Unlocking Your Intangible Toolbox: Acting Techniques for Everyday Life

Jim has spent 20 years in the acting industry , so we're going to be talking to him about his work and everything that he's up to .

When you know , the priest was speaking words , you know , kingdom without end , you know , and the concept hit me that if there's no end , there's no middle . There's no middle , it's just a perpetual beginning . So , like you know , it's really neon . From now I still exist . I don't need to get to my existence . It , it freaks me out , it's a little .

So I regressed into my head and I started creating what I now see as programs , and two of the most predominant ones are my bubbles . My suits are like characters , my bubbles are like the holodeck of the Star Trek

universe . So what I would do in my mind was I would take different versions of myself , put them in these bubbles , which are different environments or different circumstances , and then I would let them run their course . Then come around 2008, . I was maybe four years into acting and I had an incident that happened .

I was filming a movie called Hunger and I was opposite an actor called Lyndon Ashby and I wasn't even on camera . I wasn't in character , I was just reading lines with him . The camera was on him , but when they yelled , they yelled cut . He reached over and shook my hand and the gratitude was intense . I could tell he really appreciated .

I didn't know what I'd done because I wasn't acting , I was just there , and it was a little bit after that that the realization hit me that my whole life was in a sense preparing me for that , because my suits were no different than characters , my bubbles were no different than scenes .

I just learned a way to create an operating system for the supercomputer called the human brain .

And there was a girl that was working there and she was talking about her voice lessons and I was just , you know , marine jarhead . I was breaking balls talking about how easy voice lessons were compared to what a Marine does . She did you know , stood up and challenged me . She said I bet you couldn't take voice lessons , soldier boy .

And I'm like bet I could . So I went to , I found a voice instructor and I signed up not for two but like six weeks of voice lessons . But when I started it just kind of took off . He put me into a concert and that led to my first play . Then , uh , I did another play after that and that led to the role of judas and jesus christ the superstar .

And it's like within the first two years I probably racked up 20 , 30 credits , from the first year probably about 50 . Uh , it was a very speedball experience for me but , like I said , it just happened on an accident . Most of my life does , because I just kind of go with the flow .

Are there submarines or anything on the surface ? So it lets you see what you can't see . That is kind of what I'm saying , what these systems do . So what I'm saying with acting , what we do now it's evolved to the point where we're feeling real emotions in imaginary circumstances . We're creating real human mindsets for use on the stage .

So we're creating , we're working very , very hard to create living human beings for the imaginative and we're changing in and out of these people all the time and we do it all the time as well . It's called code switching in the common world .

It's like when a kid from an urban city environment goes to more affluent neighborhood and then he changes his personality to fit in there because he can't act the same way around his friends as he can in this country club . So we do it to a certain degree . It's just acting as hyper code switching .

You're switching who you are mentally and emotionally into completely different people for the purpose of the role . What I'm saying is you can take these tools and techniques and use them in your life , because the reality is these masters who created these tools and techniques . They created it for actors , to manipulate the human mind and emotions .

But we don't have a set of mind and emotions for the stage and a set for real life . So , essentially , what these masters did , what they created for actors on the stage , they created for all of us . They just never thought of the implications . Now I want to just jump into the Stanislavski system , because this is kind of where I'm going with it .

This was created by a gentleman named Konstantin Stanislavski about 100 years ago and it's his base system for actors to break down a moment and think about in life how many people ever took the time to break down the moment they were in to understand what was going on . And this is kind of where I'm going with the sonar thing .

Okay , this system is based on seven questions . Number one who am I ? This is the moment in relation to you . Number two where am I ? This is the moment in relation to the environment around you . When is it ? This is the moment in relation to the environment around you . When is it ?

This is the moment in relation to time , because time changes people Before or after a meal , when's a good time to talk to them ? So , like I said , these all have very poignant needs . Number four what do I want ? This is the moment in relation to purpose . Why do I want ? This is the moment in relation to desire . How do I get it ?

This is the moment in relation to action . What's in my way ? This is the moment in relation to obstacles . So , by being able to take apart a moment , you have much more choices in that moment .

And where this attaches to spiritual shapeshifting is you can take these different mindsets , attach them to different versions of you , to different versions of you , and then , whenever you have a problem , you can literally shift through it .

These problems with different mindsets , and each version of you will see the problem differently and give you more answers , if that makes sense .

Is it kept with this job ? Where am I ? Is this job commute something I can maintain ? Is this a place that I can stay in through changes about , or is it just something I'm passing time ? What do I need to overcome ? Are there other applicants ? Are my skill sets on my resume on par in relation to those with the other applicants ? What about a conversation ?

Who am I ? Do I need to bring comfort to this conversation , sternness or just an ear to absorb someone else's pain ? Where am I ? What are the circumstances , the situation this conversation is having ? Is it public ? We private ? When is it ? How long has passed since a difficult time or event ?

