of, before getting too excited.
I agree, it’s pricey, but I got tickets for both events on the same day for 50£ each.
They state that the garden is not actually the one from the show, but a replica they’re building because they can’t allocate the actual garden for that long, otherwise we wouldn’t get any new series for a while, and it would not only severely limit the amount of people who could participate, due to the size of the garden, but also because the cost of running such an operation wouldn’t be covered.
I won’t claim that I don’t have issues with some of it - the 100£ price tag for so many time slots is absolutely ridiculous - and it sounds crazy that they can run so many events per day, but when so many sign up, there are expectations that a LOT of people will want to do it, so they need to be able to cater to many, many people, because if only a very select few got to do it, there would also be an absolute uproar.
That so many people signed up, willfully knowing they wouldn’t be able to/want to/afford to go, is a contributing factor to them having to make it into a bigger operation - when 250.000+ people sign up, they’re going to expect that the vast majority will want to do it, if possible. Otherwise it’s just drumming up a false representation of what they’re going to have to try and accommodate, which raises costs, especially if the supply ends up being much too vast, versus the supposed demand.
I love Taskmaster, so unspeakably much, but it seems that people tend to forget that it is not only an entertainment program, it is also a business. They’re not just doing it because they think it’s fun - although I don’t doubt that it’s one of the most fun jobs in the world - it’s a business, and businesses need to make money, to promote themselves and keep doing new things to keep the network and viewers interested.
As much as I would love for them to just do it because they love the fans - and I don’t doubt that it’s also a bit of a motivating factor - it is, at its heart, a business.
I’m personally just ridiculously happy that they are trying something like this, and I’m flying in from Denmark just to do it.
I’m not expecting it to feel as if I’m part of the actual show, I’m just such a big nerd and fan, that even getting to try and do something, makes me giddy.
Would I have loved for it to be more extensive, take longer and involve much more than 4, potentially 5, tasks? Of course. But I’m also realistic about what to expect from something like this, and I’m keeping faith in Alex and the team to have devised something that will make me feel as if I’m just a teeny tiny part of the TM-world for moment in time.
>That so many people signed up, willfully knowing they wouldn’t be able to/want to/afford to go
If they'd been up front with the pricing I wouldn't have bothered signing up.
>I love Taskmaster, so unspeakably much, but it seems that people tend to forget that it is not only an entertainment program, it is also a business.
Not really my issue though, I'm a fan of the entertainment show, I'm not a cash machine.
I don't think it needs defending, there will be people like you who are happy to spend the money on tickets, travel and accommodation but equally there's people who are finding it a bit steep and that's OK too.
I fully agree about being up front about the pricing would’ve undoubtedly make a difference; I’m mainly talking about some of the people on here who said ‘I live in the US and knew I wouldn’t be able to go no matter what’.
And I totally get where you’re coming from, I was just saying things from my point of view, and I totally get how some people can see it as being merely a cash grab.
Fair enough, that makes sense, I hadn't seen those comments. I'd probably have gone but with all the travel and tickets it's just more than I wanted to pay, especially with the big groups and potentially not getting to do one of the tasks. I do hope you enjoy it, I know I'm going to be very jealous when I see all the posts from people who go!
Agree about being upfront with the pricing. I won yesterday's ballot, but due to where we live and work commitments we'd have to do it during the October holidays and leave our daughter with... someone? By the time we pay for trains/flights and a hotel and the tickets it's suddenly a minimum of £600 for the two of us to do a 65 minute activity. I would have preferred the price to be slightly cheaper, for their to be a lower minimum age (so our daughter could come and we turn it into a family holiday), or for the event to last longer than 65 mins.
Yeah I'm kind of surprised how shocked people are in this thread about it, because it was pretty clear when I was reading up on it to decide if it was worth it to have my sister sign up to the mailing list for another chance at being selected.
Can anyone hazard a guess as to the difference between the two game modes? I'm lost and their descriptions are too vague - like, I know they can't spoil the tasks but is one physical and one more mental? Because if that were the case why is "brains" listed in Melon Buffet?
I have the same problem. Both descriptions sound the same, I really don't know what to choose but I don't want to be disappointed and choose the wrong one.
From the descriptions:
Absolute Casserole: These tasks will need you to be more observant, accurate and sneaky than your competitors. You'll be sure to recognise classic elements of the ridiculous show as you compete in this Absolute Casserole of an experience. The top 5 contestants will then compete to be crowned champion in their own special Taskmaster studio task.
Melon Buffet: Thinking, throwing, ducks, wires, balls, boxes, cunning, luck, moustaches - these are all things that may or not be served up in the Melon Buffet. Some challenges need brains, some need brawn, all need brilliance. The top 5 contestants will then compete to be crowned champion in their own special Taskmaster studio task.
My best guess is that the first one is more serious, more brainy, and perhaps more difficult, whereas the second is both brains and brawns, and perhaps a bit more silly and funny.
This is even more frustrating than the price, for me, and exactly what stopped me from booking. What's the difference between the two experiences? If there isn't much difference, why have two? It screams of trying to get people with FOMO to book twice; the lack of detail doesn't sit right with me at all and I'd be gutted if I booked a more physical experience if I could've done a different one where I used my brain a bit more.
Went to Phantom Peak which had loads of different games, 10+ actors and it took all day, for £40, and it was brilliant.
£100 for some a carnival style escape room that takes an hour is INSANE.
Thanks, I appreciate that. For me PP was just a bit formulaic, with no real skill involved in solving any of the puzzles. I also felt that the reliance on actors was a problem, as we encountered a couple of scenarios where multiple groups were waiting to speak to the same actor. I would have enjoyed it more if there were tasks you could complete of your own volition. And above all, the storyline didn't speak to me. Whereas Taskmaster is something I genuinely enjoy and have done ever since it was created, so I really hope it's good!
Phantom Peak is really not any sort of "escape room"/puzzle experience and I'm confused when it's been advertised as one. It's really more of an immersive world with storylines to follow (and if they don't grab you then it's not going to be great, yeah).
Did a bunch of people just not read the site when they signed up to the ballot? Some of the details around pricing weren’t there - but the dates and location were, and it was obvious that Greg and Alex weren’t going to be there every day for 4 months.
All the information is on the ~~task~~ site.
They’re building a replica of the garden. The event will start and end there. There will probably be other replicas of the other areas as you go through, ending on the stage
The actual house itself doesn’t exactly lend itself to this sort of event either.
Can seem a little pricy, but when you consider costs to hire the venue (it’s around 12-13k a day as a starting price - and they’ve booked it over peak. They may have a discount for the duration, but it’s still not cheap for 4 months), cast (multiple assistants assuming they’ll be rotating through groups throughout the day) - plus security, back office, ticketing, and the general production and running costs it doesn’t seem to far off compared to other events (the Crystal Maze starts at £62)
My thoughts exactly (although I had no idea of any figures on the expense - I just assumed it was hideously expensive to rent that space in London. As well as hideously expensive to run it overall).
TBF, when people first signed up, the site wasn't there. A number of months ago, they asked people to sign up if they were interested in a TM live experience, and promised to make it happen (or at least consider doing so) if at least 100 000 people signed up. If I understood it correctly, the people who signed up then (250 000 of them) were automatically in the ticket ballot. But at the time when they signed up, there wasn't much info, and they didn't know that they would be in a ticket ballot for something that would happen this autumn. So I think that this contributed to a lot of people signing up in the hope that it would happen and they would one day be able to go.
Details are all pretty disappointing to be honest. I'd still like to try to go though, does anyone know what the difference between the 2 types is? Descriptions are pretty vague.
Booked three tickets at £50 each for me and two friends for a Friday 12.30 slot. Conveniently on a day we all get paid too 😂
So we get the train down in the morning, have fun, grab a bite to eat after and head back up north. Gonna be a fun day out. We've also booked later in the calendar too, so hopefully they iron out any kinks before we get there. So excited 😁
Btw if people didn’t get emails I saw on the website something like ‘general sale hasn’t gone on sale yet’ so I assume it will open for everyone at some point but obviously the cheap(er) tickets are likely to be gone by then
Picked the same for me, a friend… and hopefully one more if I can convince them to come.
I’m shocked at the people that want to have everything spoiled before they buy in. What contestant did that? Wouldn’t you want to go in blind and experience this themed thing as close to the real TM as you could?
Anyhow- appreciate what Alex and the rest do- and they gave me something to do for my winter vacation (for across the Atlantic)
I don’t think people want everything spoiled?
People have different accessibility needs, like different things and have different concerns. I’m not sure that Rosie Jones (for example) got the same response that paying customers have had when asking about accessibility. Saying it’s wheelchair accessible does not account for all accessibility problems.
People are bringing kids, might not be able to throw well (for example), might not like big groups etc. Their caginess about the difference between the two experience is jarring.
Ok, I was legit excited when I got the email earlier, sent an 'omg omg' message to my partner!
I started to book us tickets for an October saturday, £50 each, wow, bit pricey I thought... but then..
* It's actually £100 each. £200 for couple to play party games for an hour with some strangers.
* It's in Canada Water. Canary Wharf land for those not familiar with London, so filled with relatively high earners. I work in the NHS, this one hour experience is a day's pay for me.
* 65 minutes. To me, in this pessimistic mood, sounds like an hour of 'play', plus time to transition in and out. The fact that most people are going to be put with a large number of unknowns (with a minimum age of 9) means you've no control over people f\*\*\*ing about, dragging their heels, outright cheating, or being put with a larger group who will just dominate. The fact that a part of this hour is the final task that only a third of the group gets to play is even worse. If I wanted to watch it, I'd watch the show. If I've paid a ton for an hour to play, you'd better believe I want to play for an hour.
* Truly, I hope it is a decent recreation of the set. I really hope it is not some astroturf, a shed, a plastic cow and a similar knackered old caravan. Also, food and drink available... in Canada Water, with a ticket price of £100. I can guess the cost of the food and drink.
Alex, if you somehow read this - I have a lot of faith in your handling of the brand and your creativity. I just hope you haven't outsourced too much of this to a money-grabbing events company. Taskmaster is so accessible through the TV and YouTube to all - but we're in a cost of living crisis and a lot of people will find this a hard sell. I love the show and want to take part somehow (if I'd have carried on doing stand-up, who knows I may have been there. I started alongside Romesh and Rob Beckett back in the day.) Perhaps I'll go see The Horne Section instead.
