The Art of Gibberish

Alex Sternik "Mentor and Enterprenuer, Initiator of Laughter Yoga Clubs in Israel" (site is in Hebrew, Google translation here) is, among many other things, a master of the art of gibberish. Last year, he was invited by Laughter Yoga Leaders and Participants in Berlin, Frankfurt and Amsterdam to train and share his knowledge of Gibberish Improvisation in his "Playing with the Nonsense" workshops.He is hoping to make his mastery available to laughter yoga practitioners in the States. To learn more about Alex and his theories, start with this article from the Jerusalem Post. Then watch his interview for Dutch TV (it's in Dutch, a little in English, but it's also in gibberish, and even if you can't tell the difference, you'll get a good idea of Alex and his gifts of laughter. If that's not fun enough, here's Alex explaining "gibberish therapy," in gibberish and English. And here's is Alex (click on all the pictures to reveal the video) in Germany.

Last year, during our Laughter Games Workshop, Alex gave a most impressive demonstration of how it is more or less possible to teach an entirely new game, completely in gibberish - a challenge I recommend only to my most advanced students.

As to the rationale for learning the art of gibberish, one would do well to explore its impact on brain development. Perhaps no one can explain it more cogently than John Cleese in the appended clip (via Boing Boing)

See also the "See Also" section of this Wikipedia article, and, of course, Estray Bonajour.

from Bernie DeKoven, funsmith