How to play “Celebrity”

“Celebrity” is a fun game that works well for all kinds of groups. Great party game!

Overview: similar to Charades, teams take turns racing the clock to guess as many famous names as possible, using clues that one teammate gives to the rest of the team.

How to play “Celebrity” Party Game

1. Divide your group into two or three teams, depending on the number of people playing. Try to have the same number of players on each team. For this example, we’ll have two teams: Team A and Team B.
2. Give each player 5-12 small slips of paper (like, movie-ticket size) and a pencil or pen. Each player will write a different famous person’s name on each piece of paper. For example: Mahatma Gandhi, Marie Curie, Sancho Panza, Joe Dimaggio, Justin Bieber. (Can be alive or dead, fictional or real, from politics, entertainment, literature, history, science, the arts, etc. Any famous name).
3. Put ALL the slips of paper into a hat/bowl/jar.
4. Round 1: One player from Team A goes first (Player A1). Player A1 draws a name from the hat and tries to get her team to guess the celebrity name. She does this by describing the celebrity, and can use any description words except the celebrity’s name in any way (no initials or rhymes either). For example, to describe Marie Curie, Player A1 might say, “She was a Polish-French physicist who research radioactivity,” or “Her first name is the same as the sister of Donnie Osmond. Her last name starts with the word for when you have a disease, you want to find a _______,” etc.
5. Once Team A guesses the celebrity, Player A1 continues pulling names and describing celebrities, trying to complete as many as possible IN ONE MINUTE. If she gets a name that she simply cannot seem to convey to her team, Player A1 may choose to “pass” and pull out a new name (some rule variations say you cannot pass; the choice is yours whether to allow it or not) (passed names go BACK IN THE BOWL for subsequent players to try). At the end of one minute, tally the number of correctly guessed celebrities and subtract any where illegal clues were given, and any that were “passed.” Any passed or illegally-clued names go back in the hat immediately, for use by someone else in Round 1.
   HINT: One of the reasons this game is so great for groups is that you don’t have to have the same knowledge base to play. If 12-year-old Susie has no idea who Yves Montand is, or Grandpa has no idea who Aaron Swartz is, then yes, they may have to ‘pass’ on those names in Round 1. But those passed names go back in the hat, and so if Susie and Gramps pay attention when someone else describes those celebrities, they will be in perfect position to recall the description for use in Rounds 2 and 3. It learns.
6. Team B takes its turn in the same way: Player B1 pulls and describes as many names as possible in one minute. Tally the number of correctly guessed names, subtract any passed or illegally-clued names (which go back in the hat immediately).
7. Continue between teams (Player A2, Player B2, Player A3, Player B3, etc.) until all the names/slips of paper have been used.
8. Put all the slips of paper back in the hat. Now for Round 2!
9. Round 2: Start with whichever player was ‘next’ (in terms of Team and Player – like, if Player A4 was the last one to go in Round 1, then Player B4 starts Round 2). Play is the same as in Round 1: try to get your team to guess as many celebrities as possible in one minute, except in Round 2 players may only use 2 WORDS to describe the celebrity. So, for our Marie Curie example, a player could say, “Physicist, radiation.”
   HINT: By paying close attention to the words that were used in Round 1 (by either team), you’re in a better position to pick the best two words for Round 2.
   Round 2 continues as in Step 7, with players trying to describe as many celebrities as possible (using only two words) in one minute, and keeping tally, until all the names have been used.
10. Put all the slips of paper back in the hat. On to Round 3!
11. Round 3: Start with whichever player was ‘next’ (in terms of Team and Player). Play is the same as in Rounds 1 and 2, except: players cannot use any words or sounds to describe the celebrity. They must be silent, using mime and gesture to convey the celebrity. Keep tally. Continue until all the names have been used.
    HINT: By using and paying attention to gestures used in earlier rounds, your team is in a better position to guess your gesture. (Some rule variations prohibit the use of gestures in Round 2. I don’t mind. The choice is yours.)
12. At the end of the three rounds, the team with the highest tally wins!