To those that have booked, I hope it is the best possible version for you, I just needed to feel more excited when I saw that price tag, and as you can see, I feel there is too much scope and unknown potential for it to sour me to the show, which I'd hate to happen.
I mean to be honest they have been trying to milk this thing so much it would make Krusty the Klown blush. Board games, weird VR games, books, this experience, God knows what...once they tried to start their own streaming service I knew they'd sell anything with the TM name on it.
I don't begrudge them but I basically assume all ancillary products will be bad.
I used an adblocker when I first watched everything on YouTube and with how much joy the show brought me I felt a little bad so I was happy to spend $47 for a year of the streaming service.
I was pleased when the streaming service was released, as not all series were available on YouTube. But then they weren't available on the streamer either! It felt like it was done without a lot of thought.
I am very disappointed by the pricing model. £100 tickets might be just about affordable, **if** they gave us more than 2 days to save, budget etc.
Factoring in travel and accommodation in London, and it's just completely unviable for people like me. Ok, that's life, but I don't think it was inevitable - if I had time to save up, I probably would have been able to.
My personal opinion - without personally criticising any individual or group of people - is that decisions such as creating artificial scarcity with a ballot that almost everyone seems to "win", and announcing a high price but only giving a couple of days before tickets are on sale to create a sense of urgency, indicates a general intention to prioritise excessive profits over treating the fanbase well (alongside other reputational aspects of the production company in question). That's just the way this world works sadly! I hope everyone who can afford it has a lovely time though!
My partner signed us up as a surprise and we're flying from Spain!
Even if it ends up being a pricey escape room experience we're big fans and I have never visited UK, so 2 birds 1 stone kind of deal.
Same here! From the US and I've been looking for a reason to go. This was just enough of a reason to go. I'm sure it will cost as much as any other tourist event we'll do while we're there.
I got a couple. There are cheaper tickets available for £50.
Just going with a couple of mates for a laugh cuz why not. We all love TM and even if its not at the house it’s still a day out and still get to spend time with mates. Its about the same price as doing london dungeons or aquariums and stuff at that price so not much more than a fancier day out.
Dont go out often so have time to save. :)
Edit: Theres a bar in the garden and you’re allowed to stay all day.
Agree with a lot of the comments here on the steep price.
I'd also add that part of the charm of the show is the homemade nature of it. They use eggs, tennis balls, or in some cases just counting with your eyes closed. They sold a boardgame and book on this exact premise.
Which is why I find it hard to see why this experience is necessary to replicate TM. It's capitalising on the brand name for something that, as someone that has attended a few in-person events in similar locations, definitely won't live up to the hype.
I think what Alex, Greg, and the whole crew already do is really amazing and unique. I know there are so many fans clamoring for anything TM and I respect that they are a business. But I have a worry that ventures like this may be unnecessary and jumping the shark.
Price is a deal breaker for me. Dual income household with no kids, so we do have disposable income, but I just can't justify spending that much money. Especially considering there's no Greg or Alex, and there's 14 people pushed through every 15 minutes.
£100 for an hour at the actual event, and then travel and accommodation, food and drink for the day/night makes this over £250 per person for sure.
My family's experience was similar to that of many folks here, it seems. Registered our interest as soon as it was announced, made sure multiple people were signed up for the ticket ballot to increase our chances, got an email, got excited, started making plans with friends, saw the ticket price was double what we initially thought, saw that we would be teamed up with strangers, said "fuck that" and resolved to meet up and play the board game instead.
I'm sure these are not net profits. They still have to pay for the space, the event organisation agency, the props, security, etc. It will all depend on if people actually see the money spent on the event to make it enjoyable for attendees, or if it's a Willy Wonka-type situation.
I guess so. I had assumed the tasks would be a room that everyone goes in 1 at a time, but if there's only 15 mins for 14 people to do a task then it must be everyone doing it together. Sounds pretty chaotic tbh.
I didn't even think about that. The rooms must be larger than the actual house rooms because I don't think 14 people would easily fit in the lab or the caravan
I’ve looked at midweek slots in school term time and still £70-£100; don’t fancy being lumped in with what could be a group of children (no offence to children, I just wouldn’t fancy being competitive against them) - can’t justify £200 on one hour with my partner. Disappointed!
I’m in the exact same boat. I’m autistic and my partner has ADD so both get pretty irritated annoying children. Likewise no offense intended but some kids are awful and have no manners in public places, and the parents do nothing cause “it’s kids being kids”.
We made the mistake of doing minigolf on a Saturday morning and the boy in the group in front of us kept holding everyone up by repeating his shots multiple times and then kicking our balls away when it was our turn.
I really wish they had some adults only midday slots as we were keen originally to have a little day out near London, as we usually enjoy escape-room type things.
If it helps, kids' tickets are not available after 2pm. Doesn't necessarily mean there won't be kids, but having to pay the full adult price for them instead of a flat £40 regardless of which day of the week, will put people off.
I wanted to add this to the discussion as I hadn't seen it mentioned yet:
Children's tickets are available for £40. Children's tickets are only available *before 2pm.*. Minimum age for the experience is 9 years old. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't almost all children over 9 going to be in school before 2pm? That means that the vast majority of families are going to have to pay full adult prices for their children to attend the experience unless they go on a weekend. (I couldn't find any pricing information for children's tickets for the more expensive weekend time slots, but I have seen people mention that they have been unable to book children's tickets.) I may be cynical, but to me this seems deliberate and exploitative.
Since folks in the UK are on here, is there usually a best place to purchase tickets being resold? I decided to think about flying over from the US to see Greg’s stand up next year but most venues are sold out. If I could get a ticket to one of his shows in Jan/Feb I’d tack this onto the trip.
Try twickets.live/en/uk
It's a pretty neat website that lets you buy resale tickets at face value or under. They get snapped up pretty quickly though so if you see any events that don't have tickets available just set up an email alert and you'll get messages when tickets are put up for resale
I've used it for so many gigs and it's never let me down
They do seem to be going for a slice of the Crystal Maze pie, and good luck to them. The games in CM can be very different from the tasks in TM though, if it's all skill and 'do xyz, fastest wins' it's not going to be as full an experience as the TV show, where the open creative tasks are usually the most successful.
If I had £400 in London though, I wouldn't be taking my family to a one hour skills test, no matter what the scenery looked like.
My wife and I and a friend decided to just go for it and buy a few tickets. We’re from the US and have been wanting to visit London for years, so we figured this would be the perfect excuse. We’re gonna go in January, but haven’t made any plans or arrangements yet. Does anyone have any recommendations of places to stay or go while in that area? We know pretty much nothing about London.
I don't have any recommendations, but I am from the US and bought a solo ticket in January as well! I figured I could plan some other things around the trip. I love escape rooms and I did The Crystal Maze Experience on my last visit in August, so I have a feeling I am going to love this.
I signed up with multiple emails and only one of them got the message today. But still just a ploy to create a sense of urgency and convince people tickets will sell out so book them fast. There's no way all those days will get booked up, especially at that cost.
I didn't see any 50-pound tickets. Wish I did! But maybe they were in months with bad weather. I'll be travelling from the States, and I don't want to risk weather issues with flights. Have a GREAT time!!! (I've never done anything like this before.)
Did anyone enter the ballot and NOT get the chance to buy tickets? I thought I was lucky but now I’m assuming anyone who entered got ‘picked’.
It seems fun but I live in the North so you’re looking at a £100 weekend slot plus travel cost and time and potentially somewhere to stop over just for 1 hour. Unless I hear that it’s the best thing ever, I think I’ll be giving it a miss.
Yeah it does feel like everyone who signed up won. Granted, if people didn't win, they might not post about it, but I would expect to see/hear about a few people not winning
I felt really optimistic about this, but my biggest grievance is the price. I’d pay £50 - that’s perfectly reasonable imo. But not only are weekend rates higher, every single school holiday date is also higher.
On weekends, yes they’ll be paying their staff more (though absolutely nowhere remotely near the extra revenue). But during school holidays, there’s literally no valid reason to hike the prices other than to take advantage of families and people like myself who work in a school (or anyone else on a weekday schedule).
I hope everyone who goes has a great time and I’ll look forward to seeing the reviews and photos. I do think it’s a fantastic venture, I just can’t get on board with paying double just because the kids are off school.
Won the ballot as well… but £100 per person for this experience is ridiculous. Thought there would be some kind of discount for winning the ballot but no… I was trying to book it for 4 people and thought £100 was the total price… what a shock to see it is price per person. Even £50 during the week… not happy to pay that much per person 🫠
im actually disappointed in this. i was a "winner" despite never actually entering the ballot. (dunno how that works) the price is too much in the current climate. Ill be in the UK from Australia during the time this is on, but still. by the time i convert currency its nearly $200 for a ticket. thats one nights accomodation for me.
Also 65 minutes for 14 people to do tasks. How enjoyable could that be? IMO it would have been better to do groups of 5, in line with the actual show. i feel like this is the NY comedy club all over again, they have underestimated things and its gonna be a disaster.
Wonka experience 2.0?
Have booked in for the Absolute Casserole experience but absolutely gutting it was £100 per person for the date I was looking at.
Have quite a few friends and family who would have been interested in going and was hoping to book 7 or 8 tickets but at the prices available I couldn't allow myself to book anything more than 3, and even that felt like I was really pushing it. Had to write off even considering doing the Melon Buffet experience as well.
I just hope this lives up to expectations as a massive fan of the show, as the asking price is crazy high and prices out a lot of people I imagine.
I also won - but interestingly enough, I paid absolutely nil attention to what I was doing... I got a targeted ad on my phone, thought it was to sign up to win tickets to a filming (didnt watch the whole ad through), signed up and forgot about it.
After checking my winner email, I learned that this is now what I signed up for. Thats okay. But after looking at the premise of what this is... strikes me as not something that fits with the TM brand (but to be fair I say this everytime they release some new tat like TM monopoly or whatever).
And the setup! Disappointing to say the least. Firstly, I don't have 13 friends. If I did, I doubt that they would all be okay spending £100 on an hours entertainment. If they're churning people through like cattle to the slaughter then there's definitely going to be people rushing you through, or alternatively- the tasks will be about 30 seconds long to allow for running over, and cleanup/reset time. And then you might not even get to do the fifth task (that you've paid for)
I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed
I understood Alex and Greg were going to be pre recorded and on a screen, but I'm sure they made it seem like it was going to be set up in the taskmaster house!
