But first a little introduction. When in my earlier years, my mom was "terribly evil" because she would not let us watch TV during the summer and forced us to go outside and play. Not being able to get lazy while being passively entertained, like kids these days might be in front of their computer or Nintendo video games, I was forced to invent games, and found myself getting into the habit of it. It forced me to become creative, which I believe I still am today and which I believe this "torturous punishment" by my mom may have nurtured.

This game should be a good party game, and might possibly be turned into a drinking game. Perhaps something like it already exists somewhere, but because I never heard about it, I’ll just say I invented it.
 

Basically you should all take turns. Alternatively, you can roll a die who gets the highest, or deal out cards and the person who gets the special card must go. Just this morning, as I was waking up out of my slumber, I envisioned that some people may be petrified to play and not want to take part, so I prepared a speech for them how to overcome their (or anyone’s) fears. Could make the game more fun!

Once it is your turn, basically you surf in your head for one of your favourite movie lines, and act it out.

Now the point system or whatever hasn’t been developed, since I haven’t had the opportunity to play this yet, but I’ve speculated the below so far.

As soon as someone thinks they know what movie and scene the movie is from, they can put up their hand and holler "I know!". Another possibility is that everyone has their hand towards the centre of a table and the first person to slap their palm down in the centre on a card goes. This is a social game of fun, so the stronger and faster ones should be gentlepeople and allow the weaker ones, or those who haven’t had a chance to guess, an opportunity. Even if they were blatantly slow.

If the person guessing guesses wrong, they should get penalised with points or having to drink or something. If the actor was interrupted by a wrong guessor, they can continue after the wrong guess. If no one knows, they can hint, or choose other lines from the same movie etc. Perhaps they could get some bonus point if no one guessed. But perhaps this would be due to their bad acting ability or because they chose an extremely obscure film, so this issue has to be played out and tested. In any case, being forced to act out other scenes from the movie can be fun too.

Once someone has correctly guessed the movie AND the exact scene (bonus points can be awarded for mentioning the original actor’s name), everyone grades the play actor according to their acting ability, effort, and passion etc. If someone is a natural actor without inhibitions, they can be judged more sternly. Remember, this is supposed to be a social game of fun, so the point system really isn’t so important. Have fun and I can’t wait to try it myself!
 

And since this thought was rummaging through my head as I was waking up this morning, I thought it could be a good addition to these pages. The more text the merrier for search engine optimization < purposes, and perhaps I am getting into the habit of writing stuff like this as part of my free counseling < pages.

It basically occurred to me that some participants would not want to play because they dread the thought of having to stand up and act in front of people, and would rather sit passively and watch on the sidelines. But their participation and the overcoming of their fears could make the game all the more fun, so part of the game should be for you or all present to egg that person into participation. You could get strict and say that they cannot sit by and watch if they do not participate, as part of your egging process. Consider it like a roller coaster that you get on, and once you are on, you can’t get off. Slowly the train inches its way up the first hump. Your heart beats faster as you watch the ground below get farther and farther away. The rumble of the metal wheels on metal reverberates through the entire train, through your body and into your madly pumping heart. And once you get over the edge and start plunging down, you realise there is no turning back. The upheaved gravity forces your stomach into your wildly pounding heart, which in turn is pushed into your throat. Then you hit bottom, swoop back up and the entire exercise continues, while you might be screaming for your mommy and pray that you can somehow get off. But you can’t, and when it is finally over, your whole body is pumping with adrenaline, you are feeling the momentum of a great rush, and you might holler: "One more time!". Well this is the rush that someone can feel when they overcome their fears and force themselves to get up on the stage and make a fool out of themselves in front of everyone. Heck, this is one of the reasons I started singing in karaoke. Not only could I not believe how bad my friends sang, and if they can do it I certainly must, but I decided that it would be a good exercise to help me break out of my shell and overcome my inhibitions. Not to mention that, at the time, I was casting for roles in movies, and thought such "practice" might do me good.

So if you find any queasy folk among you, you can give them this speech to egg them onto stage. By overcoming their fears, they will feel the rush and get a great thrill out of the game, and the audience might get a great kick out of watching them struggle with their fears, but gradually get better at it as the "little them" blooms out of their box of fear.

