Famous People: A Fun Birthday Party Game

I first played this game with my wife's family before we were married. They've played it for years, originally on birthdays but now almost exclusively at Thanksgiving because it's hard to get everyone together.

Before the game, each person is given four to six (4 to 6) slips of paper on which to write down the name of a famous person. (Because our family is multi-cultured and international, we add the caveat that in order for a person to be famous, he or she must be known as famous by at least one other person in the room. For example, your fifth grade buddy might have invented post-its, but unless one other person in the room knows that, she isn't famous.) The pieces of paper are folded and collected in a hat or a bowl.

Teams are divided so that each team has at least two players. In large groups we've found it best to divide the groups into no more than five (5) teams of five players. (If the group is larger than that, consider having two separate games and having the top two teams from each game playing each other.)

There are three rounds to Famous People; the lightning round, the charades round, and the one word round. Each person has a one minute turn per round until all the names have been solved.

Lightning Round
In the first round of Famous People, names are drawn from the hat or bowl one at a time by a member of the team. He or she gives verbal clues to the rest of the members of the team to guess the person whose name is written on the paper. Each time the name is guessed correctly, the piece of paper is handed to a team member and counted as one point. Each person has one minute to give clues and can say anything except what is written on the piece of paper. For example, if the name is Lebron James, the clue giver can say "basketball," "the new Michael Jordan," or "the star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he does commercials for Sprite." It is entirely up to the person based on what he or she thinks gives the other members of the team the best chance to guess correctly. If time expires before the famous person is identified, the name goes back in the hat and is passed to the next team. The round ends when no more pieces of paper remain in the hat or bowl.

Charades Round
The second round of Famous People is conducted just like the first except that the person giving the clues cannot speak but must act out the famous person's name on the paper. It's easier than it sounds if you have been paying attention to the other teams each round. The scoring is the same.

One Word Round
The final round of Famous People the person giving the clues can only say one word for each name drawn. For example, if you draw Lebron James, you can say "king" or "basketball" or "superstar" or whatever single word you think will give your team members the best chance of guessing the name. Whatever word you choose, however, is the only word you're allowed to say until your team guesses the name or your time expires.

The team with the highest number correct at the end of the three rounds is the winner.