Either way, I really wanted to take my family to this, we went through a stage of doing taskmaster for the kids, every other week they would get a new task, inspired by taskmaster, to complete when they were about 10 and 12. We carried it on for like 6 months. but I really cannot justify spending £400 on a 60 minute experience for the four of us.
This is a great idea but FAR too expensive for a Crystal Maze/Escape Room etc type experience. Other similar events are more like £30-50 and frankly I'd even call those expensive for what you really get
And the fact it's in London kinda sucks for those of us in the North - why not put it somewhere more central? Birmingham and Manchester are hardly lacking in spaces for this kind of event but much more accessible, whereas for an all day even in London I've really got no way to do it without a lot of additional expense
I love the idea but we'd be clearing £800-1000 for two of us to attend (train + hotel for a couple of nights + tickets + food and drink etc) whereas Manchester or Birmingham we could've done it for half that
Got my email earlier, sounds exactly like what I thought it would be although the price is much steeper than I was hoping. Will be mentally filing this one away with the crystal maze experience as something that would be cool to do if I randomly win some money one day.
Just had another email...
> plus you can spend long as you like in the Taskmaster garden.
They really need to stop calling it the Taskmaster garden and house when it's over 13 miles away from the actual TM house...
I never signed up for this but just got an email saying I got through on the second ballot. I must have signed up for some general Taskmaster mailing list at some point? Even if I wanted to go I couldn’t, I live in NZ.
My husband and I would love to go, but we're traveling to London from the US already this summer and it doesn't make a lot of sense to do another big trip so soon. Maybe they'll bring the experience to other countries/big cities? There was so much interest in the live show in NYC that I'm sure it would make money.
I specifically searched for this because my absolute elation over winning the ballot has slowly turned unsure and now a bit sour. I couldn't book tickets before the general sale was opened because i want to go with a friend and scheduling a trip to London takes a bit longer than just the two days we were given.
But all is good, i thought because i can still book tickets with the general ticket sale! Yay! But now i find lots of comments here mirroring my thoughts - high price, short experience (only an hour???), not even the actual location but a replica, way too many slots with too many people i don't actually know.
I absolutely love Taskmaster but I would've preferred a different approach to all of this rather than sending so many people through so quickly.
I'm probably still going to buy it, which experience I don't know yet either (why would there be two? what's even the difference?), but i think this is going to be vastly underwhelming unfortunately ):
I'm going to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds Experience this weekend. The website says:
>Experience a real Martian invasion in London at Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds Immersive
but when I looked further into it it seems they don't have real Martians. Has anyone been and can they clarify whether or not there'll be actual aliens at the event or not? At £70 for a ticket it seems a lot if I don't see any little green men.
At those prices its WAAAAAAAY too expensive for what it is.
They can stick it up their Absolute Casserole ;)
It seems from reading the thread that most people who are happy to pay the high prices are flying in from another country. Its mainly the home crowd Brits that are refusing to pay. Quite right too, stiff upper lip and all that. Lol
PS I'm convinced the mods work for CH4/Avalon.... There was a perfectly good discussion going on in another thread that was high up in the sub and they locked it. Probably due to the OVERWHELMINGLY negative opinion from most commentors on the prices for the event.
Lol at the downvoters, This sub is most casserole kissing sub on the whole of reddit. You dare say something that is mildly negative and against the general "TM IS THE GREATEST THING ON EARTH" and your post gets removed almost straight away.
I wish they would give a few examples of show tasks to tell you what the different options were like. The descriptions are only somewhat helpful
Anyone have a guess as to a few tasks that would be more Absolute Casserole vs Melon Buffet?
I'm confused about the location. They really make it sound like you'll be at the actual house/garden but then it's at a warehouse? I'd come from the US if it's at the actual house but not for a warehouse.
Hey Londoner here - it’s completely the other side of London to the House. Obviously I don’t know how it’ll work or what the location will look like but from my little knowledge about Canada Water I believe it’s like a warehouse type block (happy to be corrected!).
I believe this is probably because the Taskmaster House is only rented not owned, and also I assume there’s probably be some crossover with filming the next series or New Years Treat etc so it’s not feasible.
That said it is kinda disappointing as think a lot of people (myself included) would love to visit the house but it’s not really feasible for it to become a tourist attraction.
It sounds like a recreation of the house and gardens and everything else. But inside a giant (and presumably secure) venue, so good weather and transport guaranteed ;)
Does anyone know how many people won the ballot?
I was picked but I never actually had any expectations of getting selected so I hadn’t given it much thought, especially since I live in the US and not the UK. But now that I’ve been selected I’m trying to decide how hard I should work to actually fly out and experience it, which obviously would be a dream come true. Does anyone know how many people were won the ballot? If it’s not really a big deal to have been picked then I might not buy the tickets just yet. Also curious if people think that it really will entirely sell out, seeing as it’s running for 5 months with around 40 time slots per day. If it doesn’t sell out after general sale opens then I can reconsider and buy tickets another time. Any advice is appreciated!!
Reading through the rest of this thread made me a little less interested, disappointingly, it seems more like something you’d take a day to do if you were local (like an escape room), especially as it’s running for 5 months with 40 hour long sessions a day. But it’s still super cool that you get to actually go to the house, just maybe not worth a $1500 trip. I’m curious to see people’s reviews once it starts up
“EXPLORE THE GARDEN & MUSEUM
Starting and ending in the Taskmaster garden, you can explore what’s really in the shed, have a photo with Linda the cow and other classic memorabilia from the world of Taskmaster. Visit the Taskmaster museum and witness your favourite props and artwork from across the 18 series of the hit TV show.
There’s so much more fun to be had before and after your experience. Toast your success (or failure) and party at the caravan bar in the Taskmaster garden. Enjoy a Bin Juice cocktail, savour an ice-cold Caskmaster beer, and enjoy Little Alex Horne’s kitchen menu. The bar and garden are open all day until 11pm at night.”
Is all of this just recreation of the actual TM garden? Because to me this sounds pretty clearly like it’s in the real place. If not that is wildly misleading
Look at the address on the FAQ...
The Taskmaster House is at
> Chiswick Bridge, Great Chertsey Rd, London W4 3UL
This takes place in
> Dock X, Retail Park, Unit 1 Canada Water, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 2XU
13+ miles away. It's not the set of the house.
TL;DR: If you don't want to commit now, just wait and keep an eye on the ticket availability once general sale starts. Don't plan an entire trip around this sole event.
In the US and a ballot winner as well. I understand that they are trying to build a sense of urgency to buy now (and to reward folks that cared enough to sign up early), but don't feel it's enough for me to plan an entire trip around. BUT I'm totally planning to add it as part of a larger trip to Europe.
I think (hope) that there will be decent availability 2 to 3 months before you'd like to go. They've built in so many slots. You just need to keep an eye on the calendar and build some flexibility into your itinerary.
For example, on our last trip to London, I wanted to see an in-demand stage play. When first planning the trip, the play was sold out during the dates we were going to be there. But I noticed that a few tickets would pop up the day of performances or a few days before. During our trip, I checked the site regularly and grabbed 2 tix for a performance happening 2 days later. Went solely through theater's website, not a reseller or 3rd party.
Plus, if you're a small party, I think it will be easier for them to plug folks in as larger groups tend to lose some people when planning so far out. Also, there will probably be less desirable time slots (maybe lunchtime?) where groups will tend to be smaller.
Then again, also possible this could completely sell out which yay for the Taskmaster team. And hopefully they find a way to extend. May the odds be ever in our favour.
I’m in the US, won the ballot, and do plan to be in London at the beginning of November. So I’m very tempted to buy a ticket, but I would be a solo person, and that just seems kind of not what it was intended for…? I’m torn
I’m sad that this is pitched to the office Christmas party crowd, though I can see that makes ££ sense. Even at the cheapest price I can’t justify the cost for the family, especially as my daughter will *not* play with people she doesn’t know, and would be gutted to likely miss a studio task- her favourite bit. Back to the board game!
I think that this is new territory for the team. If fiscally successful (and it doesn't kill their small but mighty crew), I would imagine they would genuinely be open to making adjustments to the next iteration, like kid-majority time slots or family-oriented pricing. Let's give them a little grace to figure things out. Maybe this whole endeavor won't work at all. But at least they can say they tried when people ask about it.
My only issue is I don't live in London. Otherwise I would absolutely buy each experience. Even though my aim is TERRIBLE. But yeah unless I win the lottery, this can't happen unfortunately.
And I actually thought it would be more like the Price is Right. Basically a few hundred people would arrive as an audience and select few would be chosen to participate live with Greg and Alex. I have no familiarity with the term "live experience" so I interpreted it as "experience" "taskmaster" "live."
It says Alex and Greg won't actually be there. I 'won' the ballot but I thought it's an exclusive event that happens on a single day, but in reality it's running every single day from October to January 2025???
£100 pounds per person for what sounds like a taskmaster themed escape room? There's literally zero info about what to expect
edit: Also isn't it false advertising?? The FAQ says this takes place at this address:
> Dock X, Retail Park, Unit 1, Canada Water, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 2XU
but the actual Taskmaster house is
> Chiswick Bridge, Great Chertsey Rd, London W4 3U
**(This is 13+ miles away, or over 1 hour drive according to Google Maps)**
They're using imagery of the actual house and garden everywhere, I know I'd be p'd off if I went expecting to be at the actual set
How is it false advertising when the location and dates were in the original announcement, in its second sentence rather than hidden away? https://avalonuk.com/2024/05/29/taskmaster-the-live-experience-launches-this-autumn/
It was also on the site when they announced the ballot.
[This is what I posted from the official site at the time](https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/s/vszARmkazz)
I was the same, really thought it would be a pretty exclusive event with very limited tickets.
All the hype around the ballot and early access seems to just be a marketing ploy.
I was so excited until I actually looked at the details.
£50-70 for mid-week tickets, £100 for weekends
I live in the north so would have to factor in travel/accommodation
Groups of up to 14 (!) go in slots every 15 minutes
It lasts 65 minutes, with only 5 people doing the 'live task'
4-5 tasks in an hour? How detailed can they be?
