Cirque du Soleil “The Spark”

Igniting the Creative Fire that lives Within Us All

Created by Lyn Howard – Written by John U. Bacon

While living in New Orleans, this book was sent to me from Los Angeles, as a gift from a dear friend & fellow performer, Stardust Angel, who at the time I had only met online…

A truly enjoyable and inspirational read in all aspects, “The Spark” welcomes you deep into the inner workings of Cirque du Soleil.

Written as a fictional journey through the eyes of a person who has lost the fire and drive that he once had for his job, the main character finds himself stumbling into the world of Cirque as something of a guest, who also is required to go through a very abbreviated training course during his three month stay at their headquarters in Montreal.

While this is not in any way a profound book of self discovery, it is a fun story to read, and interlaced in it are many simple yet easily forgotten touches of valuable wisdom, especially for performers – things that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

I will recommend this book as there is some valuable insight in it, and, as I said before, things that we need to be reminded of from time to time in order to keep that fire lit under our asses – but I will also suggest that you find a used copy on Amazon.com or anywhere else to avoid paying full price. Read it, and while doing so have a highlighter or pen handy and mark the hell out of it – then read it again a couple weeks later and mark it up some more.

It’s an easy enough read to pick up every now and then and refresh the reasons of why we do what we do when we need it, and in that way it’s certainly nice to have laying around, as you can pick it up without feeling that there’s any weighty commitment that you need to prepare for as you open it up.

So yeah – find a cheap copy, give it a good once over a couple times, and then let it find a good home by your bed or in the bathroom.  In my opinion, it’s definitely worth having around.

Many thanks to Star for sending this to me, as I doubt I would have ever known about it otherwise...