
Cirque du Soleil acquires Blue Man Group - troydavis
https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/press/news/2017/cirque-du-soleil-acquires-blue-man-group.aspx
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johnhattan
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.

~~~
two2two
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C8OJsHfmpI)

~~~
ehsankia
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNz5Rw6TwCw)

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wallflower
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

~~~
mvidal01
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_system_\(filmmaking\)#Beginnings)

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Jensensen
What are the most interesting new developments in this realm? I'm aware of
Drip ([https://ilovedrip.com/](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.

~~~
parkaboy
I'd say Punch Drunk
([https://www.punchdrunk.com/](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](http://www.strutnfret.com), and spiegelworld
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegelworld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegelworld))
--mainly in NYC and Las Vegas (put on Absinthe).

~~~
Jensensen
Great links, thanks! I'll have to add street theatre company Royal de Luxe (
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

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spydum
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.

~~~
octygen
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?

~~~
CosmicShadow
#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.

~~~
ehsankia
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.

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

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

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gcb0
why is this here?

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GuiA
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.

~~~
k_sze
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.

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

~~~
jacquesm
[https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-
portfolio](https://www.bvp.com/portfolio/anti-portfolio) is a classic example.

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amygdyl
"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.

~~~
duskwuff
How does this comment relate to Cirque du Soleil?

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raverbashing
The Blue Man Group has advertised for Intel

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ape4
Probably because it was seen as having a nerd/hacker appeal.

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

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

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retox
Hacker news.

~~~
archildress
"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

