Customer Reviews

Cirque du Soleil: The Spark - Igniting the Creative Fire that Lives within Us All

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While this book had some minor flaws (I'll discuss those briefly later), it is worth owning, especially since it is one of the few books to truly discuss the creative process of Cirque Du Soleil and how the rest of us can learn from what the performers do every day- the type of risks they take in hopes of creating magic, the beauty and spiritual resonance of their performances.

There is another book out there that explores one man's experiences with one performer and it is also intriquing but this new book reveals more about a wider variety of artists, directors, designers, etc.


And, for all those who've watched and been entranced by a Cirque du Soleil performance...wouldn't we all like to create a little of that magic in our lives? Wouldn't we all like to ignite our own creative fires, even if they come out in different ways, perhaps in writing, perhaps in our work lives or the time we spend with our families or while alone.


One of the main lessons I got from this book is that being fully open as possible to one's imagination, hopes, dreams and aspirations can lead in wondrous directions and affect even the most "practical" or mundane tasks of life. It just takes the willingness to take the risk, to accept failure and setbacks in return for spiritual and emotional growth and lifechanging experiences.

This is more than a book geared to artists and peformers. It truly is for the rest of us. It can change your life.

Having said that, I found myself wanting more, felt myself not quite fully satisfied by this book. I felt some of the sections were a little too pat or formulaic. But these are minor quibbles when the book offers so much and is one of the few books that really explores the Cirque du Soleil creative process. Until a better one comes along, I'd consider this a MUST for anyone wanting to know more about the secrets and techniques of the Cirque du Soleil "spark", a spark that can affect us all.

A very easy and entertaining book to read that left me inspired, motivated and challenged. I was so touched that I bought copies for all my team members.

After watching one of their performances, I wanted to read this book to find out more about Cirque du Soleil but this book left me frustrated.

I was lead to believe that this was a first person account of "Frank"'s life-changing experience with the Cirque du Soleil. The more you get into the book, the more it feels like a manuel of all the departments with a narrative to ease the transitions. It turns out that this is a fictional book.

This book would have worked as a behind-the-scenes special on how all the departments come together to make a performance or as a completely fictional story of someone reconnecting with their passion through getting a job at the Cirque du Soleil because it didn't work a faux nonfictional book.

I feel that the strength of Cirque du Soleil is visuals and this narrative didn't go justice to what they have actually accomplished. It would have been nice to see photos of the costumes, make-up, characters, training lessons and especially see a photo of a "German Wheel"? The book is less than 150 pages and can be read in less than an hour so written descriptions don't do them justice.

If you want to know more about the Cirque du Soliel, see a performance and skip this book.

I picked up this book at my library and as I read through it, found myself excited and inspired - at first. Then doubts began to creep in. Why was the narrator addressed as Frank (this was supposedly a first-person account by a sports agent named Frank Castle) when, on the book's cover it says "Created by Lyn Heward and written by John U. Bacon"? According to the inside-back cover of the dust jacket, Heward is "the former President and COO of Cirque du Soleil's Creative Content Division and is currently acting as executive producer for a variety of special projects." Bacon, is (same dust jacket inside-back cover) a veteran journalist and public speaker who's "won numerous writing awards and is the author of three books." Apparently this is his experience. But because this book chooses to give him a phony name, from here on in "Frank Castle" will be in quotation marks for your protection.

In The Spark, "Frank Castle," is in Las Vegas for a convention. Seeking a moment of relief he wanders out into the casino and sees two men enter an unmarked white door. As if in a daze, "Frank Castle" decides to follow them. He enters the white door which leads into a white hallway with another white door. Which leads to another white door. Which leads to yet another white door. You get the idea. After seven white doors, "Frank Castle" finds himself in a theatre that's preparing a Cirque du Soleil show. He's approached by a woman named Diane McKee, who doesn't kick out this intruder. Instead she talks with "Frank Castle," getting him to reveal his current unhappiness with his career. Then she gives him a free ticket to the show, introduces him around afterward to cast and crew alike, and extends him an invitation to visit Cirque du Soleil headquarters in Montreal, if he should ever find himself in the area. She tells him that their meeting was "serendipity."

"Frank Castle" quickly finds an excuse to go to Montreal, and is soon immersed in the world of clowns, acrobats and aerialists, and learns some life lessons about renewing his spark of creativity in his career. Which is all find and good - and very inspiring indeed - if any of it were real.

In the acknowledgments page, conspicuous by its absence is the name "Diane McKee." (Now I'm thinking I ought to go back a couple of paragraphs and put her name in quotations as well). In the book, when "Diane McKee" gives "Frank Castle" her card, it says her title is - now get this! - "PRESIDENT, CREATIVE CONTENT DIVISION" of Cirque du Soleil. Hmmmmm, that sound awfully familiar. What's more, the acknowledgments state "Lyn Heward created this book, choreographed my great adventure, and served as a guardian angel throughout my tour. It was her bold idea to give me the opportunity millions of Cirque fans would kill for, to become a member of the Cirque family for a few magical months." So it doesn't seem like their first meeting was as much "serendipity" as it was "choreographed."

If their initial meeting was invented, how much else in the book was invented? Did the author really have a friend named "Mike" who died, or is the book just trying to manipulate our emotions? How much of the wisdom from Cirque's cast and crew -wonderful things which turn out to be lessons for "Frank Castle" - can be trusted to actually having been said by them? (Paging David Manning . . . Paging David Manning . . . ) Were there some dissenting voices whose comments were not heard because it wouldn't fit in with the tone being set? The whole thing begins to seem less like a book on inspiration and more like a marketing ploy for Cirque du Soleil.

