In my company, every few months there is an induction day. Various cool things happen on that day, but part of it is that people who started since the last induction must introduce themselves, and then they have 5 minutes to demo some sort of talent they have.
Well, it’s just been announced that the next one is in 3 weeks time, and I’m up. And…I got nothing.
I’m not particularly bothered about standing in front of people and doing whatever, but I have no party trick. I can’t play a musical instrument (well).
Sooo…I have to learn something from scratch. Which I guess is doable for a magic trick or something like that. Any other suggestions?
Oh, and it’s in a Chinese office. Though many people can understand English well, and I can speak some Mandarin, trying to do something purely verbal (e.g. stand-up comedy) would be fraught.
(this sounds like a weird company culture to me, and I wouldn’t last long there…but if you’re cool with it, then good for you!)
My suggestion: learn a magic trick.
Maybe a card trick (youtube has lots of them), or maybe go to a magic store and buy some simple trick. Even if it’s something designed for kids, you could make it entertaining for a couple minutes.
Should be a lot easier than learning to juggle
Yep, I was just thinking this. Somewhat risky speaking chinese to a room full of native chinese, but with 3 weeks to practice, I can iron out any comedy mispronunciations (and try it out on chinese friends).
And frankly, foreigners speaking Mandarin are still quite a novelty I think, so as lame as reading out a poem may sound, I think it will go down well.
You can learn how to play a basic song on the harmonica in that amount of time, and jazz it up a bit so it sounds good, even. Or learn how to yo - everyone loves yo yos.
Too bad I never worked at a place like that because I would have loved to dance and sing (or lip-sync) A Couple Of Swells, from Easter Parade, preferably with some cute co-worker.
Maybe you have some song or simple dance routine you can do.
According to Feynman, this only works if you don’t have hairy hands. He did the same thing as a kid and as an adult. As a kid, it didn’t hurt, as an adult, it was very ouchy.
My suggestion? Learn to knit or crochet. Or possibly do needlepoint. Then continue doing it throughout the meeting. There are various tutorials on the internet, both still pics and videos.
+1 to juggling. I could keep three in the air and do a couple of basic tricks practicing for an hour a night. I usedthis and was juggling…ok within a week.
Two things, dogs are not as helpful as you would think and use a room with minimal breaky things. Be prepared to spend a bit of time looking for wayward beanbags. Monstrous amounts of fun, and very zen once you get into the rhythm.
