∞ Introducing the Simplest Acting Technique in the World ∞

Sometimes the best way to improve on something is to discard everything that came before and start from scratch. A few years ago, I created and trademarked a technique called Task Jamming®. To my mind, it is one of the simplest and most effective acting techniques available, but it really requires that the actor let go of a lot of beliefs about what acting is, in order to improve their performances and meet their real potential.

That’s harder than it seem. Our beliefs become hardwired into us, literally part of who we are.

Task Jamming requires a good understanding of the psychological drive of the character. So let’s say it’s ‘to get someone to swallow a bitter pill’ like delivering some bad news to someone that they won’t want to hear. (This requires some knowledge of script and scene analysis)

All your behaviour, your tactics, the things you do to the other actor have to derive from this mindset. These are primarily psychological, and come in the form of transitive verbs. (Ones that fit between and I you)

And this is the simple part. Say aloud what the other actor is doing psychologically. (This requires some knowledge of the repetition exercise)

“You’re distracted.” 

Say it aloud again, but this time, like you want to discourage them from being unsettled (they can’t swallow the bitter pill unless they are calm again)

Choose a tactic that you would instinctively do to someone you wanted to be settled, so that you could achieve your goal of delivering this bad news.

So you might do this:

CALM: “You’re distracted.”

You’ve acknowledged what they are really doing right now. Not what they are saying, but what they are doing, not what they are pretending to do, but what they are actually doing.

Now we force that decision through both your response to what they are doing, and your next line.

CALM: “You’re distracted.”  CALM “Call him up, ask him”

Then the other actor sees the HUGGING from their perspective, perhaps they find it patronising and deflect it.

DEFLECT “You’re patronising” DEFLECT “Maybe later”

Then you see the deflection, and perhaps you quickly focus them.

FOCUS “Call About Their Behaviour” FOCUS “Line from the Script”.

This goes back and forth from the beginning of the scene until the end. A continued cycle of acknowledging with a response and letting that response affect the lines, and then your scene partner does the same thing. Like the infinity symbol ∞

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t even feel like acting. It is acknowledging what’s happening in the present moment. It’s having an opinion on that – which comes from your Task/Mindset and making sure that your opinion/response/tactic is pushed through into the lines.

Once you’ve mastered this level of the technique, you simply do the call part in your head – which is great, because the audience see a physiological response in you before the line comes out – something that is always incredibly difficult to achieve through purely ‘acting’.

No character, no transformation, no magical acting talent, just a simple infinity loop being used over and over again.

Acting Coach Scotland is the only acting school in the world that offers this technique. Want to learn it? Get in touch