Comedy Review: Will Adamsdale - Jackson’s Way

Will Admadsale comes to Bloomsbury with a welcome reprise of his 2004 Edinburgh Festival-conquering character show

WILL Adamsdale won the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award in 2004 with Jackson’s Way and it’s not hard to see why.

Part comedy and part theatre, it sees Adamsdale in character as Chris John Jackson, an American life coaching guru.

From the moment he dramatically attempts to rhyme two words that definitely do not rhyme, you know this is going to be a surreal ride – and not simply a slick satire of an easy target.

His Way, it turns out, is based on the idea that, while most people think something is only worth doing if it has a point, if it is “pointful”, there are infinitely more pointless actions – or Jactions. Jackson urges the audience – his cadets – to aspire to such pointlessness.

This could be the motivational life coach pushed to its absurd conclusion. For if we can all be rich and successful, if we can all do anything and be whatever we want to be, if we just believe in ourselves and erase all self doubt, then what is to stop a person espousing such nonsense?

There are many ludicrous, and hilarious, moments, the highlight a choreographed chain-reaction of audience participation Jactions, with one pointless act layered on top of another. One link in the chain has an audience member dancing alone in a room next to the stage, another a man spelling the word Poland letter by letter before fist-pumping and shouting “achieved”, as senselessness ripples through the auditorium.

I left thinking of Jactions – but watching Jackson’s Way certainly was not pointless.

* Jackson’s Way was at the Bloomsbury Theatre, Gordon Street, WC1, on Friday January 28.