Archives by: Tonya Berry

I learned this one in acting class. Have two people sit in two chairs in front of the group. They will start acting out any clean, unoffensive scenario, like maybe driving a car or eating popcorn and watching a movie. Since this is not charades, they can talk. The conversations can be pretty hilarious. Then someone, anyone from the group yells “Freeze!” and both people freeze right where they are. The person who yelled “Freeze!” goes up and tags one of the two people on the shoulder. That person has to sit down and the new person takes their place, and starts acting out some other scenario without telling the other person what it is. They have to try and go along with it! Be careful though because this can quickly evolve into a WWF Smackdown! The game continues pretty much until you get tired of it. New people keep yelling “Freeze!” and tagging one of the two people and taking their place. It’s really fun to see the creativity that kids come up with…

This is just like the TV game show with Drew Carey only so far the only part our kids seem to really like is the party scene.

Here’s how it works: First of all, this is NOT charades. You pick three people to be the party guests. Either they can decide what they’re going to be or you can decide for them. You could say “A duck, a doctor and an escapee from an insane asylum”, or whatever.
Pick another person to be the party host. The party host is to have no clue what the party guests are supposed to be. The party host leaves the room and everyone else, i.e., the “audience”, is told what the three people are supposed to be. (whisper it to them) So since the “audience” is “in on it”, it makes it even more hilarious as the party host who has no clue what they’re supposed to be, tries to interact with the party guests.

Have the party host come back in. When the party host is ready, he or she says, “ding, dong!” and the first guest comes in, acting like their character. Most kids are going to want to try and guess what the person is. But that’s not how this game works. The party host is to try and guess in their mind, without saying what that person is supposed to be, and then start interacting with that character, as if they really came to their party! Like, “you know,” (Mr. Duck), “if I knew you were coming, I would have put out some cheese and quackers!” or they could look at the “doctor” and point to the “escapee from an insane asylum” and say, “I’m really glad you showed up. Looks like he could use your help!” and then the doctor could say “Well actually I’m a veterinarian” and then the host could say “Good, cause this party’s gettin’ to be a real zoo!” and so on and so on. The object being not to guess out loud what they are but to build improvisational comedy around the situation!

We haven’t been brave enough to try this one yet. All you really need is four or more people and one musically inclined individual. Have the musically inclined individual play either a generic goofy sounding song or maybe even a popular song on a guitar or piano. Pick someone from the “audience” and then have the “audience” give you a situation. Sit that person in a chair and then pick two more people from the “audience”. Have them to improvise a song about that person, in the situation that the “audience” gave you, to the tune of whatever song the musician is playing. Make sure that they realize that this is supposed to be fun and that they can’t be mean!

Divide your group into equal teams. Have some weird props, like a plastic baseball bat, a basket of fake flowers and a mixing bowl or whatever.

Each team gets 30 seconds to see how many ways they can use the props. If you’ve ever watched the show, you’ll know what I mean. But for those of you who haven’t, an example would be: the plastic baseball bat

1. Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck! (gently hits the other person over the head) Do the whole 3 Stooges thing
2. Use it as a machine gun and act out a scene from a war movie
3. Hold it like a baby and the other person would be a politician and kiss it on the cheek!
4. Use it as a telephone “Hello? Hello? Darn thing’s disconnected!”

You get the idea (hopefully). Whichever team comes up with the most gags in 30 seconds wins! They can use one, two or all three props.

Pick 3 characters from the “audience”. Now you have the “audience” to provide you with the following:

Character: Who are they?
Situation: Where are they?
Motivation: What are they trying to do?

For example, you are firemen on a TV telethon trying to get someone to teach you karate.
Or, you could be Tammy Baker, Barbara Walters and Britney Spears on a daytime soap opera trying to get a date with Mr T!
Or how about three wrestling stars in a beauty salon trying to get their nails done first?
You could even make three bags, one for character, one for situation and one for motivation and draw one from each for each team!
This can get pretty funny, the more creative people are.
Give them one or two minutes – and say “Ready….GO!” and watch the Emmy nominees in your youth group come to the surface!

Give two kids a situation and have them start acting it out. After a couple of minutes, grab another kid, whisper his or her character in their ear, and have them join the fun! Here’s the clencher: The people on stage have no idea who the new person is supposed to be or why they’re entering the scene. Just have the new character make something up to thicken the plot. Add people to the mix or pull people off as it goes along. You can even send the same character back in! What’s really fun is to videotape it and then show it to the church or parents!

Take seven eggs and boil six of them. Leave one raw. Get seven boys to stand in a row. Tell them that six of the eggs are boiled and one’s raw. See how much they trust their friends. Have each boy, one by one, break the egg over the guy’s head to his left. When you get to the end, make sure that boy #6 has the raw one! That way the last boy gets raw egg all over him and nobody gets chased. Then you can talk about either drugs or premarital sex or whatever and how much of a gamble it is, how you trust your friends but you never know when something is going to backfire on you like getting pregnant or an STD or getting in a car crash or overdosing.

Have everyone sit in a circle with one less chair. One person stands in the middle of the circle and says, “Have you ever…” and then they have to say something they’ve actually done. Warning: This can get a little out of hand if you have unsaved kids or new Christians there. Make sure you enforce the “keep it clean” rule, although I’m more lenient on stuff that’s gross like belching the alphabet or getting a green zit.

So the kid in the middle says “Have you ever…” (example) “…gotten a green zit?” Then anyone who’s ever gotten a green zit has to shout “YES!” and jump up and find a seat that is more than one seat away from the one they were originally sitting in. Then someone else is stuck in the middle and has to say, “Have you ever…” (example) “…dyed your hair blue?” etc, etc.

Once this game gets going, it goes really fast!

Sit everyone sit in a circle with one extra chair. The first person slides over into that chair and says, “I sit…” Then the person that was next to them slides over and says, “…in the grass…” Then the next person slides over and says “…with my friend…” and picks someone from the group (example) “…Ashley!” So Ashley would have to move into the empty seat by that person. Now Ashley’s seat is open, and the battle is on…

The kids on either side of Ashley’s chair hurry and try to sit in it first, and say “I SIT!” and then the next person on their side scoots over, “in the grass”, and the next person scoots over, “with my friend…” and they pick someone else.

This thing can go on all night and is a great way to get hyper kids to get their energy out!