Tag: Cirque du Soleil
Sunday’s Super Bowl had a couple of moments of unintentional physical comedy, which of course is the best kind, at least if it’s happening to someone else. First we had Madonna’s near-pratfall, as she stumbles during her half-time show extravaganza:
Apparatus such as unicycles and trampolines are built for stunts. They’re cool and all, and excellent comedy has certainly been done with both, but I’ve always been more drawn to physical comedy that uses objects commonly found in the real world — chairs, tables, doors, stairs, etc. Maybe that’s why I also like parkour and flair bartending, living proof of the appeal of circus techniques applied to everyday life.
Or so says the New York Times. A mere five days after a lengthy profile of Cirque du Soleil co-founder and owner Guy Laliberté, which I wrote about in this post, the Times is back with a three-page preview of Cirque’s upcoming debut at Radio City Music Hall, the stage show Zarkana. And though their previews tend to be fluff pieces, the Times is again raising questions about the Cirque’s artistic direction, comparing Zarkana to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and wondering out loud about the caliber of the theatre and clowning components.
Guy Laliberté, co-founder and owner of Cirque du Soleil, has done well enough for himself to afford to pay $35 million to be a space tourist. Yes, you read that right; yes, out of his own pocket. Not bad for someone who started as an accordion-playing street performer!
This post was supposed to be almost as easy as my last one. Surely I could knock it off in an hour or two. I’d caught Birdhouse Factory a while back in Newark, found it more than a little interesting, figured I’d write a paragraph or two of observations, throw in some pics and a promo video and be done with it.
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Workshops & Other Events
My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin