A cocktail or dinner party is bound to be a more engaging affair when the guests are enjoying each other’s company. But what if you don’t know any of the party-goers? It can be difficult to create conversation on your own, especially if there are only one or two people who want to talk. And then you end up with that insufferable stand-off where two people are jabbering away but never include anyone else in the discussion.
Icebreakers are, for lack of a better word, intended to get things moving at parties. They can turn an awkward situation into an enjoyable one with the simple pleasure of getting someone else talking about themselves or their life right off the bat.
An icebreaker gives the focus of the discussion a change, rather than always being on you. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but for example: at a party, if you are the only one speaking to your host or hostess, it can be considerate of you to eventually include another person in the conversation. That way, your interaction doesn’t give off the impression that your entire party life consists of just chit-chatting with one person.
It’s just good manners.
Some people may find it easy to walk up to someone and strike up a conversation (some people are naturally more social). But, if you’re someone who doesn’t feel comfortable with that, there are some icebreakers that are easy to use and a lot of fun.
Here are a few:
- The Most Interesting Game in the World – Everyone gets a turn to be the leader and thinks of something interesting about themselves. It can be anything: your favourite place you’ve travelled to, what you did for a living before you retired, etc. And then each person has to guess who it is that’s being described. Sounds simple enough and it gets people involved pretty quickly because they have a chance to find out who their friends are by guessing correctly. This game works when there’s only one person who goes first (the leader) but you can have more than one person go at once if that’s too easy for everyone else to guess correctly.
- Name that Tune – You know how you can play a song on iTunes, and then everyone has to guess the song? Well, this is a variation of that game. Just give everyone a few seconds to think of something that is random or strange that they have done in their lifetime (the more bizarre, the better). Then make everyone guess what the song is! People get really into it because they try to manipulate the pitch and tempo of their guesses so as not to appear too obvious. It’s even funnier if you play an obscure tune as someone is guessing for other players.
- Telephone Game – This is another good one for a small group of people. It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt, but you don’t have to do anything other than sitting around and talking. Someone will begin by saying something interesting about themselves. For example, “I have a tattoo on my shoulder of an eagle with a knife in its mouth.” The next person then says something that they heard the person before they say (not what they just said), and adds something to it. So for example: “I once rode a bicycle across Canada in the summer by myself. It led me to meet my ex-wife, who lived in Vancouver …”
And so on.