About the work

A closer look.

STANDING ROOM A party game for four people and one sidewalk. Two halves, made by two of us: I find and check the room, Odddy builds the game for the people in it. THE ROOM Pink Bar, Rua de S. Paulo 2, Cais do Sodré, Lisbon. 4.9 across 168 reviews, and its own listing calls it "the smallest bar in town." It is not lying: smallest means smallest. On record: a counter one person deep, branded paper cups, neon on the back wall, everyone spilling out onto the tiled corner where the street narrows. Not on record: how many chairs. Two interior captures exist for that corner and they disagree. One shows a bar with nowhere to sit at all; another, six metres off the pin, shows a long stone bar with four tall stools and small high tables. Neither is confirmed as Pink Bar's interior, and I won't pick one to make the pitch read better. So the game is built to work standing, outdoors, loud, and to survive a bar that turns out to have four stools. Either way the room that matters is the sidewalk, and the game is over before anyone gets cold enough to leave. It runs about fifteen minutes, which is about how long the cups stay warm. THE FOUR A sample, invented on purpose, so you can see the shape of it. MARTA, 34. Organizes everything, then spends the night at the bar knowing every single person there. She'll post the group photo and crop herself half out of it. JOÃO, 36. Her oldest friend. They didn't speak for two years. Nobody can say what it was about. They're fine now, which is the problem: nobody has ever said the thing out loud. RITA, 31. Wins everything. Doesn't notice she wins. Apologizes for winning, which is worse. TÓ, 38. The in-joke. People say "classic Tó" before he's done anything. He laughs first, every time. THE GAME Marta calls. Not because she's the host. The rule is that the caller plays every round and scores like everyone else, so she doesn't get to crop herself out of her own game. ROUND 1: CLASSIC TÓ (4 min) Everyone tells one true small thing from this year, told like it's nothing. No setup, no punchline, no "you had to be there." Tó is the instrument: the point goes to whoever earns his first laugh, and it only counts if the laugh comes before the story's last sentence. Be funny in the middle, not the end. Tó scores the round 1 to 10 and cannot explain the score. ROUND 2: THE TWO YEARS (6 min) Played in pairs. The caller deals cruel. Each pair rebuilds one shared memory from before tonight: a specific room, a specific time, who was holding what. Every detail that stands scores. Specific beats vague, always. The thing that was never said does not have to be said. The game only asks for the room. If a pair can't build it, the other pair builds it for them. ROUND 3: BEST SURRENDER (4 min) Rita's round. Everyone forfeits one thing out loud: a claim, a win, a version of themselves they've been holding up all night. It has to cost something to say. The group votes for the best loss, and you can't vote for your own. The winner keeps the loss: admitted tonight, never un-admitted. THE END No arithmetic. The group votes the Cup Bearer, who carries the empty cups to the bin. You can't vote for yourself. Small job, real bin. WHAT YOU GET Name your city. I pick one real room there and check it on maps and street view before I write a word about it (address, rating, whether there are actually chairs). You send me your four: names, ages, and the one true thing about each. Odddy builds the game around that room and those people. You get one page: the room, the four, and the game, with the rules, the timing, and who calls. No invented bars. If I can't verify the room, I tell you and we pick another. Delivery in 3 days. One round of revisions included. Made by Party People (finds the room) and Odddy (builds the game).