For the last two years at the Indiana University Comedy Festival, The Crazy Monkeys have been invited and this year would have established a steady pattern, but for some reason they decided to cut us. It was a pretty disappointing blow. We checked our inbox eagerly with hopes that the Union Board would at least have the decency to inform us of the status of the festival. However, The Monkeys accepted our fate when the week of the festival came and not one bit of effort was stretched out from our Southern friends to say that they could not accommodate us.

Not to fret though. The Monkeys were initially disappointed because the annual IU trip is such a great time for newbie bondage. We thought that we were out of luck, until the fantastic Avital Issacs of Oberlin College emailed us with an invitation to go be awesome and get taught by The Upright Citizens Brigade! What a heroic effort by the administration at Oberlin, The Monkeys weren't without a vacation this year after all!

Unfortunately for the new members, only Dennis was lucky enough to go because we lost the key to Matt Maassel's handcuffs and he spent the weekend chained to a desk. That is sort of true. Actually he had to study hard for a Food Science class. Do well Matt, the Monkeys still love you!

That extension of love makes its way to our other Matt who didn't make it either. With only eighty per cent of our group, we forged east towards Lake Erie with full doubt of the GPS's capabilities. It is true, one thing that I learned this weekend, unrelated to improv, is to never drive with egos that supersede the knowledge of a device that has the entire layout of the globe in it. Every direction the GPS told us to turn we instinctively doubted it and so many dinosaur bones were unnecessarily killed. Sorry earth.

Surprisingly the drive was not as horrible as it could have been. Oberlin College is a three hundred mile, six hour long drive and somehow we arrived in time for check in. I may be bias though because I think I slept for a good bit of the ride. Sleeping on a road trip is like time travel! The College is home to about three thousand students compared to Purdue's forty thousand. It is true that Oberlin claims a population hardly as diverse as Purdue, but I was completely at home there. The campus was not stained with Greek Life or littered with trash. It was as if the coolest kids at Purdue all broke off to make their own school that was way more and pleasantly liberal.

The first night we were broken in half for sleeping accommodations. It was completely free so we were open to whatever we could get. Logan, Lauren, Kelsey, and I all spent the night in one of the The Sunshine Scouts's living rooms. West Hall in Stewart House No. 118 was more of a dorm that had a surprisingly cushy floor built in the 60s. It was great though, and Llewie, our host did her best to make us comfortable. As soon as we dropped off our things, we went to The Cat in the Cream Coffee House for four hours of professional improv from those who would be teaching us the next day.

The Irish Mutts started things off beautifully at eight. Shaun Landry and Kevin McShane play together to make an uncanny comedic duo who know improv backwards and forwards. Shaun is a forty-five year old sassy black woman from the South Side of Chicago who I heard gave Del Close black balloons on his death bed. Kevin is a master of creating characters and full of Irish blood. Together they blew my mind when they were improvising scenes without the safety net that more players would provide. They were on an island and so it could only be one hundred per cent funny or a complete flop, but The Irish Mutts brilliantly told three stories that had everyone holding their sides.

On Second was Rare Bird Show. Three professionals from Philadelphia, Rare Bird Show was phenomenal too. A troupe of only three, they worked together flawlessly also. Alexis Simpson stood out the next day for her workshops titled, Jekyl and Hyde. The two were a harsh critique of players' form and of The Monkeys who participated, they said it was highly beneficial. She was not afraid to rip people apart because it was solely meant for reconstruction.

The last act was the most anticipated and my personal favorite. The Upright Citizens Brigade were the best! That is all I can say. Four players started with a montage interpretation of an audience volunteer's life as a English major and Zoology minor. They were outstandingly creative and it was a chore to stop laughing. Their second act was a long form montage just like the prior groups, but it was inspirational to the Monkeys. We decided to perform long form the next night instead of our comfortable short form because we wanted to show off our absolute best even though it was more risky.

After the shows ended at midnight there was a party at Tim's house, of The Sunshine Scouts. It was super fun and many of the professional performers joined the amateurs to socialize. It was also the first chance we had to mingle with the fellow troupes that had driven from as far as Maryland to be apart of the festival.

A few hours past and when it was time to head back to Stewart House Logan, Lauren, Kelsey, and I all walked in the cold provided by Lake Erie to find that the front door of the dorm was locked. It was late and we were freezing and to make things worse, Llewie was not answering her phone. Fortunately, the attitude at Oberlin is so laid back that it might be a false sense of security, but it was our ticket in. The windows above the door were hinged open so Logan boosted me onto the awning above and I crawled into the second floor stairwell. Despite looking like a thief or a pervert trying to break into a girls dorm I felt pretty cool and let everyone in who were shivering downstairs. Llewie always leaves the door to her living room unlocked so we didn't end up sleeping in the halls. The next day was going to be an important one and the first classes started at eleven so we did our best to get to sleep.

The next morning we were bummed because it was raining and we hadn't brought any clothes that were appropriate. I did the only thing you can do in that situation, started walking, but I noticed something very peculiar. "You guys! I haven't been hit by a rain drop yet!" I yelled back to my friends as I thought for a split second that maybe I had super powers. The actually reason me me not being wet was because the rain was actually snow. So instead of having super powers, it turns out that my senses were actually worse.

