With the fest drawing closer, the Oasis English Press sat down with Mime Club’s Oasis Coordinator, Ankush Shandilya to gain insight into the club’s preparations. 

Ankush said that Mime Club had been meeting daily since the beginning of the semester to prepare for their performance. At this year’s Inauguration, they will be performing four acts, including a “Dawn of the Djinns” themed shadow and neon UV show. Ankush explained that while other colleges, that have had similar acts, were supported by outside crews. However, Mime Club did everything in-house. According to him, preparing the Inauguration acts took the most time, with rigorous twelve hour sessions in the last two weeks before the fest. 

Additionally, the club was bringing back the popular Pun Wars event on Day One, and screening club-made short films during Mime Movie Night on Day Two. This year, a new competitive event called Reel It In would be held on Day Three which would be related to trending Instagram Reels.

Though they are known for their humorous acts, the club has faced difficulty in doing ‘political’ jokes for the last year or so. Ankush said that he had had to request for approval of jokes from the StuCCA and the CoStAA in previous years. Ankush noted that this had not been an issue during his first two years in the club. When asked if the club felt that it was their duty to stand up for students through their jokes, he explained that relatable, as opposed to humorous, content was the main aim of the club and that the jokes resulted from what the campus was already talking about. 

One major issue was that their Inauguration performances would often get delayed, causing the majority of the audience to leave. However, despite ‘a few ups and downs’, Ankush said that the StuCCA had been very helpful. 

Ankush, who was in his psenti sem, described his experience as a ‘mix of emotions’ because he had been in the club since his first semester. He said that he wanted to leave with a good performance and urged that people wait for Mime Club’s Inauguration acts despite the delays.