Season 4 - Trailer

0:00we're back it's been a while hooray finally

0:31but yeah so we're here to chat a little bit about what's coming up in this season season four of the podcast but first it'd be nice to have a little catch up so how has 2025 been so far for you John? well season four you say? yes apparently so look at that so we've done sort of 30 something episodes of this yeah so we're going to do another 10 well how's my year been? it's been excellent the last one we re-released is about a year ago some highlights

1:01from the year obviously the courses have been going from strength to strength I've been teaching the active embodiment course to actors all around the world and that group have really come a long way I've taught some workshops in America so I did one in New York in May which was wonderful we had so much fun you know there was a lot of fun in that one and obviously they learnt some technical acting stuff as well and then I did another one in LA the week after so I did another four day workshop in Los Angeles

1:32so it was nice to go back there haven't been to America for a few years and then I took my daughter Ruby with me and we had a little holiday in San Diego for four nights before we flew home so it was nice to see a different part of the United States but yeah there's a really good energy building up with the actors in America and they're putting it to good use you know they're getting a lot of self tapes and they're able to sort of use this and it's helping them to progress which is what you can hope for as an acting teacher but did I tell you

2:02I did a bit of acting myself you did yes what was this yeah I remember you talking about this well this was I just got a I got a message sort of out of the blue saying that we'd like to offer you a part in a short film as I was this and it was a a woman I met at the actors expo back in February and we chatted you know I was there sort of handing out leaflets and things and promoting the courses and we had a nice chat and then she'd got in touch after offering

2:32me this part and it was the best kind you don't even have to audition for amazing no audition just there you go we're offering it's like don't you want to hear me read it and the funny thing is Jordan it was um that she said oh no we just think you're perfect for it and I was like well what's the character it's a member of the national rifle association who's part of the republican party texan misogynist and I was like hold on a minute what exactly I was like what's all this about

3:02and then then I said well look don't you even want to hear my texan accent and she said oh no I know you can do a texan accent because she's obviously heard me doing a workshop where I was teaching some stuff from killer joe yeah of course my texan accent sorry from anyone from texas out there listening to that and so we shot it in vienna it was it was only a day shoot what I did the film's called the russian redhead and it's currently being edited it's a short which they're hoping to

3:33make into a feature film but they're going to do the festival run etc so that was really nice just to be given a character you know and put all this to test for myself and work on the character and get myself ready for the shoot and I think it went really well I'm yet to see the results well that's it you know and I think that's important you know to actually get on set and go on stage and do that I've also the other exciting thing is I'm just in the middle of doing that you know the books good company the man

4:05who wanted to meet god and birth and death now like for anyone sort of hearing this these three books are published by the study society and they're from the record of conversations with Sri Shantananda Saraswati who was at the time Shankracharya head of the tradition in northern India and they had almost annual audiences private audiences with him and asked him questions and he didn't know what he was going to say when he went into the meetings he said and he had no idea

4:36what he talked about after the meetings but it's like this kind of fountain of wisdom and from it they've created these three books good company the man who wanted to meet god and birth and death and we're creating the audio book versions for them so we're just I'm just in the middle of recording those so it's my first go of audio book narration and I couldn't have think of any other book I would rather do I mean as you know you know good company is like the bible the spiritual bible

5:06of the spiritual psychology of acting that we refer to all the time and it's been a huge inspiration to me during my adult life I came across this stuff when I was like in my mid-twenties and I've been sort of studying it ever since so that's really thrilling and they're going to be released as audio books because of course they were given first of all it's an oral tradition right yeah you know when he when he answered the questions he answered in hindi and then it was transcribed and translated into english and then printed into books

5:36but now it goes full circle because now obviously as an oral tradition people can hear it in the english language so I'm really excited about that because it's so valuable you know what he has to say on all aspects of human life I'm really looking forward to getting that finished and getting them out there we're just doing good company at the moment and I think we're going to do in this new series we're going to do an episode on audiobook narration yes we've got a special guest lined up we have got a special guest

