James Jackson is a multidisciplinary performance artist and writer from Melbourne, Australia.

After graduating from Melbourne High School, James worked selling land in the country no-one wanted to live on, spruiking goods no-one wanted to buy, clearing firewood no-one wanted to burn and as an extra on Australia’s Most Wanted which everyone wanted to see.

At this time James also began training as a professional wrestler with the legendary George “the hitman” Julio and in the year 2000 he commenced working for Australian Championship Wrestling as “The Beast” managed by former Festival Hall star Kurt Von Schneider.

James graduated from RMIT in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Youth Work. From here he went to Deakin University where he completed a Graduate Diploma of Professional Writing then a Masters of Writing and Literature.

Over the years James has played guitar and sung in many bands including Dr James and the Zero Patients and Gethsemane and performed as a guest with acts such as Sandoz and Next Force Productionz.

In 1999 James founded So Bad It’s Good Magazine with Simon Goodrich which became one of the most successful zines of its time and was distributed in every state in Australia. During this period he also ran various self-publishing seminars and workshops for young people.

At the urging of friend and mentor Shelton Lea, James had several forays into the Melbourne performance poetry scene in 2004. It was only after Shelton’s death in 2005 that James began to seriously hone the skills that would see him become one of Melbourne’s most controversial but respected performance poets. In 2007 James released James Jackson Live in Melbourne, an album showcasing the best of his readings up to that point. Later that year James Jackson: Monster of Poetry, an interactive, multimedia event became the first show of its kind in the history of the Overload Poetry Festival. It included the screening of the documentary Monster of Poetry which explored James’ life and work as a performance poet. This was followed by the launch of James’ first collection of poetry Two Minutes Hatefuck published by the Unapologists Press in 2010.

In 2007 James began working with New Aussie Wrestling as a colour commentator. Encouraged to return to the ring by his trainer George “the hitman” Julio, James joined the roster at NAW in 2009 and became the Heavyweight Champion in 2011.

Working with “The Watermelon Man” Frank Baressi, James has produced, written, directed and starred in two successful shows for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2009’s The Peadophile Terrorist and the Fight on Box Hill and 2010’s The Artoholic’s Fix. Also in 2010 James and frequent collaborator Jez P.A. Speelman co-facilitated Encounters in Communication, a Fringe Festival event for Roarhouse and City of Darebin.

2008 saw James first hip hop release: Pimpin’ Gnomes: A Backyard Demo. In 2011 he formed Section 10 with Raf Brunswick, Jez P.A. Speelman and The Rowdy Man and in 2013 they released the Hip Hop Party mixtape. James has performed hip hop extensively, including with Team Red and The Low Priests. The first James Jackson solo album, Australienation is expected at the end of 2014.

James’ writing has been published eclectically including in …And Other Stories, Inventory: On Op Shops and The Weekly Review. Short films written, produced, directed and starring James can be seen on youtube at jamesjacksonchannel.