While Cirque isn’t a difficult sell,  it’s a big job with 11 shows and 8 million tickets to sell each year. “The first 7 million are an easy sell. It’s that last million that are a little harder,” D’Amico says, making Cirque an occasional victim of its own success with 85%-90% occupancy. “We’re sometimes condemned by that success to improve sales the following year, when market conditions are out of our control,” he explains.

D’Amico is able to generate “the buzz” in a variety of unique — and inexpensive — ways.

Scantily-clad performers from the sexy adult show, Zumanity, entertained guests at the “in” bars in Miami, San Francisco, and New York.  

A 12-person Russian team is often sent out to local venues — most notably one recently on Venice Beach near Los Angeles — to perform its human pyramid act with no ropes or other equipment. “We’ll play with the muscle guys on the beach, challenge them to try some of the things they’re doing. It gets the message across in a playfully spectacular way,” he says.

A woman contorting on a long streamer of red silk suspended from Seattle’s famous Space Needle gets across the idea that something different is coming to town.

The house troupe is often sent into a town “just to have a little fun, to play with the people, with little acts that make people smile,” says D’Amico. “These are much, much more efficient marketing tools than buying an ad.”

Advertising, in D’Amico’s mind, is really only necessary to tell people where to buy tickets. They’re already sold on seeing the show.

What’s next? Hotels, museums, restaurants and more. D’Amico’s fertile mind buzzes on. “The owner of this company has always felt he has a stable of creative people here, and those people have always been busy creating shows. But what if some of those creative people could be let loose to create a wonderful space in a bar or a night club, a restaurant, or a hotel lobby?”   

The possibilities are endless. •

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