Baby Bottle Coke Drinking Contest

Call for four people to participate in a coke drinking contest.  When you get the four up front, tell them that this is not a regular coke drinking contest; for this one, they will need someone to feed the coke to them.  (If you have adult sponsors, have them feed it to the young person.)  When they come on stage, tell them the coke is in a bottle; then pull out the baby bottles and show them to the crowd.  You can have the adult sit on a chair and have the young person sit in his lap and feed it to him like you would a baby.  (Also, you can have the person drinking the coke sit on the chair and the one feeding him stand behind the person in the chair.)  They cannot squeeze the bottle; only suck on it.  First one done is the winner.  You might want to prepare the bottle by enlarging the  hole in the nipple.

Candle Shoot Out

You will need four volunteers.  Two of them sit on chairs that are back to back (so that the audience will be able to see everything).  The ones sitting down are handed a paper plate that they need to hold on their head.  On top of the plate, you put a small candle.  You then hand the other two a squirt gun and have them stand in front of their partner about 6-10 feet away.  You tell them that when you say go, they are to squirt out the lighted candle.  You then light the candles and step back.

There’s a B’ar

Get about three or four people to line up in front of the group, shoulder to shoulder, with the leader at the beginning of the line.  The leader says, “There’s a b’ar!” and the kid next to him says, “Whar?”  And the leader says, “Over thar” and points to a spot off to his left with his right hand (so that he crosses his body with his arm).  The kid is to do the same thing and hold that position.  He then passes it down to the next person in line until everyone is in that position.  The leader than starts again and points to his right with his left arm.  Then the leader squats and points with his foot across his body.  By this time, all the participants should be a bit off balance.  The final time, the leader, in response to the question “Whar?” points with his shoulder so that while doing this, he pushes the guy next to him into the rest so that the domino effect puts everyone on the floor.

Cowboy, Lasso, Steer

This is a take off of the old Paper-Rock-Scissors game.   Replace the paper, rock, and scissors with objects that fit your theme.  You need to stand for this game.  For cowboy, make the motion of drawing two guns from your hip.  For the lasso, put your left hand on your hip and hold your right hand up in the air like you are throwing a rope.  For the steer, hold your hands on your head like you have horns.  Have the entire group stand up, back to back, and pick a partner.  When you count to three, they should all jump up in the air and turn around while doing one of the three motions.  Cowboy beats lasso, lasso beats steer, and steer beats cowboy.  You may want them to repeat that with you a couple of times before you begin so that they all know.  With a bigger group, you may want to tell them that if they lost or tied, they need to sit down.  Then have another round.  Once your group gets small enough, have everyone come up on stage.  You then can redo any ties until you have just two people left.  It is always fun if there is one girl and one boy left.  On the last two people, do it so they have to win two out of three.

Theme Idea:  Mountain Man

Mountain Man—stand with both hands holding a rifle

Trap—hold a foot as if it got caught in a trap

Bear—both hands over the head growling

Theme Idea:  Gold Rush

Miner—Stand as if both hands are holding a shovel.

Pick Axe—Stand with one arm extended and the other arm tucked underneath itself as if you were a giant pick axe.

Mule—Place hands to the top of your head like they are mule ears.

Theme Idea:  Stagecoach

Driver—Hands up like reining a horse team

Stagecoach—Hands up in form of a wheel

Bandit—One hand pointing a gun, the other hand covering your face

Frozen T-Shirt Contest

Before your contest begins, thoroughly wet several large t-shirts and then fold them identically.  Leave the neckline towards the front and fold the arms to the back.  Then fold the bottom of the shirt under into thirds leaving the arms inside the folds. Wring out most of the water by taking the folded wet shirt and giving it a firm twist. (We found the most common mistake is to leave the shirts too wet, making the stunt take too long and thus lose its impact.)  Then place them onto cookie sheets and into the freezer.  You can stack the shirts if you place something between them that will not absorb water.  Remove the shirts just before you are ready to do the stunt.  (If you must leave the shirts outside the freezer for a time before the stunt, you may want to experiment with various amounts of water in the shirts.)

Choose as many contestants/volunteers as you have prepared frozen t-shirts. Do not reveal the shirts until you have your volunteers!  Hand them the frozen squares and tell them to wait until you give the signal.  At the signal, they will race to put on the t-shirts.  The first person with the shirt all the way on is the winner!  Let the crowd enjoy the moment when they discover the nature of the stunt, and encourage the crowd to cheer for the contestants by choosing volunteers that represent them.  (We like between two and four contestants). Warning:  when choosing volunteers, do not choose a girl with a cropped, tight, or white shirt on!  If you choose girls, you may want to be ready with a lady who will help them get the frozen/wet shirts off modestly.

An idea for the winner’s prize is a t-shirt, especially if you have prepared a special one for your event.  You should experiment with this one before you use it to make sure you have the shirts frozen enough.

Stop the Watch!

