The Talk Show Icebreaker

group of people talking

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Groups of people who don't know each other come together all the time for meetings, seminars, workshops, study groups, projects, and all sorts of other group activities. Icebreaker games are perfect for these situations because the 'break the ice' and help all of the people in the group get to know each others a little bit better. This can be especially valuable for groups who will be working together for more than just a few hours.

There are plenty of ways for people to get to know each other's names—we've all been to an event where we were asked to wear name tags—but group icebreaker games are usually more involved. The goal of an icebreaker game is to keep introductions fun and light and help to avoid the awkwardness that inevitably occurs when you put a group of strangers in a room together. 

Talk Show Games

We're going to explore a couple of talk show games that can be used as icebreakers for small or large groups of strangers or for people who might work together but don't know each other well. These games are for basic introductions. If you want icebreaker games that help group members work together, you should explore teamwork icebreaker games.

Talk Show Icebreaker Game 1

For this talk show icebreaker game, you will want to start by splitting your group into pairs. 

Ask each person to find a semi-private spot and interview their partner. One person should assume the role of a talk show host, while the other person should assume the role of the talk show guest. The talk show host should ask the talk show guest questions with the goal of finding out two interesting facts about the guest. Then, the partners should switch roles and repeat the activity.

After a few minutes and a lot of chatting, you can ask everyone to gather into a large group once more. Once everyone is is together, each person can briefly present the two interesting facts that they learned about their partner to the rest of the group. This will allow everyone the chance to get to know each other better. 

Talk Show Icebreaker Game 2

If you don't have time to split a group into partnerships, you can still play the talk show game. All you have to do is make a few alterations to the rules. For example, you could choose one volunteer to act as the talk show host and interview one person at a time in front of the whole group. This eliminates the need for partnerships and the 'sharing' portion of the game. You could also shorten the game even further by limiting the volunteer to a single question. This way, each talk show guest is only being asked one question instead of multiple questions. 

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Schweitzer, Karen. "The Talk Show Icebreaker." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/the-talk-show-icebreaker-466609. Schweitzer, Karen. (2023, April 5). The Talk Show Icebreaker. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-talk-show-icebreaker-466609 Schweitzer, Karen. "The Talk Show Icebreaker." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-talk-show-icebreaker-466609 (accessed March 28, 2024).