"I Am the Wackiest of the Hijink."

"Live from Scott Hall, it's Wacky Hijinks...night!"



Thus began Wacky Hijinks 2008, some of the most fun I've ever had in college theater.

Well, ok, that's not exactly how it began. The show actually begins with 10 seconds of Andy drinking coffee followed by a sketch about Bear Fights, a secret organization of people who go out into the wilderness to regain their primal instincts (and fight bears), but this video was, I suppose, the official opening. It was edited by Adam and was one of the first signs I had that this show would be pretty darn good.

While I contributed a sketch freelance-style to Wacky Hijinks 2006, last year's show was my first as an official member of CAP's exclusive 8-member sketch troupe. It was a tumultous year with a lot of people butting heads but we came together in the end and ended up with an amazing show (those YouTube videos really don't do it justice).

When it came time to start working on this year's show, I was really worried about failing to live up to Hijinks 2007. We had lost our most senior member (Mena) and most prolific writer (Adam N.) and even our most aesthetically pleasing members (Mike and Nicole), yet people kept telling us that they were more excited for this year's show than they had been in a while. A voice in the back of my mind kept telling me we were gonna blow it. However, I told that voice to shut up and got ready to work.

Then the writer's block hit.

For almost a month, right in the prime writing season, I was incapable of coming up with anything funny. Well, that's not exactly accurate. It was more like I was incapable of finding anything funny. Any idea I came up with I would instantly shoot down. Any idea anyone else came up with I would shoot down. Even ideas I had written down and loved two weeks earlier I now hated. It was as if I had lost my entire sense of humor.

I remember the peak of it, where I was at this writing meeting with Zach, Greg, and Adam and I was just acting like a black hole of comedy, absolutely ripping apart anyone's material including my own. The worst part was that it was Adam's first real writing meeting and I was sure that, because of me, he would quit within the week.

Finally this period ended and I was able to start churning out sketches again and enjoy other people's. And enjoy them I did! We quickly amassed some of my favorite scenes and bits I've ever been involved in. I was sure the show would be great. And I remained sure until tech week where I again developed the same sense of dread that I gotten before every show this year (especially the other one I co-wrote, Zipperface!!?!).

And, just like Zipperface!!?! before it, all my fears turned out to be completely unfounded. The audiences loved the show and it was an absolutely amazing time. But even better than that, I really got close to the people involved. We hung out every day for the past couple of months at rehearsal and then spent hours together every night up in my attic. When we had problems during tech, we never fought or argued. Everything was nice and smooth and I have to say it was one of the best creative experiences I've ever had. It was the pinnacle of this mounting feeling I've had all year that I've surrounded myself with people who are really talented and who really make each other better through proximity.

This is something that will be put to the test soon enough when we try to start our own website. But, more on that when the time comes...

Anyway, back to Hijinks. Here are some more pictures of the show, most of which were taken by Darya on closing night. Once video becomes available, I'll post that here as well.