Daniel Lamarre had the worst day of his life, on this day in 2020 when he had to announce the layoff of 95% of the employees of Cirque du Soleil, of which he was the president and CEO. But he still believes that it is the creativity of the artists that will allow the company to take off again.
This creativity involves taking risks, this highly symbolic reality of the circus world. For the circus, it is on the choice of directors, present shows and future shows that you have to bet to aim for success.
In his book The balancing act, which has just been published translated into French by Michel Lafon, Daniel Lamarre recounts his eventful years at Cirque du Soleil, where Guy Laliberté invited him in extremis when Lamarre was at the head of Groupe TVA.
First instruction on his arrival at the Cirque: remove his tie, under penalty of having it cut with scissors by Guy Laliberté himself. It was at this time that Lamarre began to wear the eternal bluish glasses that we know him since. Surrounded and nurtured by an army of creatives, Lamarre sometimes had to play the spoilsports. From the outset he had to make Laliberté give up a project for a circus complex without a future in London, not without having weighed the pros and cons at length.
Dull Leader, Brilliant Artist?
“For a long time, I was considered the Dull Manager while Guy was the Brilliant Artist. We both knew it was exaggerated: Guy is a formidable businessman and I have always had a passion for the arts, ”he wrote.
Although it takes the form of a handbook for entrepreneurs, The balancing act is teeming with anecdotes about Cirque du Soleil shows, its failures and its successes. Lamarre reveals in particular that the cancellation of a Cirque du Soleil debt, while he was at TVA, later earned him the rights to broadcast the shows.
More successes than failures
In terms of networking as in the rest, Guy Laliberté operates far from the traditional golf games between entrepreneurs.
One day, guitarist George Harrison himself found himself among the guests of his party annually, the bill for which regularly amounted to a million dollars.
Seduced by the spirit of the place and by the performance of the Pourpour brass band, Harrison then told Laliberté of his interest in creating a circus show in tribute to the legacy of the Beatles.
Lamarre also recounts the very long negotiations surrounding the use of the group’s music, as well as the enthusiasm of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at the final result, LOVE, presented after the death of George Harrison.
“I didn’t want to be complacent,” said the businessman in an interview. He therefore took care to detail several failures of the Circus. Among these he mentions Zumanity, a show that Guy Laliberté wanted to be “sexy” and which went through the hands of three different directors.
Many spectators found it shocking and wanted to have their tickets refunded after discovering that it was “rated X”.
“The important thing is to have more successes than failures,” says Lamarre, who adds that he had a major concern that Cirque not be overtaken by a competitor. Also worth mentioning is the show RUN, which Cirque du Soleil performed in Las Vegas in 2019 for just four months and cost the company $20 million.
“How could we let RUN get lost like this? Sometimes what makes you strong — in this case, the creative freedom we allow our artists — can turn against us,” he writes.
main problem
Earlier, Lamarre wrote about it: “Main problem: our creative team had gotten so caught up in the story—an aborted marriage set against a backdrop of gang warfare—that they had forgotten that people don’t come to see a Cirque du Soleil show for the story and for the direction of actors. Our faithful really only ask for three things: acrobatics, more acrobatics, always acrobatics, and feel cheated when there are not enough of them. »
“In the circus, you’re always as good as your last show,” says Lamarre, who is delighted today with the positive reception given to the brand new Cirque du Soleil show in Orlando, Drawn to life, inspired by the work of Disney and directed by Michel Laprise.
Our faithful really only ask for three things: acrobatics, more acrobatics, always acrobatics, and feel cheated when there is not enough.
Now vice-president of the Cirque’s board of directors, Daniel Lamarre is working on the planning of “four or five projects”. “These are projects for new shows in markets where we are not present. But there is nothing confirmed yet. »
If he had the worst moment of his career in the spring of 2020, he also had the best, he says, when the show resumed in Las Vegas in the summer of 2021. After coming close to sinking, the Cirque, which no longer belongs to Quebec investors, was alive again. He could breathe.