So, recently I was involved in helping to plan a Stag Do for a friend. Those of us involved wanted to do something a bit different from your standard setup. Also It is important to note here that the Stag in question was undoubtedly a Nerd and so we wanted to head towards that as a theme for the event. We couldn’t find any one place where there was a good sum of suggestions or knowledge. So we set out to find everything we could do based around London, as it was most convenient for us. So here is the amassed knowledge we gained for everything you need to create a bad ass Party for any Nerdy friend/event! But also we hope this serves as inspiration for your own ideas that we never thought of!

INVITES

First things first whatever the event you need to invite people to it! And personalised invites or emails Kick off the theme very well. A number of ideas for these that we came up with included: Using actual old Floppy disks as a base for the invitations(Example II), creating an original comic strip/cover related to the groom or event to back the invite. Using the groups images as the avengers (Example III) or the justice league , Mission orders in the style of your favourite military/sci-fi show maybe Flight orders from Battlestar Galactica (Example I).

 

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ATTIRE

As with any event, especially a Stag Do, Style is key, and there are plenty of Nerdy ideas that even on a budget can draw together a group. The easiest being just making Nerdy shirt mandatory. With a little more thought and effort one could quite easily set up, Star trek Landing party T-shirts(below) Just add a badge to Yellow, Blue and red shirts (Lots of fun can here deciding who gets what shirt, or the Spok ears). Other ideas include Brown coats in homage to firefly, Or black tees with x-wing pilots Call Signs red V etc or Battlestar call signs Starbuck, Apollo etc.

MUSIC

In all likelihood you will probably end up spending at least some time on the move in vehicles between places. One way to hype up the otherwise mundane travelling is to give your event a soundtrack. Movie soundtrack songs are a great place to start e.g judge Dredd, Lord of the rings, Willow. There is also potential in the car game of naming the franchise of each song first or create teams and see who can get the most. Below was our events get psyched mix:

1.Judge Dredd (1995) Block War by Alan Silvestri
2. Buffy the vampire slayer, Theme song by Nerf Herder
3. Lord of the rings, The rings go South by Howard Shore
4. red dwarf theme Written by Howard Goodall and sang by Jenna Russell
5. Willow Main theme by James Horner
6. Xena opening theme by Joseph LoDuca
7. Monty pythons holy grail, We’re knights of the round table by the Pythons
8. Star Trek next generation opening theme by Jerry Goldsmith
9. Pirates of the Carribean theme by composer Klaus Badeltand and producer Hans Zimmer
10. firefly, Ballad of Serenity, By Joss Whedon
11. Labyrinth, Dance magic Dance By David Bowie
12. Chuck, insrumental Short Skirt/Long Jacket by Cake
13. Indiana Jones theme by John Williams.
14. Dark angel theme by Joel McNeely
15. Matrix Spybreak by Propellarheads
16. 90s xmen cartoon theme
17. Dont stop me now by Queen (In homage to shaun of the dead)
18. 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme tune
19. Star wars theme by John Williams
20. Game of thrones theme by Ramin Djawadi
21. Stargate Movie theme By David Arnold
22. BBC’s Neverwhere opening theme
23. Batman Begins ending theme by Hans Zimmer.

If you got money a plenty to spend you could improve these journeys by riding in style by getting a limo or go even further and rent something really cool like the Batmobile or other themed transport.

FOOD

At some point you’re gonna have to feed people and there are lots of great options  for Nerdy drinks/snacks. A great source of ideas and inspiration is the YouTube show Nerdy nummies, where Rosanna Pansino takes you through making all sorts of Nerdy treats for example Diablo 3 potions, Skittle vodka.

Also everyone knows Pizza is the staple of the Nerd Community and if you wanna do a twist on that theme, you could make your own game of thrones themed pizza (another nerdy nummies idea below) or if you remember our evil dead musical blog here is a link to how to make a necronomicon pizza. Another great option comes from your local Pizza places if you ask nicely and pay for the time and ingredients they will often be happy to make a Giant over-sized pizza to share out.

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS ! IT’S APOCALYPSE TRAINING !

There are so many great ideas for fun outdoorsy things to do with a Nerd theme here are just a few examples we came up with…

Everybody Loves/Hates Zombies

Thanks to world war Z, 28 days later and Shaun of the dead the worlds fascination with Zombies is it an all-time high. Because of this there are huge numbers of Zombie based events and experiences across the country and worldwide. One of which that we came across that tickled our fancy was that at  Zedevents.co.uk. They have a Zombie Mall for you to survive, allowing us to relive and experience the joy and terror of a Dawn of the Dead like experience in person. However if that isn’t your cup of tea there are many other companies and options across the country and we have linked a few down below:

http://www.zedevents.co.uk                                     
http://zombieexperiences.co.uk                               
http://www.thelastsurvivors.co.uk                   
http://www.zombiecamp.co.uk/locations

Target Practice

If you’re looking to get involved with zombies you might want to get your shooting eye in and there are loads of fun ways to so it. One way would be the favourite pass time of thousands of ten year old boys, Laser tag! Or Quasar depending on where you are. An oldie but a goodie across the entire world.                                   If you’re looking for something with more pain and more expense you can push the boat out and go for PaintBall. Always more expensive than you’re expecting but if you’re willing to drop a whole hunk of change on paintball’s, it is a good laugh. If you’re looking for local places to do it, or if you want to shop around for a deal there are some links here:

http://london-paintballing.co.uk                 
http://www.campaign-paintball.com                       
http://www.paintballgames.co.uk

If you want to try something closer to the real thing another idea we had was a trip to an Archery/Gun range. Often these places will allow you to add your own images to the target. So for added fun one might shoot Gomer, the legend of Zelda boss you could only kill with arrows or if your still on that train a Zombie.There are a number of shooting ranges for archery and guns(I imagine more of the latter in the USA) in the UK and therefore Plenty of opportunity to hone your accuracy.

