Last Saturday, Godless Perverts threw our first holiday party for the San Francisco atheist community, known puckishly as the Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time.
Like it says in that Other Book, we looked upon our work, and we saw that it was good. We all put a lot of effort into bringing the thing together, and at the end of the evening, it was worth every bit of it. Greta brought four amazing chocolate pies (she gives the recipe right here), Chris Hall baked pumpkin rolls with cream cheese fillings, and David Fitzgerald and his zombie-loving partner Dana Fredsti did an amazing job of bringing together all the other food and drink in the face of a lot of stress. We were also very generously given cupcakes by SolaceSF, a local support organization for sex workers. Thanks to Laura Lasky and SolaceSF for the cupcakes, and thanks, as always, to the Center for Sex and Culture.
As we say, it was a very fun and very satisfying evening, enough so that we feel confident that we want to do this again next year. With more cowbell, naturally.
Actually, there was no cowbell at the Godless Perverts Holiday Fun Time, but we gave away porn, erotic comic books, and sang blasphemous holiday songs. The songbook was put together primarily by Greta from sources like A Very Scary Solstice, Dr. Seuss, Walt Kelly, Futurama, and even a few genuine, straight-up traditional songs with no religious references. (e.g., “Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland”)
One thing that we cooked up, and which we thought was a particular success at helping people start to connect with each other, was our Adorably Stupid Icebreaker Game. Yes, it was adorably stupid, but it definitely worked as a way of getting the evening started.
What is the Adorably Stupid Icebreaker Game, you ask? It’s sort of like a human scavenger hunt; we passed out sheet with 25 characteristics: find someone who has not read The God Delusion; find someone who has kissed someone who is not on the gender binary, and liked it; someone who has a science- or atheism-themed tattoo, and so on. As a bribe/encouragement, whoever filled the most items on their paper got first pick from the big basket o’porn that Greta brought as prizes.
It worked remarkably well at getting people talking to each other, as well as allowing them to break out of the loop of “So how are you? What do you do?” that party conversations sometimes turn into. Once you start talking about the books that someone has or hasn’t read, or what kind of tattoos they have, you can easily find yourself moving on to more complex topics, even if you’re the shy type.
In case you’re interested in trying out a variation of the Godless Perverts Adorably Stupid Icebreaker Game at your next event, here’s the complete list of questions that we used. You can also download a PDF of the original handout.
Find somebody who:
- Has never read The God Delusion _____
- Has read The Ebony Exodus Project _____
- Has kissed a girl and liked it _____
- Has kissed a guy and liked it _____
- Has kissed a person who is not on a gender binary and liked it ____
- Has a roller derby nickname _____
- Has a science- or atheism-themed tattoo _____
- Has never had religious or spiritual beliefs _____
- Has become an atheist in the last year _____
- Is a former clergy person _____
- Has a frequent buyer account at Wicked Grounds _____
- Has been to more than one atheist conference _____
- Has been to more than one polyamory or kink conference _____
- Has been to more than one Renaissance Faire _____
- Is actually a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Ramen! _____
- Has changed their mind about sex/ gender in the last year _____
- Has deconverted from a religion other than Christianity _____
- Has never been to a Godless Perverts event before this one _____
- Has been to every Godless Perverts event (in the Bay Area) _____
- Has been to a Godless Perverts Social Club meetup _____
- Is visiting SF tonight — i.e., is not from the Bay Area _____
- Can curl their tongue _____
- Has a secret crush on a reality show star _____
- Has been to more than three events at the Center for Sex and Culture, not counting Godless Perverts _____
- Thought this game was stupid at first, but is now actually enjoying it _____
_____________
UPDATE: We neglected to mention that, while we wrote the particular challenges of this particular icebreaker game, we didn’t invent the idea. We swiped it from an icebreaker event at a Secular Student Alliance conference. (We don’t know who, if anyone, they swiped it from.)