So what I'm saying is every moment of your life you can dissect , and if you dissect your those moments , it's going to give you answers that you didn't have . So it's being able to see things people normally wouldn't see and , like I said , this works on everything , because for 100 years now actors have been using it on everything , only for the imaginative .

I'm saying the implications of using this in real life will transform the world . Because , I'll say this , when we gave the world literacy for reading , for language literacy , it changed the world . When we gave people mathematical literacy , it changed the world . When we gave people mathematical literacy , it changed the world .

Why wouldn't it change the world if we gave people mental and emotional literacy in a systemic way ?

The actor is the crayons . Our life experience is what colors that script . It's what adds ticks to the characters . It's what adds to the moments . Now we do that by building our intangible toolbox .

Now I'm going to list off just a few of the things that you can find in that actors are learning in their intangible toolbox and , as I read these off , just tell me if these are any things that people could use in their life that they don't have .

All right , presence , situational awareness , initiative , grit , projection , wit , breeziness , motivation , emotional regulation , empathy , critical thinking , teamwork , public speaking , problem solving , creativity , listening , independence , mindfulness , preparation , organization , goal orientation , interpersonal skills , communication .

Now , like I said , that's just a short list of what we learn . These are systemically taught skills . Why aren't we teaching this to all people in the world if we're proving to teach it to a small group ?

The theory of the triune brain came around like in the 60s and basically saying we all have a set of emotions and everybody around the world has it and that's who we are and there's no real science to back it up .

They just kind of came up with it because they didn't have all the MRIs and stuff that they can actually see up with , because they didn't have all the MRIs and stuff that they can actually see .

Well , her research is science supported and it's saying that emotions are created in real time as things are happening to us and that's exactly what supports what actors have been doing for all this time .

University of California , irvine , had a course where they brought to the memory science the memory learning department , together with the acting course to teach actors a new way to be actors and essentially the way they said it was like learning the song learning the meaning of the song before you learn the song .

Um , there's a place called sense theater where it teaches kids with autism how to interact in the world . And the simplest way I can put it is like this when actors study a play , they have the script to go on . When improvisers have to put on a show , they don't have to have a script .

They don't have a script , so they have to study the way the play works , the structure of the play . So that's what Sense Theater is doing . They're taking that philosophy , teaching kids with autism how a social environment works so they don't have to pick up on the cues , because that's the biggest problem they have is they can't pick up on cues .

So if you teach them beforehand how the environment works , they can recognize it . Trauma drama is taking acting techniques and teaching the kids who've undergone trauma . But they're not going through the trauma the kid went through .

It's a different kind of trauma , so they're teaching them something that's safe for them to go through , so they can learn how to deal with trauma .

Um , dr joseph levy moreno , back in the 1950s , created psychodrama , literally from taking acting techniques and putting it into the group therapy therapy environment and , like all of these instances have shown where it works .

Um , going back to uh , and I don't think I mentioned that uh , dr and Noyce of Elmhurst College were doing some work with acting and there was another doctor named Thalia Goldstein .

She was talking about the help where it worked with elderly people who were suffering from dementia , and acting techniques and mnemonic techniques that we use were helping them to rebuild their memories in slight ways well , tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that people need to be aware of well , the main thing is is the book . I just

uh put it out not too long ago . Um , it's where I really get in depth and talk about it . It breaks down in three parts . The first part is talks about my life and how I came to the idea .

The second part is the idea itself and the third part is the intangible toolbox where I show , I break down the stanislavski system , how it works in acting and how it works in life , and give a lot of examples in a way , uh , the meisner technique where it shows how to read behavior .

Uh , uda hoggins 10 exercises again which help you how to break down a moment in her way . I briefly touch into improv and showing how that works . So this has been the main focus . Now it's just trying to get the book out .

It's called all your best selves , how the performing arts toolkit can help you anytime , anyplace , with anyone , and right now it's only on amazon . But that's , that's my push because , like I said I I know this is a world-changing idea and I hate that it's in my hands because I'm not the hero the world needs , I'm the hobo it has .

But I understand the importance of this idea .

So I jumped into social media thing and I just kind of podcasting thing , trying to learn how this works and trying to get better at it Most definitely what closes out with some final thoughts .

Once you know all , we answer all the questions , you know what you're going to do . It makes life a lot easier because you're not at the mercy of other people . You can make your own own choices , you can be your own person .

So , like I said , I think the most important thing is getting in here , unlocking all the different versions of who you are and living a richer , fuller life , because that's what people deserve . We're not doing that right . We're not living the best lives that we can .

If you have any guests or suggestion topics , curtis Jackson 1978 at attnet is the place to send them . Thank you for listening and supporting the show and , jim , thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining us .