c4countdown

We know that a lot of people here are great at anagrams and arithmetic, but what about other talents? Those special skills you don't really talk about, or which you use to impress somebody else? Things we like to call "party tricks".

Mine are:
1) I can miaow so realistically that when I do it in front of a cat, they either look around for another cat, miaow back, or start following me
2) I can turn my tongue upside down without touching it
3) I can sing in a high voice like a woman or a deep voice like a man (not very tunefully, but it's still a talent)

I've often thought about party tricks, and I've never been able to think of one that I have - is anyone else as 'talent'less as me?

If you give me nine random letters, I can make the longest word possible from them in 30 seconds over 50% of the time!

Jon O'Neill wrote:If you give me nine random letters, I can make the longest word possible from them in 30 seconds over 50% of the time!

There should probably be a word in the dictionary for the art of finding the longest word from a random selection of letters, as I presume the point you're making is that I didn't cover that when I said "anagrams". It's rather cumbersome to have to describe it each time isn't it, when there could just be one word.
I'm sure the core skills of Countdown adapt pretty well as party tricks too though.

Derek Hazell wrote:I'm sure the core skills of Countdown adapt pretty well as party tricks too though.

I'm struggling to think of an example of how they could. Either that or I don't go to the right parties.

Michael Wallace wrote:I'm struggling to think of an example of how they could. Either that or I don't go to the right parties.

I was just trying to be diplomatic, as Jono named that as his trick. But, I can see how a group of people in a bar, with some calling out random letters, while others race to find something out of them, all whilst drinking, shouting and cheering could work as an entertaining skill. Perhaps.

Also Michael, I reckon you have special skills too, but you're just being modest.

I'm really good at balancing things on top of each other.

I can fall over forward without bending my knees. The more wasted everyone is, the bigger the reaction I get, but that's the same for just about everything really.

I do farmyard impressions...




...but I do the smells, not the sounds!

I can do a really realistic impression of the sound of rubbing a dirty mark off a pane of glass

Derek Hazell wrote:Also Michael, I reckon you have special skills too, but you're just being modest.

Well I'm pretty sure I have 'skills' too, it's just that doing some maths or playing Halo aren't really things you can wow people with at parties. Not one's stereotypical parties, at any rate.

Michael Wallace wrote: Well I'm pretty sure I have 'skills' too, it's just that doing some maths or playing Halo aren't really things you can wow people with at parties.

Tell us a joke!

Charlie Reams wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote: Well I'm pretty sure I have 'skills' too, it's just that doing some maths or playing Halo aren't really things you can wow people with at parties.

Tell us a joke!

Why was the stereo uncomfortable about playing music? Because it was all a bit CD.

Pick a two-digit number, cube it, give me the answer. I'll tell you your original two-digit number, i.e. cube-root your answer, in under 5 seconds. I also know the dance routine to 'Work It Out' from High School Musical 2.

Neither fails as a clunge-magnet.

Michael Wallace wrote:

Charlie Reams wrote:

Michael Wallace wrote: Well I'm pretty sure I have 'skills' too, it's just that doing some maths or playing Halo aren't really things you can wow people with at parties.

Tell us a joke!

Why was the stereo uncomfortable about playing music? Because it was all a bit CD.

You're going to have to explain this one...

Ian Volante wrote:You're going to have to explain this one...

Huh, ok. Well stereo gives you a *big* sound. The C in CD stands for compact, and you wouldn't want to fit a big family in a compact car (as in brake *disc*), in fact, you might say that if you did they would feel uncomfortable.

Jeffrey Burgin wrote:Pick a two-digit number, cube it, give me the answer. I'll tell you your original two-digit number, i.e. cube-root your answer, in under 5 seconds.

But that means someone at the party has to cube the number in their head first. Unless you carry a calculator around with you to give to people in order to speed up the trick process.

I can balance coins on my elbow and catch them in my hand. My record (without dropping a single coin) is 30. To put it into context, I think the WR is in hundreds!

I can touch the back of my left hand with my left index finger. Either elicits a reaction of "I never want to see that again," or "Awesome!".

Regrettably, almost invariably the former.

James Hall wrote:I can touch the back of my left hand with my left index finger. Either elicits a reaction of "I never want to see that again," or "Awesome!".

Regrettably, almost invariably the former.

Pix plz!

James Hall wrote:I can touch the back of my left hand with my left index finger. Either elicits a reaction of "I never want to see that again," or "Awesome!".

Regrettably, almost invariably the former.

Awesome. I used to be pretty double-jointed like that, although now the best I can do is touch my left thumb to my wrist.

Michael Wallace wrote:

James Hall wrote:I can touch the back of my left hand with my left index finger.

Awesome. I used to be pretty double-jointed like that, although now the best I can do is touch my left thumb to my wrist.

If you mean your right wrist, I can do that too.

Charlie Reams wrote:

James Hall wrote:I can touch the back of my left hand with my left index finger. Either elicits a reaction of "I never want to see that again," or "Awesome!".

Regrettably, almost invariably the former.

Pix plz!

After a couple of attempts at clicking the mouse button with my elbow to get my webcam to take a still, I'm happy to oblige.

Awesome. Have you managed to find any uses for that ability?

It did mean that I never lost a game of 'Mercy' at primary school, but that's about it.

James Hall wrote:It did mean that I never lost a game of 'Mercy' at primary school, but that's about it.

I thought you were going to say flicking Neil Zussman when he beats you at Countdown!

James Hall wrote:

Excellent! I dunno why I'm so impressed by stuff like this.

The best I can manage here body horro wise is being able to dislocate my right shoulder and pop it behind my head, and I can flex my left pinkie independently of any of the other fingers on that hand. I'm also pretty good at co-ordination type tricks such as patting your head and rubbing your stomach simultaneously.

Oh, and I used to be able to snap my fingers using any finger, not just the middle ones, but I've kinda lost that ability over the years.

I can juggle 5 balls and solve a Rubik's cube in under 25 seconds. Doing either always elicits a response at parties.

Also, when I first told my friends about going on Countdown (while in Wetherspoon's) some of them starting giving me anagrams to solve. One of them keyed 'RTBOHIKSKAAIDEAPI' or something into his phone and showed me the screen and I solved it instantly (he was impressed as he didn't expect me to do it). They gave me a fair few anagrams and I got most of them (learnt a few esoteric words as well).

I was pretty happy to have turned anagramming into a party trick!

JackHurst wrote:But that means someone at the party has to cube the number in their head first. Unless you carry a calculator around with you to give to people in order to speed up the trick process.

People usually have phones with calculators on them.

Jeffrey Burgin wrote:

JackHurst wrote:But that means someone at the party has to cube the number in their head first. Unless you carry a calculator around with you to give to people in order to speed up the trick process.

People usually have phones with calculators on them.

Wow, they've moved on since I last bought a mobile.