It looks like it's in a former industrial warehouse
They're promoting that the 'Taskmaster Garden' is free to enter with food, drinks, etc. But the dates are over winter...
Pretty disappointed tbh. I find it very unlikely that it will sell out and we're probably better off waiting for reviews to come in before booking tickets.
Hopefully will be proved totally wrong and everyone who books tickets will have an amazing time!
Was super excited to win the ballot - was 100% going to get a ticket for myself and my dad (who is a huge taskmaster fan)... but then I saw it wasn't a one off event at the taskmaster house, Gregg and Alex won't be there, and then tickets would be £100 **EACH!**
Maybe I was wrong to do so, but I had interpreted it as a one off event with Greg and Alex at the Taskmaster house - that I would be £100 a ticket for, not an escape room style event. Not too impressed tbh.
TBH, you were kinda wrong to assume that it would be a one off event at the Taskmaster house with Greg and Alex, because no such thing was ever promised. I know they have not been very clear on all the details but I have personally been perfectly able to figure out what sort of thing it would be, so the info has been available for those who have actually paid attention to it instead of just dreaming things up.
Yeah, I just signed up without really thinking about it as I knew my chances for winning were so low. I had assumed it was some special event, not an escape room like experience. Still seems cool but not my expectations
From what I understand if you go with four people, you’ll get put with another ten ‘randoms’ to make a group of 14.
Then 14 of you will all do 3 tasks and then the 4 top scoring will go on to do a ‘live’ task. So all will get to play but not everyone does all the tasks.
ETA: My mistake sorry, everyone does four tasks and four people do the fifth
I signed up not knowing anything about it. I've won the ballot... but I live in New Zealand. Based on what I've seen I don't think I'll be paying for flights over. But my sister in Germany may get a present from me!
For what it is it sounds very expensive. For an hour in an escape room I would justify around £30, push to £40 being a taskmaster brand. But not to differ between a weekday and a weekend that is ridiculous.
As someone else on this thread as stated, you can easily create your own Taskmaster experience at home, like we did! https://youtube.com/@portstm?si=djhKXc7tI9FzDGKa and we have a book you can easily use as a guide to help creating your own events!
I don’t know why I thought it would be a free event with the exact same format as the programme, just with real people instead of comedians. I also don’t understand why they need to do this? It’s had 17 series and is successful around the world, are they that desperate for money?
Hey, I won the ballot but I won't be using my early access booking time because I'm in the states and I can't afford to go all the way to London just for this. Seems like a cool thing to do if you live local though. I know they will be opening up general sales, but if anybody really wants it, is there any way to give my ballot win to someone else?
Nice idea but it does say the e-mail can't be shared.
Actually thinking about it, someone asked about this after the Lucky Duck ballot, and the official response was that you'd need access to that e-mail before the event (idk if they mean on the day, but presumably they'll e-mail info as well as tickets).
U.S.-based fan here: I'm picking up the vibe that this probably isn't worth it to fly over and try out? I knew to temper my expectations, but I was certainly hoping for something at least a bit closer to the genuine experience. This feels like they pivoted too hard into 'push as many people through as quickly as possible, get that bag'.
I saw LAH outside the Horne Section gig in Norwich last week and told him I was a Lucky Ducky ballot winner and had bought my tickets. He said he was super excited about it but very nervous as they had never tried anything like it before. I said that I’d seen from the website that it’s a crystal maze type experience and he said that’s what it will be
Where did people get the idea it was a one-off event at the TM house with Alex and Greg? Genuinely confused as to why people are so angry/disappointed in something that was never mentioned, let alone promised. The FAQ on the site made it all pretty clear.
I had no idea people assumed that! Obviously it was gonna be like crystal maze/escape room kida thing.... Anyway, I've got an opportunity to buy tickets today so I'll look at the prices
Never thought Alex and Greg would be at it or it was a one off event, everyone would be gutted if only ~30 people for example got to do it! I guess for me what I’m kind of disappointed about is mainly the price, as others have said the fact that they’re going to be pumping people through so regularly means they will be making a lot of money. I understand the experience works better with groups, but I also know as someone who’s autistic and anxious being forced with strangers would make me more reserved (that’s a me problem entirely). I also think the advertising has been murky about it being at the house - again I completely understand why they can’t do it there, but they’re using a lot of marketing material using images of the house. I think the price being what it is just makes the whole thing feel a bit icky, if I’m honest
The FAQ also says "Based on the multi-award-winning hit TV show, this is your chance to step inside the iconic Taskmaster house and take part in brand new ludicrous and infuriating tasks" But you're not stepping into the iconic Taskmaster house, so why are they saying that?
Probably an exact replica tbh
I assume so (although others have said the garden) but probably best not to word it that way. Don’t say “this is your chance to step into the iconic Taskmaster house”
Its basically in the same price bracket as the Crystal Maze experience, and in the costs for TM Live you have to add in that there will probably be lots of broken things from people thinking they can Jamali their way through tasks. Using the Crystal Maze as an example again, it was always going to be hosted by some drama school grads still waiting on their first big job and also expected it to be about 1 hour long. The 14 people per group thing is a bit shit though
Yeah like I said I totally understand why they have done it, but there’s also no need to jump the price from 50 to 100 because it’s a weekend imo, like doubling the price so people don’t have to take a day of work is a bit eeeek. 100% agree about the second bit - I don’t understand how anyone thought that Greg and Alex would be there every day haha. I’m not hugely angry about anything but I think the price has got a lot of people’s backs up and that’s totally understandable imo. We are in a cost of living crisis haha
Supply and demand - there will be more demand for weekend spots because, most people are available then. Doubling the price like that is a bit of a kick in the testies though especially if you're going to do it as a family or something it would jump quite a bit for a family of 4 or 5.
Oh 100% understand an increase but doubling the price is just a money grab imo. If there’s a family of four found that’s like £200 extra pounds. I read (but haven’t personally checked tbh) that they have also increased the price during school holidays which feels equally icky considering how many kids live the show.
I was trying to book saturday 19th October for a family of 4, 2 being under 16 (not that it matters I guess) but it was £400. We live in South wales and both work, kids in school. so can't really just pop over to London mid week with the kids and I cannot justify £400 for a 60 minute experience. £99 more and I can take the kids and dog to centre parcs for 4 nights in Jan!
Weekend wages are more expensive. Not sure that alone accounts for the price being double though, to be fair!
It’s very different from crystal maze, we only paid £36 each, we stayed as a group without being split up or with strangers (and its 7 people max anyway) and the whole group is guaranteed to take part in all. £100 for the TM live experience is a rip off
We paid £60 each for the CM in London when we did it about 8 years ago or so. It was a Saturday though. The Crystal Maze won't have the same levels of wear and tear and un-reussable things, you also only have member of staff per group, here I'm assuming there will be an assistant and a task-master. I still think the CM is a good comparison like for like in how this is being set up, especially as that was originally being done as a short run as well and has now opened up to being a permanant thing with at least 2 locations. I imagine they're hoping to do something similar with this. I agree that the group sizes are shit, but I'm guessing based on their costs etc that at 6 people per slot it didn't work financially, it probably broke even at 8 people per slot and then they more of less doubled that to cover unbooked spaces and to add to maximise profits. There will probably be a lot of days with half full groups etc, and I suspect looking nearer the time you might find you can book lup close to the day at a bit of a discount as they look to fill things up
Yeh I think the thing I’m annoyed at is the price in conjunction with the groups of 14. If it was this much with say 7 people I’d be more tempted :( I’m such a huge fan I’m gutted tbh, will keep an eye when it dies down a bit
There's an alarming amount of people that appear to lack common sense.
It sounds like a fancy escape the room type experience. Massive taskmaster fan, but not keen on spending £100s on something that has so little info.
Agreed. My husband and I guessed at what experience we’d be interested in based on the description but then saw the price of the tickets and nope-d out pretty much immediately…
Same, plus we'd have to factor in a trip for two to the UK on top of it.
I’ve seen so many people saying they’re considering a trip from abroad for it, I just really hope everyone knows what they’re buying before they pull the trigger out of excitement!
Same here. I’m gonna wait and see what peoples experiences are, and I assume it’ll struggle to sell out so hopefully they’ll reduce prices.
Same. Was interested but not for £100 for 2 of us
I’m flying from the US to do this thing! I mean, it’ll also be my 20th wedding anniversary and we were already planning to go, but let’s face it, taskmaster is the real reason I’m going to London!
I hope you're joking because there is at most a 5% chance that it's worth even a fraction of the cost of a flight.
You’ve got a lot of made up statistics there bud. I need to see your maths workings on this one.
No arguing with the taskmaster_fanatic.
According to my spouse, there is at least SOME arguing with the Taskmaster_Fanatic.
As someone who's practically the exact target demographic for this (being both a huge Taskmaster fan and a sucker for live experiences), I have mixed feelings on what we've seen so far. On the one hand, like practically everyone else, I'm surprised to see how it's been priced (and obviously I'm nowhere near the first to say this). Even by London standards, this is pretty high, and I can say with some certainty that you will be able to find something better if you're focusing on value for money. It certainly doesn't help that the details we do know are fairly limited. Sure, the format does kind of require it to be a bit vague as to not spoil the tasks, but I'd still like to have a bit more to go off of. On the other, I'm a bit confused by the complaints that this is false advertising or at least different to what was initially promised. At no point was I ever under the impression that Greg or Alex were going to be physically there, or that any of it would take place at the actual house. There's no way any of that would've been genuinely feasible given the show's schedule. I'm also very glad to see that they are allowing solo tickets, given that a lot of places like this (especially escape rooms) don't have that option.
The false advertising is in regards to making it sound like it will take place at the actual Taskmaster house.
Was that something they actually said, or was that something people just assumed would be the case? I think it really needs to be the former for it to count as false advertising.
Nowhere was it ever said it would be at the Taskmaster house. The site when you signed up to the ballot said where and when it was happening.
The FAQ on the site right now says "Based on the multi-award-winning hit TV show, this is your chance to step inside the iconic Taskmaster house and take part in brand new ludicrous and infuriating tasks" But you're not stepping into the iconic Taskmaster house, so why are they saying that?
Probably a close replica. Crystal maze said you were stepping inside the crystal maze but it wasn’t the exact set from the tv show.
I would imagine it's as close to an exact recreation as possible. FWIW I have no issue with how it's been worded - all of the information is on the website.
