Celebrity

Celebrity is to charades as Chandelier is to quarters: faster-paced, more interesting and surer to leave its participants collapsed in a heap on the couch.

The Setup

To begin, each player writes the name of a famous person on each of five slips of paper, folds it once or twice and tosses it into a common receptacle (often a salad bowl, another name by which the game is known; other popular options include sun hats and shoeboxes). These famous persons — celebrities, if you will — can be living, dead, real, fictitious, mythological, divine; the only absolute requirement is that each be familiar to everyone playing. As a rule, every game will include at least one of the following:

Abraham Lincoln
Homer Simpson
Britney Spears
Mahatma Gandhi
Santa Claus
Rachael Ray

Groups with a common background — artists, political hacks, foodies — may draw from more esoteric names, but should err on the side of familiarity to keep things fair.

Does anyone have a watch with a second hand? Good.

Circle up, then count the players. If there are fewer than four, go make some new friends. Otherwise, if there is an even number of people, pair up into teams of two. If there's an odd number, each player will "give" to the person on their left and "receive" from the person on their right. What this means will become apparent.

Round 1

As you have probably already surmised, the object of the game is to guess the names on the slips of paper as quickly as possible. Unlike in charades, only one person gives clues and one person receives them at a time. In the first round, these clues can be anything except the name itself. For example: "Sixteenth president, freed the slaves, big hat, assassinated by John Wilkes — you got it." Now, this is important: when a name has been guessed, do not throw the slip back into the kitty in your haste to draw the next one. Just let it drop on the floor. Run through as many names as you can in a minute. When time expires, put the last name you'd been working on back into the kitty, count the slips scattered in front of you and add them to your score.

If you're playing in pairs, the first team switches roles and plays for another minute. Your team's score is the sum of your own correct guesses and those of your partner. If you're playing in an odd-numbered configuration, the person who just finished receiving (from the person to their right) now gives (to the person on their left); each player's score is calculated individually, consisting only of their own correct guesses (you don't get any points for giving successful clues).

Play rotates clockwise, typically giving each person several turns to give and receive, until all the names have been exhausted. Mark the remaining time from the last turn, then throw all the slips back into the kitty.

Round 2

Play resumes at the same point in the circle using any time remaining from Round 1. (If Round 1 ended at the exact stroke of a minute, cease play and go buy a lottery ticket at once).

I hope you were paying attention to other people's turns during Round 1, because you're going to be guessing all the same names in Round 2 — but with a difference: this time, each clue must consist of one word only. If your partner doesn't get it, too bad; you can't change the clue for a given name. For example: "President!" Ah, but there were several presidents in the kitty, and your partner has forgotten about Lincoln. Instead, he fumbles, "George Bush! Bill Clinton! Eisenhower! Truman! Um ... the other George Bush!" If only you'd said "slaves" or "assassinated" instead. Choosing a word that was mentioned in the context of a Round 1 clue is generally the most effective strategy.

Stranded with a bad clue, your best bet is pantomime. In this case, the old stovepipe hat usually works, possibly augmented with beard-stroking or taking a bullet in the head. Repeating your clue with an appropriate accent, voice or inflection can also come in handy. Some players allow traditional charades as a shameful and humiliating last resort.

When you've run through all the slips again, you're ready for ...

Round 3

If you've been seated so far, go ahead and stand up. You're going to need complete freedom of movement, because this time around you can't say a thing. On the other hand, at this point everyone has heard all the names twice, and you can draw on visual clues given in earlier rounds (the stovepipe hat gesture for Lincoln, the jovial belly-rub for Santa Claus). On yet another hand, the frenzied pace of the game may have you drinking faster than you should, so wavering focus and memory may become a factor.

Round 3 is the great equalizer. Even if you've lagged far behind in earlier rounds, a string of sharp guesses can make up lost ground in a hurry. Conversely, every Celebrity player falls victim at some point to a dullard partner who gapes helplessly as an entire minute ticks away, unable to parse a flawless impersonation of Mary Tyler Moore's hat-toss.

At the end of the game, scores are tallied, winners toasted and boasts parried with demands for a rematch.

— J. Daniel Janzen (dan at clownyard dot com)