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Further extensions to improvisational games or sketches

The following play scenes are only game ideas and can be adapted accordingly. Some of the scenes can be developed into improvisations to reflect group anecdotes or life in the camp. These are simple scenes from everyday life presented in an amusing way.

9. Another short scene from the train

   Location: A train compartment as before.

   Players: 2-3 passengers, the customs officer.

   One of the passengers has a large sack under their seat.

   The man: "We will arrive at the border soon. I hope that the customs officer turns a blind eye."

   Lady: "Oh, please – how much are you allowed to carry then?"

   Man: "Oh, 5 pounds if they do not catch you."

   Dame: "Oh, well I only have 2 tins of Nescafe."

   The man, calmingly: "Then there’ll be problem then."

   The man with the sack sits silently in his seat and smokes.

   The customs officer comes in: "Customs control please — madam, do you have something to declare?"

   The lady is nervous: "No — yes - no – I don’t know - maybe!"

   Customs officer: "Well show me what you have."

   The lady opens her bag, pulls out two jars of Nescafe and places them on the bench.

   Officer: "Is that everything?"

   Lady: "Yes— no — maybe, I don’t know."

   Officer: Do not be so nervous. Look at the gentleman there. You can keep just as calm if you do not have a guilty conscience."

   He turns to the smoker: "Sir, anything to declare? Spirits, tobacco, coffee?" The smoker shakes his head.

   Officer: "Allow me to take a look!" He peers under the seat. "Is that yours?"

   The smoker nods: "Yes!"

   Officer: "What you have in the sack?"

   The smoker: "Nothing, officer. Only food for by rabbit."

   Officer: "Rabbit food? Then take it out and show me!"

   The smoker pulls the sack out from under the seat with trouble and slowly releases the knot.

   The officer looks inside: "But, sir. That isn’t rabbit food. That is tobacco. Rabbits do not eat tobacco!"

   The smoker says quite calmly: "Well, well, they don’t eat that? — Then they won’t get anything to eat at all."

10. The duel

    1. Scene
    Two men meet on the street. They are fighting (only pretend to fight!) with each other. Suddenly one of then thumps the other to the ground and runs away. He runs after the first man with fists flying.

    2. Scene
    The man who was hit sits at a table and writes on a large piece of paper. He then rings a bell. A butler appears. The man rolls up the paper and passes it to the butler. Once he is gone, the man practices with a pistol.

    3. Scene
    The butler gives the paper to the man who hit out. He unfolds it and reads it. Once the butler has left he fetches his pistol and points at a target. Optional: Shoot 2 or 3 times with a cork banger.

    4. Scene
    The hit man comes along with an assistant. The other man too. The two assistants measure out the distance for the dual and give the men the spot where they should stand. The assistants (in the middle) are having a conversation while they each take a pistol from the box. They hand the pistols to the duellers. One of the assistants tells his friend (just pretend!), that he should shoot first. The dueller lists his pistol and shoots. Someone falls over — it is his opponent’s assistant who was standing a few paces to the right of the dueller. Then it is the other man’s turn. He shoots. Someone falls over — it is the other assistant. The two opponents go toward each other, throw their pistols away, give each other a hug and walk off arm in arm.

11. The cobbler boy’s dream

    Location: A cobbler’s workshop with table, shoes and tools. There are a few books on a table or stool

    Players: The cobbler, his wife and the trainee.

    The cobbler and his trainee are sitting at the work bench and are hammering. Without looking up from his work, the boy keeps laughing out loud every now and again.

    The cobbler (annoyed): "If you do not stop the stupid giggling, I’ll give you one in a minute!"

    The boy giggles quietly.

    The wife: "Why are you laughing then?"

    The trainee: "Oh, madam! I dreamt of something so wonderful last night."

    The wife: "Dreamt? Oh yes! You have to tell me all about it!" To herself: "I’ll quickly fetch the dream book so I can found what the dream means."

    She grabs the fat book. "Come on then, Fritz!"

    The cobbler: "Get a move on. It won’t be anything decent anyway!"

    The trainee: "I dreamt that the cobbler and I, myself and the cobbler went over a bridge together, one on the left and one on the right."

    The wife: "Over a bridge? That is no. 46." She leafs through the book excitedly.

    The trainee: "On the side where the cobbler was walking, the bridge was paved with golden honey coloured plaster and on my side there was nothing but dirt."

    The cobbler: "You can see that a master cobbler has an advantage over a smart aleck lad."

    He is smiling all over his face.

    The wife: "That is no. 28." She leafs and reads her book.

