Games for "Laughter Leaders"

Last year I had a wonderful time teaching games to Laughter Leaders in Israel. Laughter Leaders are generally practitioners of a discipline/practice called Laughter Yoga that "combines Unconditional Laughter with Yogic Breathing (Pranayama). Anyone can Laugh for No Reason, without relying on humor, jokes or comedy. Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits."

I was invited to a Laughter Yoga session by a very laughing lady named Bat-Shachar and was delighted and enlightened. The "fake laughter" really works, especially when it's as infectious as Bat-Shachar's. She did play a lot of games - a lot. In keeping with the nature of yoga teachers, games are very leader-centric. The goal is to help people laugh, by any means possible. So a game really comes down to a series of instructions - do this funny thing, laugh, now do that. This allowed me to understand yet another assumption that guides my work, an assumption that isn't as common to game leaders as I had thought.

For me, the goal is to use as few instructions as possible, and to transfer the leadership to the players, also as fast as possible. I consider a game successful when I can walk away for a few minutes, come back, and discover that people are still playing it. Better still, when it turns out that they've changed the game somehow, somehow really made the game theirs. Given how intense Bat-Shachar's workshop was, and how actively engaged she was, I'm hoping she and her cronies discover the usefulness, and perhaps even the value of my approach to games - before they burn out entirely.

Today, I'll be teaching a selection of pointless games (and their significance) to a group of about 35 Laughter Leaders. I hope I'll be able to make my approach, as well as my games, somewhat more useful to them. If you're interested, you can find the list of games I'll be teaching here.



from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith