Cirque du Soleil acquires Blue Man Group | Hacker News Reader

Cirque du Soleil acquires Blue Man Group

cirquedusoleil.com

162 pointstroydavis38 comments

I remember standing in line for Maker Faire in San Mateo several years ago. We arrived a half-hour early, so we had plenty of time to chat with the people around us. Turns out the guy in front of us was a Blue Man, and he was there because they were always on the lookout for interesting bits to add to the show.

Both BMG and CdS have succeeded for so long due in part to their constant tooling with the latest tech. A couple of years ago CdS released a video called Spark exhibiting their take on drones. [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI

CdS showed up at Microsoft Build this year [0] too, to talk about how they planned to use AR/VR to step up their show production. While it looks a bit like a superficial, it still is neat how they are always on the look for new technologies to improve their work.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNz5Rw6TwCw

Many, many years ago, I was at a random party where there were some people from Broadway (mostly from behind the scenes people). One small group was impressed that I, a non-theater random, knew what a dramaturg did when I eventually asked what they did. [1]

During the course of our conversation, they told me that the original Blue Men who started the original Blue Man Group had families in Japan and elsewhere who literally mortgaged their own properties (or whatever the equivalent is) to get the original show off the ground.

The genius of Blue Man Group, to me, was always that their branding made the person performing the role irrelevant (outside of standard physical characteristics). Having no speaking roles, they were all Blue Men. They were all part of their same planet.

[1] www.lmda.org/dramaturgy

It's an old idea. In the silent film days audiences didn't know the performers real names so that they did not become too independent or powerful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_system_(filmmaking)#Begin...

What are the most interesting new developments in this realm? I'm aware of Drip (https://ilovedrip.com/) by one of the Blue Man Group people (every audience member might get drenched in paint, the nerves that this show has.. wow :-D), and just interactive and immersive theatre in general. But I haven't heard of any emerging big shows that rival CdS and BMG.

Not sure it's the same realm, but I've recently watched (on TV) Mourad Merzouki's Pixel, which is a mix of modern dance with digital projection, and I found it interesting and well done.

I'd say Punch Drunk (https://www.punchdrunk.com/) is a big (up-and-comer?) production group in that space. In NYC and Shanghai they put on Sleep No More (consists of an entire multi-story old hotel gutted with stage detail work almost at the level of a spec of dust).

Edit: I'll add another 2 production groups heavier on the physical comedy/circus-side: Strut&Fret -- mainly AU-based but tour int'l. http://www.strutnfret.com, and spiegelworld (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegelworld) --mainly in NYC and Las Vegas (put on Absinthe).

Great links, thanks! I'll have to add street theatre company Royal de Luxe ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_de_Luxe ). Due to them being essentially free, they will probably never get as rich as the founder of CdS, but their scope and mechanical accomplishments probably leapfrogs any other show. It's really a sight and thought to behold how they transform a city and keep a story moving day and night for 2 or 3 days with 10 meters high giant puppets.

Check out Third Rail Projects. I saw one of their productions in Denver, and it was incredible. http://www.thirdrailprojects.com

Ahhh, wonder if this is why Disney hasn't yet said what is replacing La Nouba in Orlando after its last show - they were waiting for the acquisition to clear.

I see a lot of synergy for Disney acquiring Cirque. For example:

1) Disney just built PandoraLand... Cirque has a new show based on Avatar: Toruk.

2) Disney is an entertainment megacorp whose weakness seems to be live entertainment... enter Cirque whose strength is exactly that and has global recognition for it.

3) Disney is going to China (Park in Shanghai)... Cirque is building a resident show in HangZhou.

4) Cirque is weak at merchandise and character building... which happen to be two of Disney's superstrengths.

5) Disney doesn't have a presence in Canada, a rather progressive family-oriented country that generates a lot of traffic in at least DisneyWorld... Cirque is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest brand in Canada.

6) The Canadian $ is low, the American $ is high.

7) The two companies already work together on projects and have been doing so for at least 15 years.

8) Cirque already has a show smackdab in the middle of Downtown Disney.

Am I crazy?

> Disney is an entertainment megacorp whose weakness seems to be live entertainment...

I don't know, Disney Theatrical Productions does pretty well. It's true that Disney has never really embraced Las Vegas, where Cirque is king, but that's also because it's not totally on point with their brand. Outside of Vegas though there's Disney on Ice, and all the Disney musicals with more to come (Frozen opens on Broadway next year, I think).

#5 Uh what?? As a Canadian, I didn't even know Cirque was actually Canadian (nor was it in any top 50 Canadian brands lists I just Googled), so I'm not quite sure if it's the biggest brand in Canada, unless you are strictly speaking the biggest brand that is from Canada, but people don't know is from Canada.

I know it's a huge brand, but man, I've never seen it in a list, or articles or anything, you know, all that crap that comes up in "25 great things you didn't know were Canadian" and what not, or discussions with people. Maybe I'm just out of the loop. The rest of this stuff makes sense.

To be fair, a lot of the Canadians outside of Quebec seem to not give any shit about what happens here. The fact that it has a French name should've been a pretty big clue that it's probably from either France or Quebec.

I definitely wouldn't says the top, but I don't think you can name 20 Canadian brands that are known world wide without including it.

I'm from the US and my wife's Canadian. Before I met her though the three things I've known were Canadian since as long as I can remember are Roots, Bob and Doug McKenzie and CdS...

Push-aw! This is clearly an aqua-hire!

Wow! "I'm afraid I just blue myself."

why is this here?

Because 40+ people upvoted it and thought it added value to the community, your comment however does not.

From the Guidelines:

> Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site.

He didn't complain about this article being here. He asked why 40+ people found it interesting. I share his question, I don't understand what's interesting about this at all, and there's no actual conversation around it here either.

correct.

and when I commented, the article had a single point.

The obvious answer is that enough people found it interesting, and upvoted it.

If your question is really "I don't get why do HN users find this interesting?", then I'd recommend reading up about Cirque du Soleil. They're a very interesting business, that got started by 2 street performers who are true hackers, even if their medium of predilection is performing arts rather than computers.

In times where many circus businesses are bleeding money and folding due to shifting consumer expectations, Cirque du Soleil has managed to established a solid brand that many people associate with quality shows. They've effectively disrupted the circus industry, moving it away from sad animals and unfunny clowns, and making tons of money in the process.

Is there a book on Cirque du Soleil you can recommend?

Dunno about book but this is a good article

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/05/life-and-death-at...

There used to be some kind of urban legend or joke about CdS, where a banker refused to invest in CdS, saying "Who the hell would lend money to a bunch of clowns?". The banker, of course, headdesked very hard and for a very long time afterwards.

That's a very funny joke. I wonder if there are any other examples of people missing out on investment opportunities.

https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio is a classic example.

"24 October 2000, The Register, New Intel Adverts Are Cr"

At the same time as I feel that thirty years of my life just blitted by unmeasurably fast, the above headline from just 17 years ago seems like a true relic of a different era.

And oh how much I'd love to feel like my computer was going to be really fast come my next upgrade. Thank goodness I am just enough older than to have been learning only while everyone and dog knew what Moore's Law was.

How does this comment relate to Cirque du Soleil?

The Blue Man Group has advertised for Intel

Probably because it was seen as having a nerd/hacker appeal.

My understanding is that Andy Grove was a big fan which probably played a big role.

Sorry about that.

I knew that I should have linked the article to show the connection, but I was wary of it containing inappropriate language.

Anyhow here is the explanation :

https://m.theregister.co.uk/2000/10/24/new_intel_tv_ads_comp...

Netflix acquires story for Tobias Fünke in Arrested Development season 5.

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