JESS: Games eggs hugs

Have you ever seen people watching a game being played by others, so excited, so emotionally involved in the game, that complete strangers actually begin to hug one other?

Well, I have. Okay, so maybe some of you have had similar experience, but I am going to tell you a tale about eggs, necks and hugs.

Do you wanna dance?

(And by the way Spanish cockerals say “Kikirikí!!!�)

- The Venue:
The Coffered-Ceiling Room, in the Palace of Merced, where we were holding the second Spanish National Boardgame Meeting, in Córdoba city.

- The Time:
October 14th, 2006 - 12:00 PM, Saturday.

- The people:
The game designer, organisers/referees, gamers and the general public.

- The tale:

Once upon a time, there was a box of eggs.

Do you know the game Danza del huevo (Dancing Eggs / Eiertanz)? I am sure you do, but I’ll write a bit about it: It’s a fun and crazy game by Roberto Fraga, where you have to catch yellow plastic eggs and hold them in various parts of your body without using your hands. It was published, supposedly, for children and it is played with much delight by children, but not only them, as this tale tells. Firstly, on your game turn, you throw the action-die. It shows six different icons about what you needed to do to get an egg. The person who does the correct action fastest wins an egg. Then, if you are this person who got the egg you must throw the body-die to find out where on your body you must put the egg. When somebody drops a egg, the game ends and the winner is the person who has the most eggs about his body. We love the game, people enjoy playing it, so we organised a big tournament.

Roberto Fraga, the designer of the game, was here in Córdoba with us. He and his lovely wife Florence were our international guests from France. On this particular morning, they were both enjoying watching so many different people playing Roberto’s game. The prizes for the championship were also Roberto Fraga’s games, of course.

We had the designer, we had the brand new Spanish edition from Haba, we had the fun people to play, so we had our First Universal Championship of Dancing Eggs.

We like to play this game with classical music playing (try it!). It creates a funny contrast between the music and the crazy laughing game. On this occasion, La donna è mobile, the famous aria from Verdi’s Rigolleto was playing at full volume in the room – Please, try to read the next paragraphs listening to this song or at least with this music in your head…

La donna è mobile…

Roberto Fraga was ready with his gun from Squad Seven to shoot to begin each round. We, the referees of the games, were ready with the secondary mission of juicing up the rounds. (Come on, you can, here goes your egg, wow!)

…qual piuma al vento…

Cock-a-doodle-doo!!! Kikirikí!!! – Screams and laughing everywhere.

Six tables with games ready, with around twenty-five people from different Spanish cities. They were the best players, but only one of them would be the winner.

There were more people playing other games in this big playing room, but also an audience had gathered and were standing and watching the funny games of Dancing Eggs.  As the time ticked on increasingly more people were arriving to watch. It’s always funny to see crazy people doing very strange things in order to hold on to eggs which they have in many orifices of their body! Even getting up every now and again and running around the table with an egg between their legs.

…la donna è mobile…

For a couple of hours, players were playing Dancing Eggs. After each match, points were awarded, and players were changed onto different tables. At last, we had the four best players, and the final game was ready to begin.

The favourite to win (at the beginning of the day) had lost every single match he had tried… He had prepared to the limit for the occasion, but on the day the pressure was too much for him.

We had four boys ready to win the last game. Roberto shot his gun in the air. Our four heroes, after almost two hours of dancing game matches, were again running, taking eggs, throwing dice… The final match had begun.

…qual piuma al vento…

The public quickly chose its favourite player: He might well have had eggs in his arms or legs, but this didn’t matter. The important thing, which people loved, was that he had three eggs in his neck, under his chin… It seemed that the game would finish soon (too many eggs in a very difficult place), but little did any one know that this was only the beginning… He was called Jorge, and he was in the final game after winning every single match he had played that morning – And maybe he was playing the game for the first time in his life… (but this is another story)

Our hero, Jorge, is a big boy. He played quietly but surely. He even somehow managed to get up from his chair and go around the table with his neck full of eggs…

Cock-a-doodle-doo!!! Kikirikí!!! - Jorge won another egg. Then, he threw the body-die… And the result was neck again! Incredible!

Jorge now had eggs on both sides of his neck and also below his chin… And no one knew how, but he managed to fit another egg under his chin… four eggs in his neck! (Yeah, it was a first for me too!)

As you can imagine, the onlooking public were becoming increasingly enthusiastic and excited. The tension was mounting as the minutes went by as Jorge held more and more yellow eggs in his neck aided by the sweat on his face.

The final game continued. The four players won eggs. The public now was bigger than ever, more people were arriving to the playing room, all the dancing players from the final games were also watching, but furthermore almost everybody in the playing room had stopped their games to watch the thrilling eggs & neck spectacle.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!!! Kikirikí!!! - Jorge won another egg. A round of applause for him!

Some people began to say, not without a pinch of cruelty: Cuello, cuello cuello…! ( “neck, neck, neck!�). Everybody was enjoying the gaming scene.

…la donna è mobile…

Jorge threw the body-die, and for the fifth time, the no-mercy-body-die showed “Neck�.

