Famous Amos
| No. of Players: | 3+ |
| Type of Game: | written and spoken |
| What you need: | pen and paper |
Goal
To guess the name of a famous person.
How to play
This game takes advantage of the fact that it is not always easy to remember a celebrity's name, even when we can clearly remember what that celebrity looks like, the movies he has been in, etc. The players sit around a table. Each player takes, say, 6 slips of paper and writes down a celebrity's name on it. These slips of paper are folded and placed into a container in the center of the table. The first player mixes these slips of paper and randomly draws one from the container. With another player acting as the timekeeper, the first player has 1 minute to convey the name to the second player in words or gestures, but without saying the name itself. If the second player correctly guesses the name, he earns one point. The first player then draws another name and tries to convey this to the third player, and so on, until the 1 minute has expired. The clock is reset when the second player draws a name to convey to the third player. Gameplay goes around the table in this manner until all the slips of paper have been drawn from the container. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
Instead of celebrity names, other categorized words can be used instead. For instance, place names (countries, cities, capitals...), animals, movie or book titles, kitchen items, etc.
Example
Alain winds the kitchen timer and draws a name from the giant mixing bowl on the table. He turns to the player to his right, widens his eyes and grins wildly.
| Alain: | Here's Johnnnnnyyyy! |
| Bradford: | That's ah... I know him, he was in Five Easy Pieces and played The Joker in one of the Batman movies... he's always golfing in real life, he's got a temper, I can't think of his... oh, it's Jack Nicholson! |
| Alain: | Correct. |
He draws another name from the bowl and turns to the next player.
| Alain: | She danced and sang in a musical with Tim Curry and Meat Loaf. |
| Candace: | Easy! It's Susan Sarandon. |
| Alain: | Also correct. |
He starts to draw another name from the bowl, but the kitchen timer dings to signal it is Bradford's turn to convey a name to Candace.
And so on.