I often felt that fear can be the source of one of the greatest evils, or reasons why we do not live a full life. There is a saying: "Evil flourishes when good men stand idle." And why do they stand idle? It is because they fear the consequences of standing up and doing something about it. But by standing up, this can often inspire many to follow. And if enough followed, such evils as Hitler might not have happened.

Thus it can be our social responsibility to overcome our fears. Beyond that, it retards your own life. "Oh, I can’t ask her out. She certainly does not like me and will most likely burst out laughing in my face." And such is the excuse that one often hides behind, as a reason not to do what they want to do. And yet the burning question will remain: "What if she DOES like me and would not laugh? She SEEMS to like me." And so the timid person struggles in torment between the question whether or not they should try. And this torment could stay with them their whole lives, with the neverending, "what if…. What if I had only tried? What if I had only tried this one approach? Things could have been oh so different." And this is how I find many people in our society. Afraid to take a risk, rather huddling themselves in their den of security, comfort and safety. Where no risk is necessary. Such as on the seat of their couch in front of the TV, watching the world go by. And I see this fear propagated by parents. Who do not want to deal with the wild antics of their growing children, so they hem them in at every display of spontaneity, instead of nurturing them as they should, until the child grows a crippled tree and enters society the shaking leaf like everyone else, conforming to the mass movement lest they find themselves against the stream and ridiculed, but end up railroaded into a certain life that might not bring them the maximum pleasure. Being a rebel as a child I often found myself swimming up stream and confronted by these masses. Perhaps they envied me because I was doing what I wanted to, and so join their peers with ever more venomous slander and chastising. Boxing themselves even more in the process, because after taking part in such cowardly slander, they would have certainly strengthened their own fears of ever daring to do what they might dream of doing, and instead inch themselves into an ever smaller box of darkness.

Or perhaps the person is not malicious like this, or so lofty and conservative and "above such childish games", when we know it is still their fear that prevents them from stripping their pride and presenting themselves, vulnerable and naked, before the potential judgements of their peers.

Perhaps the person does not have a seed of malicious or judgmental thought, but is simply bashful due to a lifetime of being hemmed in by their parents, their passions any time exposed in the past being harshly ridiculed and forever curtailed.

But why should the lives of any of these people, in particular the last, be dictated by such fears, or by such cowardly masses? Even if the cowardly masses were to conglomerate right then and there before the person, all the important people who meant something to him or her in the past, and hurl insults, eggs and rotten tomatoes at them while they painstakingly exposed their inner vulnerabilities to them on stage? Would they die trying? Certainly not, but I find that overcoming such fears, even realising that were such retribution be realised that nothing would scathe them at the end of the day, could be very therapeutic. And therapeutic towards what measure? Well, to overcome each and every one of their daily fears and work towards living their own life according to their own passions and desires. After all, it is your life we are talking about. Why coast towards your deathbed, where you will lie one day and think back of all the things you could have and secretly wanted to do, but never had the balls to do it? What a horrible, sad waste of a life. So consider this a necessary exercise, and by you and every one in the room egging that person to strip themselves of their shell of comfort, you are actually saving them and doing them a great favour. Deliver this speech with great passion. It could be an amusing introduction to the game, and set the tone. Otherwise, the idle standbiers may only hamper the atmosphere.

This morning, when all these thoughts were circulating through my head (as thoughts often do during those early minutes of the day, when I awake from that hazy dream world and once again enter reality and the most productive and awake period of my day), I was imagining such a timid person petrified of being on stage like this, and I was imagining giving them this passionate yet encouraging speech. That person can wait and be the last person out of the group on stage, but if they fold then, even in light of all your egging and encouragement, they might have been warned beforehand that the punishment is banishment from participating as a passive viewer. Whatever it takes to get them onto the stage. And my passionate speech included an explanation how they are hindering their own lives. How the ridicule and chastising of the past is pegging them down and preventing them to do what they really want to do, at every step of their lives. And as I explained them all this, I saw how they began to realise it was all true, and how the anger of acknowledging this great injustice began to well up inside them. Which I encouraged all the more, and told them to use this welling anger, to let it rise out from within their belly until it spews out of their mouths and bulldozes away the barricade of their fears. Watching this take place could make the evening all the more fun, and bring beneficial results too! Not to mention that the person overcoming these fears will feel the roller coaster rush of inevitability.

Happy therapy!