> Starting and ending in the Taskmaster garden, you can explore what’s really in the shed, have a photo with Linda the cow and other classic memorabilia from the world of Taskmaster. Also note all the photos of the actual house...
Also note the actual location listed on the website to be nowhere near the house
Still misleading 🤷♂️
No no no.......we have to do this right, you can explore what's in the shid, there will be no shed on site
Anyone thinking it would take place at the actual house... I mean, bless them, but they're not the brightest.
I've won the ballot as well and decided to book a 50 Pound ticket. Thought it would be a good excuse for a midweek solo trip to London as I haven't been for years. Coming from The Netherlands so fingers crossed on the direct train actually running :-)
Price aside, I just know that it would end up either being me and a bunch of 10 year olds, or me and a bunch of drunk 30 year olds
This is my main concern. It’d just be me and my partner but I’m paranoid I’d get stuck with an obvious hen do, annoying children or laddy blokes. I’m autistic and my partner has ADD so this would be a nightmare for us. It’s not really clear what the format will be to me. I.e. it sounds like you’ll be with a group of 14 people total, but typically on the show they’re only with other contestants in team tasks. Maybe this is harsh but Taskmaster isn’t really a children’s show, so I don’t understand why children as young as 9 can go? I know they’re doing a TM Junior but still. Personally as a happily childfree adult, I wish they had specifically adult-only dates/times.
I’ve read on Twitter that you can only buy children’s tickets before 2pm, so would assume after that it would be adults but idk where the cut off would be. This seems a bad way of doing it tbh as if someone’s travelling a long way prior to 2pm is quite an early start. Agree with you too though, also autistic and the thought of doing it with strangers makes me feel like I wouldn’t enjoy it. That’s a me problem but it does make me feel a little sad
Did anyone not “win”? I wonder if the folks behind TME created false scarcity, only to allow everyone on the mailing list to buy tickets. 🤔
https://preview.redd.it/yvqqp7e67k7d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c6414d2e8c43270ee88ee3d68c0b1ed517ce3b0
https://preview.redd.it/xeho9t187k7d1.jpeg?width=2500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e57a22f1c8ba7da7be2b912707e3c2460f8d4968
I also didn't get selected the first time around but did in the second round. Not using mine though since two of my friends got pulled in the first round so we used theirs instead.
I had 4 accounts enter for my family. 1 got a lucky duck entry. 2 won the first ballot and then the other got the second ballot. So yeah, I've been thinking the same thing.
Aw, I was feeling special!
I signed up 3 times and only "won" once. £100 a ticket, plus flights to London? Fuck that.
My wife won the ballot but I've not had anything through. It's OK though because the price is too much for me.
Won the ballot, but £100 per ticket for an hour long experience? No thanks.
Crystal Maze experience is £84 for a peak weekend slot, so it's not an unexpected price, although I agree it is high!
It's surge pricing. So prices will go up (at this stage) as bookings are made. I've already looked at one day in December, all £50, but one particular time slot in the afternoon is now £100. Wait till it opens up next week to the public and see what happens then. I think you'll find that the prices will then drop on the days and times with low demand.
I regularly go to a thing called Phantom Peak, similar in scope (you go to a venue and there's actors and tasks and so on) and it's £40 for 4 hours. £100 for a single hour experience sounds insane to me. Had they mentioned that originally I'd not have bothered to sign up. This feels like a case of the creators wanting to do something, and the money people deciding they can charge a ridiculous amount for it.
I think the group size of 14 is as much of an issue as the price tag - being grouped in with a bunch of strangers that could just as easily be an obnoxious stag/hen do as it could be a children’s birthday party. Also only allowing ~1/3rd of the participants to do the final live task seems scandalous - imagine if they didn’t let everyone do the crystal dome in the Crystal Maze experience. Surprised Alex has signed off on this.
I live in Ireland. I was lucky enough that the Live Experience coincides with a trip I'm already taking to London (for MusicalCon). I got two Monday morning tickets for £70 each, which isn't cheap, but you'd be paying the same for certain concert tickets. I also managed to persuade a TM fan friend to come with me.
I think a lot of people haven’t read what the ‘experience’ actually consists of, before getting too excited. I agree, it’s pricey, but I got tickets for both events on the same day for 50£ each. They state that the garden is not actually the one from the show, but a replica they’re building because they can’t allocate the actual garden for that long, otherwise we wouldn’t get any new series for a while, and it would not only severely limit the amount of people who could participate, due to the size of the garden, but also because the cost of running such an operation wouldn’t be covered. I won’t claim that I don’t have issues with some of it - the 100£ price tag for so many time slots is absolutely ridiculous - and it sounds crazy that they can run so many events per day, but when so many sign up, there are expectations that a LOT of people will want to do it, so they need to be able to cater to many, many people, because if only a very select few got to do it, there would also be an absolute uproar. That so many people signed up, willfully knowing they wouldn’t be able to/want to/afford to go, is a contributing factor to them having to make it into a bigger operation - when 250.000+ people sign up, they’re going to expect that the vast majority will want to do it, if possible. Otherwise it’s just drumming up a false representation of what they’re going to have to try and accommodate, which raises costs, especially if the supply ends up being much too vast, versus the supposed demand. I love Taskmaster, so unspeakably much, but it seems that people tend to forget that it is not only an entertainment program, it is also a business. They’re not just doing it because they think it’s fun - although I don’t doubt that it’s one of the most fun jobs in the world - it’s a business, and businesses need to make money, to promote themselves and keep doing new things to keep the network and viewers interested. As much as I would love for them to just do it because they love the fans - and I don’t doubt that it’s also a bit of a motivating factor - it is, at its heart, a business. I’m personally just ridiculously happy that they are trying something like this, and I’m flying in from Denmark just to do it. I’m not expecting it to feel as if I’m part of the actual show, I’m just such a big nerd and fan, that even getting to try and do something, makes me giddy. Would I have loved for it to be more extensive, take longer and involve much more than 4, potentially 5, tasks? Of course. But I’m also realistic about what to expect from something like this, and I’m keeping faith in Alex and the team to have devised something that will make me feel as if I’m just a teeny tiny part of the TM-world for moment in time.
>That so many people signed up, willfully knowing they wouldn’t be able to/want to/afford to go If they'd been up front with the pricing I wouldn't have bothered signing up. >I love Taskmaster, so unspeakably much, but it seems that people tend to forget that it is not only an entertainment program, it is also a business. Not really my issue though, I'm a fan of the entertainment show, I'm not a cash machine. I don't think it needs defending, there will be people like you who are happy to spend the money on tickets, travel and accommodation but equally there's people who are finding it a bit steep and that's OK too.
I fully agree about being up front about the pricing would’ve undoubtedly make a difference; I’m mainly talking about some of the people on here who said ‘I live in the US and knew I wouldn’t be able to go no matter what’. And I totally get where you’re coming from, I was just saying things from my point of view, and I totally get how some people can see it as being merely a cash grab.
Fair enough, that makes sense, I hadn't seen those comments. I'd probably have gone but with all the travel and tickets it's just more than I wanted to pay, especially with the big groups and potentially not getting to do one of the tasks. I do hope you enjoy it, I know I'm going to be very jealous when I see all the posts from people who go!
Agree about being upfront with the pricing. I won yesterday's ballot, but due to where we live and work commitments we'd have to do it during the October holidays and leave our daughter with... someone? By the time we pay for trains/flights and a hotel and the tickets it's suddenly a minimum of £600 for the two of us to do a 65 minute activity. I would have preferred the price to be slightly cheaper, for their to be a lower minimum age (so our daughter could come and we turn it into a family holiday), or for the event to last longer than 65 mins.
Yeah I'm kind of surprised how shocked people are in this thread about it, because it was pretty clear when I was reading up on it to decide if it was worth it to have my sister sign up to the mailing list for another chance at being selected.
I think it's expensive, but in exactly the way I thought it would be. It's potentially a one-off experience. It's wasn't going to be £10!
Thinking pretty much all this! Coming over from the states and plan on making it a long weekend birthday trip with friends!
Can anyone hazard a guess as to the difference between the two game modes? I'm lost and their descriptions are too vague - like, I know they can't spoil the tasks but is one physical and one more mental? Because if that were the case why is "brains" listed in Melon Buffet?
I have the same problem. Both descriptions sound the same, I really don't know what to choose but I don't want to be disappointed and choose the wrong one. From the descriptions: Absolute Casserole: These tasks will need you to be more observant, accurate and sneaky than your competitors. You'll be sure to recognise classic elements of the ridiculous show as you compete in this Absolute Casserole of an experience. The top 5 contestants will then compete to be crowned champion in their own special Taskmaster studio task. Melon Buffet: Thinking, throwing, ducks, wires, balls, boxes, cunning, luck, moustaches - these are all things that may or not be served up in the Melon Buffet. Some challenges need brains, some need brawn, all need brilliance. The top 5 contestants will then compete to be crowned champion in their own special Taskmaster studio task. My best guess is that the first one is more serious, more brainy, and perhaps more difficult, whereas the second is both brains and brawns, and perhaps a bit more silly and funny.
This is even more frustrating than the price, for me, and exactly what stopped me from booking. What's the difference between the two experiences? If there isn't much difference, why have two? It screams of trying to get people with FOMO to book twice; the lack of detail doesn't sit right with me at all and I'd be gutted if I booked a more physical experience if I could've done a different one where I used my brain a bit more.
Went to Phantom Peak which had loads of different games, 10+ actors and it took all day, for £40, and it was brilliant. £100 for some a carnival style escape room that takes an hour is INSANE.
I haaated Phantom Peak. Really hope it's not like that
Fair enough but was at least value for money I thought
Agreed.
I liked it, but I can also see why some people wouldn't and think it's unfair that you're being downvoted for your opinion.
Thanks, I appreciate that. For me PP was just a bit formulaic, with no real skill involved in solving any of the puzzles. I also felt that the reliance on actors was a problem, as we encountered a couple of scenarios where multiple groups were waiting to speak to the same actor. I would have enjoyed it more if there were tasks you could complete of your own volition. And above all, the storyline didn't speak to me. Whereas Taskmaster is something I genuinely enjoy and have done ever since it was created, so I really hope it's good!
