Each side is to decide upon some noun that has just as many letters in it as the team has members. Every member is assigned a letter. He is to decide on some adjective beginning with that letter, and he will “act out” that adjective for the edification of the members of the other team who are acting as audience for the time being. It is the business of the audience to guess what adjective is being dramatized. As soon as they hit upon the right adjective, they take its first letter as the first letter in the noun the team is dramatizing. Then the next human adjective takes his turn and so on until all the letters of the noun have been dramatized.
As an illustration, a team takes the noun “stone.” There are five members in the group and five letters in the word. The first actor has “s” for his letter. He chooses “silly” for his adjective, and he acts as silly as he possibly can and continues to do so until someone in the audience calls out the correct guess, “You’re acting silly!” The audience has the first letter to the word, “s.” Next comes “t.” The adjective chosen was “tired.” Then “o”—ornery; next “n”—noisy; and last “e”—empty. Taking the first letters of these adjectives in turn, the audience has the word “stone.”
Then the opposing team acts out adjectives describing the first letters of its noun, and so they take turn about, and if real snap and enthusiasm are put into the acting out of the adjectives this can be the game of the evening as far as genuine and sideach-y fun is concerned. Can’t you just see the minister of the Baptist Church acting “ornery,” pushing people about, twitching Beacon Jones’ nose, pulling Susie’s hair and in general, making himself an unmitigated nuisance and showing up a truly ornery disposition?
It is surprising always to find how many people enjoy acting ornery, and noisy, and silly, and all the other forbidden adjectives!
Parlor Slapjack.
Guests are standing in a circle, hands outstretched behind them. The one who is “It” walks around the outside of the circle, suddenly slaps an outstretched hand and, without stopping an instant, continues to walk around the circle in the direction he was going. The one whose hand was slapped immediately starts walking in the opposite direction, the objective for both walkers being the place that was just vacated. It belongs to the one who reaches it first, while the other becomes “It.” They are to walk only. No running is allowed.
But—certain rites must be performed before either one may take the place in the circle. “It” and the one whose hand was slapped are bound to meet on their way round the circle. When they do, “It” does whatever he wishes in the way of a stunt, and the other must imitate exactly before they may continue their race for the empty place. The following stunts are very good because of their esthetic value:
1. Make a deep bow.
2. Shake hands.
3. Sing up the scale.