Can a street performer turn into ever find success? Guy Laliberte

This video of Guy Laliberte, one of the Cirque du Soleil founders, gives a good look at what the spirit of a street performer can turn into with lots of hard work and talented people working with him.  He wandered off on his own playing accordion on the streets to make money as he traveled Canada and Europe.  He learned to walk on stilts and breathe fire in his travels.  When he landed back in Quebec, he joined with some other street performers and they formed a new kind of circus.  Cirque du Soleil, the revolutionary French-Canadian circus that changed a tradition that goes back centuries.

I worked on Cirque du Soleil for the first time in 1993, when it was a single show, under the big top, traveling North America.  It was like no other organization I'd seen before or since.  I worked in the box office selling tickets to a show no one had ever heard of.  I loved working there so much, that I worked on the next four Cirque du Soleil tours that came to Orange County, California as well.  It's one of the only jobs I've had where I looked forward to going in to work each day.  Cirque had a magic behind the scenes as well as on the stage.  I even met Guy one day on my way in to work.  He was talking with several other crew members, and I didn't realize who he was until I went on into the box office and one of my managers pointed out the window and told me he was one of the founders.  He was in jeans and a shirt and blended right in with the other crew members.

When I titled this blog Get Weird Make Money, Guy was one of the people I was thinking of.  The founders of Cirque weren't in it to get rich.  The wanted to create a show like no other show ever.  They did that.  Then they did it again... and again... and again.  There aren't a lot of interviews with Guy online, but in the few around you get a good idea of how he operates.  Take and idea, run with it, work your ass off, and surround yourself with good people.

Here's the preview of Saltimbanco, the first Cirque du Soleil show I worked on.  Flying from a Russian swing is still on my bucket list...