After reading Eric's brilliant books, I was curious to see what "the man" was like in person. WOW! "No Acting Please" is an incredible primer for actually studying with Eric. Eric brings the principles of "No Acting Please," "Being And Doing" and "Irreverant Acting" to life in his 2-day seminars. I don't care how long you've been acting or how accomplished you think you are - what this man teaches, in writing and in person, cannot even have a value put on it. I'm a regular on a Top 15 drama series, and when I first started studying with Eric about 6 months ago I realized how little I really know. He's taken my acting to new heights, heights I never thought I could reach. He made me excited to be an actor again. You can't put a price on passion. I highly recommend reading Eric's books (get ALL of them) and sitting in on his seminar. Check out his website too.

This one of the best books on acting ever published. It is also one of the only books where you can significantly improve just by reading the thing, "getting" it, and playing around with some of the exercises. Eric stumbled upon something great with his "Being State" stuff. However, I have studied with Eric, and run from Eric, and so have many established actors/celebrities. He is a total narcissist neurotic whose "craft" sucks all pleasure from acting. Personal recommendation: JUST READ HIS BOOK AND DON'T GO NEAR HIM.
And one more thing: Eric's books on imaging and craft and Carl Jung-based theories on acting are all bogus. If you read them you see how more and more self-indulgent and full of it he gets and how these lengthy pop-psychology theories are truly ignorant. Save your money but keep "No Acting Please" as a bible.

I discovered this book by accident years ago and it helped my acting tremendously. This, Being and Doing and Irreverent Acting --all by Eric Morris are some of the best books on acting ever written.

These books helped me stretch as an actor by suggesting exercises for my emotional instrument. I did them alone and found I could reach areas of emotions that were at one time foreign to me.

Incredibly helpful. Helped me grow as an actor, a teacher and a director!!

This story has a great moral to it as well as being very entertaining and interesting to both children and adults. The plus side of the cassette is that Jack Nicholson tells it in such a way that everyone will enjoy listening to it over and over again. The illustrations are perfect to fit the story and are great at intriguing the children. We have had this story through both of our sons and they both STILL enjoy this book. Hopefully will pass it on to the grandchildren. Tell your friends and family about this one.

I am 19 years old now and I remember listening to this tape as a child...
I still listen to it. This is the kind of children's story that both adults and children alike will enjoy. Bobby Mc Ferrin does the background sound effects and his performance is also magical.

I also Recomend the Elephant's child read by Nicholson with Bobby doing all of the sound effects.
I love the music "MMm Kola kola kola mmmm..."

This book-tape set has to be one of the best books on tape that rabbit ears has produced. Jack Nicholson's smooth magical voice is just perfect with predictably great music from Bobby McFerrin. A must for every child's library!

The audio tape for this book is magical. I grew up listening to it at my grandparents house and it was wonderful to listen to while going to bed. I listened to it almost every night and not once did I grow sick of it. The background music is so soothing and the book really comes alive with voice of the narrator. In short I LOVE it and I would strongly recommend it to everyone, no matter what their age!

Kipling's language is almost poetic. It's meant to be read aloud. When read aloud to a child, say, a beloved girl of six, at bedtime, she stops fidgeting, she listens carefully, she asks questions about what this word means or why the family members are all so mean and have to spank the little elephant with the "'satiable curtiosity." Most of all, she's not bored and she wants to hear it again. And again. And she gets very excited when she finds out that her daddy got the whole series of "Just-So Stories."
I don't know how other children experience this. We're starting to teach our daughter about evolution of species; she asks a lot of questions about what elephants used to look like, and did they really once not have the really long noses they have today? I think she's starting to understand that this is a tall tale, but it's a great springboard for talking about the real-life origin of species (I think this statement is true even if you're trying to raise a creationist child).
Yes, there is a lot of spanking. It didn't seem to upset my daughter, and she's pretty high-strung.
All in all, a nicely rollicking story, and a good introduction to another classic in English-language children's literature.

Right after "The Cat who Walked Alone" This has always been my favorite "Just So Story." It is good to see it in an individual book, as it is a little unwieldy as part of a group. This is the story of a curious elephant and how the elephant go its trunk. I can not say much more as the reader needs to experience the story as it unfolds. The pictures add a dimension and do not distract from the words. Rudyard Kipling is a master at this telling. "In the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk."

