BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - MUCH fun, hearty laughter, bright smiles and 'good ole' community unity were the elements that set the pace for last evening's (Mar. 28) event held at the Sandy Point Hard Court.
The event was none other than the RAMS Black San Bang-a-Lang Game Show which featured three fun-filled games that kept the audience at the edge of their seats with suspense, rolling in their chairs with laugher and screaming at the top of their lungs which price was right, what the survey said, and encouraging the participants to complete the task within the minute.
The games of the night were 'The Price is Right', 'Family Feud' and 'Minute to Win It', all of which mimicked the actual TV game shows but - like all Black San' events - with a twist!
First up was The Price Is Right which featured five persons from the audience who were called to the stage and shown a product on which they placed a single bid.
The participant who offered a bid closest to the product's actual RAMS price without going over, won the item and then moved on to play one of several mini "Pricing Games" for an additional and more substantial prize or group of prizes.
From there, audience members were called one by one to join the bidding crew for a chance to move on.
Pricing Games included ‘Grand Game’ in which the participant, Deidra, was shown six products and a target price of $15.90. She had to select the four products that were less than the target price in order to win all of the items.
Another Pricing Game was ‘Any Number’. Neshawn, the contestant, was shown a game board that listed the three prizes; one of which was kept a mystery, along with spaces for the digits in their prices. Each digit, zero to nine, appears exactly once on the board.
He was then asked to call out the digits, one at a time, and their positions on the board were revealed. The aim was to win the mystery prize, which was achieved.
‘Swap Me’ was another game which was played by a lady who referred to herself as “the lovely Evette". She was shown a prize and its price, along with three other products. She had to guess which item had a price that matched that of the first.
Another game was called ‘Plinko’, played by 11-year-old Talique who was given five Plinko chips to place flat against a board made up of a field of pegs... and released. At the bottom were four slots with prizes to be won depending on which slot the chip landed in.
This game appeared to be an easy one and was proven to be so as he walked away with two baskets filled with goodies as well as two other prizes.
At the end of each of the two-round game, three participants would have played Pricing Games and advanced to the Showcase Showdown, where they spun a wheel of numbers, and the person who got the closest to one dollar without going over advanced to the ‘Showcase’.
Both showcase showdowns caused the audience to go wild as each participant won in the exact manner.
Deidra an Newshawn both received $1 by first landing 10 cents and then 90 cents. It was the same for the lovely Evette and Talique who also received $1 by landing five cents first followed by 70 cents.
It was a battle of the sexes in both showcase showdowns and the males dominated in each round, making it to the Showcase where they were shown a number of items and asked to guess the price of the combined products.
In this segment, although younger, Talique gave Neshawn a TKO as he was just a few dollars shy of the actual price of the items. He walked away with one week's worth of groceries.
Next up for play was Family Feud where two families of four competed against each other to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 persons.
Contestants were given questions that had been answered by a recent survey. The questions were about what other people think is true. A contestant's answer was considered correct if it was one of the survey's answers or equivalent. Points were given equal to the number of surveyed answers.
The families were the Richardsons and the Demmings and some of the questions posed to them were: "Name something you touched today that has the most germs", "Name the best Black San activity" and "Name something that people expect to last a lifetime".
The two opposing family members "faced-off" to see which family would gain control of the questions. One family member would be called to a buzzer and the quickest hand to touch it would be given the first opportunity to guess the most popular answer to the question.
The members of that family then took turns giving answers.
A ‘strike’ was given if a player gave an answer that was not on the board. If the family was able to reveal all the answers on the board before accumulating three strikes, that family would win the round. Three strikes caused the family to lose control of the board, giving the other team one chance to steal the points.
After a round was won, the remaining answers were revealed.
The Demming family narrowly beat the Richardson family, winning by just six points and caused the the family that lost to walk away disappointed.
In Fast Cash, the second segment of the game, one player of the winning family answers five surveyed questions after another was taken away and had their ears plugged, thus eliminating any chances of hearing the given answers.
The second player then had to answer the same questions with different answers.
At the end of the game the family had to gain a combined total of 200 points in order to reap the "mystery" reward.
However, the Demming family was unable to garner the needed points and did not win the reward.
The final game of the night was the inaugural Minute to Win It.
Ten families of three were asked to take part in a series of challenges that use objects that are commonly available around the house. Failure to complete the task or the last family to do so resulted in elimination.
The tasks included ‘Face the cookie’, where the participants had to move one cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only their facial muscles.
Another was dubbed ‘Junk in the truck’. In this, each contestant had a tissue box filled with eight ping pong balls tied above their waste and they had to jump, shake, wiggle or bounce to remove all of them.
‘Shoe fly shoe’ was another challenge in which each contestant had to flip a shoe from their feet and land it on a table some distance away. The shoe had to remain on the table, and if it falls off, it did not count.
Another interesting challenge was the ‘Elephant March, where each contestant was fitted with a makeshift trunk using a pantyhose over the head and a ball at the end. Marching down a line, they each had to knock over eight small water bottles one at a time.
In ‘How's It Hangin’, a banana was tied onto a string and then around the contestant’s waist who would try to swing the fruit to knock two oranges into a circle.
This was done until only one family remained. Each member of that family then had to participate in five additional challenges which had to be completed in 60 seconds for a chance to win $1 000.
Successful completion of the first three guaranteed them $300, but they had to complete tasks four and five in order to win the $1 000.
These challenges included having two glass bottles placed mouth to mouth vertically on a table with a $5 bill in between them, the contestant was asked to pull the money from the bottles without them falling.
Another task was a small ball placed atop a water bottle, which was then placed atop a larger empty bottle. The participant was asked to remove the smaller bottle and have the ball drop into the smaller one.
The first four challenges were completed with success, but the final one, which would have guaranteed the family winning the $1 000, did not go as planned.
The task was dubbed ‘Egg Dance’. The participant was asked to balance two serving trays, each carrying an egg, from one end of the stage to the next without dropping the egg.
Not only did the time run out, but an egg also fell which caused that family not to earn the financial reward.
The event however proved to be a very successful one. No doubt those in attendance had a 'belly full of fun and laughter' as some, when leaving, were heard saying they could not wait to see what next year's Game Show would bring.