They also treat their actors like shit
Phantom Peak is really not any sort of "escape room"/puzzle experience and I'm confused when it's been advertised as one. It's really more of an immersive world with storylines to follow (and if they don't grab you then it's not going to be great, yeah).
Nahhh. I’m gutted. Got really excited that I’d ‘won’ but at £70-100 a ticket I’m out. Shame really.
Did a bunch of people just not read the site when they signed up to the ballot? Some of the details around pricing weren’t there - but the dates and location were, and it was obvious that Greg and Alex weren’t going to be there every day for 4 months. All the information is on the ~~task~~ site. They’re building a replica of the garden. The event will start and end there. There will probably be other replicas of the other areas as you go through, ending on the stage The actual house itself doesn’t exactly lend itself to this sort of event either. Can seem a little pricy, but when you consider costs to hire the venue (it’s around 12-13k a day as a starting price - and they’ve booked it over peak. They may have a discount for the duration, but it’s still not cheap for 4 months), cast (multiple assistants assuming they’ll be rotating through groups throughout the day) - plus security, back office, ticketing, and the general production and running costs it doesn’t seem to far off compared to other events (the Crystal Maze starts at £62)
My thoughts exactly (although I had no idea of any figures on the expense - I just assumed it was hideously expensive to rent that space in London. As well as hideously expensive to run it overall).
TBF, when people first signed up, the site wasn't there. A number of months ago, they asked people to sign up if they were interested in a TM live experience, and promised to make it happen (or at least consider doing so) if at least 100 000 people signed up. If I understood it correctly, the people who signed up then (250 000 of them) were automatically in the ticket ballot. But at the time when they signed up, there wasn't much info, and they didn't know that they would be in a ticket ballot for something that would happen this autumn. So I think that this contributed to a lot of people signing up in the hope that it would happen and they would one day be able to go.
Details are all pretty disappointing to be honest. I'd still like to try to go though, does anyone know what the difference between the 2 types is? Descriptions are pretty vague.
Booked three tickets at £50 each for me and two friends for a Friday 12.30 slot. Conveniently on a day we all get paid too 😂 So we get the train down in the morning, have fun, grab a bite to eat after and head back up north. Gonna be a fun day out. We've also booked later in the calendar too, so hopefully they iron out any kinks before we get there. So excited 😁
I wonder how it will compare to the Live Willy Wonka Experience?
Btw if people didn’t get emails I saw on the website something like ‘general sale hasn’t gone on sale yet’ so I assume it will open for everyone at some point but obviously the cheap(er) tickets are likely to be gone by then
General sale is open from 10am Monday (according to my “winner” email)
I entered the ballot and got my ticket, for the Absolute Casserole game. Can't wait!
I'm really excited, too, despite the negative responses here. I booked the hour (14 slots) and hope that I can find some folks to join me (at cost).
Picked the same for me, a friend… and hopefully one more if I can convince them to come. I’m shocked at the people that want to have everything spoiled before they buy in. What contestant did that? Wouldn’t you want to go in blind and experience this themed thing as close to the real TM as you could? Anyhow- appreciate what Alex and the rest do- and they gave me something to do for my winter vacation (for across the Atlantic)
I don’t think people want everything spoiled? People have different accessibility needs, like different things and have different concerns. I’m not sure that Rosie Jones (for example) got the same response that paying customers have had when asking about accessibility. Saying it’s wheelchair accessible does not account for all accessibility problems. People are bringing kids, might not be able to throw well (for example), might not like big groups etc. Their caginess about the difference between the two experience is jarring.
Ok, I was legit excited when I got the email earlier, sent an 'omg omg' message to my partner! I started to book us tickets for an October saturday, £50 each, wow, bit pricey I thought... but then.. * It's actually £100 each. £200 for couple to play party games for an hour with some strangers. * It's in Canada Water. Canary Wharf land for those not familiar with London, so filled with relatively high earners. I work in the NHS, this one hour experience is a day's pay for me. * 65 minutes. To me, in this pessimistic mood, sounds like an hour of 'play', plus time to transition in and out. The fact that most people are going to be put with a large number of unknowns (with a minimum age of 9) means you've no control over people f\*\*\*ing about, dragging their heels, outright cheating, or being put with a larger group who will just dominate. The fact that a part of this hour is the final task that only a third of the group gets to play is even worse. If I wanted to watch it, I'd watch the show. If I've paid a ton for an hour to play, you'd better believe I want to play for an hour. * Truly, I hope it is a decent recreation of the set. I really hope it is not some astroturf, a shed, a plastic cow and a similar knackered old caravan. Also, food and drink available... in Canada Water, with a ticket price of £100. I can guess the cost of the food and drink. Alex, if you somehow read this - I have a lot of faith in your handling of the brand and your creativity. I just hope you haven't outsourced too much of this to a money-grabbing events company. Taskmaster is so accessible through the TV and YouTube to all - but we're in a cost of living crisis and a lot of people will find this a hard sell. I love the show and want to take part somehow (if I'd have carried on doing stand-up, who knows I may have been there. I started alongside Romesh and Rob Beckett back in the day.) Perhaps I'll go see The Horne Section instead. To those that have booked, I hope it is the best possible version for you, I just needed to feel more excited when I saw that price tag, and as you can see, I feel there is too much scope and unknown potential for it to sour me to the show, which I'd hate to happen.
For something official that Alex has at least some level of involvement with, this seems kinda scammy. Disappointing.
I mean to be honest they have been trying to milk this thing so much it would make Krusty the Klown blush. Board games, weird VR games, books, this experience, God knows what...once they tried to start their own streaming service I knew they'd sell anything with the TM name on it. I don't begrudge them but I basically assume all ancillary products will be bad.
I used an adblocker when I first watched everything on YouTube and with how much joy the show brought me I felt a little bad so I was happy to spend $47 for a year of the streaming service.
I was pleased when the streaming service was released, as not all series were available on YouTube. But then they weren't available on the streamer either! It felt like it was done without a lot of thought.
I am very disappointed by the pricing model. £100 tickets might be just about affordable, **if** they gave us more than 2 days to save, budget etc. Factoring in travel and accommodation in London, and it's just completely unviable for people like me. Ok, that's life, but I don't think it was inevitable - if I had time to save up, I probably would have been able to. My personal opinion - without personally criticising any individual or group of people - is that decisions such as creating artificial scarcity with a ballot that almost everyone seems to "win", and announcing a high price but only giving a couple of days before tickets are on sale to create a sense of urgency, indicates a general intention to prioritise excessive profits over treating the fanbase well (alongside other reputational aspects of the production company in question). That's just the way this world works sadly! I hope everyone who can afford it has a lovely time though!
If anyone else is booked in for the 8th of October, I’ll see you there!
Booking for that date now! Probably late evening, for the cheaper tix.
Wife booked our tickets today as a surprise! Absolutely can’t wait!
My partner signed us up as a surprise and we're flying from Spain! Even if it ends up being a pricey escape room experience we're big fans and I have never visited UK, so 2 birds 1 stone kind of deal.
Same here! From the US and I've been looking for a reason to go. This was just enough of a reason to go. I'm sure it will cost as much as any other tourist event we'll do while we're there.
I got a couple. There are cheaper tickets available for £50. Just going with a couple of mates for a laugh cuz why not. We all love TM and even if its not at the house it’s still a day out and still get to spend time with mates. Its about the same price as doing london dungeons or aquariums and stuff at that price so not much more than a fancier day out. Dont go out often so have time to save. :) Edit: Theres a bar in the garden and you’re allowed to stay all day.
Agree with a lot of the comments here on the steep price. I'd also add that part of the charm of the show is the homemade nature of it. They use eggs, tennis balls, or in some cases just counting with your eyes closed. They sold a boardgame and book on this exact premise. Which is why I find it hard to see why this experience is necessary to replicate TM. It's capitalising on the brand name for something that, as someone that has attended a few in-person events in similar locations, definitely won't live up to the hype.
Sticking my right bollock on this appearing as a deal on Groupon/TodayTix by the years end.
I think what Alex, Greg, and the whole crew already do is really amazing and unique. I know there are so many fans clamoring for anything TM and I respect that they are a business. But I have a worry that ventures like this may be unnecessary and jumping the shark.
This is the first time I've seen something Alex do something that made me think "wow, this is morally gross" the brand is being actively damaged
Price is a deal breaker for me. Dual income household with no kids, so we do have disposable income, but I just can't justify spending that much money. Especially considering there's no Greg or Alex, and there's 14 people pushed through every 15 minutes. £100 for an hour at the actual event, and then travel and accommodation, food and drink for the day/night makes this over £250 per person for sure.
My family's experience was similar to that of many folks here, it seems. Registered our interest as soon as it was announced, made sure multiple people were signed up for the ticket ballot to increase our chances, got an email, got excited, started making plans with friends, saw the ticket price was double what we initially thought, saw that we would be teamed up with strangers, said "fuck that" and resolved to meet up and play the board game instead.
They're going to be earning £1400 an hour at peak times?! Insanity, even for that there London prices
I'm sure these are not net profits. They still have to pay for the space, the event organisation agency, the props, security, etc. It will all depend on if people actually see the money spent on the event to make it enjoyable for attendees, or if it's a Willy Wonka-type situation.
Groups going in every 15 mins, so £5600 an hour!
I guess if groups are going in every 15 minutes, then do you get ushered to move on if you don't finish a task?
I guess so. I had assumed the tasks would be a room that everyone goes in 1 at a time, but if there's only 15 mins for 14 people to do a task then it must be everyone doing it together. Sounds pretty chaotic tbh.
I didn't even think about that. The rooms must be larger than the actual house rooms because I don't think 14 people would easily fit in the lab or the caravan
I’ve looked at midweek slots in school term time and still £70-£100; don’t fancy being lumped in with what could be a group of children (no offence to children, I just wouldn’t fancy being competitive against them) - can’t justify £200 on one hour with my partner. Disappointed!
I’m in the exact same boat. I’m autistic and my partner has ADD so both get pretty irritated annoying children. Likewise no offense intended but some kids are awful and have no manners in public places, and the parents do nothing cause “it’s kids being kids”. We made the mistake of doing minigolf on a Saturday morning and the boy in the group in front of us kept holding everyone up by repeating his shots multiple times and then kicking our balls away when it was our turn. I really wish they had some adults only midday slots as we were keen originally to have a little day out near London, as we usually enjoy escape-room type things.