One of my favorite games of movie trivia is trying to imagine what certain classic, beloved films would be like if they had been made with an entirely different cast. Often times, the results range between the horrifying and the ludicrous (for example, Lana Turner as Scarlett O'Hara and Jeffrey Lynn as Rhett Butler, teaming up to make Gone with the Wind the dullest Civil War epic ever) and occasionally, you're forced to admit that a film like the Fugitive probably would have pretty much been the same rather the lead was played by Harrison Ford or Alec Baldwin. And sometimes, if you're lucky, you imagine a film that may be different from the classic the world knows and loves but, at least to the mind's eye, is just as fascinating -- The Graduate starring Charles Grodin, Doris Day, Sally Field, and Ronald Reagan or Terms of Endearment featuring a comeback supporting performance from none other than Burt Reynolds.

These fun, intriguing, and often infuriating speculations are what lie at the heart of Ron Base's unjustly neglected film book, If the Other Guy Isn't Jack Nicholson, I've Got the Part. (The title is an actual quote from Reynolds who either lost or gave up roles in films ranging from Terms of Endearment to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to our Mr. Nicholson. After reading this book, one wonders what Boogie Nights might had been like if Reynolds had passed on that...) Starting from Hollywood's golden age and the days of the star systems and ending with the modern-day, often interchangeable blockbusters of today, Base writes a lively, humorous, and always fascinating account of the struggles and the intrigue that went into casting some of the best pictures to come out of Hollywood's studios. He covers the famous search to find the perfect Scarlett, the comical saga of finding the perfect actors to bring the Graduate's story to life (and yes -- Day, Field, Grodin, and even Ron Reagan were all serious possibilities at one point of time), the birth of the Corleone Family, and even explains how a little-known Sharon Stone ended up with the "honor" of exposing herself to the world in Basic Instinct.

Along the way, the book manages to provide a treasure trove of little known trivia and anecdote. As well, by showing us how the faces of Hollywood's ideal leading stars changed (basically going from suave Clark Gable to awkward Dustin Hoffman and eventually ending up with the hulking likes of Arnie and Stallone), Base provides an interesting and entertaining look at the way American society views itself has been changed and transformed over the course of the 20th century. This is a wonderful, fun book that will be enjoyed by anyone who ever watched Jack Nicholson on screen and thought to himself, "Gee, I wish they'd gotten Burt Reynolds for that role." Luckily, the book can enjoyed by the rest of us, too.

Interesting book. And Ron Base gets it right a lot where others don't. The unspoken truth when saying, "Burt Reynolds turned down TERMS OF ENDEARMENT" etc., is that THE MATERIAL IS THE THING. Stars are interchangeable!!!! This book gets that right. God knows how many millions studios would save on star fees if they'd get that through their heads! (Only George Lucas said paying Jim Carrey $20 million is stupidity. Carrey made $20 million for THE MAJESTIC, which was still one of the biggest flops in history.)

One of the best books I've read about movies. It is well-written and fascinating. The book is broken up into chapters that deal with certain episodes, so it's easy reading. Although the material written about isn't life-or-death stuff, it is interesting to contemplate Travolta having had taken certain parts, or Stallone having taken certain parts, etc. Great book.

Unlike some of McGilligan's other subject's, this book is titled somewhat innapropriately as there's some life in the old dog yet. There's evidence that he researched the first 57 year's of the actor's lfe pretty well, but the resulting portrait leaves Jack as enigmatic as the famous grin McGilligan seems so fascinated by. The tone is often sensationalistic, particularly when he argues that Jack my be reading of his possible illigitamacy "for the first time here" Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable read, though I didn't feel I knew Jack any better when I turned the last page, and was more enlightened about 70's Hollywood by Jack's friend Robert Evans, Robert Siskind, and others.

He is Plutonian regeneration. A shining star in a world full of mediocrity. Thanks Jack. Thanks for the inspiration.

In this book the author states that he interviewed me, included quotes as well. I never met nor talked with Mr. Thompson, even though he writes that he interviewed me in my "Palm Beach home". I've never lived in Palm Beach. He claims to have talked with my father. That meeting never took place. Alas, if this part of the book was fiction, where's the credibility to prove that the rest is true? Too many "confidential sources". Using that as a crutch you can say anything about anyone. I know the many truths in Jack Nicholsons real story and from what I can tell, Peter Thompson has fallen short on uncovering and perhaps even knowing what the truth is. By the way, biologically speaking, I am Mr. Nicholson's half sister.

I designed the interior of this book, and did the 16 page inserts. I think Jack is great, and felt honored working on this project. I haven't read the book, though. I have too much respect for him as an actor and don't want to know what he's like offscreen.

Not much more to be said. Very intelligent, charismatic, immaculate performer. Thanks Jack. Thanks for your inspiration.