This weekend, Monster Jam invades the Allstate Arena. Brought to you by the United States Hot Rod Association, Monster Trucks like Grave Digger, Escalade, Tazz and Nitro Circus will be jumping, racing, and crashing, and flipping their huge automobiles in order to get to the championship tournament in Las Vegas in March. Tournaments are at 7:30 on Friday, 2:00 and 7:30 on Saturday, and 2:00 on Sunday. Tickets cost $10 for kids, $20 for adults and there is some VIP areas for $30 and $50. We caught up with George Balhan, the driver of Escalade, to learn a little bit more about Monster Jam.

"Most of the guys come up through the ranks as a mechanic and then transition to driver," said George. "But my parents got me into motor cross early with ATV's and 2 wheels as well." Driving for Monster Jam is grueling as the circuit takes you all over the country and the world each week. George is a seven year veteran, four of those years behind the Escalade. This year George has been criss crossing the country in Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tampa, Atlanta and other cities. So George, a native from the Chicagoland area, is happy to be home, despite the snow.

The show is broken into two parts. George explains, "The first half is drag racing. Winners are based purely on time. But the second half is freestyle where you can really show what you can do. Guys will be jumping forward, backward, sideways. Anything to impress the judges."

And can we expect anything special from George? "I am known for my big Mohawk and big donuts. I have a quick release steering wheel that I hold up during the donuts. The crowd gets loud."

George, a father of 3, says the kids make him think twice when he is out on the track. "I may go 4 weeks without flipping the Escalade. Then I might flip it four weeks in a row. The crowd loves it. But there is a lot more dangerous stuff you can do than that. The kids make me think twice before doing anything really stupid."

And how does being a Monster Jam impact fatherhood? "I really appreciate my time at home. We also work quite a bit with the Make-A-Wish foundation so it really make me think how lucky it is to have healthy kids."

Monster Jam is an absolute riot for the entire family. The Allstate Arena was completely sold out on Sunday and the majority of the crowd was families.

The event kicked off by introducing all of the different trucks and drivers. Grave Digger is the crowd favorite but Escalade was driven by a native Chicagoan who was a big crowd pleaser.

The first competition was a wheelie competition which was probably my favorite part of the show. Trucks drove up and over cars to see how big of a wheelie that could produce. Each driver got too chances. Escalade won and it looked like the truck was almost walking on its back wheels.

Then there was a drag racing tournament where trucks did 2 laps around the track. This was exciting and kids tried to guess who would win and who they would root for.

Dispersed through the first half were quad wars (atv races) and the megasaurous which was a dinosaur that popped out of an all terain vehicle, breathing fire and actually ate a car in half.

Then the show ended with freestyle where the trucks did donuts, jumped cars backwards and forwards, and were given scores by the judges.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and the kids thought it was great. It was incredibly loud and we had to constantly make sure earplugs were solidly attached to their ears, but it was a great time.