Sketchism

It is very much difficult for me to recall anything that happens past 24 hours. Memory is not a spiritual gift in the Uribe family, at least for the men. Yesterday, along with the Lozanos, I visited the beautiful Jardim Botanico in the heart of Curitiba. The landscape was gorgeous.

Day 2 consisted of a peaceful morning, as Tiago and I ate breakfast with the family and looked forward to a day of cruising the town and finding something entertaining for young lads such as ourselves. Higor would spend the entire day in school and work, and Sarah would be up to the same. So Tiago and I headed toward the mall.

We checked out the different little stores and eventually stumbled upon a bowling alley on the top floor near the foodcourt. We found out that it would cost roughly $14(US) for an hour, and it covered up to six people. No shoe rentals required. Not a bad deal at all. We would return to the apartment with the great news. But alas our time was limited and we instead chose to go fetch some McDonalds ice cream.

After dinner we went to a youth group of sorts, where 3 local groups gathered in one. In total there was about 60 students. I wasn’t feeling very well after eating a pizza earlier in the day, so I decided not to host Gibberish Murder. Besides, My portuguese was still pretty weak by this point. (It’s not much better).

And now to explain Gibberish Murder. Basically, in this improv game, there are 3 contestants: The host, and two other actors. The host politely asks the two other actors to leave the room as he gathers some information from the crowd. What the crowd provides are three elements that make up a fictional murder that has just occured, a setting, a weapon, and a reason. It scenario typically ends up being something very random such as a murder that occured at a Pizza Hut, with a giant donut as the weapon, by a person who was offended by a different character’s breath. Believe me, I’ve heard weirder suggestions.

The host then proceeds to call the first actor out and the host then attempts to create this scene within about 3 minutes, only using gibberish words (babalaba habadaba, nanoonanoo, etc.) and charismatically pretending and hinting at clues about the scene. When the host is done acting, the first contestant who just finished watching then has to act out the scene, without knowing for sure what the details were, to the next actor. The crowd typically gets a kick out of watching this scene recreated with the same or misinterpretted actions and sounds.

And lastly, once it has been performed twice, the last contestant has to guess the scene, the weapon, and the reason. Sometimes they get it, often they don’t. Either way, it’s a blast to see them try and figure it out.

I don’t know if my explanation did the game any justice, but hopefully you will see me perform this one day for you with a good group.

At the moment I am uploading photos from my camera from the trip thus far. I hope I can get some up before the night is over.

More updates later.