We walking in the snow with tee shirts, but oddly were not cold. Oberlin is magic! After we ate bagels at Java Zone we had just enough time to make it to the King Building for class to start. My first workshop was taught by Brandon Gardner of UCB. 'Game of the Scene' was all about finding the first unique thing to happen in a scene and heightening it further than anything else. The game within the game is a tricky thing to understand in improv, however when it is used it can be the entire structure of a scene. Brandon was excellent and I learned a lot of new exercises that will help The Monkeys in the future. Want to play Reflection Circle Go? Man, that sounds fun.

The second workshop I was in only had six students compared to the prior thirteen. It was 'Improv for the Actor' taught by Nathan Lee Edmondson of Rare Bird Show. I felt like a newbie all over again when we sat in a circle and introduced ourselves along with our theatre background. Everyone could boast years of theatre in High School and even some professional work, however when the eyes were on me I said, "One thing that is non-theatre about me is... um, everything and I was tricked into getting into my troupe." It is true! With that fact I found the course very beneficial. It was all about getting out of your skin and having the confidence to act, either like a fool or a professional, but no matter what, doing it with every bit of energy available.

The very last workshop was the most challenging. 'Building Characters' by Kevin McShane of The Irish Mutts. Taking on an entirely made up character on the spot is incredibly difficult, but without it, improv is just people watching Eli do Eli things. Boring. Based on an unique walk we derived an entire character with a background story instantly thanks to an interview by Kevin. It was so interesting. The other way we developed characters was by inventing a character entirely around an interesting voice. He also said that when you're out of ideas, a healthy fallback is to just play a wacky member of your family. For the sake of the audience, I'll spare them my impressions of most of my family.

Each workshop was two hours long with a fifteen minute break in between. It was the same hours as High School, but we were learning concepts that I can actually apply. Well, ok High School wasn't completely pointless, but anyway the workshops were absolutely splendid! The Monkeys were exhausted and so we went back to Stewart House for some sleep before the 'Improv 'Til Your Dead' event started at eight. All of the troupes who traveled from hundreds of miles away were going to take the stage and show off what they could do.

The Monkeys were on at midnight so we had a chance to absorb all of the great improv without getting too nervous because our bit was four hours into the show. There was some great collegiate talent showcased at the event, however the most impressive act of the night was by Oberlin's own The Sunshine Scouts. A troupe of six barefoot players all clad in black accompanied by an expert pianist from Oberlin's conservatory of music. They even had two freshman, but the talent that is attracted by Oberlin led the players to perform a full long form montage with a bit of musical improv. It was absolutely brilliant and the performance rivals the professional show put on by UCB for my favorite of the weekend. They were unbelievably impressive and The Monkeys are so grateful to have been invited to the OCIC.

When it was time for the Monkeys to perform we were hyper excited from all of the silly warm up games we had played minutes earlier. We were going to go out there and show everyone what we could do! The seven players, Dennis is still in his training semester, went out there and at first we nearly fell dead. The audience was not getting into it! A common flaw that we tend to believe is that if the audience is not laughing out loud then they hate us. That is completely untrue! The audience started dying when my character was in his house all alone and God and satan started giving me advice. Eventually the audience got it and we were satisfied to have made a good impression on an unfamiliar audience. Alexis gave us pointers after the show and was very positive with her critique which was another confidence booster. After the show we were all exhausted and went straight to bed. It is boring yes, but we had worked really hard that day and sleep was desperately required.

That Sunday morning we ate some free pizza in the Oberlin Union. We thanked everyone so much for the amazing opportunity and then headed home to make it in time for the Girl Talk concert on Slayter Hill. Of course the ride wasn't without misdirection, but that didn't matter at all when we saw flocks of fans dancing on the lawn.

Thousands of students were intertwined in the mayhem and in that huge ocean I was trying desperately to find a certain fish. The famous cute girl of the past few posts was going to meet me at the show and our fun together would conclude 'The Greatest Weekend Ever'. Unfortunately, all of my nerves were firing with frustration multiplied by the stressful ride home when I couldn't find her among the kicking and screaming of crowd surfers. The concert actually was not as amazing as I thought it would be. Girl Talk went on at eight and only played for about an hour. It was still light out when he thanked everyone for coming!

The experience was splendid besides the short set list. I had found the girl and so I was satisfied. We danced and every now and then I had to save her life and the lives of the people around me, from flailing limbs of drunked up crowd surfers. Actually the concert was a bit more like a concern for survival rather than entertainment. Weird right? But it was still fun and this weekend really was one of the best weekends of my life.

At Oberlin I was learning so many great techniques about improv with my best friends. That was for two full days and on the final one I got to see the girl I have a mega crush on at a pretty sweet concert. I keep saying that April is only going to get better and without a doubt, that is the truth! Next week The Monkeys have two shows, Friday then Saturday and each will be followed by a great party where I'll meet a whole bunch of people and have so much fun. I absolutely can not wait and I hope that next semester only keeps getting better!