6:07elise is coming on from the global actor and we're going to be talking about her what about you jordan what have you been up to since we last met well I've I've got a new agent the listeners remember the episode we had with Brian Pitaka the agent whisperer I think it was back in the start of season three yeah I studied with him I took his course and it was great yeah I've got a new agent from that now I think more importantly really it's the same you know studying the spiritual psychology

6:37of acting with yourself that obviously the practical knowledge is great and the practical application of that how that helps you in your career but I think what was most maybe surprising but also just so enlightening about it was the fact that it does kind of change your life as well like it's you know I think I got personally for me loads of breakthroughs from just from taking the course and doing that so successful on both fronts got a new agent but also found a bit more about myself which was a double bonus yeah oh that's great so this is what the make agents want

7:07you program that's it yeah with Brian and there you go because the proof is in the pudding because now you have a new agent and how's that working out how's that been getting a new representation it's good yeah it's really it is it's interesting obviously I was with my previous agent for a while so it's it does take a you know a period of time to really kind of get used to that new agent but yeah it's great I think part of the working with Brian as well is that you're you're constantly having to relinquish all the old habits that have stopped either stopped you from getting representation in the

7:38past or have given you a bad relationship with your your agent in the past and a lot of that can the onus is on you especially to to make sure you're you're giving the agent the best chance to be your agent you know in in all those moments so it's um yeah again it's putting it into practice and it's been great so far yeah and has it has it have you had opportunity have you found an increase in self tapes definitely yeah actually yeah there's there's been moments where there's been real purple patches which I know for this year I mean it seems to

8:08be year on year that it's you know it's it's hard in the industry but there's there's definitely moments where additions seem to be thrown in the ground for a lot of people but yeah I've been getting little moments where I've been getting seen by lots of different casting directors and yeah definitely more opportunities yeah well I know that you're not someone who's just sitting and waiting for somebody to do it all for you so Jordan attended my art and craft of directing course which is really it was really the art and craft of being an auteur wasn't it because it's yeah it's writing and

8:38directing yeah yeah and Jordan has created a fantastic short film script I must say it is brilliant uh and it incorporates everything that we worked on and it's really authentic and I gather that you've been making some progress with that yeah it's been a real focus actually and it's it is it's amazing to see the dominoes fall into place you know and I think that comes from just going out there and actually doing it I think you know for me writing was always something I wanted to do um but

9:09always came up with excuses not to do it and uh I think yeah finally doing the writing and directing course that you chaired was really a vital step in that because it kind of forced me to really work out what I wanted to say you know like what I wanted to um to bring as as an actor and writer and uh yeah I absolutely I fell in love with the project that that I was writing and um it's been yeah been with me now for about a year and a half two years um and it's developed leaps and bounds I now have a couple of producers that I'm working with uh a cinematographer as

9:41well we've got so our team is building and uh yeah hopefully we're going to go into pre-production soon and shoot it early next year so it's um yeah it's been incredible really it's it's been an amazing process and like you say it's like it's it's not sitting back and waiting for other people to to give you opportunities I think you know to have that level of power in your own career really I guess the level of control back is is is essential I think you know for for maintaining that creativity yes I think all actors you know I encourage all actors it's like don't just wait for somebody

10:12else to discover you it's like get on and make your own content and what you know when I presented the art and craft of directing and writing course my idea was is that everybody has a story to tell and that's why we did at the beginning there was a lot of you know reflecting on other stories that have inspired you um and also what pisses you off in life we talked about a lot yeah and so you care about yeah and what do you really care about what have you got to say that's what I find interesting as a teacher is that everybody has

10:42something to say and the process we went through it's really it's really organic and to see this project arise from that is is really remarkable and the fact that you've got it I think you're the most advanced and the other students have got some first drafts haven't they of their projects yeah and also who did a theatre play as well and that's the fact that these develop from from small kernels of ideas and what can come from it if you stick with it and give it care and attention and and pour your kind of heart and soul into it it's amazing

