Catch Phrase Redux

We tried a few commercial games at Esalen, just to see if we could take the spirit of spontaneity and inclusion to the world of boxed fun. We failed miserably with Bunco and Cranium. Bunco proved too competitive. Cranium too complex. But, when we tried the Major FUN Award-award winning Catch Phrase, we were able to arrive at a variation that truly expressed our fun community.

We didn't play for points. We sat in a circle and played in pairs. That is, whoever had the device worked with a partner. This came about because one person had bad eyesight and needed a helper. It also made it more fun, because the clue givers could help each other while keeping each other from getting too worried about actually succeeding. While the clue givers were madly giving clues, everybody else guessed and guessed until someone came up with the right word, and the Catch Phrase device was passed to the next pair. Then, when the timer went off, as it inevitably did, the pair had to perform something as a forfeit. We had people dance and tell jokes and create statues and manifest extreme silliness.

It turned out to be a perfect way to play it. Pointlessly fun. A genuine manifestation of a fun community devoted to keeping everyone in play. I tried it with four people and hope to try it with 40. My guess is that it will work as well.