Craig Parsons and I hadn’t known each other five minutes, but there we were laughing it up like friends.
Our icebreakers were sheets of paper and three stacks of cards. Armed with pens, we picked cards from decks marked Who? What? Where?
My cards weren’t so hot — Lassie, dissecting a frog and Egypt.
His weren’t much better — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, mud wrestling and a nuclear plant.
"There’s no time limit, but just take a couple minutes. Some people take forever," Parsons said.
So I sketched my ridiculous scenario of a pyramid (easy), a dog holding a knife in one paw (pretty easy), and a miserable looking frog (not so easy).
He was stumped. His best guess was "Snoopy?"
Parsons is a computer programmer in finance systems for King County. That’s no fun. And it’s not why I sat down with him Wednesday to play a round of Who? What? Where?
The 34-year-old Lynnwood man invented the game, reviewed recently by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the most entertaining new game of the year." A Chicago Tribune ranking of "10 cool games" listed Who? What? Where? at No. 2.
"Players draw scenes based on three unrelated cards — George Bush bungee jumping off Mount Rushmore for instance — and gain points when their opponents correctly guess … Think Pictionary times three," the Nov. 30 Tribune article said.
Parsons’ idea was brought to market by Pazow!, a San Francisco Bay Area company that also sells Scavenger Hunt for Kids, a children’s card game.
"It’s the most entertaining game we’ve ever played. It’s the only drawing game where the worse you are as an artist the more fun it is," said Jason Krupat, who founded Pazow! in 2002 with Michelle Harp.
"It’s doing very well," Harp said from San Mateo, Calif.
Who? What? Where? ($29.95) is available at Wizards of the Coast, Calendar Club, the University Bookstore and online at www.pazow.com/buy.html.
For Parsons, it’s a boyhood dream come true.
"I’ve always dreamt up board game ideas. I even contacted Parker Brothers as a teenager to see if they were interested in one of my early concepts," Parsons said.
He was crazy about the game Risk as a kid. Today he has a collection of 200 games. He and his wife, Kelley, enjoy sitting down with friends for the low-tech entertainment of board games.
His Who? What? Where? notion has been around since the mid-’90s, when he talked friends into playing it. When they asked to play it again, he thought he might have a hit.
Krupat designed the game. Characters range from Jennifer Lopez and Mother Teresa to Abraham Lincoln and Mickey Mouse.
Michael Jackson is there, though the game was made before the pop star’s current legal woes.
"That’s kind of by coincidence," Harp said.
Cards give players more than a million possible combinations. One could be Michael Jackson getting liposuctioned on the Starship Enterprise — scary thought.
Before starting Pazow!, Harp and Krupat worked for University Games, maker of the Carmen San Diego games, and at Microsoft.
They liked Parsons’ game because it keeps players busy and laughing.
"Jason was playing and someone drew Pinocchio. People thought with the big nose it was Barbra Streisand," Harp said.
The company founders wouldn’t discuss the inventor’s contract. Parsons is no household name. But then neither is Charles Darrow, who sold 5,000 handmade sets of Monopoly to a Philadelphia department store in 1935.
Is Parsons getting rich? Has he landed on Boardwalk? He laughed and said, "one never knows."
I’ll ponder that while making a mental picture — Bill Clinton serenading a lover on Mars.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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