Disclaimer:
The Toastmasters educational program is © Toastmasters International. All rights reserved. This compilation has been created to orient the members better in the Club procedures and make meetings even more interesting.
Varia
Social game
In the room next door there is a body in a pool of blood!! The murderer is one of us. The Table Topics Master distributes the envelopes with our names and we have to give our alibis and frame the person whose name is in the envelope. We must observe the people and their body language carefully to find out who the murderer is. The purpose of the game is to learn to say something against other people even though they might be our close friends and defend our own position. Then we vote for the most convincing speaker.
Abstract picture
The Table Topics Master asks three volunteers to leave the room and then invites them one at a time inside and shows an abstract picture. The TT speakers have 30 seconds to think what they are going to say about the picture.
Explain Yourself
Fellow toastmasters of the ___ club, rumours have reached us that last week some of you were caught acting very strangely. Here are some reports.
Last week on Monday you were seen running quickly along one of the main streets in our city, completely wet, clad only in a wet bathing towel screaming ‘Eureka! Eureka!’ anxiously.
Last week on Wednesday you were seen chained to a railing of the stairs next to the City Hall with a big bunch of bananas on your head.
Last week on Tuesday you got arrested by the police in the city centre, carrying the original painting of Mona Lisa, reported missing earlier that day. You were, however, released later.
Last week on Thursday you were seen in one of the main streets giving away to passers-by and drivers genuine gold bars.
Campfire Stories
Sit in a circle imitating a group at a camp fire. It is traditional to tell stories which give listeners shivers. The winner is the person whose story will give the listeners the most goosebumps.
The Speaker must include in their story the concept they have drawn from the box.
A Girl in White
A Lucky Coin
A Ghost of a Soldier
Mysterious Traces
A Cold Hand
A Black Dog
A Bloodstained Corkscrew
A Golden Necklace
http://toastmasters.wikia.com/wiki/Table_Topics_Ideas
‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ Sketches
The ideas come from the popular comedy show ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’.
The show consists of a number of sketches which can be used in the club to practise public speaking and have a good time all along. The practical merit is that you perform in front of the public, so you still get experience in stress management, having fun all along, which makes you feel at home on the stage.
Helping hands
The speaker acts out a scene / answers a question and mustn’t use their own hands to gesticulate, another speaker provides hands for them. The helper puts their hands under the speaker’s armpits. The speaker puts their hands behind the helper’s back. There could be more than one speaker to play roles.
This is a great ‘3 in 1’ exercise:
1. We learn to be aware of our reactions and emotions because we must convey someone else’s emotions.
2. It teaches you concentration on the task performance. It is a king of non-verbal interpreting, you must get the message, understand and get it across to the audience. The brain is just to busy to be stressed.
3. It is great fun – we associate the stage with positive experience and feel there at home. Enthusiasm replaces the stage fright.
The alphabet game
It’s a game in which contestants play a scene (any scene, like talking to a plumber, or, ‘there is Godzilla in our town!’) with the restriction that each sentence must start with a subsequent letter of the alphabet, within specified limits of time. It is recommended to write the alphabet on the board for beginners.
Questions only
For four performers. Two performers act out a scene (e.g., ‘at the station’). They must only speak in questions (i.e., start with a question). If they say a sentence or pause for too long, they are replaced by another performer waiting off stage behind them.
Fixed expressions
The speakers play certain roles. Each speaker must keep the same face expression through the whole game – puzzled, happy, shocked, disgusted, etc.
Stand sit bend / lie
The speakers play certain roles. In the scene at any given time one must be always standing, one must be bending over (lying) and one must be always sitting down.
Party quirks
One speaker is the host of the party. All the others (usually 3 people) are guests at the party. The guests get a piece of paper with a strange way of behaving or a quirk they must act out / pretend to be. The host must guess those new identities just from the way they behave. It is the funniest when the audience know those identities.
Props
Four speakers perform in pairs. Each pair get a prop (more or less strange object). They have to come up with as many ways of using that item as possible in the time available (the pairs take it in turns to present their ideas). The best ideas win.
Number of words
Four performers act out a given scene. The restriction is that each can speak in sentences with a specified number of words – one, three, five, etc.
What are you trying to say
Two speakers act out a given scene. They are easily offended and every now and then they react to what the other said: ‘Soo …, what are you trying to say?’ and make up the reason why this was offensive. The other is trying to explain it wasn’t.
Whose line?
Two performers act out a given scene. Each is given two slips of paper with a single line (usually containing some innuendo) , they haven’t seen before and during the game they must produce the slips and incorporate the lines into the improvisation.
Change emotion
Three performers are given objects with a particular emotion attached to each of them. The performer holding the prop must display that emotion in the course of improvisation. When the players exchange the props and they must display an appropriate emotion.
Animals
Four performers act out a scene. They are all animals, and must display certain animal features in the course of improvisation.
Foreign translation
For four performers. Two act out a scene, but they must pretend to speak a foreign language. The other two stay off stage and translate what they have said. The acting performers must adapt to what the translators say.
Imagine that …
You are assisting a pregnant woman, who is going into labour …
Upon arriving at a very important meeting you realise that everybody is looking at your feet, because you are wearing two different shoes.
At a very important meeting you’ve just spilled coffee on a lap of a very important client.
You wake up, at dawn, in Plac Grunwaldzki, next to a dead body …
Your girlfriend / boyfriend gives you a toy elephant as a present …
One day, doing washing, you find a thong, which is definitely not yours …
You catch a golden fish, and she can give you the current Lotto accumulation, but only if she likes your plan for this money. What will you tell her?
You find a bottle in the attic, rub it and genie comes out. He is very angry, because you woke him up. He loses you all your money in revenge. What do you do?
Aliens come to the Earth, do experiments on people, money is erased from their memory – what is the world like?