    The trainee stands up and carries on grinning: "Then we both fell over. The cobbler in the sweet honey and I fell into the dirt."

    The wife: "That is no. 74." She leafs through.

    The cobbler: Smiles and licks his lips: "Yes, and then?" he asks.

    The trainee: The boy slaps his hands on his thighs, laughs and laughs with his head pulled back: "And then — and then we licked each other clean!"

    The boy runs away.

    The wife fall down into her seat and wrings her hands.

    The cobbler reaches for a sweeping brush and runs after the boy.

12. The black hand game

    Here are a few scenes which you can only play at twilight or in the dwindling light of the camp fire.

    Players: The threatened man and the strange man.

    Location: A room with a bed and a stool in semi darkness.

    1. Scene
    A man enters the room. He is tired. He cannot stop yawning, he undresses himself and goes to bed. He falls asleep straight away and starts to snore. Then a strange Gestalt comes in, he is creeping very carefully. The strange man pulls a note out of his pocket and places it on the sleeping man’s stomach. Then he disappears without a word. The sleeper wakes up soon afterwards. He finds the note, stands up and walks towards the light of the fire and reads out loud what is written on the note: "You only have three days to live, black hand!" The threatened man is enraged. He wrings his hands. Then he looks in every corner and under the bed etc. He then pulls his clothes on and goes away. A narrator says; "One evening later!"

    2. Scene
    The threatened man comes along again. He is tired and yawning again. Before he lies down, he checks everywhere to see if someone is hiding. The first repeats itself. The strange man appears with a note once again etc. The threatened man reads out: "You only have another 2 days to live, black hand." The first scene is repeated and the narrator says: "And another evening later."

    3. Scene
    Everything in scenes 1 & 2 is repeated. On the note, it is written: "You only have one more day to live. Black hand." Everything is repeated like before. The narrator says: "Another day later."

    4. Scene
    Everything is repeated once again but the threatened man checks more thoroughly before he goes to bed. The strange man appears again. He has a knife in one hand and a note in the other. He places the note down and disappears silently. The threatened man wakes up, grabs the note and reads:

    "Wash your hands thoroughly with soap, then you won’t have to fear the black hand again."

13. A terrible discovery

    It could also be called: The beetle in the bread bun

    Players: A fine lady, her husband, a butler and a baker.

    The lady and her husband are sitting at the table. The man rings a bell. A butler appears with breakfast on a tray. He serves coffee and bread buns. The lady and the man pour themselves a coffee and take a hearty bite of their bread buns.

    The lady suddenly screeches: "Yuk" and shakes herself. She has bitten into something in her bread bun which does not belong there. (A small prune without a stone is “built” into the bread bun beforehand.) She breaks up the bread bun and shows the black thing to her husband.

    "A beetle!" he exclaims disgustedly. He bangs on the butler bell. When he appears, the man shows him the bread bun.

    The butler is shocked. He pulls the thing out with his fingertips. "A beetle!" he says disgustedly and places it on a plate. The man points (with gestures), that he should fetch the baker. The butler runs off and comes a short while later.

    He is pulling the baker along behind him. Once he arrives in the living room he pulls away from the butler and goes towards the man with a confident walk. The man holds the bread bun in his hand, points to the bun and to the beetle on the plate.

    "A beetle!" says the lady accusingly,

    "A beetle!" says the butler threateningly.

    "A beetle!" says the man shaken.

    The baker grabs the beetle. He shakes his head furiously, suddenly sticks the beetle in his mouth and starts chewing powerfully.

    "But!" shouts the lady.

    "But!" shouts the man.

    "But!" shouts the butler.

    The baker: "A raisin!" he says and swallows the thing.

14. The blind passenger

    Location: In front of and in a train compartment (two rows of 2/3 stools).

    Players: Three hiking boys and the guard.

    Two boys with fully packed rucksacks come in front of the compartment. Robert looks around: "Hey, Fred has lost his ticket. He pulled his pennies out of his bag for the ice cream and pulled it out together with his handkerchief. I picked it up."

    Willie: "And the lazy boy won’t get a move on even though the train is about to leave." He calls out: "Move it, Fred, move it!"

    Robert: "Hey, I have just thought of something. We should make him panic. Don’t let him know that I found his ticket."

    Willie nods his head: "How then?"

    Robert: "Let me do it!"

    Both of them climb aboard. Fred comes along snorting and panting. Just as he climbs aboard, we hear the guard sound his whistle and shout “all aboard”.

    The three of them throw their heavy rucksacks down onto the benches.

