Intersection of Worlds – Cirque du Life
Looking back on 7th grade math class, I remember Tina Rotta, and I remember these little circles being drawn on the board being called Ven Diagrams. All of a sudden I got the concept of how things can connect to things that connect to things.
It became part of a running joke with my friend Mark and I and the cast of Different Stroked, until Dana Plato died. We had Dana show up at a 50’s party I had, and also we would deliver pizza to Jeff Bridges when I worked at Numero Uno pizza.
Cirque du Soleil does this. They brought together all of the best parts of life, art, music, dance, beauty, sex, hot chicks, acrobatics, and even half pipes! The craziest moment of Cirque for me was the final song of Love the first time I saw it, when this angry, disabled older woman was standing there fists clenched, crying her eyes out, singing along, as if it was still 1971. Cirque can be that powerful.
As a chiropractor and an athlete I am in love with the bodies, the motion, and the limits they push themselves past.
So imagine my sheer job, when at the Purpose Inc. XY7 poker tournament at Affiliate Summit, Angel Djambazov introduces me to this quiet, tough and tender looking Russion guy named Vlad. Then Angel says, “He’s in charge of Cirque de Soleil’s e-commerce, and has been asked to bring new marketing innovation to Cirque”
I almost peed in my pants in jealousy.
To me the internet is communication. What a wonderful thing to talk to the world about, Cirque du Soleil.
Vlad has an amazing past, across many continents and countries, but doesn’t want me to brag about him, so I will keep it to that. 🙂
He is the perfect guy for the job at Cirque.
Then after Vlad Vervelsky got knocked out, he quietly asks me if I know anyone who would like to go see O with him right now. I was about 2 seconds of leaving my own poker tournament to go with him, but figured that probably would not work out too well! So instead I grabbed some of the crew who were watching the game, and off they went to see O while the boys played poker.
Imagine going from sitting there watching poker for 6 hours, to being taken to one of the biggest shows in Vegas, by the a bigshot from Cirque’s marketing!
So Vlad added some real extra sparkle to the tournament.
To switch over to a different universe, I grew up in Sun Valle, on the edge of L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, auto wrecking capital of the world. Full of stray dogs, gangs, and empty lots full of fun stuff to blow up or play with in the days before the word toxic dump was invented! Growing up I thought we were rich because our neighborhood was so much nicer than the bad parts of Sun Valley. Later I realize were plain old middle class. After the end of the Jackson 5, and before Michael Jackson became famous, Tito Jackson moved in on our street. I was a little kid, and he was a pop star, so I wouldn’t say we hung out and spun records together, but he would smile and wave, and say hi, every time we parted from our mid street football game.
I then fell in love with Michael Jacksons music. The one section in ABC, “What I neeeeeeed…” is still for me one of the greatest moments of art of all time.
So imagine how tripply excited I was when Vlad said that Cirque is coming out with a Michael Jackson Cirque De Soleil.
My wife and I have seen every Cirqu in Vegas now, except Zumanity, and have even seen some of the traveling tent Cirques.
It is crazy how the world keeps intersecting in and out of all of my different worlds.
I honestly don’t think there are really 4 or 5 billion people out there. I honestly think the number is more like 10,000.
Just enough that I haven’t met everyone yet, but small enough that everyone I ever meet seems to already be connected to me.
Michael Jackson Cirque De Soleil? I’m not a fan. It sounds so gimmicky. Not artistic at all.
ReplyCirque du Soleil has had a lot of good ideas, and a lot of interesting ideas- I bet they will get pretty good business with the Michael Jackson theme. They could make it really awesome but if they don’t handle it correctly, it will be, as 38minutes said, gimmicky.
ReplyI looove Michael Jackson! I’m forever a fan. I have yet to see Cirque du Soleil though. But it was a great read from Wikipedia and the idea of Cirque doing an MJ theme is actually fun!
ReplyI love Michael Jackson. Although, some may hate him, but who could ever forget MJ. I’m just not sure of Cirque De Soleil though.
ReplyI still like MJ..
ReplyMJ RIP…we are all connected to each other in a circle, in a hoop that never ends.
Replysix degrees of separation. with the internet and social networking, you may think that the world you are living in is getting smaller by the second. but when you take a step back, there are still a lot of interesting people you would like to get to know much better.
Replyhahaha! funny that we were just playing MJ in wii… He really created his own genre…. His music is indeed timeless!
Replyi have no idea about cirque du soleil so i googled it and i find it interesting. hopefully i can watch there show this coming june! 😉
ReplyHave no idea about cirque du soleil so i googled it and i find it interesting. Want to watch their show this coming june!
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