How to read your crowd

So you're wondering which game to use at a party and you can't tell which way to go. You see young people, older people, people from all demographics. Which Music Bingo game is the best? Start with Nicknames.

Why is it important to read a crowd?

When it comes to entertaining, properly reading a crowd is key. You wouldn't entertain a crowd of elders the same way you'd do with a crowd of kids, would you?

Understanding their background, their knowledge and their interests is essential to determine how to keep them engaged.

All you need is to understand what makes them laugh. If you can get them laughing, you know you're on the right track.

How to read a crowd

There are several ways to read your crowd, the easiest one being simply asking to the person who invited you what type of crowd they're expecting. However you should never go blindly with their recommendation. They can fail to know them properly, other people can show up or you can discover an interesting area to exploit. After all, you're not the same with your boss as you are with your friends, are you? And you want them to feel like you're their funniest, most interesting friend.

Arrive early to the venue. Chat with people beforehand. Ask them probing questions to get to a feel of who they are and what they're expecting from the party. Identify the leaders of the group. That doesn't necessarily have to be their boss or the oldest person, they can be just the person that knows the most amount of people. 

You can identify the leaders even as you get the party going. Once the people are starting to laugh, they'll look at the people they look up to the most. If you can identify them and make them laugh, you'll get the whole crowd laughing. Those are the people you want to bring up to the stage with you and interact with because they'll be both the most willing and the most interesting for the crowd to watch.

Once you've been doing this long enough you'll develop a sixth sense and what seemed hard before will be natural after.

Reading a crowd while you play Music Bingo

Let's put all into practice. Let's put you in the worst case scenario: You're late, you need to get the party going, you don't know the crowd at all and things need to start now. What do you do?

After a little bit of warm-up, you go right for a game. A game will get people interested and selecting the right one will not only entertain the crowd but give you a better understanding on where to take the party next. Now you don't take a super targeted Music Bingo game like "Golden Oldies" or "Video games". You take a game that has something for everyone, you take "Nicknames".

With songs from Adele and Christina Aguilera to The Beatles and Billy Joel, you're guaranteed to find something for everyone. Once you're playing, look at people's reactions. Which songs get the biggest laughs? How are they interacting with each other? Which songs do they sing along and which songs are the hardest to recognize?

Nicknames is one of the best starting Music Bingo games. Get it today!