A book by this title is available from Klutz publishers and is filled with fun ideas.   In addition to there being a section for solo events and one for partner events, there is also a list of record times to try to beat.  And each book comes with a free stopwatch!  Some of the stunts that we enjoy are explained below.

Happy Birthday—Choose several pairs of volunteers.  Send all but one pair out of the room into a “sound proof” area.  Explain to the remaining pair that their assignment is to sing the song “Happy Birthday” alternating words.  The partners who can sing the song the fastest will be the winners.  For example, partner 1 sings “Happy,” partner 2 sings “birthday,” partner 1 follows with “to,” and partner 2 sings “you.”  This routine continues as they race to finish the song.  After they complete the song and you call out their time, bring in the next pair and repeat the procedure.  The compound words add a fun complication to the race.

13^th Word—Choose several volunteers and send all but one out of the room into a “sound proof” area.  Explain to the remaining volunteer that his assignment is to tell you the 13^th word of John 3:16.  When he comes up with the correct word, stop the watch and call out his time.  Repeat the procedure with the remaining volunteers one by one.  You can pick any verse, mission statement, song, etc., and choose any word from it.  It is more fun if you choose a word that follows a couple of two-syllable or compound words, as this adds to the confusion in the hurry to reach the 13^th word.

Stop it Yourself—Choose several pairs of volunteers.  Send all but one pair out of the room into the “sound proof” area.  Explain to the remaining pair that their task is for partner 1 to start the watch and pass it to partner 2 who then stops the watch.  Call out the time and then call for the next pair.  Repeat the procedure for each pair.  The fastest time wins.  You could add a twist to this simple task.  For instance, partner 1 starts the watch and then must pass it behind his/her back, and partner 2 must receive it from behind his/her back and then stop the watch.

Speed spelling—Choose several pairs of volunteers.  Send all but one of the pairs out to the “sound proof” area.  Explain the task:  spell a five-letter word, alternating letters.  No communication!  Ready? Go!  Start the watch and partner 1 says “C”, partner 2 says “O”, partner 1 says “U”, partner 2 says “N”, partner 1 says “T”.  Stop the watch!  Bring in the next pair.  Repeat the process.  This is a very difficult task!  You may want to shorten or lengthen the letter count, or you may want to just say any word longer than four letters.

Child’s Play

Find two preschool puzzle cubes.  You may need to buy them if you want two identical puzzles; otherwise you may borrow one from a friend and time the event so that you can compare the contestants accurately.  The competition of two people going simultaneously is more fun for the audience.  Choose two volunteers without showing them the puzzles.  Or you may ask for the most intelligent guy and the most intelligent girl, and let the audience nominate their champion.  Bring them up front and then reveal the puzzles.  Spread the pieces out on the table; and at the signal, have them begin putting the pieces into the proper holes of the cube.  This is tougher than you might think so be prepared to stop them at 45 seconds (or whatever time you choose) and then count the pieces that have been successfully inserted into the cubes to determine the winner.  Have the volunteers work at a table or on a surface so that the audience can see their faces.  It is not necessary for the audience to be able to identify the pieces, as long as they can see the frantic movements of the volunteers.

Up, Up, and Away!

This is most fun outside or in a room with a very high ceiling.  Obtain a couple of aerosol cans of whipped cream and a few towels and damp washcloths.  Maybe a couple of plastic gloves would be nice too.  Next, find some enthusiastic volunteers.  Do not tell them the stunt, but you can hint towards it:  “I need a couple of volunteers who have the biggest mouths!” Let the audience help nominate some volunteers.  Get them up front with you and then explain the stunt.  Spray a small ball of whipped cream onto your fingertips, somewhere between ping-pong ball size and racquetball size, depending on how messy you want to get.  Wear gloves for the sake of sanitation.  Next, give the “ball” a toss into the air and have the first volunteer try to catch it in his mouth.  You should put a towel across his chest to catch some of the missed cream.  Give each of the volunteers the same size of ball and the same height of toss.  Your winner can be chosen in several ways.  If you cannot decide which person caught the most in his mouth, you can choose (or allow the audience to choose) the person with the most cream on his face!

Tied Up in Spoons

Obtain two long pieces of strong string and a couple of spoons.  Next, tie and tape each spoon to the end of a piece of string.  Choose two teams of volunteers.  We always choose boys—about seven to ten on a team.  The objective is to pass the spoon up the sleeve of the first one in line, then down his other sleeve.  Then pass the spoon to the next person who does the same, and on down the line.  The first team to have the string running through the sleeves of everyone on that team is the winner.  The first person in line must not lose the end of the string!  Try to keep things interesting by keeping the teams even.  Do not allow tank tops.  If there is a person with long sleeves on one team, put one with long sleeves on the other team too.  You will need the string to be long enough to reach from one end of the line to the other with some left over.

