Why not try using The Price is Right as your next upfront game?

Wednesday, 4th November 2009

Just Released Today: The Price is Right part of the TV GAME SHOW NIGHT PACKAGE Available Right Now For Subscribers!

Upfront games are fun, but sometimes they’re painful to watch. Some years ago, we took cues from what was going on in culture and, instead of trying to use obnoxious upfront games, we started adapting what was working in the mainstream, did it really well, and had a lot of fun & success while doing it.

The Price is Right is one of those timeless games that may just be good enough to survive a host change.

Actual title screen shot from powerpoint

It’s got all the things that make a really great game show and I think it lends itself so well to the upfront game format that it’s worthwhile to try to pull it off at a youth event.

Here’s what we’ve learned after doing it a few times:

If you’re a fan of the Price is Right then you may know that the gameshow is composed of really 5 things that have made it a hit for decades:

A great host who knows the games and relates to the contestants
An announcer who knows the products & gets the crowd riled up
Average everyday people
Cheesy games with Cheesy props!
Audience participation that is encouraged!

(I didn’t mention Barker’s Beauties, but I’ll refer to them in a moment)

Consider all 4 of these things when you plan for your game.

Find a Bob Barker type host with a tacky suit and a skinny microphone. He must close with the neutering pets line.
Get an announcer who can sound dead serious while being funny. We re-wrote a lot of the product descriptions to make them sound ridiculous and funny. We even had some products that we described as being used for something else than what they were made for. And, naturally, we had some products like Depend undergarments. If the announcer can remain serious.
We did get some of our female adult leaders to display & demonstrate the products to the students. I’ll never forget my wife all dressed and carrying out a silver platter with a box of Ex-lax on it. It was amazing!
Allow students/contestants to say something about themselves when they make it Contestants’ Row
Cheesy props are important I think. One of the things that makes TPIR great is that carnival feel of the games. In our TV GAME SHOW NIGHT package, we’ve made it possible to play a couple of the games while watching the screen, but if you can take the time to build the sets, I think it can make the night a lot more fun.
Audience Partipation – most upfront games in youth ministry create a passive crowd who grow bored pretty quickly. Make sure you remind the audience that they are an important part of the game. Tell them to give the contestants what they think are the right answers.

ONE MORE IDEA:

If you have a big screen in your room, go through the trouble of having a camera guy pan the crowd back and forth while the announcer prepares to say which contestant is next. This gets the whole crowd involved instead of only 8 or 10 or 12 people getting to play the game.

Inside our TV GAME SHOW NIGHT PACKAGE, you get:

HQ graphics that look like the game show
MP3’s of music from the show like the opening theme, the “come on down” music, the theme for Cliff Hangers (Yodeling song), Background music for product descriptions, buzzers, the losing tuba & more
The full Powerpoint gameplay of Cliff Hangers (the game where the yodeling climber falls off the mountain)
& Game descriptions with adjustments so that you can make it work.

This is all included for subscribers right now. Subscribe today!