In this activity a "client" enters an Argument Clinic like the one in the famous Monty Python sketch.
As in the original, one person is the client, the other the Arguer. Also as in the original, there is a time limit.
The objective is simple: to argue just for the sake of arguing. No need to repeat the Monty Python sketch, just feel free to be disagreeable, contentious, contrary.
Variations:
The Flattery Clinic: Client enters room. Greets flatterer. Flattery ensues. Time limit.
Two variations by Lo Manho, with a few adjustments by MN.
“Beat the fears”
Variation by Hirabayashi Shunichi, with a few adjustments by MN.
Make a list of fears in advance, to save time. From the list, players vote for the top 10 fears that they have. Of course, they can add another words not on the list, but the number of fears should be the same as the number of demons.
Divide the participants into two groups. One group is the people, the other is the Demons. Each Demon will choose one fear to represent, keeping this secret from “the people.” The Demons will draw masks that somehow express – without words or symbols – the fear that they represent.
Like the card game of the same name (AKA "I doubt it."), which plays on the joy of lying and the fear of discovery. Mark Twain described lying as "a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man's best and surest friend." It is also a fundamental language skill that should not be neglected.
The flow:
I have given up using the evaluation technique in which you ask people, "If this meeting were a pair of shoes, what kind of shoes would they be? Roman Sandals? Pumps? Flippers?" Or, "If this workshop was a cup of coffee what kind of coffee would it be? Espresso? Turkish coffee? Soy or whole milk?" (I like that kind of thing, but I have found that not everyone does!)
But, we can borrow a tool used to evaluate coffee and other things to evaluate our work: the radar chart. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_chart)
Learned this at Kani Club.
In pairs, one person (The Giver) mimes giving the other a gift. Her mime should show some quality of the gift -- size, weight, temperature, value, etc.
The Receiver receives the gift in kind (showing its weight, etc) and identifies it. E.g., "Oh what a beautiful lobster! Thank you so much!"
The Giver, in the spirit of "Yes, and...", follows the Receiver's lead, adding some detail about the Gift. E.g., "I pulled it up in the trap this morning and thought of you."
Sometimes the most important part of a meeting or event is making contacts, networking. This activity uses the format of a personals ad to have people introduce themselves and quickly identify people they wish to get to know.
The format is simple. On an index card, people write:
*This means relevant information about you for the purposes of this event, e.g., in a meeting of labor activists, your union affiliation or other organization, etc. People should feel free to play with this, though.
In this game the players improvise a dialogue along the lines of the famous "Quelle Coincidence!!" dialogue in Eugene Ionesco's "La Cantatrice Chauve" (see the opening lines below).
In pairs, one person initiates the conversation as if it is the first time s/he is meeting the other. The first line is, "Haven't I met you somewhere before?"
In the spirit of "yes, and...", the second person agrees and adds some new detail, e.g., "Yes, I was thinking the same thing, maybe at the horse track?"
In this game, three people have a conversation with one person playing the role of interpreter. In fact all three are speaking the same language, but two pretend they do not understand each other, so they need the interpreter.
The interpreter's role in this game is to misinterpret everything the speakers say, producing the maximum of confusion and misunderstanding.
Example:
Person 1: I am very pleased to meet you.
Interpreter: He says, "what took you so long?"
Person 2: I am not late; I think our meeting was for 4pm and it is 4pm now?
This is more the seed of activities that can be devised using a common technique, than a worked-out activity.
I learned about "writing into" from John McGough, a TDU organizer and lover of poetry. He sent me this poem by Robert Kelly in which Kelly writes his own poem into Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Here's the first bit of Whitman's poem followed by Kelly's version:
Whitman:
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
Kelly:
