Jackson's Way

Last night, feeling moribund and in serious need of motivation, I went to see celebrity motivational speaker Chris John Jackson and learned about Jackson's Way, a guide to revolutionising your life by doing things which are completely pointless. And now my life is changed FOREVER!

Oh OK. This is only sort of true. Actually I really was feeling moribund and seriously in need of motivation, but Chris John Jackson is the fictional creation of Will Adamsdale, and Jackson's Way is a comedy show which won the Perrier back in 2004 and is belatedly touring London on a 26-date "Jacksathon".

And it is brilliant. The peril of writing about a show like this is the less you know before you arrive the better. But to give you some idea: Adamsdale - a lovably bonkers stage presence reminiscent of Mork-era Robin Williams (there may be doubters out there but for me this is praise indeed) - is charm itself as Jackson. He bounds with energy and contagious enthusiasm as he unfolds his technique, which starts off pleasingly silly and builds through a series of logical leaps to end up in a place which is utterly insane. As he demonstrates through use of slides, there is a lot of pointless stuff out there, and you will explore more of it than you might have imagined. You will find yourself swept along to dream up your own Jacktions (maybe even complex Jacktions, if you reach level 3 or 4) and contemplate the joy of Moving Things. Meanwhile Jackson himself is tugged at by demons (what is the mystery of his brother Travis? Has he just become the gimmicky "towel guy"? And will he ever be entirely accepted by the doubting self-help community, who think is technique is kinda samey?) - but he always bounces back with puppyish glee.

The show convinces utterly as a self-help talkshopinar (that's talk / workshop / seminar, of course) complete with powerpoint presentation, meaningless jargon, endless acronyms and audience participation of the most surreal and least humiliating type. I was alarmed that some of it veered dangerously close to actual exercises that I teach to my creative writing class (what is the opposite of a lampshade?) - maybe I've had an inner Jackson all this time. And the weird thing is that although it's utter hokum, I came to the end of the show feeling genuinely motivated to do something completely pointless. So I swapped two identical programmes on two identical seats for one another, and felt strangely satisfied. And now my life is changed, ah, temporarily. [punches air] Achieved!

More details and tour dates here - it's selling out so book now. I really can't recommend this highly enough.