Students enrolled in the Adam Sandler course received a pleasant surprise this week when they received a four-minute DVD message from none other than Sandler himself.

The course, which is the only one of its kind in the world, is dedicated to studying the career of the comedian.

“It’s the chronological study of his career,” said Ronald Russo, instructor of the course. “We start by looking at his time on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and study all his films all the way up to ‘Grown Ups.’”

Russo said Sandler made the message Monday and students watched it in class Thursday.

In the video, Sandler gave advice to students about getting involved in the entertainment business. Russo said one important thing Sandler told students to do was make connections with classmates while in college.

“I think this was a direct quote,” Russo said. “He said: ‘people that are on your same wavelength, get together with those people, hook up with those people.’”

Russo said Sandler also told students about the writing process, and that students should work out the story first, then add the jokes.

“It was really just a lot of him joking around,” Russo said. “He was in his home office, with his dog, Babu. He made a couple jokes about the dog, then the dog vomited.”

To thank Sandler for the message and advice, students filled a big box card with messages, thank-yous and Sandler quotes, which was sent at the end of class Thursday. They also sent Sandler a Kent State basketball shirt because he is a known basketball fan.

Russo said the actor said he may come to Kent State to visit the class someday and left students with this final message: “Thanks for watching my crappy videos.”

Contact Kirsten Bowers at [email protected].