Lifesaver Stickers

You will need a roll of lifesavers for each pair of volunteers.  For cleanup afterwards, have a damp washcloth and a towel on hand for each pair.  After you obtain your volunteers—we like having 4 pairs—have one partner sit in a chair facing the audience and the other partner stand beside him.  The goal is to lick and stick as many lifesavers as you can to your partner’s face in the time allowed.  At the signal, the partner standing can open his roll.  The partner sitting cannot assist with hands in any way.  You will want the people with the lifesavers stuck to their faces to have to look at the audience for the final judgment as to how many really stuck.  (They might figure out that if they look at the ceiling the lifesavers can just lie on their faces without really sticking there.) Allow a sufficient amount of time to get them really sticky.  About 45 seconds is recommended.

A tamer variation of this stunt is to put Vaseline on the noses of the people sitting and then see how many cotton balls you can stick to their noses in the time allowed.

Sheriff (Simon) Says

The old classic has made a huge comeback.  This brief activity is a great stunt in which the entire audience is able to participate.  With the right group leader clipping along at a good pace, we have seen a group of two hundred filtered down to a handful in under two minutes.  This activity is most effective with a leader who has practiced out loud and knows where he is headed.  Do not get started without a few anchor points in your routine that are sure to knock out half your group at a time.  Here are a few specifics to be sure to remember:

Establish control early by stating, “Sheriff says, ‘No talking.’”  Then quickly make talkers sit down.

Do not be afraid to be bold in calling someone out, if you saw him get out; he knows it is true.

Encourage those that are out to become your judges.  They typically assume that role anyway.

The following are effective ways to quickly get people out:

• After quickly explaining rules, say, “You know how this event works.  Don’t do anything unless the Sheriff says.  Okay?  Are you ready?  Everybody stand to your feet and we will begin.”  This gets a healthy number out every time; if it gets too many out, do not be afraid to say that was practice and add everybody back in.
• Say, “Sheriff says touch your elbows” while you reach to touch your shoulders. There is something confusing about hearing elbow and seeing shoulders that gets a lot of people.
• Look directly at somebody, and in a non-threatening way say, “Tell me your name real quick.” Kind of mean, but it works often and is funny.
• “Sheriff says, look up here.” This makes it harder on those who play by only listening instead of being fooled by what you do.
• Say, “Simon says touch your head.” The beauty of the name change gets some every time.  “Oh, I’m not Simon, and Sheriff didn’t say.”
• Say, “It looks like there are enough of us left to begin round two. Everyone left standing come up on stage and we will see who wins.”  Move yourself to stand out in the seated crowd and wait for people to situate themselves on stage.  Some will hang back.  Before everyone realizes what happened, call all those that moved from the crowd out and say, “Sheriff says everyone who is left, go up on stage.”
• Say, “Could you center yourselves on stage please so we can all get a good look at you?”
• Tell the seated audience, “You are my judges; any flinching you see will be called out.”\

When there are two left, pump up the crowd; get them to cheer for one or the other.  Say, “There are just two left challenging each other head to head.  Let’s have you two turn face to face, and we will begin this final round.”

Paper Design

With two to six teams of five to ten participants each, supply each team with newspaper and a roll of masking tape.  Explain that in seven minutes, you will all judge the best creative design of some type of character, historical figure, cartoon, etc.—i.e. the Statue of Liberty, the Easter bunny, Superman—using the supplies on hand.  At the word go, you will decide one person from your own team to be decorated and transformed into the character of your choice.  When time is up, your character will give a brief introduction of himself and explain some of the detailed nuances of his outfit we might not recognize.  The winner will be based upon audience applause or by your pre-chosen board of impartial judges.

Paper Tear Strength Contest

This is a great stunt that teases the biggest, strongest guy in your group.  Choose him and a lightweight girl from your group to come up on stage.  Set the contest up as a test of strength and speed.  Get the crowd cheering for their superior gender!  Write “Guys” on a sheet of paper and hand it to the girl explaining that she will attempt to just tear the guys up in this race.  Do the same with a piece of paper marked “Girls,” and hand it to your strong guy.  Explain that they will have five seconds to rip their papers as many times as they can in eight seconds.  The one with the most pieces wins.  Go!  With the right set-up, you will have the girl ripping away while the guy struggles to rip it even once.  The following is an address of a company that manufactures pads of paper that you would use for this stunt:

The Dock Haley Wonder-Pad

Dock Haley Gospel Magic Co.

www.gospelmagic.com

Every other piece of paper is actually a thin sheet of vinyl siding that cannot be ripped.  Do not cut or bite the paper, and your strong boy will struggle the entire time.  The real paper is almost imperceptibly marked so you can tell which piece to mark “Guys” and hand to your girl.

Digit Duel

According to old west legend, before cowboys used firearms, they used digits (fingers) for their old-fashioned, middle-of-the-street, gun duels.  For this fun game, have two individuals face off with their digits behind their backs.  At the command, “Go,” both should quickly bring their digits forward.  With four hands, and a different number of fingers being held up on each hand, the first to announce the correct number of digits on all four hands is the winner.  Try it with the winner being the best of three.  Try it with three people holding up digits all at the same time.  Try it as a large group elimination tournament.