He already had too many eggs in his neck, even the special one made of wood, which is more difficult and painful to hold, but scores two points at the end of the game. He couldn’t move an inch if he was to prevent dropping any of the eggs.

…qual piuma al vento…

The game continued and it was the turn of some other player. The action-die was rolled. It shown the icon for the “Throw an egg� action. One of the plastic eggs must be dropped from a meter (more or less) above the table. When it hits the table, everybody in the game must try to catch it, wherever it goes. Jorge, our hero, was calm. He had the devotion of the public. He had so many eggs in his neck that for him it was impossible even to imagine trying to catch another egg. He just sat there, with his arms bent and his hands on his chest.

…la donna è mobile…

The other three players were ready. The egg was falling… the players staring at it… the egg hit the table… and bounced straight in the direction of Jorge’s chest and landed directly in his hands.

There was a wave of laughter from the crowd. Our hero almost dropped an egg, but he remained strong and retained all of them.

…qual piuma al vento…

The public was clapping and cheering for him. And little by little, a whisper started in the crowd, until it became an unanimous voice chanting: Cuello, cuello, cuello…

_Neck!, neck!, neck!… - And while people were shouting their magic word and clapping rhythically, our hero reached down, with quite a lot of difficulty, picked up the body-die, and threw it…

_ Neck!, neck!, neck!…

…la donna è mobile…

The die was rolling on the table…

…qual piuma al vento…

_ Neck!, neck!, neck!…

…muta d’ acento…

_ Neck!, neck!, neck!…

…e di pensier…

The die stopped…

And, as you have probably by now predicted the outcome, for the sixth time in a row for Jorge, the body-die showed: “Neck�.

_ CUELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!  (NEEEEEECK!)

…e di pensier…

Incredible? No one could believe it - And that was when the magical moment began. People were happy, laughing, jumping and they actually began hugging each other, screaming: Neeeeeck!, well, oh, viva, yuhu, bravo! - Another egg in the neck of the public’s hero, our team had scored and the sun was shining; it was a great day and everybody was beaming with joy. It didn’t matter that we didn’t know each other, we were hugging each other. Pure fun!
(I am sorry, but I have not pictures of this moment, I was busy...)

… e di pensieeeeeeeeeeeer!

It was a fantastic moment, people embracing each other because of the emotion and excitement of a game!

But the show had to go on: Jorge had the new plastic egg in his hands, and somehow succeeded in putting it in his neck, without dropping any of the other eggs…Impossible? Yes, but the man was a genius—he had six yellow eggs in his neck, like a giant turtle with his head coming into his shell to hold them. Five yellow plastic eggs and the painful yellow wooden egg, too… SIX eggs in his neck!

…la donna è mobile…

The game lasted a little longer, while Jorge was winning only counting the eggs in his neck. Everybody around him was celebrating, clapping. The referees were shouting and Rigolleto continued singing.

…qual piuma al vento…

Cock-a-doodle-doo!!! Kikirikí!!! - The second player with the most eggs on his body wanted to win the match, and he had to play riskily to get more eggs. At this moment, our hero Jorge was reaching his limit, and a egg from his left shoulder was falling down. He had to lift his left arm up a little to avoid dropping it… Maybe this was not completely allowed in the game rules, but at this moment nobody was going to say anything. And when everything seemed to be lost for Jorge, one of the other players, risking a brave move, dropped an egg, and the game finished.

Of course, there had to be the final egg count, despite knowing that Jorge had obviously won, hands down! The crowd chanted “uno, dos, tres...â€? with every egg that emerged from Jorge’s neck.  After the fifth, Jorge actually stopped before realising that he had a sixth hidden under there too! “SEIS!!!â€? 

The man with more eggs in his neck than any other in the history of the world became the First Universal Champion of Dancing Eggs.

…la donna è mobile…

Everybody was clapping and jumping for joy. That was a final game match played by four very good players, after a full championship played by a lot of fun people.

But all the applause was all for Jorge.  Standing up he said: “I’ve never won anything before in my life"—and I believe him. He was full of satisfaction and his girlfriend full of pride. And it was also on everyone’s face that was looking at him. He had won, and we loved it. He deserved the official title of Universal Champion of Dancing Eggs (for six reasons).

…qual piuma al vento…

We had games as prizes for the winner, for the players in the final game, for other players chosen by lot, and for the worst player of the championship. (Remember that the person who won this was the favourite to win at the beginning of the day.) And Roberto Fraga was there, so charming, to sign all of them, and more.

That’s the tale: the story about how Jorge’s neck was crowned and about how the public of a boardgame can become so involved that they end up hugging each other.

And finally, when everything was over, Roberto Fraga added the final words: _You lot are crazier than the French.

Hugs for everybody, ¡nos jugamos!

(La donna è mobile…)

Thanks Jorge, Roberto and everybody who played and helped this day.

Note: This championship was organized thanks to the help of our friends from Crash. We recently lost one of them, gone too soon. ¡Nos jugamos, Sergio!

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