Cirque de Soleil billionaire celebrates 25th anniversary of his company with space trip

Canadian circus tycoon heads to space station

MONTREAL — From street performer to circus tycoon and now space tourist, Guy Laliberte has led a life of intrigue. As the billionaire founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Laliberte has made high risk business choices and enjoyed indulgent parties.

This year, he’s celebrating his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the founding of Cirque du Soleil by blasting off on a 12-day trip to the International Space Station.

A Soyuz TMA-16 craft took off early Wednesday from Kazakhstan and is scheduled to arrive Friday at the International Space Station. Laliberte, who is worth an estimated $2.5 billion, paid $35 million to become Canada’s first space tourist.

“I’ve always wanted to travel the world and this is an extension of that,” Laliberte said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Laliberte said his nomadic spirit has been a guiding force throughout his career. The son of a Quebec public relations executive and a nurse, Laliberte said he was a pesky child who didn’t like school. “I always liked to push my boundaries,” he said.

Laliberte started as a street juggler and fire-eater and, because he was the best at math among his group of performing friends, Laliberte was put in charge of the business affairs of the little performing troupe that would eventually become the world renowned Cirque du Soleil.

The Cirque shuns the traditional use of animals and instead embraces acrobats, music and dance. The circus troupe hinges on Laliberte’s creativity and international vision, wowing audiences with acrobats, over-the-top lighting and stage design, music and dance.

In his teen years, Laliberte remembers stealing, skipping school and partying too often. He began learning circus arts such as fire-breathing, stilt-walking and accordion playing, often hitchhiking to shows, before he left home for the first time at 18 to spend the summer working the streets of London and Paris as a busker.

With an accordion, a set of wooden spoons, a little money and a lot of charm, Laliberte spent his first night sleeping on a bench in London’s Hyde Park, but, he recalls, that he always had little tricks to make money, and always had money in his pocket.

Upon his return to Canada soon after, Laliberte joined stilt-walking troupe les Echassiers in the small Quebec hamlet of Baie St. Paul. Laliberte soon founded his own circus company in 1984 with $1.5 million in funding from Quebec’s provincial government.

“I knew I had a product right in 1984,” he said. “It was not about making a lot of money, but I could see the success coming.”

Laliberte brought the troupe to Los Angeles three years later.

“We didn’t have enough money to get back,” Laliberte said.

It was a high-risk plan that paid off. Twenty years later, Laliberte was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Laliberte credits the success of Cirque with the marriage of solid business sense and a passion for the surreal.

“We really inspire ourselves. We need a profound reason why we do our shows,” he said.

His personal life has been as wild a ride as his career. Laliberte has rubbed elbows with the likes of Robert De Niro and Naomi Campbell, he enjoys high-stakes poker games in Las Vegas, and he hosts glitzy parties that mix the social and political elite with artists and bohemians.

“He’s the kind of guy that is never happy with a normal life,” says Daniel Lamarre, a longtime friend of Laliberte and the Cirque’s president and CEO.

The creative and business risks behind Cirque have now brought performances to close to 100 million spectators in 200 cities on five continents. What was once a small troupe of vagabonds has grown to a 4,800-person operation headquartered in Montreal. A Willy Wonka’s Acrobat Factory of sorts, around every hallway at the Cirque office is a whimsical art installation, a 10-seater bicycle, or a tightrope walker practicing her trade, reflecting Laliberte’s love for all things absurd and eccentric.

“He is an amazing entrepreneur and he’s the one who will always provoke people to go to their limits. I think this trip he’s doing is a good illustration of that,” Lamarre said. “Not only is he pushing himself to his limits but he’s also pushing his team to do what they’re doing right now, which is to try the crazy idea of having a show coming from the space station.”

Laliberte plans to broadcast a two-hour show with concerts in 14 different cities from the International Space Station on Oct. 9. Coined the Poetic Social Mission, the likes of Al Gore, U2 and Shakira will take part, raising awareness for his One Drop Foundation. The foundation aim is to publicize the world’s growing shortage of clean water.

Laliberte’s parties back on earth have also attracted attention.

An unauthorized biography alleges Laliberte’s annual parties held at his sprawling suburban estate the night of Montreal’s Grand Prix race at times cost more than $3 million. Ian Halperin, author of “Guy Laliberte: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of Cirque du Soleil,” writes about drug-fueled orgies.

“It was beyond crazy; it was complete insanity for hours. Everyone was so beautiful and so free. It was as if they all dumped their personal baggage at the door and let themselves go,” Angie Everhart, a former Playboy model, is quoted in the book as saying. “If there was a straight person in the house they must have freaked out watching everyone else trip. They would have thought they were the one on drugs.”

Laliberte doesn’t deny having wild parties, but says the tales have spun beyond reality.

“Up until recently, I was amused by the urban legends (my parties) were creating,” Laliberte said. “I don’t believe in people making money off this. I have the obligation of defending my children, of defending Cirque du Soleil. What was amusing is now not so fun.”

Halperin defends his book as entirely factual, claiming he wrote it to show his enormous respect for Laliberte’s business sense and artistic vision.

These days, Laliberte said he prefers entertaining on a more intimate level.

“I don’t believe I’ve had very many downsides with living my life the way I’ve lived it,” he said. “It’s part of my experience. But I’m not in that mood now. I prefer to be with a close circle of friends.”

Through all the parties and poker games, Laliberte remains a devoted family man, recounting with a smile the reaction of each of his five children upon telling them he would blast into space.

From the analytical second child who grilled him about the risks involved, to the free-spirited middle daughter who wanted to join him, they each had a different response, said Laliberte. His youngest, a 2-year-old girl, asked him, “Is Daddy going to the moon?”

For a man who has gone from sleeping on park benches to rocketing into space, not even Laliberte can speculate on what lies next. He said he needs a driving force to remain driven in his career and personal endeavors.

“(The mission) brought the light and fire inside me again with all my success I lost that pure sense of freedom,” he said.

Though he mourns the loss of the traveling performer’s life he once led, Laliberte doesn’t take for granted the incredible journey that has seen him soar to unimaginable heights.

“I have the privilege of living an amazing life,” he said.