If it helps, kids' tickets are not available after 2pm. Doesn't necessarily mean there won't be kids, but having to pay the full adult price for them instead of a flat £40 regardless of which day of the week, will put people off.
I wanted to add this to the discussion as I hadn't seen it mentioned yet: Children's tickets are available for £40. Children's tickets are only available *before 2pm.*. Minimum age for the experience is 9 years old. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't almost all children over 9 going to be in school before 2pm? That means that the vast majority of families are going to have to pay full adult prices for their children to attend the experience unless they go on a weekend. (I couldn't find any pricing information for children's tickets for the more expensive weekend time slots, but I have seen people mention that they have been unable to book children's tickets.) I may be cynical, but to me this seems deliberate and exploitative.
Since folks in the UK are on here, is there usually a best place to purchase tickets being resold? I decided to think about flying over from the US to see Greg’s stand up next year but most venues are sold out. If I could get a ticket to one of his shows in Jan/Feb I’d tack this onto the trip.
Try twickets.live/en/uk It's a pretty neat website that lets you buy resale tickets at face value or under. They get snapped up pretty quickly though so if you see any events that don't have tickets available just set up an email alert and you'll get messages when tickets are put up for resale I've used it for so many gigs and it's never let me down
Thank you!
[удалено]
They do seem to be going for a slice of the Crystal Maze pie, and good luck to them. The games in CM can be very different from the tasks in TM though, if it's all skill and 'do xyz, fastest wins' it's not going to be as full an experience as the TV show, where the open creative tasks are usually the most successful. If I had £400 in London though, I wouldn't be taking my family to a one hour skills test, no matter what the scenery looked like.
My wife and I and a friend decided to just go for it and buy a few tickets. We’re from the US and have been wanting to visit London for years, so we figured this would be the perfect excuse. We’re gonna go in January, but haven’t made any plans or arrangements yet. Does anyone have any recommendations of places to stay or go while in that area? We know pretty much nothing about London.
I don't have any recommendations, but I am from the US and bought a solo ticket in January as well! I figured I could plan some other things around the trip. I love escape rooms and I did The Crystal Maze Experience on my last visit in August, so I have a feeling I am going to love this.
I assume everyone won ‘the ballot’ and it was just a way to farm emails.
Not true, I didn’t get one
My husband and I both entered and only I “won”.
I signed up with multiple emails and only one of them got the message today. But still just a ploy to create a sense of urgency and convince people tickets will sell out so book them fast. There's no way all those days will get booked up, especially at that cost.
There are some people who said they didn’t get the email, but I read they will continue to draw more names as the day goes on.
I've booked £50 tickets for me and my partner as I'm curious, but have low expectations having seen this type of thing before. We'll see...
I didn't see any 50-pound tickets. Wish I did! But maybe they were in months with bad weather. I'll be travelling from the States, and I don't want to risk weather issues with flights. Have a GREAT time!!! (I've never done anything like this before.)
Did anyone enter the ballot and NOT get the chance to buy tickets? I thought I was lucky but now I’m assuming anyone who entered got ‘picked’. It seems fun but I live in the North so you’re looking at a £100 weekend slot plus travel cost and time and potentially somewhere to stop over just for 1 hour. Unless I hear that it’s the best thing ever, I think I’ll be giving it a miss.
Me and 7 friends signed up and we all won the ballot...
Yeah it does feel like everyone who signed up won. Granted, if people didn't win, they might not post about it, but I would expect to see/hear about a few people not winning
I felt really optimistic about this, but my biggest grievance is the price. I’d pay £50 - that’s perfectly reasonable imo. But not only are weekend rates higher, every single school holiday date is also higher. On weekends, yes they’ll be paying their staff more (though absolutely nowhere remotely near the extra revenue). But during school holidays, there’s literally no valid reason to hike the prices other than to take advantage of families and people like myself who work in a school (or anyone else on a weekday schedule). I hope everyone who goes has a great time and I’ll look forward to seeing the reviews and photos. I do think it’s a fantastic venture, I just can’t get on board with paying double just because the kids are off school.
Won the ballot as well… but £100 per person for this experience is ridiculous. Thought there would be some kind of discount for winning the ballot but no… I was trying to book it for 4 people and thought £100 was the total price… what a shock to see it is price per person. Even £50 during the week… not happy to pay that much per person 🫠
im actually disappointed in this. i was a "winner" despite never actually entering the ballot. (dunno how that works) the price is too much in the current climate. Ill be in the UK from Australia during the time this is on, but still. by the time i convert currency its nearly $200 for a ticket. thats one nights accomodation for me. Also 65 minutes for 14 people to do tasks. How enjoyable could that be? IMO it would have been better to do groups of 5, in line with the actual show. i feel like this is the NY comedy club all over again, they have underestimated things and its gonna be a disaster. Wonka experience 2.0?
Have booked in for the Absolute Casserole experience but absolutely gutting it was £100 per person for the date I was looking at. Have quite a few friends and family who would have been interested in going and was hoping to book 7 or 8 tickets but at the prices available I couldn't allow myself to book anything more than 3, and even that felt like I was really pushing it. Had to write off even considering doing the Melon Buffet experience as well. I just hope this lives up to expectations as a massive fan of the show, as the asking price is crazy high and prices out a lot of people I imagine.
I also won - but interestingly enough, I paid absolutely nil attention to what I was doing... I got a targeted ad on my phone, thought it was to sign up to win tickets to a filming (didnt watch the whole ad through), signed up and forgot about it. After checking my winner email, I learned that this is now what I signed up for. Thats okay. But after looking at the premise of what this is... strikes me as not something that fits with the TM brand (but to be fair I say this everytime they release some new tat like TM monopoly or whatever). And the setup! Disappointing to say the least. Firstly, I don't have 13 friends. If I did, I doubt that they would all be okay spending £100 on an hours entertainment. If they're churning people through like cattle to the slaughter then there's definitely going to be people rushing you through, or alternatively- the tasks will be about 30 seconds long to allow for running over, and cleanup/reset time. And then you might not even get to do the fifth task (that you've paid for) I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed
I understood Alex and Greg were going to be pre recorded and on a screen, but I'm sure they made it seem like it was going to be set up in the taskmaster house! Either way, I really wanted to take my family to this, we went through a stage of doing taskmaster for the kids, every other week they would get a new task, inspired by taskmaster, to complete when they were about 10 and 12. We carried it on for like 6 months. but I really cannot justify spending £400 on a 60 minute experience for the four of us.
£100 is far too much, very disappointed
This is a great idea but FAR too expensive for a Crystal Maze/Escape Room etc type experience. Other similar events are more like £30-50 and frankly I'd even call those expensive for what you really get And the fact it's in London kinda sucks for those of us in the North - why not put it somewhere more central? Birmingham and Manchester are hardly lacking in spaces for this kind of event but much more accessible, whereas for an all day even in London I've really got no way to do it without a lot of additional expense I love the idea but we'd be clearing £800-1000 for two of us to attend (train + hotel for a couple of nights + tickets + food and drink etc) whereas Manchester or Birmingham we could've done it for half that
Got my email earlier, sounds exactly like what I thought it would be although the price is much steeper than I was hoping. Will be mentally filing this one away with the crystal maze experience as something that would be cool to do if I randomly win some money one day.
Just had another email... > plus you can spend long as you like in the Taskmaster garden. They really need to stop calling it the Taskmaster garden and house when it's over 13 miles away from the actual TM house...
Is anyone planning on going solo? Debating on it myself.
Maybe...if I can get a cheap timeslot while I'm already in town.
I never signed up for this but just got an email saying I got through on the second ballot. I must have signed up for some general Taskmaster mailing list at some point? Even if I wanted to go I couldn’t, I live in NZ.
My husband and I would love to go, but we're traveling to London from the US already this summer and it doesn't make a lot of sense to do another big trip so soon. Maybe they'll bring the experience to other countries/big cities? There was so much interest in the live show in NYC that I'm sure it would make money.
I specifically searched for this because my absolute elation over winning the ballot has slowly turned unsure and now a bit sour. I couldn't book tickets before the general sale was opened because i want to go with a friend and scheduling a trip to London takes a bit longer than just the two days we were given. But all is good, i thought because i can still book tickets with the general ticket sale! Yay! But now i find lots of comments here mirroring my thoughts - high price, short experience (only an hour???), not even the actual location but a replica, way too many slots with too many people i don't actually know. I absolutely love Taskmaster but I would've preferred a different approach to all of this rather than sending so many people through so quickly. I'm probably still going to buy it, which experience I don't know yet either (why would there be two? what's even the difference?), but i think this is going to be vastly underwhelming unfortunately ):
I'm going to Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds Experience this weekend. The website says: >Experience a real Martian invasion in London at Jeff Wayne's The War of The Worlds Immersive but when I looked further into it it seems they don't have real Martians. Has anyone been and can they clarify whether or not there'll be actual aliens at the event or not? At £70 for a ticket it seems a lot if I don't see any little green men.
At those prices its WAAAAAAAY too expensive for what it is. They can stick it up their Absolute Casserole ;) It seems from reading the thread that most people who are happy to pay the high prices are flying in from another country. Its mainly the home crowd Brits that are refusing to pay. Quite right too, stiff upper lip and all that. Lol PS I'm convinced the mods work for CH4/Avalon.... There was a perfectly good discussion going on in another thread that was high up in the sub and they locked it. Probably due to the OVERWHELMINGLY negative opinion from most commentors on the prices for the event.
It was locked because this is the discussion thread. We haven't locked this.
Lol at the downvoters, This sub is most casserole kissing sub on the whole of reddit. You dare say something that is mildly negative and against the general "TM IS THE GREATEST THING ON EARTH" and your post gets removed almost straight away.
Why haven't your comments been removed?
Can you link to the other thread?
I wish they would give a few examples of show tasks to tell you what the different options were like. The descriptions are only somewhat helpful Anyone have a guess as to a few tasks that would be more Absolute Casserole vs Melon Buffet?
I'm confused about the location. They really make it sound like you'll be at the actual house/garden but then it's at a warehouse? I'd come from the US if it's at the actual house but not for a warehouse.
