Games that make people laugh - a workshop in the art of sustainable silliness

Part One: Pointless Games

Pointless games are games that: 1) have no purpose, other than laughing together, and 2) have no score - or, if they do have score, nobody really cares. That's why they're called "pointless." These can be really any kind of game - card games, board games, word games, games that require no equipment at all, or games that are played with whatever junk you can find. We'll be focusing mostly on the last two - games that require no equipment, and games that are played with whatever.

The purpose of this part of the session will be to build a repertoire of these games. Bernie will teach some of his many games, and invite others to share any "pointless" games that they know.

 

Part Two: Quitting, Cheating and other ways to keep the game fun

What makes fun sustainable is knowing how to change a game in order to adapt it to the people who are playing, the place they are playing in, and the constantly changing mood of the community. During this part of the session, we will select a few pointless games, and then explore many different ways to adapt them - to make them more complex or simpler, more physical or mental, more serious or sillier. During the second part of this session, participants will be invited to create their own variation of any of the games we've played.

The purpose of this session is to develop a sense of comfort and competence in changing games to adapt them to the needs of the players. This is the art that makes Pointless games such a useful tool for laughter leaders.

Part Three: Leading for laughter

Leading a pointless game is in itself an art. It requires, most of all, a good sense of humor, playfulness, and inventiveness. Participants will be asked to lead games. After each game, we will give the leaders feedback (positive only, please) about what they did to invite participation, laughter, and fun.

Presenting and facilitating Pointless games is as important as the games themselves. This part will help us focus on what we can do to make these kinds of light-hearted games more accessible and acceptable.

Notes:

The session, like the games, will be very open-ended and responsive to whatever people seem to find most valuable to their professional passions.

Many of the games that will be played during the session can be found here.