MANILA, Philippines—Remember when you were a kid and you didn’t have anyone to play dominoes with? You just lined them all up, pushed the first piece and then watched everything fall down, domino-style.

Well, several people have come up with variations of that game. Some have incorporated other materials, while others have substituted actual domino pieces with surprising objects.

These YouTube vids will not only enthrall you for a couple of minutes, they’ll also make you realize how substitution can make things even more entertaining.

E-mail the author at ninomarksablan@yahoo.com

Domino coins in the office

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Bje2VkEvM&eurl or search for Coin Dominoes

Reportedly a British advertisement, the video is shot in an office where long lines of coins (10,000 pound coins) snake around familiar objects such as a mouse pad, keyboard, stack of folders and electric fan. Amazing bits about the vid? How the guys behind it were able to make the coins stand up, the stairs trick (where the coin dominoes fall down while going upstairs) and the fact that all those coins must have amounted to a huge amount of money!

Library dominoes

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cwi hz7iZlx0 or search for Library Dominoes

Using books as domino pieces isn’t that interesting, but when you are a student and you line up several books inside the library to watch them fall down domino-style, that’s something. You know what could have been more interesting? The student getting caught and scolded by the librarian!

Japanese dominoes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA65o6mZNOA&feature=related or search for Japanese Dominoes

You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese. For their own domino challenge, they gathered everyday materials such as bags on their display stands, mannequins, high-heeled shoes, CDs, coins, picture frames, and lined them up all over a gigantic house. The chain started with a huge block being pushed and ended with a glass of champagne filling a pyramid of goblets. See what happens in between in this “Japa-nice” video.

Dominoes plus billiards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bgc67rf26I

Pool meets Dominos. Very cool trick shot

It doesn’t matter whether the trick is more of a pool or a domino one. This is a totally cool trick that combines the two, starting with someone hitting a billiard ball, which then starts the falling domino chain. What’s amazing is how several other billiard balls are set free by the dominoes—all of them slipping neatly into holes. It doesn’t end there. The chain hops from one pool table to another, all connected by cue stick bridges. Imagine the humiliation if something didn’t happen as planned!

Human dominoes

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qQKmKm4CTbk

Human Dominoes in Boston

Last March 28, some 50 undercover agents pulled off a prank called the Suitcase Spectacle in Boston’s South Station. Forming a straight line, the first person yawned, was followed by the one behind him and so on and so forth, until it reached the person at the end of the line. This last person then sneezed, fell and pushed the person in front of him until everyone has fallen to the ground, domino-style—in front of people at the South Station. It’s fun, although it’d be more fun to witness such a thing live. The most hilarious thing about the video? The poker-faced witness commenting, “That was hilarious.”