Shooting links:                                                 
http://www.2020archery.co.uk(archery)                         
http://thebigshoot.co.uk (clay pigeon shooting)   
http://www.onesite.co.uk/find/shooting.htm(shooting
http://www.touristnetuk.com/activities/targetshooting/london/(shooting)       
http://www.first4london.com/directory/Sport_and_Leisure/Shooting/(shooting)

Getting Up Close and Personal

If fighting it out Melee style is more your thing we got you covered as well. If you’re a renaissance man there is the delicate art of Fencing or if you’re more viking/Medieval perhaps the Bastard Sword is more your style. Both are readily available as well as a huge number of other weapons to learn with. So you can easily get your zombie beheading up to scratch and practice for the last line of defence when the ammunition is all gone…

Sword Fighting LInks:        
http://www.londonfencingclub.co.uk/fencing_for_groups.php (fencing)  
http://www.centrallondonfencingclub.com/index.php  (fencing)  
http://fightmedieval.com/about/ (Medieval weapon fighting)  
http://www.thefightschool.demon.co.uk (Japanese/shogun, Stargate airsoft, LARP, and Sword fighting)

Running away….. I Mean Tactical Retreat!

Lets be honest no one has ever watched a movie where at one point or another the heroes wouldn’t have been better served by running away. However the cowardice in that choice can only be negated in one way, by making it look super cool, and that is where Parkour/Free Running comes in! As the final part of your nerd Event Apocalypse training this is is a super fun thing to do with a group. There are a Number of places across the country that run learning sessions mostly in cool indoor assault courses, which teach you to move, looking cool and fast, to escape the oncoming zombie apocalypse.

London Parkour Links:

http://parkourgenerations.com/class?classtype=private 
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/parkour-london-feature-1616.html

If all of this exercise sounds overly exhausting you can always turn to the Nerd staple dungeons and dragons. After all it contains all of the above as well as strategy,” a thinking mans preparation”. A great idea we came up with was to write a Bachelor themed Adventure with references to his bride, past conquests and a terrifying end boss the Gorgon known only as “mother in law”. Also there is a lot to be said for board games with added drinking game rules.

Always a good idea if there’s something good on the big screen is a trip to the cinema. Lets be honest these days there is always a comic book movie on at the very least, and to improve this experience you can always go Supersizing and check it out in IMAX.

If you want something a bit special in the movie vein and don’t necessarily want to see the new movies the place for you is Prince Charles Theatre, London. They show all sorts of Cult films and trilogies such as the entire Alien Quadrilogy. They also have all sorts of other weird set ups such as doing regular beer and pizza nights(where included in the price of your ticket to see a movie is beer and some pizza) and cool/weird events such as the labyrinth viewing and subsequent masquerade ball. Details of which you can find on their twitter @thePCCLondon or at their website princecharlescinema.com.

Stand Up comedy Is always a good option with many great staples on tour like Eddie Izzard or Dara Obrain. As well as any of the great comedy clubs in London featuring any number of less well-known acts who also tour the country or perform at Edinburgh comedy festival. If this is your jam and you’re looking for some new comedic talent you haven’t heard of, there will be some more help with that here later this month.

Comedy Links:                                                              
http://www.99clubcomedy.com                         
http://www.comedyclubbookings.co.uk           
http://www.timeout.com/london/comedy                   
https://www.edfringe.com

Theatre doesn’t necessarily come to mind when you think fun or nerdy, especially for a stag do but there are some great options such as  Spamalot (the stage adaptation of Monty Pythons holy grail) or Avenue Q the Muppet’s with the mouth a new side to the Henson company.

GAMING

A Gaming session is always a great idea be it Fifa, World of Warcraft or Halo and there are many options Including another reason to spice it up with more booze. Drinking games for gamers a show by the warp zone on YouTube has a number of great ideas for a multitude of games, one of my favourites is below:

Another great option for gaming if you’re in the London area is a trip to Gamerbase Piccadilly Circus, located at HMV at the London Trocadero. Gamerbase offers 60 plus Custom Built PCs containing the latest Intel processors and Nvidia Geforce technology, a library of over 200 games and 8 XBox 360’s and 3 PS3’s connected to a variety of HD screens, all of which are connected to XBox Live and PSN. So a great place to get down and game with a whole bunch of people. You can find details about gamerbase at londontrocadero.com/tenant/3/Gamerbase or follow them on twitter @GamerbaseTroc.

Hopefully This has given you great ideas for your own event and inspiration for things we never thought of! If that is the case we would love to hear about anything you came up with either as comments here or via our twitter @nerdeyesonly. Whatever the case we hope you’re having fun and getting nerdy with it!