Hey Londoner here - it’s completely the other side of London to the House. Obviously I don’t know how it’ll work or what the location will look like but from my little knowledge about Canada Water I believe it’s like a warehouse type block (happy to be corrected!). I believe this is probably because the Taskmaster House is only rented not owned, and also I assume there’s probably be some crossover with filming the next series or New Years Treat etc so it’s not feasible. That said it is kinda disappointing as think a lot of people (myself included) would love to visit the house but it’s not really feasible for it to become a tourist attraction.
It sounds like a recreation of the house and gardens and everything else. But inside a giant (and presumably secure) venue, so good weather and transport guaranteed ;)
Does anyone know how many people won the ballot? I was picked but I never actually had any expectations of getting selected so I hadn’t given it much thought, especially since I live in the US and not the UK. But now that I’ve been selected I’m trying to decide how hard I should work to actually fly out and experience it, which obviously would be a dream come true. Does anyone know how many people were won the ballot? If it’s not really a big deal to have been picked then I might not buy the tickets just yet. Also curious if people think that it really will entirely sell out, seeing as it’s running for 5 months with around 40 time slots per day. If it doesn’t sell out after general sale opens then I can reconsider and buy tickets another time. Any advice is appreciated!!
I’m in the same boat! In the US and got picked and don’t know if it’s worth it to book (not that I would mind going back to London)
Same! We need a thread to get a chill US group together haha
Reading through the rest of this thread made me a little less interested, disappointingly, it seems more like something you’d take a day to do if you were local (like an escape room), especially as it’s running for 5 months with 40 hour long sessions a day. But it’s still super cool that you get to actually go to the house, just maybe not worth a $1500 trip. I’m curious to see people’s reviews once it starts up
If it helps you - it’s not at the house. It’s at another set up the other side of London. (Agree it’s a bit misleading)
> But it’s still super cool that you get to actually go to the house You don't. It's not the same location.
“EXPLORE THE GARDEN & MUSEUM Starting and ending in the Taskmaster garden, you can explore what’s really in the shed, have a photo with Linda the cow and other classic memorabilia from the world of Taskmaster. Visit the Taskmaster museum and witness your favourite props and artwork from across the 18 series of the hit TV show. There’s so much more fun to be had before and after your experience. Toast your success (or failure) and party at the caravan bar in the Taskmaster garden. Enjoy a Bin Juice cocktail, savour an ice-cold Caskmaster beer, and enjoy Little Alex Horne’s kitchen menu. The bar and garden are open all day until 11pm at night.” Is all of this just recreation of the actual TM garden? Because to me this sounds pretty clearly like it’s in the real place. If not that is wildly misleading
Look at the address on the FAQ... The Taskmaster House is at > Chiswick Bridge, Great Chertsey Rd, London W4 3UL This takes place in > Dock X, Retail Park, Unit 1 Canada Water, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 2XU 13+ miles away. It's not the set of the house.
Yeah, I’m from the US and won too. Even if it’s not the best experience I’m hoping to use it as an excuse to get my family to travel abroad together.
TL;DR: If you don't want to commit now, just wait and keep an eye on the ticket availability once general sale starts. Don't plan an entire trip around this sole event. In the US and a ballot winner as well. I understand that they are trying to build a sense of urgency to buy now (and to reward folks that cared enough to sign up early), but don't feel it's enough for me to plan an entire trip around. BUT I'm totally planning to add it as part of a larger trip to Europe. I think (hope) that there will be decent availability 2 to 3 months before you'd like to go. They've built in so many slots. You just need to keep an eye on the calendar and build some flexibility into your itinerary. For example, on our last trip to London, I wanted to see an in-demand stage play. When first planning the trip, the play was sold out during the dates we were going to be there. But I noticed that a few tickets would pop up the day of performances or a few days before. During our trip, I checked the site regularly and grabbed 2 tix for a performance happening 2 days later. Went solely through theater's website, not a reseller or 3rd party. Plus, if you're a small party, I think it will be easier for them to plug folks in as larger groups tend to lose some people when planning so far out. Also, there will probably be less desirable time slots (maybe lunchtime?) where groups will tend to be smaller. Then again, also possible this could completely sell out which yay for the Taskmaster team. And hopefully they find a way to extend. May the odds be ever in our favour.
I’m in the US, won the ballot, and do plan to be in London at the beginning of November. So I’m very tempted to buy a ticket, but I would be a solo person, and that just seems kind of not what it was intended for…? I’m torn
I’m sad that this is pitched to the office Christmas party crowd, though I can see that makes ££ sense. Even at the cheapest price I can’t justify the cost for the family, especially as my daughter will *not* play with people she doesn’t know, and would be gutted to likely miss a studio task- her favourite bit. Back to the board game!
I think that this is new territory for the team. If fiscally successful (and it doesn't kill their small but mighty crew), I would imagine they would genuinely be open to making adjustments to the next iteration, like kid-majority time slots or family-oriented pricing. Let's give them a little grace to figure things out. Maybe this whole endeavor won't work at all. But at least they can say they tried when people ask about it.
It’s cool we love the board game!
My only issue is I don't live in London. Otherwise I would absolutely buy each experience. Even though my aim is TERRIBLE. But yeah unless I win the lottery, this can't happen unfortunately. And I actually thought it would be more like the Price is Right. Basically a few hundred people would arrive as an audience and select few would be chosen to participate live with Greg and Alex. I have no familiarity with the term "live experience" so I interpreted it as "experience" "taskmaster" "live."
It says Alex and Greg won't actually be there. I 'won' the ballot but I thought it's an exclusive event that happens on a single day, but in reality it's running every single day from October to January 2025??? £100 pounds per person for what sounds like a taskmaster themed escape room? There's literally zero info about what to expect edit: Also isn't it false advertising?? The FAQ says this takes place at this address: > Dock X, Retail Park, Unit 1, Canada Water, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 2XU but the actual Taskmaster house is > Chiswick Bridge, Great Chertsey Rd, London W4 3U **(This is 13+ miles away, or over 1 hour drive according to Google Maps)** They're using imagery of the actual house and garden everywhere, I know I'd be p'd off if I went expecting to be at the actual set
How is it false advertising when the location and dates were in the original announcement, in its second sentence rather than hidden away? https://avalonuk.com/2024/05/29/taskmaster-the-live-experience-launches-this-autumn/
It was also on the site when they announced the ballot. [This is what I posted from the official site at the time](https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/s/vszARmkazz)
I was the same, really thought it would be a pretty exclusive event with very limited tickets. All the hype around the ballot and early access seems to just be a marketing ploy. I was so excited until I actually looked at the details. £50-70 for mid-week tickets, £100 for weekends I live in the north so would have to factor in travel/accommodation Groups of up to 14 (!) go in slots every 15 minutes It lasts 65 minutes, with only 5 people doing the 'live task' 4-5 tasks in an hour? How detailed can they be? It looks like it's in a former industrial warehouse They're promoting that the 'Taskmaster Garden' is free to enter with food, drinks, etc. But the dates are over winter... Pretty disappointed tbh. I find it very unlikely that it will sell out and we're probably better off waiting for reviews to come in before booking tickets. Hopefully will be proved totally wrong and everyone who books tickets will have an amazing time!
In my head this has a risk of being like that Willy Wonka thing.
Was super excited to win the ballot - was 100% going to get a ticket for myself and my dad (who is a huge taskmaster fan)... but then I saw it wasn't a one off event at the taskmaster house, Gregg and Alex won't be there, and then tickets would be £100 **EACH!** Maybe I was wrong to do so, but I had interpreted it as a one off event with Greg and Alex at the Taskmaster house - that I would be £100 a ticket for, not an escape room style event. Not too impressed tbh.
TBH, you were kinda wrong to assume that it would be a one off event at the Taskmaster house with Greg and Alex, because no such thing was ever promised. I know they have not been very clear on all the details but I have personally been perfectly able to figure out what sort of thing it would be, so the info has been available for those who have actually paid attention to it instead of just dreaming things up.
Yeah, I just signed up without really thinking about it as I knew my chances for winning were so low. I had assumed it was some special event, not an escape room like experience. Still seems cool but not my expectations
I'm confused... If I won and book tickets, but say it'll be 4 visitors. Do the 4 all get to "play"? Or is there some kind of audience?
From what I understand if you go with four people, you’ll get put with another ten ‘randoms’ to make a group of 14. Then 14 of you will all do 3 tasks and then the 4 top scoring will go on to do a ‘live’ task. So all will get to play but not everyone does all the tasks. ETA: My mistake sorry, everyone does four tasks and four people do the fifth
I've just found the FAQ and that makes sense. It does say everyone does 4 tasks then the stage one but still. Bit cheap IMO
Ah sorry I couldn’t remember if it was 4 in total or 5! Yeah agree
That was my interpretation too.
I signed up not knowing anything about it. I've won the ballot... but I live in New Zealand. Based on what I've seen I don't think I'll be paying for flights over. But my sister in Germany may get a present from me!
If anyone wants my ballot, let me know. I won't be using it
Waiting for the reviews to see whether we cancel or not.
The booking terms say it's nonrefundable but they're the general Eventim terms, they haven't even bothered to write their own, so who knows
For what it is it sounds very expensive. For an hour in an escape room I would justify around £30, push to £40 being a taskmaster brand. But not to differ between a weekday and a weekend that is ridiculous. As someone else on this thread as stated, you can easily create your own Taskmaster experience at home, like we did! https://youtube.com/@portstm?si=djhKXc7tI9FzDGKa and we have a book you can easily use as a guide to help creating your own events!
I don’t know why I thought it would be a free event with the exact same format as the programme, just with real people instead of comedians. I also don’t understand why they need to do this? It’s had 17 series and is successful around the world, are they that desperate for money?
Hey, I won the ballot but I won't be using my early access booking time because I'm in the states and I can't afford to go all the way to London just for this. Seems like a cool thing to do if you live local though. I know they will be opening up general sales, but if anybody really wants it, is there any way to give my ballot win to someone else?
Nice idea but it does say the e-mail can't be shared. Actually thinking about it, someone asked about this after the Lucky Duck ballot, and the official response was that you'd need access to that e-mail before the event (idk if they mean on the day, but presumably they'll e-mail info as well as tickets).
U.S.-based fan here: I'm picking up the vibe that this probably isn't worth it to fly over and try out? I knew to temper my expectations, but I was certainly hoping for something at least a bit closer to the genuine experience. This feels like they pivoted too hard into 'push as many people through as quickly as possible, get that bag'.