Moving and picturesque, this film will inspire

Who knew Steve Donahue would find himself compared to Jerry Lewis.

Michael D. Reid / Times Colonist
February 4, 2013

Executive producer Steve Donahue, left, and director Peter Campbell of Take My Advice, I Can't in the Sahara Desert in Southern Algeria.

Review

Take My Advice, I Can’t

Rating: Three and a half stars

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Who knew Steve Donahue would find himself compared to Jerry Lewis. You know, the legendary American funnyman who is really big in France? To his astonishment, the Victoria-based author and motivational speaker discovered he’s really big in Korea. It happened when Shifting Sands, his self-help book based on his lectures inspired by a trip across the Sahara he took when he was 20, sold only 200 copies in North America. He discovered that in Korea, however, it sold 80,000 copies and became a bestseller, prompting him to wonder why. As documented in Peter Campbell’s fascinating, gorgeously photographed 45-minute film, this remarkable revelation gave a new lease on life to “the motivational speaker who lost his motivation” after a lucrative career, but what he came to realize was unfulfilling after years of repeating the same motivational story for corporate clients. “It was like Groundhog Day,” Donahue recalls. “I mean, it was embarrassing. I’m a motivational speaker, and I can’t change.” Campbell’s film is both moving and picturesque as Donahue retraces his steps through the Sahara Desert’s windswept dunes, recapturing the life-changing experience in the sacred place that so inspired him in his youth, and his therapeutic journey to Korea to try and understand why “the image they have of me [as a guru] is not the image I have of myself.” It’s an ultimately inspiring odyssey that could motivate viewers to step back and re-evaluate their own existence, free of the clutter of living in the moment.