Itaewon's Craic House to host fan edition of 'Taskmaster'

Robin Bortner plays on a slide in a park in Itaewon in this still from a video trailer for the second "Taskmaster Seoul: Fan Edition." Courtesy of Robin Bortner

A group of foreign residents of Seoul is putting on its own fan edition of the popular British comedy panel game show "Taskmaster" on Friday at the Craic House, an Irish bar in central Seoul's Itaewon.

Five competitors will square off to complete various tasks and challenges, some which have been prerecorded as videos for screening on Friday night.

This is the second year of "Taskmaster Seoul: Fan Edition," and a video of last year's event is available online. The first one was held as a farewell party for Joe Parkes, who was returning to New Zealand after almost 20 years in Korea.

"Joe introduced many of us to 'Taskmaster,' so putting on the show where he served as the titutlar roll was a fitting goodbye," said Robin Bortner, who played the role of the Taskmaster's assistant, designing the tasks and organizing the event. "It was such a fun and popular event that I decided to reprise it this year."

Last year's winner, Simon Lassen, will serve as Taskmaster this year, with Bortner once again as his assistant. They are joined by various volunteers, including a film crew and video editors.

A poster for the second "Taskmaster Seoul: Fan Edition" to be held live at Itaewon's Craic House this Friday

Bortner stressed that this is entirely a fan activity, and there is no actual collaboration with the original TV production.

"We give all credit to the creative team there for their ideas, aesthetics and soundtrack, which we have borrowed for our tribute," she said. "The tasks themselves are my own original ideas developed around the local filming locations.

The show starts at 9:30 p.m. and is expected to run until about midnight. Entry is free, and Bortner cautions that there may be small tasks for the audience to participate in this year.

"The spirit of the show, and why we like it so much, is its embrace of the absurd," Bortner said. "The tasks are purposefully ridiculous and judged on arbitrary standards, so contestants accept likely failure before beginning. This mindset opens space for lateral thinking and hilariously ingenious actions that are fun to perform and watch."

Visit @craichousekorea on Instagram for more information.