Make It Rain
A storm builds round the circle, one pair of hands at a time.
You rub your palms together and the person beside you copies, then the next, until the sound has travelled the whole circle. Then you change to clicking, then clapping, then stamping, and a room of strangers has built a rainstorm without anybody saying a word. It ends quieter than it started, which is the part people remember.
Circle up and watch me. Whatever I'm doing, the person on my left copies, then the person after them, all the way round. Don't start until it reaches you, and don't stop until I change. No talking at all.
You want to settle a room rather than lift it — before something reflective, or to bring the noise down at the end of a loud session.
Props: None
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.Bringing a loud room down before something serious
A quiet opener for a group that has been talking
The last two minutes of a session
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Circle up, close enough that everyone can see round it.
- "Copy the person on your right, but only once it reaches you."
- Start rubbing your palms together. Watch it travel round.
- Once it is all the way round, change to clicking your fingers. Let that travel too.
- Then clapping, then slapping your thighs, then stamping. That is the storm at its loudest.
- Now go backwards through the same sounds to bring it down.
- Finish on rubbing palms, then stop, and let the room sit in the silence for a second.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- The silence at the end is the activity. Do not talk over it — wait three or four seconds before you say anything at all.
- Only change the sound once the last one has gone all the way round. Changing early collapses it into noise.
- People will start before it reaches them. Say once that waiting is the point, then let the circle correct itself.
- It works far better with eyes on the person to their right than on you. Say that at the start and you will not have to say it again.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Stamping is loud and carries through floors. Check what is underneath you before you get to it, or stop at thigh-slapping.
- Anyone who cannot click or clap can rub their palms throughout — the sound still travels.
Already seated
Nobody has to stand for this one.
Entirely seated already. Thigh-slapping and stamping both work from a chair, and the circle can be a seated ring or even rows.
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Put it on the projector and step through it — nobody in the room needs a phone.
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- Where
- Needs a room
- Props
- None
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only