As someone who has grown increasingly obsessed with “Taskmaster” since an episode first appeared in my YouTube recommendations about a year ago, I was expecting a lot when I sat down to witness Fringe Fest’s take on the show: “DRAGMASTER.”
For those unfamiliar with the incredible experience that is watching “Taskmaster,” I’ll give you a quick rundown. Each season features five comedians who complete a series of tasks administered by the Taskmaster’s Assistant before the show. These tasks can range from somewhat ordinary (for example, eating a watermelon as fast as you can) to immediately bizarre (make the most socks stand up). Montages of each task are then shown in-studio for the audience and the Taskmaster to see. The Taskmaster then awards five points to the most successful contestant and one point to the least, with the contestants in between being awarded the corresponding 2–4 points. The winner of each episode earns the prizes that the contestants bring in each episode, while the overall champion takes home a golden bust of the Taskmaster.
This rendition of the competition was hosted by “Dragmaster” Kyla Minx, and the role of the assistant, or as Minx called it, the “Dragmaster’s Bitch,” was played by Vivian Darling, who was also the creator of this production. The competition was split into two shows, each featuring competitors Gus JW, Lori Lippa, Jakarri Buckner, Queen Marie-Adelina, and Chintz McMahon.
The show opened, as all “Taskmaster” and “Taskmaster”-adjacent competitions do, with the prize task, where each competitor brings in a prize that fits the assigned category, in this case the most unintentionally gay item, to be awarded to the winner of the night. The Dragmaster was unimpressed with Buckner’s offering of a plunger, or Queen Marie-Adelina’s painting of her dog in regency clothing, but agreed that McMahon’s crew magazine featured enough shirtless shots to earn the five points.
The show then moved into the first pre-recorded task of the night, which instructed contestants to paint the most accurate picture of the Dragmaster using only their lips. Minx then had to guess who made each painting, and each accurate guess earned the competitor a bonus point. Each contestant received multi-colored lipstick to work with, and four out of the five chose to paint their lips and use them to draw. Buckner, however, put the lipstick brush between his lips, finding a loophole that allowed him to draw a much more accurate representation, and earn the full five points. For an added twist, Darling turned off the lights halfway through each contestant’s time. Buckner, once again thinking outside the box, was the only contestant to think to turn the lights back on.
The second task was to tease a wig with only the items on the table, which ranged from a fork to a deflated balloon — tallest wig wins. In classic “Taskmaster” tradition, McMahon was assigned an extra solo task, which was to smile at the camera more enthusiastically every 30 seconds. In the process of completing the task, multiple contestants found a slip of paper with writing in Welsh inside the balloon. Despite that, Lippa was the only contestant to ask if Darling would translate the message, which she happily did, letting Lippa know that she had to look under the table. There she found helpful tools, such as a brush and hairspray. Further cementing her win, Lippa was the only one to remove the wig from the mannequin head and wear it, giving her a multiple foot advantage over her competition, and earning five points for her efforts. Once all the contestants’ attempts had been shown, Darling revealed, to uproarious laughter from the crowd, that beyond the clue in Welsh, she had written “under the table” on the front of the table, and in large lettering on the painting behind her.
The next, and final, pre-recorded task was the team task, which split the contestants into a team of two and a team of three to decode and then solve a riddle without leaving their rooms. To make the uneven teams fair, Queen Marie-Adelina on the team of three only had to make her fellow contestants say “grapefruit” in order to earn points, rather than have materials to help decode the riddle. Unfortunately, as Darling shared before we saw the recording, Queen Marie-Adelina forgot about that assignment entirely.
Though it took the team of three an unimpressive 58 minutes to come up with the correct answer, the team of two took an hour and 22 minutes, a timestamp that was not helped by the fact that it took JW 32 minutes to discover the riddle that was on the table in front of him. Despite that, the Dragmaster awarded five points to the team of three, and a very generous four points to the team of two.
To round off the night and determine the victor, the contestants had to complete one final task live in front of the audience. Their assignment was to use the materials in front of them, mainly vegetables, to create a salad worthy of the Dragmaster in 100 seconds. At the end of that time, with a few ingredients eaten by the contestants along the way, the Dragmaster was presented with four salads — Queen Marie-Adelina earned five points for not making one, as Minx does not like salad. The four points for the most impressive salad however went to Lippa.
But that wasn’t the end of the show. As the competitors celebrated the conclusion, out came Darling with another envelope, this one telling them that they had another 100 seconds to restore all the salads to their original states. The chaos that followed was classic “Taskmaster.” Between JW wringing dressing out of the lettuce and McMahon trying to piece together bitten up vegetables, the audience had plenty of visuals to laugh at. Queen Marie-Adelina, lucking out with how she chose to complete the first part of the task, took five points again, but JW came in second with four points this time as a reward for squeezing the lettuce.
Finally, it was time to learn who would earn Kyla’s Golden Tucking Panties: the reward for the overall champion across both shows. Darling read the point totals from last place, JW with 31 points, to third, McMahon and Lippa tied with 33. Then, it all came down to Queen Marie-Adelina and Buckner, who held each other’s hands as Darling paused to let the tension build. Darling then announced that, while Queen Marie-Adelina’s live task performance earned her the win for the second show, Buckner’s 36 points gave him the lead overall, and earned him the golden panties.
From start to finish, “DRAGMASTER” was incredibly engaging, keeping the audience laughing almost non-stop. Though the show suffered some minor technical difficulties, Minx or Darling were always quick to quip, keeping the energy alive and moving even through deadtime. In my opinion, Fringe’s first ever “DRAGMASTER” was an incredible success, and if the competition continues next year, I’ll definitely be buying a ticket.
