Desiree Burch is an American comedian and television host. She is known for hosting Netflix game show Flinch, and narrating reality show Too Hot to Handle. She has also appeared on Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News for You, QI, The Mash Report, Frankie Boyle's New World Order and Mock the Week. She also stars in Alex Horne's series The Horne Section TV Show.
In 2021, Burch appeared as a contestant on Series 12 of Taskmaster, finishing joint third with 161 points. She was the guest on episodes 49 and 76 of Taskmaster The Podcast.
Burch also appeared in two special tasks, alongside Series 3 contestant Al Murray, which were run as an ad campaign for Google's Pixel 6 phones.
Performance[]
| Task | Description | Desiree Burch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 1: An imbalance in the poppability. (23 September 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: The thing that if you put it in a bag and sat on it, it would feel the nicest. | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Strike Alex with a ball. Alex may not run, hide or leave the Taskmaster grounds. Fastest wins. | 4 | ||||
| 3 | Paint the most flattering picture of the Taskmaster in action on the canvas in the lab. The canvas will either be six inches or six feet above you. You must lie flat on your back on the creeper at all times. You must tell Alex if you want the canvas to be six inches or six feet above you within the next ten seconds. | 3 | ||||
| 4 | Pop the balloon. You must stay behind the rope at all times. You must not move the rope. You may buy the tools you need with time. Fastest wins. | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Write down a cool hobby, a fun animal and a famous person. | 3 | ||||
| Live: Strike a pose to represent first, your cool hobby, then your fun animal, then your famous person. You must hold your pose until the end of the round. The Taskmaster will attempt to guess what each pose represents. You may not make a noise or movement when posed. | ||||||
| Total | 16 | |||||
| Episode 2: Oatmeal and death. (30 September 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most awesome square. | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Team: Scale the mountain. Your attempt must last exactly five minutes and will be sped up by five times afterwards. Most thrilling ascent wins. | 5 | ||||
| 3 | Work out the contents of these bags. You may not open the bags. You can either ask Alex to make one tiny hole in each bag and have five minutes examination time during which you must eat at least one big spoonful from each bag, or ask Alex to put all the contents in a blender for one minute and then have ten minutes examination time during which eating is optional. | 4 | ||||
| 4 | Completely paint this space hopper green without making any mess. The entire space hopper must be green. The entire space hopper must stay in the dome. When you are satisfied that you are finished, put your hands on your hips and bow deeply at your green space hopper. Fastest and least messy wins. | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Put on the medallion. You must not take off your jacket or break the box. Fastest wins. | 4 | ||||
| Total | 16 | |||||
| Episode 3: The end of the franchise. (7 October 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most old-fashioned thing that you still use. | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Copy Alex. Alex will demonstrate his actions twice, then you will have one attempt to copy Alex. Closest copy wins. | 4 | ||||
| 3 | Make the highest sand bridge across the river. You may not leave the lab. Your sand bridge must support the egg and the egg must be able to pass under the sand bridge. | 3 | ||||
| Bonus: Most extravagant sand bridge. | 0 | |||||
| 4 | Film the most thrilling 30-second sequence wearing the welly-cam. | 5 | ||||
| 5 | Team Live: Correctly guess your teammate's object. Your teammate will represent their object through the medium of shadows on the screen. Fastest correct guess wins two actual points per round. | 4 | ||||
| Total | 21 | |||||
| Episode 4: The customised inhaler. (14 October 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Best thing that has quite a few layers. | 4 | ||||
| 2 | Complete the course as slowly as possible. You must be riding the bicycle forwards within the limits of the course at all times. Every time you put a foot on the ground, the clock will be paused and your final time will be halved. If you leave the course or miss an instruction, your time will also be halved and the clock will be paused until you are back in position. Slowest wins. | 5 | ||||
| 3 | Spread jam on a slice of toast in a really cool way. Coolest jam spreading wins. | 2 | ||||
| 4 | Team: Solve the riddle. You must all stay in your rooms. Fastest wins. | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Get the most forks in your bucket. You may only throw a fork after a full spin on your chair. You must stay sat in your chair at all times and you may not move your chair. | 2 | ||||
| Total | 15 | |||||
| Episode 5: Croissants is croissants. (21 October 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most elegant thing beginning with G. | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Sit on a cake. Fastest wins. | 4 | ||||
| Bonus: Best cake. | 0 | |||||
| 3 | Team: Get the most balls in the net. Everyone must stay on their spots at all times. If anyone other than the task reader touches or handles a ball, you lose five balls from your ball total. Also, the person on the middle spot must sit for ten seconds and then stand up straight for ten seconds on repeat. Any balls remaining between the task reader and the middle person will be deducted from your ball total. | 0 | ||||
| 4 | Prevent Alex from scoring a goal. The ball and goalpost must be on their spots when Alex attempts to score a goal. You must be 12 yards from the ball when Alex attempts to score. Slowest goal scored by Alex wins. | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Pop the most balloons. You may pop between one and ten balloons each turn. If you pop one of the five bad balloons, you are disqualified. The eventual winner gets ten actual points. | 2 | ||||
| Total | 8 | |||||
| Episode 6: A chair in a sweet. (28 October 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most desirable thing for the person below you in the alphabet, or the highest alphabetically if you're the lowest alphabetically. | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Land the iron on the ironing board from the furthest distance. The ironing board must be standing at it's maximum height when the iron lands on it and the iron must remain on the ironing board for the attempt to count. | 1 | ||||
