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Variety Night Ideas

There are soooooo many ways to conduct a "Variety Night." Here are a few ideas....

NO TALENT SHOW- get together your most outgoing residents and staff to display their "no-talents." Their self-esteem must be high to be on stage as they just might be booed off the stage. You may tell the audience and the presenters that boos are actually compliments! If this ideas doesn't seem palatable to you, then be sure to have the audience cheer for effort given.... no matter how bad the talent! The focus for everyone, presenters and audience is laughter.

GONG SHOW- similar to the no-talent show, but the performers can be "gonged" off the stage by the judges.

WHISTLING CONTEST- participants pucker-up and whistle away

HOG CALLING/ANIMAL SOUND SHOW- this ought to be a laffer! Any time the clients get an opportunity to laugh aloud is a sign of a successful program.

TALENT SHOW- why not... we've done all the crazy shows above, so why not a good Ole regular talent show.

  • Invite patients/residents, staff, and their families (kids too!!) to the talent show. You may or may not have judges. You might want to have prizes or trophies. By the way, what talent does your administrator have? Ask him or her!!

STUNTS AND TRICKS NIGHT- Invite a local magician to host this evening of talents. In between acts, he can perform his own tricks. Prior to the show, invite patients/residents and staff to an audition. You may also spend time with individual patients to teach them a trick or two. David Copperfield has a program called "Project Magic" in which patients in a variety of health care settings are taught simple to complex magic tricks to help bolster self-esteem. Go to your local library and check out a book on stunts and magic tricks. By the way, mind reading tricks work great in with audiences.

COMEDY NITE- Same as Magic Night.... invite a local comedian to host this event. Invite patients and staff to share their best jokes or funniest stories.

FUNNIEST HOME MOVIES NITE- Did someone steal this idea from Bob Saget? Invite families to bring in short clips of their family's home movies. Be sure to invite the patient or their family member to give a brief narrative prior to the showing of the clip. Each clip should last no more than 2 or 3 minutes. You should have on hand an 8mm film projector and a VCR/TV. Instead of funniest moments, the evening may be themed around... "This is my home." or "This is my family."

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