Talking about the freedom being a New Games Leader gives you

Find out more about our New Games Leaders course (Sheffield, 21/22 April 2018)

Transcript:
Hi I’m Dale LeFevre from New Games
and I’m John Allsopp, I’m a marketer
my marketer
absolutely. So you had basically retired, that was the point when I first met you
semi retired
alright semi retired, so what was it that brought you back in?
I say ‘semi retired’ because I was responding to requests but not reaching out, I thought well, if somebody asks me I would be happy to do something but I’m not going to go scouring because that was not very exciting for me to do, it was a lot of work and not so much results and so I thought ahh
It’s exciting for me to do
There you go, that’s .. so I found this guy, that’s what turns you on and what turns me on is just going out and doing the games. I felt like I had a lot to give yet, I’m still fit, I’m still able, I definitely still want to do the workshops and presentations and linking up with you made a difference because you’re willing to do the part that I wasn’t so willing to do. I mean, a little bit’s fine but doing it a lot stresses me out. So I really felt that people still want to do the games once they find out about it, so I wanted to be able to bring the games to them and it’s some kind of a legacy
And I think when I was first talking to you you were knocking around Montenegro, that interested me, it speaks to this idea of the freedom of being able to do New Games pretty much anywhere, literally across the world but also anywhere you’ve got space and people.
Yes, well today I’ve presented New Games in 34 countries literally around the world, Montenegro, I’ve been to India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and everywhere it was very well received. The thing is, people like to play, they like to have fun, and I just bring that element, not that none of them know how to have fun but this particular way, like, for adults normally it’s ‘oh, play games? Hmm’. Maybe party games but .. this reintroduces an element to them that allows them to have fun in this way. And it’s a very simple way, it doesn’t take a lot of organisation.
I really like the idea that if you train as a hairdresser then you can go and sit on a beach somewhere and earn some money as a hairdresser and that that can fund eternal travel and the freedom, really, from the 9-5 but also the freedom from location and it strikes me that New Games is kind-of similar to that, that you could progress around the world delivering New Games.
Definitely, I was, when I grew up when I was 18 I thought, living in Wisconsin Illinois I thought well, maybe I’ll go to Canada and I took Spanish because I thought maybe I’ll go as far as Mexico someday so it was way beyond my expectations to travel completely around the world and New Games allowed me to do that, I’d find a group and even, well, when it was in East Germany they asked me to come and I got to go to a place where westerners couldn’t get in there very easily, but I was there with New Games and saw what it was like and that was really a thrill for me, and to see different cultures, it’s been quite amazing for me. So yes, yes, you can do these games anywhere.
I’ll start booking the tour of North Korea
Ohhh, maybe hold off on that one for a while
We got an email from Edith Ryan who said that some of her best memories are of taking a parachute to a park and seeing what happens next, what’s that all about?
Well, that can work, if you’re not dependent on money for presenting the games. For a local person, they can go just anywhere and do it. Take out the parachute, flap it around, some kids say ‘oooh’ and it acts like a magnet. I think, ahh yes, in my parachute video we did just that, shake out the parachute and kids are like zzzzp, like crazy. However, that doesn’t always work like for instance today it’s raining so you can’t do parachute outside it just doesn’t work. So you have to think about things like an alternative. Like if you’re doing an event and you do it outside and you think ‘oh, of course it will be perfect weather’ but, you know, that’s not always the case so you book an indoor space where you can go if you need it, I mean, I think that’s just sensible.
And what about things like twisting your ankle on a pothole, that kinda of thing, is that a concern when you go out to a place like that?
Well of course it is. We check the area we are going to play in, a whole group will walk over it to look for things, for potholes or whatever and either we mark them with a cone or a frisbee or something, or we move to a place that doesn’t have potholes. And there’s also things like dog remains that we can remove or whatever. And just anything that would be a hazard. Indoors it’s different of course, we have sharp edges and things that can get you so to bring the people’s awareness to that because when they are playing they are just .. they lose their mind in a way and they forget about these things so if you beforehand bring that to their attention “oh, watch for this” and if you can’t move it or in another way do something about it, there’s a table or a chair or something you have to be aware of and just brings it to their consciousness and they’re like “OK”. You’ve got to keep it safe, as safe as you can. It doesn’t mean no-one will ever get hurt, but in the 43 years I’ve been doing it for my events I’ve only had one person hurt their back a little bit and it wasn’t serious. Yes sometimes you get a turned ankle or whatever, that’s going to happen in normal life.
Coming to the event and leaving it ..
So we’re running an event the 21st/22nd April n Sheffield which is to train people to run New Games, so if you are interested in that there will be a link around or on the video which you can click to hear about that, but we’ve also had lots of people talk to us, well, basically asking ‘when are you coming to America?’, ‘when are you coming to California’ or wherever so that might be the focus for next year, so that’s why we’re saying this event in Sheffield is the only one we’re planning in Sheffield. So if you want to train in Sheffield then this is the event to come to and after that we’ll be all over the place.
Sounds good to me

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