This is an exercise for between 6 and 20 participants, designed to teach handling disruptive audience members.
Designed to take a total of 15 minutes, with 5 minutes for rules and 10 minutes of game play.
- 1 Speaker Card
- 5 Problem People cards with names
- 14 Alex Audience cards, numbered 1 to 14
First, sort the deck and remove cards until it matches the number of players:
- 6 or 7 players: 1 Speaker, 2 Problems, and 3-4 Audience
- 8 or 9 players: 1 Speaker, 3 Problems, and 4-5 Audience
- 10 to 13 players: 1 Speaker, 4 Problems, and 5-8 Audience
- 14 to 20 players: 1 Speaker, 5 Problems, and 8-14 Audience
The 5 Problem People cards are the ones which do not say "Speaker" or "Alex Audience". Mix them and randomly pick out the requisite number. Fill the rest with Alex Audience cards sufficient to add up to one less than the number of participants.
The first round, add the Speaker card to this stack.
One player is to shuffle these cards and deals them face down to all of the other players. The player with the Speaker card reveals it. All other players conceal their cards.
One player should also volunteer to run a timer.
The exercise is organized into multiple turns. Each turn, a different player is the Speaker. The Speaker is attempting to resist attempts to derail his/her Q&A session by various Problem People. The Problem People are trying to make the speaker look bad or promote themselves.
Each turn begins with the Speaker giving a 30-second talk on some topic. This topic can be chosen by the Speaker based on a talk they gave/are giving at some conference. Alternately, the Speaker can choose from the Topic Deck:
- Shuffle the Topic Cards.
- Choose two cards from the deck.
- Pick one of those to speak about.
- At the end of your turn, put the two cards back.
After the micro-talk, the Q&A session begins with the Speaker asking "are there any questions?" At this point, the timer should start.
The other players raise their hands to ask questions. The speaker will choose them one at a time to ask. The Problem People will attempt to disrupt the Q&A session, without specifically revealing who they are. The Alex Audience members will ask normal, sincere questions and will not be disruptive.
All players, especially Correct Casey, are encouraged to use the internet to find appropriate questions to ask.
At the end of the time, the participants are encouraged to give the Speaker feedback on how s/he handled the Q&A issues.
At the end of the round, the Alex Audience with the lowest number becomes the next Speaker, unless they have been the Speaker already, in which case the next numbered Alex Audience.
The Problem People are trying to disrupt the speaker without appearing to do so deliberately. While they will be disruptive and rude, they will not use profanity, yelling or personal attacks because that would be a giveaway. As much as possible, they want to appear to be Alex Audience members until they can deliver their attacks.
The Problem players should, as much as possible, "play" their roles and behave the way a real audience member of their type would.
Interrupting Iggy: will interrupt anyone at an time. Will also try to answer other askers for the speaker, not allowing the speaker to speak.
One-Note Ollie: will ask her/his "one question" after waiting. After that, will interrupt other askers to ask that question again. Ideally, this question should be controversial, extreme, and/or preposterously technical.
Reminiscing Randy: his/her goal is to talk as long as possible before being stopped. Randy's reminiscing does not have to have anything to do with the Speaker's topic.
Correct Casey: note that Casey's "corrections" do not actually have to be correct.