Eyewitness Gibberish

One student sits out. The group then makes up a story that the “eyewitness” will then explain to the returning student, only using gibberish! The returning student must then translate the gibberish into a retelling of the story in English.

Foreign Film

This is a scene game for four people, with varying energy levels. It can be done a number of different ways. Here is one option.

Two people are scene partners, and the other two stand in the wings of the stage space. You get a suggestion of a location and an object from the audience. The entire scene will then be played with that object in mind. Both players will speak in a gibberish, and after they are done speaking, one of the two improvisers outside the scene will translate what they just said (it works best if you pair them up, having both people translate consistently for their characters).

Remind players it is not appropriate to personifying characters of a different ethnicity in any game. Gibberish languages should not resemble any real languages or accents.

Here’s how the game functions. The primary source of humor for this game is often the translations of what is being said. With this setup, there is no restriction of what the translators say, so technically they can say whatever they want.

Considerations:

  • Encourage players to avoid relying on this gimmick, and to stick to the principles of accepting the offer that their gibberish-speaking counterpart is making to them. A lot of subtext can be given even through gibberish and pantomime alone. Respective translators should be able to pick up on this. One person can monologue in gibberish for a minute, only to have their counterpart translate the entire thing into “No, thanks.” That works especially well if the person monologuing is clearing angry, because it establishes a clear contrast.
  • To help translators, encourage the gibberish-speaking scene partners to make defined actions that have clear ‘endpoints’, to establish when they are done talking. For example: If a character is arguing while they sweep, then throws their broom down to cross their arms in a huff, they’re obviously done talking, as there isn’t any natural blocking that follows such an action.
  • Another easy gimmick of this game is faking your gibberish. Using iconic phrases, objects, or celebrity names in that language is easy. “Mario spaghetti pepperoni, Medici!” the improviser said in an exaggerated accent is funny the first time, and it’s really easy to slip into that sort of game, but that doesn’t really take skill, as you’re not speaking gibberish at that point.