| 3 | Make a cute toy for a cute dog. The dog will have five minutes with your cute toy. Most engaged dog wins. | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Sit on the red chair in the secret tower. You may only step on circles on your way. You may only stand on each circle once, unless it is black. You may stand on a black circle twice, but never twice in a row. Also you must put this task in the shredder within the first minute. If you fail for any reason, Alex will blow his whistle. Return everything to its starting position and you must start again. Fastest wins. | 5 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Choose the number of sheets you want for the second part of the task. Each sheet will reduce your points total by five. | 5 | ||||
| Live: Make paper aeroplanes. Your paper aeroplanes must look like aeroplanes. Most points wins. | ||||||
| Total | 17 | |||||
| Episode 7: The integrity of the product. (4 November 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most ridiculous thin thing. | 4 | ||||
| 2 | Put up a shelf for all the Taskmaster's snooker balls. All the Taskmaster's snooker balls must be at the Taskmaster's eyeline. Only the Taskmaster's snooker balls may be on the finished shelf. Fastest wins. | 3 | ||||
| 3 | Write and perform a 30-second jingle. You must reach into the barrel to find the subject of your jingle, then pop a balloon to discover the instrument that you must play under your jingle. | 5 | ||||
| 4 | Either get the pipe through the box and everything in it then get the box and everything in it through the pipe or get the box and everything in it through the pipe then get the pipe through the box and everything in it. Fastest wins. | 5 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Each person must direct their fellow contestants to draw an image. The drawing director may only use the following words: line, circle, square, big, small, up, down, left, right, middle, please, bendy. At the end of one minute, the drawers must write down what they think the image is. The drawers will receive one point per correct guess. The drawing director will also receive one point per correct guess. Most points overall wins. | 0 | ||||
| Total | 17 | |||||
| Episode 8: A couple of Ethels. (11 November 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Best thing you use for something other than its actual purpose. | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Make and wear a popcorn necklace with at least five pieces of popcorn and then do the opposite of the following: You must under no circumstances not avoid not making the bell not ring. The task is over when you have either rung the bell or not rung the bell and said "I did the right thing" three times. Fastest to not do the wrong thing wins. If you don't do the right thing, you lose five points. | -5 | ||||
| 3 | Team: Play the most brilliant minute of socially-distanced sport. | 5 | ||||
| Team: Provide the most iconic and memorable commentary for this brilliant one minute of socially-distanced sport. One of you must commentate on the action, another must provide analysis. Best commentary on the most brilliant socially-distanced sport wins. | ||||||
| 4 | Make your face look like another face when your face is turned upside-down. Most expressive and radically different upside-down face wins. | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Live: Pop up before the object, but only just. You are only allowed to pop up once. Closest to the pop before the pop wins the round. If you pop up after the object, you get no points that round. | 2 | ||||
| Total | 9 | |||||
| Episode 9: Nothing matters. (18 November 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: 40 things that are all the same and can all fit on a towel and are the best. | 4 | ||||
| 2 | Have the longest telephone conversation without the other person knowing you are trying to have a long telephone conversation. During the call, you must not mention television or Taskmaster. Every minute, you must reveal and carry out an action from the board. If the person you call says any of the key words, you must hang up immediately. You must call someone within two minutes from now. | 5 | ||||
| 3 | Strike the soldier with your throwing paint. The soldier will say your name every five seconds. You may not remove or tamper with your helmet. Fastest wins. | 4 | ||||
| 4 | Get goosebumps. Your goosebumps must be revealed in the lab. Fastest wins. | 3 | ||||
| 5 | Team Live: Get the highest score by sliding your ducks. Each team will slide a pair of ducks three times. The duck slider must smirk at the Taskmaster whilst sliding their ducks. The winning team will receive five points per person, the losing team will get zero. | 5 | ||||
| Total | 21 | |||||
| Episode 10: Caring Uncle Minpict. (25 November 2021) | ||||||
| 1 | Prize: Most magnificent floppy thing. | 5 | ||||
| 2 | Drink all this drink with your mouth open. Your mouth must be visibly open throughout. Fastest wins. | 5 | ||||
| 3 | Team: Work out what your teammate's tasks are. You must stay in the caravan and must not communicate with your teammates in any way. After 10 minutes, you must write down what you think their tasks were. Best guesser wins. | 4 | ||||
| 4 | Propose to Alex in the most irresistible way. | 4 | ||||
| 5 | Live: One at a time, make a noise without the Taskmaster identifying you. The person who makes the most unidentifiable noises wins. | 3 | ||||
| Total | 21 | |||||
| Grand Total | 161 | |||||
Trivia[]
- She is one of the two contestants that is American (it is unknown if there will be a American person competing in Series 19). She is the second contestant overall to be born in the United States, after David Baddiel.
- Unlike David Baddiel she did not move to United Kingdom in her early life and never had a citizenship between Britain and American.
- She should have appeared in the American version of Taskmaster since of her birthplace would be suitable, but the American version shut down in 2018 and her first appearance was in 2021 this could not happen making this was the only time she appeared in the British version but not the American version.
Videos[]
Alex Horne Interviews Desiree Burch with an Annoying Song - Taskmaster
Desiree Birch's Great Moments - Taskmaster
