A lot of acting teachers hate it when I use these terms, but let’s face it, technique is all BS, unless it works for you.

Technique is not acting. If it was there would be ONE technique.

The problem is, if you think what a teacher is speeing is BS upfront, the chances of you learning from it are slim to none.

I said the same thing to a sales team yesterday. All the things we say, every NO means YOU’RE just one less NO away from a YES… etc etc etc It’s all BS. At the end if day sales is just connecting s lroduct to a costumer. BUT… ego and insecurity get in the way. Life gets in the way. NOs hurt. You don’t hate sales. You hate rejection.

At the end of the day, “acting is saying lines written by someone else in a way that tells the story and inspires the imagination of an audience. PERIOD!

Some folks get it on day one. Some never get it. As a teacher focused on technique, the chances of you inspiring a young artist is little to none. A lot of “teachers” never figured out the difference between acting and technique.

With zero training, acting is easy on a good day.

BUT…

What about the rainy days? What about the days you wake up with a sore throat? What about the days you are stiff? What aboit the days you are fried and your mind is not feeling inspired? What about the times you are depressed, suffering from loss, etc etc etc

THAT IS WHY WE LEARN TECHNIQUE!

Learning to melt away the tension in your throat and neck so you can sing pretty EVERY day takes time. Learning to act on a dime from just a breath takes time. Learning to be focused when the world is in chaos takes time. Learning to move through space gracefully, kinetically without hurting ourselves or another.

OR IF YIU TRILT WANT TO BECOME A MASTER at vocal performance, stage combat, mime etc etc etc, we train, and we train, and we train…

These things we learn from those silly games we play in first 15 minutes of class/rehearsal.

I have colleagues and students that are always late. They come in and disrupt the process of others. Rarely these individuals are just uncaring, inconsiderate of others, lacking total respect for what we do.

Too often these folks think they know everything. They have natural talent and can get by. Or they have had a lot of classes and can recite Shakespeare, if not the entirety of Meisner’s book.

But they cannot connect to the material or the audience in a truly authentic way.

An agent will tell you, YOU NEED MORE CLASSES BEFORE I CAN WORK WITH YOU.

I am not sure that is what YOU need. Maybe. You need to have more experience. You need to get on stage and in front of a camera. You need to read more plays. You need to learn new songs. You need to develop YOUR craft.

YOU need to focus like a ninja in a time when focus is at an all time low. You need to be inspired at a time when loneliness and social anxiety is at an all time high. YOUR challenges are not lack of technique.

And here is the thing. What you really need is to realize, I am full of BS telling you what works for YOU is BS.

EVERYTHING is BS so NOTHING is BS.

If it works for you, USE IT. But the second you believe your own BS too much, you are probably not doing the work. You are phoning it in relying on technique. It’s time to learn a new gimmick.

As a new actor, if you are thinking technique in a performance, you haven’t done the work. You can’t get out of the way because you don’t know your character yet.

As a teacher, STOP TEACHING THE SAME BS YOU ALWAYS TEACH. Listen with your eyes.

Once you get past the level of realizing it is all BS, you start plugging in the BS that is meant for you. But sadly, most, myself at times, are in a rough patch when we hear the wrong BS and latch on to THAT as our salvation.

This is how folks join cults, religious or otherwise. 1000s buy into nonsense that sound great. They nod along. They regurgitate the BS. And the yeats later they have a crisis of faith when THAT BS stops working.

Here is the thing. If it works for you, great! If it’s got yiu focused at the time, it wasn’t a bad thing. You just bought into the coolaid too much. Sometimes, we need BS just to get through today. No judge.

But a true master moves past all this. You use the BS that makes sense today. You realize you will NEVER know everything. You continue to listen with your eyes. You will continue to be a sponge. You will shed the BS that stops working and adopt the BS you need today. As you age, every 5 years or so, you probably need a new mantra, code of ethics, pattern to your day, workout regiment, focus technique, etc etc etc.

WHEN YOU FEEL STUCK. change something. When that thing that always worked for you, don’t freak out, just change something. You are human.

Ego and insecurity are normal. If you are letting them rule, you are not living your best selves. If you think you have them mastered, you are in denial.

Religion, meditation, family, friends, vacations, reading a good book, watching a bad movie, dancing, running, swimming, napping, etc etc etc ONLY YOU know what works for you. If NOTHING works for you, yiu just haven’t found the right BS for you yet.

For me, simply calling it all BS is my BS. I have days when my ego needs a check. Other days, I want to end it all. Living the gig life, my life is bipolar. I have a week so amazing, the money is flowing while I am having more fun than most do on their best vacation days doing my jobs. Then I have a few days off, or I pushed myself too far and HAVE to take a few days off and have moments of I WILL NEVER WORK AGAIN, and the cycle continues. I have different BS for different days. The highs and lows require different regulations.

My superpower is recognizing the BS for what it is. It is the thing I NEED something days and the thing that gets in the way other days. Some days you need yiur routine to be present. Other days your routine keeps you from being present.

This is why my BS boils down to this.

• HAVE FUN but never at another’s expense.
• YES AND… Accept & Support….
• LISTEN WITH YOUR EYES

As a performer. As a boss. As a teammate. As a salesperson. As the customerservice representative. As a husband. As a son. As an uncle. As a teacher/mentor.

With every hat I wear, I go back to my THREE #1s. All of my training and 30+ years of experience help me get there. But when it is time to be present, THINKING of all that training end experience takes me out of the moment. In the moment, DON’T THINK. Just listen and trust yourself to be everything yiu need to be in that moment. THEN reflect so next time is even better. THAT is the simple formula to success. Is truly is that simple. EVERYTHING ELSE is ego and insecurity!

SIDE NOTE

Why do I say things this way? Because I listen with my eyes. When I run professional development programming for teachers and corporate team building I see the body language of many. THIS IS BS, A WASTE OF MY TIME.

This article is my YES AND… to you. My superpower and success is understanding this and therefore I win over more than most.

I focus on having fun, not BSing you.

THIS IS BS, A WASTE OF MY TIME.

If this is YOUR subtext, I challenge you to think, THIS IS BS BUT IT MIGHT BE THE BS I NEED RIGHT NOW. Flip the script. Improv.teaches us to suspend judgement. Instead be curious. Consider WHYis this fool spewing this BS. I am not saying drink the coolaide. Be open to ALL ideas. Add as many tools to yiur shed as you can collect. THEN be more selective in how and when you use them in the moment.