A favorite Young Life tradition is the ‘run-on skit.’ A
‘run-on’ (or ‘walk-on’) is simply a skit where the same characters appear every
week.
There are two main options for how to run your run-on:
No Storyline
The skit characters appear weekly at club with no storyline,
simply to run-games/sell camp/give announcements, etc… Think of “Deep Thoughts with Jack
Handey” from Saturday Night Live or “Mr. Good Times” (a game
show host that repeatedly says “Because it’s always a good time with…MR.
GOOD TIMES) or “The
Good Morning Young Life Guys” (that wake kids with video cameras).
Redemptive Storyline
Skit characters appear weekly in club, each week revealing a
little more of their story. Typically this method is used to sell camp.
For example: Twin brothers from different mothers, ‘Montgomery’ and ‘John
Michael’ are competing in a local arm-wrastlin’ contest with hopes of getting
to the World-Wide Arm Wrastlin’ Championships in Jasper, Georgia at a lil place
called Tarp Cop Shove. (Which happens to be ‘Sharptop Cove’ where you’re going
for fall camp.) Each week they either train or have a competition. Since every
good story involves overcoming conflict, villains are introduced (can be played
by kids or leaders) and attempt to thwart their dreams.
Club games can be used as ‘training opportunities’ for Montgomery and John
Michael. It’s great when you can pair up the sin talk week with the run-on week
where all hope seems lost (because Montgomery broke his arm). Then the cross
week is where he comes back out of nowhere and wins the semi-finals with his
left arm to advance to Tarp Cop Shove. Maybe even make a video to show on the
bus to camp?
Many of you already know these basic ideas above, but here are three bonus
ideas. They can help your run-on skit create some momentum in the school and
even help motivate kids to invite their friends to club.
THREE WAYS TO ROCK OUT YOUR RUN-ON
Instagram Fan Page
Create an Instagram account for your run-on characters. A few summers ago at
Sharptop, “The Desire” was one of the program characters. The day
after we came home from camp, I kept seeing online that my high school friends
had become Facebook friends with “TheDesire Jones.” It was a fun way
to keep that camp momentum going.
Give-Away T-Shirts
Connect with a local screen-printing business and ask them to cut you a deal on
printing some t-shirts with your run-on characters’ faces on the front. If you
can’t get a good deal, try to find a sponsor. Often an area business will pay
for your shirts if you put their logo on the sleeve. They don’t have to be
super high quality, but just something to use as a prize all semester for the
winners of the games you play during club.
Cardboard Cutouts
Honestly, who doesn’t like to get their picture taken with a
life-size cardboard cut-out? A friend who runs a sign company in town is giving
us a great deal on getting two of these made of our run-on characters. We plan
on breaking them out before club on week 4, after the kids have become familiar
with the characters.
We’ll have them set up as a photo booth and post the pics of kids with the
cardboard characters on Instagram. The rest of the semester we plan on putting
the cardboard characters in funny places around town (like kids’ bathrooms/the
principal’s office/local hangout spot) and taking pictures of them to show at
club.
Find ideas for
run-on skit characters here.
If you have other ideas you’d like to share, here’s how
you share them. You never know what kind of YL swag might end up in
your mailbox if you pass on good ideas!
