‘Hilarious, and highly entertaining’ is how most members of the audience described this edition of BLAB, the Oasis JAM organized by the Department of Stage Controls. BLAB is based on the hit BBC show “Just a Minute” wherein contestants have to talk for sixty seconds on a given topic without hesitation, repetition, or deviation subject to certain rules. Karthik Ramaswamy, who has hosted BLAB six times in the past, returned as JAM master for this iteration of the event.

The preliminary round which started at 12pm saw around twenty people participating. The prelims only lasted a few rounds and the best eight performers were selected to take part in the finals. With the exception of one participant, Kumar Prakarsh from IIIT Pune, all the finalists were from BITS Pilani. The finals started in the NAB Auditorium at 5:50pm after a twenty minute delay caused by a technical issue with the buzzers. However unlike the prelims, the auditorium was packed with spectators. Instead of the clever and witty topics that usually characterizes BLAB, this time the JAM master made the finalists speak on comical images and videos. In one of the rounds, the participants had to talk about a meme depicting Shashi Tharoor courting a lady friend. Some rounds had extra rules the participants had to follow, including one where finalists had to make an animal sound before speaking. Fierce competition ensued with the participants promptly buzzing when their rivals made mistakes and intensely vying to claim their chance to speak. Using his sharp wit to roast the finalists and crack jokes, Karthik ensured that the event was entertaining at all times.

What made the event all the more amusing were the finalists and their group dynamics. Saksham, a second year was constantly buzzing, so much so that one time it took him a minute or so just to figure out why exactly he buzzed. Due to his relentless use of the buzzer he managed to rack up sixty five negative points. Harsh, a first year would unceasingly defend his own speech and challenge others even to the point of invoking the JAM master’s wrath. Derek Mathias, who won the event, would come up with bizarre stories involving his mother and father whenever he had no idea on what to talk about.

What was originally planned to be a two hour affair ended up lasting longer and only stopped because people were anxious to reach the Prof Show on time.  Karthik was very pleased with the contestants and praised their performance this year. He admitted that he felt there was a dearth of good performances in the past few years but is delighted that the current batch has broken that trend.