So the book's supposed to be an fable. Or maybe just SOME is supposed to be an fable. Well, why not just say that? Don't try to pass it off as 100% non-fiction. In any case, the book's creators' are in dangerous territory, mixing the two together without announcing which is which and who is who.

Although the book is a quick, interesting read, it's not only disillusioning to discover the story's slight-of-hand, but it blunts the narrative's whole purpose, to show how to be creative and live life fully. In which case, you'd be better off reading Danny Wallace's hilarious and true story "Join Me."

This was chosen as a read for our business book club. I looked forward to it. There is nothing of substance here, nothing about the huge, mutli-million dollar money machine the Cirque has become, not that there is anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld would say. It starts off well but then seems to turn into a vanity press piece, that seems to have been written by the Cirque PR department. Goofy "plot" about stumbling into a show in Vegas, etc. It's a made-up, silly story connected by sugary moments of sentiment overlaid with thin bits of insight. See the show and wait for a better book on this amazing organization.

This book is an excellent motivational tool. We purchased them for a Leadership Forum and a book was given to each attendee. We received positive feedback on the book and many of the attendees went on to purchase this book for members of their teams.

"Our first idea was almost never our last. Ideas evolved and combined with others, until they became more original, more creative. And when we were done, you really couldn't say whose idea it was. It didn't matter!" pg 44

At first... the creators (of Cirque) studied other circuses (only)... Later... over time... everyone at Cirque was drawing upon as many outside influences as possible, from almost every field - painting, film, music, you name it. This sort of cross-pollination...was the keys to Cirque's extraordinary freshness and vitality. Pg 45

In this business - in all businesses - your people will rarely work harder than the boss. That's why my first decision was to be at every show. If they had to be there, I did too." A Cirque artistic director pg 47

If you don't understand the role you play, how can you be excited about what you're doing? (concerning everyone at Cirque - from the dancers to the cooks to the lawyers - being "on the same page" as to what is the purpose, goals, the reason of being of Cirque) Pg 49

It's amazing how much we fear the unknown - even when the unknown carries with it the possibility of success. Pg 64

"If you're not happy, you can always do something else. You are never trapped in life. When you realize that, you find you're free to accomplish incredible things!" pg 79

So many people I met at Cirque, it seemed, had the urge to reinvent themselves, to try new things on their own, without any assurance that their efforts would lead to anything. Pg 82

A lot of what we do is simply hard work. If you wait for your muse to arrive to give you inspiration, you can wait all day and have nothing to show for it. Al Hirschfeld, the cartoonist, put it like this: `Everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don't think everybody is disciplined.'" Pg 112

(Buckminster) Fuller said when he started to design something to solve a problem, he was not trying to make something beautiful. But if his final solution was not beautiful, he knew he had missed something. It's the same for us. We start out just trying to avoid disaster (problem solving). But in the end, if we don't come up with something special, we know we need to think some more. Pg 115

"It's never my failures that I regret, it's the things I pass up because I'm too scared, too safe... If you want to live fully, Phillipe said with a smile, "you have to trust." A clown at Saltimbanco Pg 120

A good friend bought this book when we went to go see Cirque's "Corteo" show in Miami in 2008. He lent it to me and I thought it had many ideas to help encourage one into innovation, creativity. I enjoyed it very much. First half of book was very exciting. It did fall into an obvious pattern: the main character of story meets Cirque employee and gets an insight from each one, so the surprise, discovery effect of the first half of book was lost a bit, although I was curious as to who would be the next person he would meet. Small criticism, but still, overall a great book and much to gain from each "meeting." Especially for people hesitating to launch their lives into a higher plain of creativity, innovation, and want to see greater fruit from their efforts.

A book that I thought would be about the history and business of Cirque du Soleil, The Spark is surprisingly a book more about self-help and insights on how to be a better person, be more motivated at work, and how to reach a higher potential. It is very rare that I say this - but this book was too short and could have actually been longer. It would have been nice to learn more about the Cirque operation, background and history. As well, there are likely more of life's lessons that could have been woven into this well written book.

I've been lucky enough to have seen at least five of the Cirque shows in various cities around the globe though even if you have never been to a Cirque production you will likely enjoy this book and should get some good points/reminders out of it.

Overall, a whimsical and well-written book that might surprise, educate, and entertain you. I look forward to a sequel or the next in what could easily become a series.

I, too, fell for the "fake" story, and then couldn't figure out what was going on because the narrator didn't appear in the credits. OK. I went to the Cirque store in DowntownDisney, hoping for a bit more "reality" rather than the same stuff they sell at the road shows, and this was as close as I got. Had to make a buying decision before I could get here and check out the reviews and, well, if you've been to Disney, you know how the wallet opens and money just flows out...

Wish I'd read a copy from the library.

If you have a day job and that's the height of your creative output, you might find something inspirational is this little book. If you already know you are creative and were hoping to take away a bit of specific energy that differentiates Cirque from any other day job, you might find more in Gordon MacKenzie's Orbiting the Giant Hairball.

It's hard to write usefully about creativity. Good thing for Cirque's bottom line that they make their money in performance art, and not expository writing.

A sports agent losing the passion he had for his career "stumbles" upon the Cirque du Soleil organization. He hangs out with them for about three months to get to know what makes this organization of creative, professional and passionate people stay motivated and perform at the top of their game all the time. The book is an inspirational snack in a world of junk food philosophy.

If you want a bit of inspiration, a little color in a drab day, check this book out. It's a quick read with sprinkles of original insight and well worth your time.