Gibberish Award Ceremony

Description

One player receives an award for something (suggested by the audience) and does the acceptance speech. But they can’t speak English, they speak the made up language of Gibberish which has loads of varied sounds and lots of physical and emotional expression. After each line a translator on stage translates the line into English for the audience.

Teaching Purpose

This game encourages emotional and physical expression. By removing English the performer discovers other ways of communicating. It also encourages listening as the two players pick up offers from each other.

It’s also a good game for people who are new to improv.

Additional Tips for Playing

• Make physical and emotional offers.
• Listen to each other, make offers and accept offers from each other.

Variations

• There is also a version called Gibberish Translator where the scene is in gibberish and then there is a gap between lines where the people at the sides translate inbetween lines.

Show Introduction

“This game is called Gibberish Award Ceremony. One improviser has received the award for something and is doing the acceptance speech. Unfortunately they don’t speak English but luckily there is someone here to translate. What have they received the award for?”

Origin

The Comedy Store Players or Whose Line Is It Anyway.

Hoopla courses we play this game in

Mostly in our level 1 course as a listening exercise and to help people express themselves, and also a bit in our level 2 course as a show game.

Categories

This exercise is in the following categories:

Listening

Yes And

Character and emotional expression

Short Form Games

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