learnimprov.com: Random Handle

Poet's Corner (Handle)

Synonyms

Translated Poem

Introduction

Today we have a poet from the country of [get an imaginary country name] and she will be presenting one of her famous poems. Thankfully we also have a translator for this poem, and she will interpret for us.

Description

The poet talks in gibberish. The poet must add emotion, gesticulations, and style to the gibberish poem. Some believe that gibberish works best if you actually try to communicate facts through the gibberish. The poet must leave space for translation. The Translator need not respond in verse, unless she is particularly masochistic. The translator uses offers from emotion and movement from the poet to shape the story told by the poem. The poet obviously gets tremendous offers from the translation. Getting an imaginary country adds a few elements (such as no one knows the language), and avoids a few problems. If the player knows the language gibberish is very hard. If only part of the audience knows the language then much will be lost to the audience. If everyone knows both languages the game is for the translator to screw up the translation as badly as possible.

Gimmicks

There are so many gimmicks in this game it is hard to imagine listing them all here. Many of these are listed in foreign film. The translator can do a short translation for a long gibberish, and a long translation for a short gibberish. There is a definite relationship that can arise between translator and poet. They can disagree over idioms, argue over stage presence. The poet can insult the audience for not appreciating art. Foul language translations can abridged and so on.

Variations

Translated opera. foreign film. Tour group translation. Gibberish in-laws.

Credits

None