Maybe it's the little girl inside me who still jumps at every opportunity to play "dress-up." Halloween, parties, school festivals, plays -- anything that requires a costume & I'm all over it. I've got a couple of trunks full of costumes in our crawl space. And I believe there's still one hanging out at my parents' house. If you need clowns, shakespeare, civil war, cave girl, I've either got it, or I'll get it.
Maybe it's the sick pleasure I get out of pretending to be someone else for a while or bring out the bawdy side of my sense of humor that isn't allowed around the middle schoolers I teach.
Maybe it's the fact that it's a party with people who may or may not know each other well & it takes some of the pressure off of conversation -- be it for joke making or for serious stuff.
Whatever it is, it's a blast if you get a group of people together who are willing to be ridiculous & get into a character.
Anyway, I've been doing murder mystery parties sporadically since around college, when some buddies would convert their house into a crime scene, actors would know their role in the murder, and the rest of us would act as investigators. We were cheap enough that we actually wrote our own at one point (and, if I do say so myself, it was pretty darn good).
After graduation, Christy & I decided to host one of our own, combining her high school friends & mine for an evening of gangster-themed murder. We shared the part of a flapper & turned her into "twins" so that we could invite everyone we wanted to. Our only problem was that we had one too many guys & were short one girl. We looked at the descriptions & decided that Ben could play "Scoop" the female reporter who seemed no-nonsense. Harmless enough & seemingly gender neutral, right? That was, until the game got rolling & we figured out just how "Scoop" got the inside scoop on all the action around town. The romantic twists & turns made THAT interesting.
It's amazing how 9 years can change people!
My next adventure in murder didn't take place until 2002. the 20s & 30s group from our church in Barcelona hosted this shin-dig -- which Brian flat-out refused to go to, saying that it wasn't his "thing" and that he wouldn't have any fun at all. Matt, his brother, being much more social & adventurous, was persuaded to go & play the part of Marco Roni in this meeting of Italian-Americans with ties to the mob.
Although, as you can imagine from this picture, he was embarrassed to walk down the street with "Tara Misu," shared by me & Ang. Don't we look great in leopard print?
One poor guy had just joined the church and it was his first time hanging out with all of us. He made such an impression on us as Beau Jolais that no one could even remember his real name for several months!
Just about 6 months later, the 20s & 30s group from church decided to do yet another murder mystery party. This time, it was set in the 1940s & I was the Russian Countess Bogoff -- a name much less offensive in American English than in British English, but I'm sure you get the point.
After much begging, a skeptical Brian agreed to go and admitted that he "had a blast" and it was "much more fun" than he had anticipated. He especially loved to opportunity he had thruogh his character to use a fake English accent all evening long!
Our latest adventure has been 3 years in the making. We got the kit when we moved out here -- wild west themed seemed appropriate for Denver -- and had planned on using it as a kind of house-warming party. We knew 3 other couples in this area before we joined the world west of the Mississippi & that was perfect. Unfortunately, the DAY BEFORE the party, one couple (who shall remain anonymous so that I don't begin any sort of rant) cancelled. Now, for those of you who can think about this, if 1/4 of the suspects aren't showing up, the party isn't going to work. So, it got put on hold.
Then we were going to have it with a group of friends from church, but before we ever got it on the calendar, 2 couples moved out of state. Hmmmm...this party seemed doomed.
We still wanted to do it, so we picked a date over a month out & sent out emails making sure it was going to work for our invitees. A few changes got made, & a date was settled on that was acceptable to all of us.
Until Monday.
When I received an email letting me know that one couple "just realized" that they had plans already for Good Friday. Sounds a bit fishy, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It was a mad scramble to find another couple who could participate on such late notice, but Mike & Mindy were sports, even finding costumes & not minding that they were the only couple who was not from our old church...and not complaining when the party ran late & their poor boys were not at home in their own beds...
Preston & Paty were "Pelvis Swaggerin" & "Butch Chastity"
Mike & Mindy were "Elias Truist-Heath" & "Helena Handcart"
B & I were "Chief Breaking Wind" & "Dee Adela Muerte"
You'll have to ask Josh "Wyatt Hertz,"
or maybe Kelly, since she was "Elvira-Lynn Fekshun"
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