11:13to see what kind of progress you can make yeah that's definitely astounded me with my project is you know looking back where I've got with it it started with one small step of deciding to write something I think and that's that's the most important thing I got from it I think yeah and Niall Niall's one of the one of the students on the course he's done the whole spiritual psychology of acting and he's been doing the director's course when he first shared his ideas because he didn't want to do a film he wanted to do a play we were all a bit confused because there was all these this world between the real world

11:43and the fairy world and then it's like he was going to have puppeteering and all this and it's like what the hell is this and then watching it week by week growing and turning into a narrative was wonderful wasn't it and then I didn't get to see it but he actually performed it uh and um apparently the show was amazing yeah great reviews yeah yeah oh that's really good to hear so we've got a new this new season yes should we share something of what we've got yeah let's so we're kicking it off in a couple of days

12:14with an episode all about the know yourself be yourself course that you're starting soon yes we've already got that one in the can know yourself be yourself the spiritual psychology of human life for actors and non-actors alike a new course that's starting on the 1st of October a weekly training course so we've done a whole podcast episode on that and also there's information there about how to join the free online intro seminars on the 17th and the 24th of

12:47September and then the course starts then so there's some free intro seminars there you can find that on the web page and then we've got some other ideas haven't we we do so we're delving more into psychology we're going to tackle the big ones Freud and Jung for actors yes Freud and Jung for actors so we're going to see what we're both researching those I'm doing Freud and Jordan's doing Jung and we're best at the moment we're both researching those episodes but we like to do a

13:17mixture of psychology obviously acting technique and other sort of schools of acting and what did they teach and did it work also some spiritual knowledge and also some industry knowledge we like a mixture don't we exactly a perfect balance you've also got coming up the levels of consciousness that's kind of a bit of both isn't it a bit of spiritual a bit of psychological psychological yeah that's fascinating you can turn that into how to how to play that as actors that's on on different emotions and the

13:48level of consciousness going from the lowest is shame and the highest is enlightenment so it's a whole spectrum spectrum yeah snap yeah the whole spectrum so we're going to be doing two episodes on that we've also got Anne from at bold coming in she's talking about the five pillars of creating a successful career as an actor we've also got another one on audio books as I said with Elise and we've got some

14:19other guests that we're lining up that we don't want to give the game away for that we could have we potentially have some amazing guests also we're looking for for more episodes potentially from you the listener yes you the listener so if you're listening to this and you've been listening to our podcast and you know what we do and if you've got any subjects that you think oh that would be a really good one for the spiritual psychology of acting podcast you can get in touch with us podcast at spiritual psychology of acting dot com that's the

14:50email address it'll be in the description just send us an email dear John and Jordan here's my idea for a podcast episode and we'd really appreciate that because it'd be really good to hear you know what you want to hear absolutely and even any questions you might have as well if we have a whole bunch it might be nice to do a whole episode or kind of a Q&A Q&A one if there's specific questions that people want to ask and rather than specific topics that maybe we could do that at the end of the season we could do if you send in your questions

15:21we'll do a Q&A podcast and we can answer your specific questions so all in all very exciting yes and the first episode will be dropping on the 11th of September it's a Thursday yeah and don't forget to subscribe because then you'll get a notification to tell you when we're releasing these amazing podcast episodes well I hope they're going to be amazing fingers crossed fingers crossed yeah so yeah I think that's it isn't it that's it yeah for now well wishing

15:52everybody a great new start to the academic year September wow it's my birthday on Saturday oh happy birthday thank you very much guess how old I'm going to be 35 thank you I'll take that 57 oh oh I know well it's a good good is a good is a good job that the self is eternal and that we're not this mind machine isn't it exactly yeah nothing to worry about no nothing

16:23to worry about there all right well that's wonderful all right so we hope you'll tune in and you'll listen to our ramblings and discussions on all elements of the spiritual psychology of acting person oh oh oh oh oh oh

16:59oh Thank you.