It was the first night of the 2014 International Applied Improvisational Conference. There were hundreds of us, eating delicious food, and mingling outside on a deck. A group called Playfair had the task of warming us all up, and helping us all get to know each other. And, amazingly enough, they did. At one point we were in groups of (roughly) 12, and they did an activity that ended with such a wonderful "click" - well, throughout the rest of the conference, if I run across anyone else from my group of 12, we will make eye-contact, and there will be this moment of "Oh, yeah." With their permission, I wanted to share it with you. (Thanks to Rebecca Stockley who gave the idea to them, and thanks to the ropes course that gave the idea to her)

Each member of the group finds a partner in the group. We had some insanely short amount of time to pair up. And then we were to come up with a secret handshake. My partner was from Germany, and said "Let's do this" with a delightful accent that I can't write down without making him sound like a cartoon character. We both had big smiles on our face as we created it. I'm not going to tell you what it was like. It is secret. But we did it several times, until we got it right. Then we had to pair up again, with a new person, and create a brand new dance move. I wound up with someone who was pretty much the same nerd-level as I am, and the dance move was the type of thing you would expect, but we performed it with Gusto! And then we switched again. All in all, I created 10 things, each with a different partner.

1. Create a secret handshake together
2. Create a brand new dance move together
3. Stand back to back. Think of a number from 1 through 5. Yell out that number. Add up the two numbers. Link arms and take that many jumps together back to back
4. Sing a line together from a song made famous by a female singer. (If you can't think of one, have your partner teach you one)
5. Act like seals, barking and flapping your flippers
6. Give this person a nickname! It can be anything at all as long as it delights your partner and doesn’t displease them. Call this person by their nickname
7. Create a two-line poem, with partner A giving the first line and partner B creating the responding rhyming line. Share the poems with another pair
8. Give each other a high five and say “You’re awesome!”
9. Make the sound of the same animal together very loudly
10. Dance like flappers from the twenties

This list isn't Alive when you just read it. Put it in the context. That 5-second scramble to find a new partner. The sense of anticipation "What are we going to do" while looking at a stranger who has that same sense of anticipation. The delight of sharing / creating with a new person, followed by another 5-second scramble.

After the flapper dance, the big twist. The click. "Now, as quickly as you can, find your first partner and do your handshake. Go!" And I did it. Fifty years old, poor memory, but how could I forget my secret handshake and the only other person alive who knows it? Then "Find your second partner and do your dance move!" "Find your third partner and do your jumps together!" It was such chaos. But I remembered, and found my partners. Except when I didn't, and they found me. Pushing through bodies, making eye contact, singing "I've been to paradise but I've never been to me!" and sharing a quick laugh before finding my very tall mustachioed fellow barking-seal. By the end, we all burst out in applause, for Playfair, for ourselves, for the conference, for the world that brought us all together to share those few minutes of ridiculousness.

I wanted to remember, so I asked Matt Weinstein to email me the list, so it could be shared with everyone. And there it is! Enjoy!

Doug
personal.dougshaw.com
elkfondue on twitter