    Robert: "The guard is already in our carriage. Get your tickets ready!"

    Fred searches in his pockets for his ticket and empties his pockets onto the seat: Handkerchief, pocket knife, piece of string and everything else a boy’s pocket can contain.

    He becomes more and more nervous: "Hey guys, I’ve lost my ticket. What a pain!"

    Willie: "Don’t mess us around!"

    Fred: "It’s true and I haven’t got any money to buy another one and the guard is already coming.

    Willie: "The guard is just over there."

    Robert: "I know what! Crawl under the bench. We’ll sit down so that he cannot see you."

    Fred quickly fills his pockets again, places his rucksack under the bench and climbs under. Robert and Willie sit down. The guard appears straight away.

    Guard: "Tickets please!"

    Willie shows his ticket. The guard marks the ticket with his pencil.

    Guard to Robert: "Sir?!"

    Robert: "Here you are." He gives the guard two tickets.

    Guard: "You are travelling alone and have two tickets?"

    Robert: "What do you mean, alone? The other passenger loves the space under the bench. If you would like to take a look, sir!"

    Both of them move to the side.

    The guard, Willie and Robert all laugh. Fred crawls out from under the bench: ."What a cheek!"

15. The strange prescription

    A short story from Johann Peter Hebel It is not usually any fun to pick up a prescription in the chemists; but once upon a time it was a little bit amusing. A man from a outlying farm pulled up in front of the town chemist in his trap pulled by two bulls. He unloaded a large wooden living door and carried it in. The pharmacist could not believe his eyes and said: "hey, my friend, what do you want with your living room door in here. The carpenter lives two doors down." The man told the pharmacist that the doctor had visited his poorly wife and wanted to prescribe a potion but there was no paper, no quill and no ink in the house, only some chalk. The kind doctor wrote the prescription on the living room door and the kind pharmacist should now be so good as to mix up the potion.

    Well, if it only did good. The person who knows to help himself in an emergency is well equipped.

16. Three boys who bought peppermints in the chemists

    Three boys from Cologne enter a chemist’s shop. The first one says; "I would like some peppermint pastilles for 5 Pfennig." The chemist fetches the long ladders, climbs up high, collects the tin with the peppermints, weighs them out exactly, takes the money, climbs up again, places the sweets back in their place, climbs down the ladder and puts it to one side.

    Then the second boy says: "I would like some peppermint pastilles for 5 Pfennig as well." "Oh yes, and why didn’t you say that before?" asks the chemist annoyed. "Hey, you didn’t even ask me."

    The chemist starts the complicated procedure once again although he does not want to. Once he is up on the ladder he asks the third boy: "What about you, do you want 5 Pfennig worth of peppermint pastilles?" "Naw" answers the third boy. Once everything is tidied away, he asks the third boy, "And what would you like then?"

    "I would like 6 Pfennig worth of peppermint pastilles."

17. The inexpensive meal

    This is an old German saying: Those who dig a hole for other, fall in it themselves. — However the waiter in a restaurant in a certain small town was already in it. A well dressed guest came to him. Curt and stubborn, he asks for a good chicken soup for his money. He also asks for a piece of steak and some vegetables for his hard earned cash. The waiter asks if he might also like a glass of wine? "Oh certainly, yes!" exclaims the guest, "if I can get something good for my money." After he had enjoyed his meal, he pulls a polished sixpence from his pocket and says: "Mr waiter, sir. Here is my money." The waiter says: "What is that supposed to mean? Don't you owe me a dime?" The guest exclaims: "I did not ask you for a dime's worth of food, but enough for my money. Here is my money. I don't have any more.

    You have given me too much for my money, so it's your own fault." — This naivety was not far wrong. A little bit of cheekiness was required and an easy-going attitude about how the situation would turn out. However the best is still to come. "You are a rotten rogue", says the waiter, "and you deserve something else. But I will give you the meal and here are 24 biscuits to go with it. Now keep quiet about what you have done and go to my neighbour, the publican, and do the same thing to him!" He said that because his neighbour, the publican, lived in such a discontented state through his jealously and enjoyed swearing and bringing others down. However the clever guest grabs the offered money smilingly and carefully makes his way to the door while wishing the waiter a pleasant evening and said: "I have already been to your neighbour, the publican, and he just sent me to you and to no one else." Therefore both of them went behind each other's backs and the third party enjoyed the benefits of it. However the artful customer should have earned the thanks of both because they both learned from the experience and made up with each other. Peace nourishes but discontent devours.

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