How to Play Celebrity Guessing Game

Celebrity is a team-based party game in which you try to get your team to guess which celebrity you are.  The gameplay involves three rounds: (1) giving clues by describing a celebrity is; (2) acting as the celebrity, and (3) using one-word clues.

• Materials Required:  Several tiny slips of paper; pens; a 1-minute timer; a hat or small bag.
• Recommended Number of People: Two teams of 3-6 people.
• Time Required: 1-2 hours, depending on number of clues.
• Ages: All can play.  Clues can be adapted for all ages.

Setup for the Celebrity Game

Divide the group into two teams of about three to six players per team.  The Celebrity game is unique in that the names are generated by players themselves.  Give each player 5-10 small slips of paper and a pen.  Have everyone write down a celebrity name on each slip.  Possible names can include real people in history (e.g., Abraham Lincoln), fictitious characters (e.g., Superman, Mickey Mouse, etc.), movie stars both past and present (e.g., Tom Hanks, Marilyn Monroe), famous animals, etc.  Names must be well known to players; a good rule of thumb is whether or not more than half of the group is familiar with the name.

Do not reveal the names that are written.  Place all of the finished slips into a hat or small bag.  You’re now ready to play!

How Do You Play the Celebrity Game?

Round 1 (Verbal clues):  Team 1 begins by choosing a volunteer to start.  The 1-minute timer begins and he or she grabs a slip from the hat/bag.  He or she uses verbal clues to describe the celebrity name on the slip, and tries to get his or her team to correctly guess the name.  Once the name is guessed correctly, 1 point is earned.  He or she sets the slip aside and quickly grabs another slip.  He or she tries to get as many points as possible before time expires.  If the volunteer does not know the celebrity name, he or she can “skip” and move onto the next slip, but this causes a -1 penalty for each slip that is skipped.

Now it’s Team 2’s turn.  They also choose a volunteer and does the same process with the remaining slips in the bag.  This process continues until all slips are correctly guessed and no more slips remain in the hat/bag.  Add up all the number of slips for each team, and subtract any penalty points.  This is the score.

Note: the person giving clues is allowed to say almost anything, with some restrictions.  You cannot say any part of the celebrity’s name.  For instance, if the name on the slip is Oprah Winfrey, it’s okay to say “She has her own TV show,”, but not, “She has a magazine named ‘O magazine.””  Also, you may not spell, rhyme, use foreign languages or give away letters.  Thus, you cannot say “Her name ends with an ‘H’.”  Be sure all players understand these rules.

Round 2 (Acting as the celebrity):  Get all the slips from Round 1 and place them back into the bag.  Round 2 is similar to round 1, but instead of verbally describing someone as clues, players act as the celebrity.  The player can speak in first person, or a more challenging version is similar to Charades in which players can not talk at all; they must simply gesture and use non-verbal clues.

Round 3 (One-word clues): The final round uses the same clues as Round 1 and 2 again, but this time, players can only say one word per slip.  Thus, the challenge is thinking of a descriptive, helpful clue in one succinct word.

After all three rounds, add up the points.  The team with more points wins the game.