THE BALLOON MAN

Life's a never-ending circus for Cirque ring leader Guy Laliberte

By REED JOHNSON
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES - A few days ago in Los Angeles, a smooth-scalped man in a black leather jacket, jeans and sneakers got a red-carpet treatment that royalty might envy.

Not one, but two, L.A. City Council members took turns gushing over him. His fellow countryman, the director James Cameron, praised the honoree as a theatrical magus who conjures "living dreams," populated with aerialists, acrobats and clowns that are actually amusing. Then, as a beaming Hollywood Chamber of Commerce representative looked on, Guy Laliberte, the press-shy billionaire founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, stepped forward to unveil his and Cirque's shiny new star, the 2,424th on the Walk of Fame.

The VIP theatrics were telling. On July 21, the Montreal-based Cirque will pull the drapes off its latest high-flying extravaganza, the Hollywood-themed "Iris." The new show has a 10-year contract to perform at the Kodak Theatre, which annually hosts the Academy Awards ceremony but has had trouble filling its cavernous 3,400-seat enclosure year-round.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/06/3236641/lifes-a-never-ending-circus-for.html#ixzz17QMekS1K