Surprise parties are extremely tough to keep secret from the birthday guy or gal, partly because the standard surprise party has become so commonplace. To get both a funny and memorable surprise party, it’s best to think outside the box. By using new methods to surprise your birthday celebrant, you will truly catch him or her off-guard and the party will be a success.

The limo party works for all ages, but it is especially effective with younger folks who haven’t been in a limo before. This party involves renting a limo, filling it with the honoree's friends, and having it pull up to his or her house. The honoree is prompted to open the door and everyone inside can yell their surprises. After the initial laughs, the limo can whisk through the city on a site-seeing tour, stopping by a restaurant, where the honoree can open gifts.

The slow trickle dinner, also called the Backwards Surprise, involves going to what seems like an extremely quiet dinner at a restaurant. In actuality, most of the tables (if not all of them) have been reserved by guests of the party who “coincidentally” show up every few minutes after the birthday person has arrived. As more and more friends arrive, the birthday person realizes that it is a surprise party. Once the gig is up, let the other guests in and begin the party.

The nostalgia party is particularly effective for someone celebrating a milestone such as a 30th, 40th or 50th birthday. The nostalgia party is essentially a surprise party with a specific theme and the location of the party can be set up like a particular year. Instead of throwing an “over the hill” party, this is more like a nostalgic look back at the year or decade in which the person was born. If the person was born in 1964, do a “Welcome to 1964” party, complete with appropriate music, decorations and food. The guests can even wear appropriate costumes if they are willing.

This party requires the honoree to have a great sense of humor. Have a few masked bandits kidnap the birthday person early in the morning and take him to the location of the party. At the same time, the other guests arrive at the location as if they have been kidnapped as well. The guests can look like they had just woken up or as if they were in the middle of something. Everybody should play the part of being kidnapped for at least a few minutes before yelling “surprise” to let the birthday person in on the joke. At that point, everybody can go to breakfast, the movies or another location.

The surprise-surprise party involves a bit of trickery. On the day of the celebrant’s birthday, have a small party with a limited amount of friends. A couple days later, invite the birthday person to a surprise party for another friend. In actuality, this is a much bigger surprise party for the birthday person to which everyone is invited. After a few minutes of waiting for the friend to arrive, everyone yells “surprise” to the birthday person who has been completely faked out.