Behind the scenes @ beatkitchen.de

Veggies

One of the great things about Cirque Du Soleil is that they plant their own vegetables to use in their kitchens.... very cool!

posted by eshan @ 03:31 0 comments

A peak at the costume workshop

posted by eshan @ 03:26 0 comments

Mont Royal

posted by eshan @ 03:37 0 comments

Childhood inspiration

I know there are mixed feelings about Michael Jackson passing away recently... understandable considering the highs and lows of his life in the limelight.... for my part I have to say that Michael Jackson was a large part of my childhood as with many of my generation... "Billie Jean" was one of the first singles I ever owned and I used to listen to it over and over again and pretend to be Michael... I was about 7 at the time... and I am sure Ndugu Chancler's drumming on that track left a lasting impression on my fresh and open ears... anyway all of this led me to go down memory lane this morning and got me thinking about other songs that were a large part of my childhood and were to be the inspiring sounds leading me to become a musician.... most of these were seen by my sister Carima and myself as we watched Top Of The Pops (when it was still good) and we would dance around the coffee table pretending to be whomever was on tv.... this was a lovely walk down memory lane for me... feel free to join me!

posted by eshan @ 18:05 0 comments

New kit to practice on

Looks like I am going to be around in Montreal for longer than expected... US embassy is taking more time than usual to process my visa.... But luckily Cirque have hooked me up with this beautiful drum kit from their show "Delirium".... hand crafted in Brazil.... a real pleasure to play.... so at least I can practice properly again....Time to break some stix!

posted by eshan @ 04:18 0 comments

My character is starting to manifest...

This is my make up artist who did an AMAZING JOB!

posted by eshan @ 03:53 0 comments

Ear moulds

Got my ears molded for my in-ear monitors today...
Have had it done a couple times before in the past and don't find it to be the most pleasant experience going...
But the doctor who did it was very nice and did her best to make it as pleasant as possible for me...


Feels as weird as it looks!Next step will be for Cirque Du Soleil to have these molds made into headphones.....

posted by eshan @ 11:40 0 comments

Stilt World record

What a day.... in order to celebrate Cirques 25th anniversary one of the events was to try and reclaim the world record in stilt walking.... And it couldn't have been a better day for it... The sun was shining and hundreds of people made it to the Cirque International Headquarters to give it their best shot... I decided to walk around and take some pictures of all the cool sights... Before I knew it they stuck me in a pair of stilts and had me participate alongside them all.... Wasn't exactly prepared for it as I had never done it before and after my first few steps almost fell flat on my face... but with a little practice all was good and I decided to give it my best shot... it was so much fun.... You could literally see all the energy sparkling in the air... everyone was so excited... then off we went... It was kind of like a slow 100 meter run (on stilts)... And the people from Guinness were at the other side waiting to count all the participants.... With all the people from the other Cirque Du Soleil sites I believe we were well over one thousand people on stilts and therefore now collectively are the "title holders" of this world record... AWESOME!

posted by eshan @ 02:48 0 comments

Cirque du Soleil - Determined to Reclaim World Record on June 16, 2009

posted by eshan @ 09:55 0 comments

What a day...

I was expecting today to be packed with interesting things, no doubt, but that that it was going to be this crazy was even beyond my wildest dreams...

Lets start at the beginning... My first meeting with Sylvie was at 11am this morning... Up until this point I had only been able to see the International Headquarters from the outside.... It's so enormous that I found it hard to imagine what it was like on the inside... that was about to change though... Sylvie picked me up at reception and let me know that today was mainly going to be an administration day... and that's exactly how it started... lots of documents had to be filled out regarding me working here in Canada for the next two weeks, but Sylvie did a great job of guiding me through it all like a pro... I really felt taken care of and that's good because I am rubbish at this kind of thing LOL! Once we were done with that it was time for my medical examination which was in the physio area... here physiotherapist Debbie ran me through a long list of physical check ups and it felt like she checked every joint/nerve in my entire body... then there were hand/eye co-ordination tests... balance checks ( I did way worse at this than I thought I would... embarrassing!) ... all in all it took about 30 minutes in total and I guess I did ok... Once we were done I was delivered to the house stage manger Rene who showed me were I will be practicing and how to read the (insane) schedules... man, I wouldn't want to be the person who has to deal with the logistics of that! As soon as we were done with that I was taken to the other main building where all the workshops are and delivered to the tailor... he told me they just recently got a new toy - a 3D body scanner - into which I was to go and be scanned... what a trip... and then they took every measurement possible - from head to toe - all in all roughly 120 (yes, one hundred and twenty)! This also took about 30 minutes to do.... After this I was supposed to have a meeting with Human Resources but it got canceled so I managed to slip in a coffee with Andre from casting... he was instrumental in getting me into Kooza... great to finally meet him in person... before I knew it, it was time to go to my next meeting with account Shelley Ann who guided me (slowly but surely) through the whole taxation process that awaits me in Canada and in the States... (I will spare us all from this jungle of tax laws)... great to know there is someone like her who understands the whole system and is actually willing to explain it to someone like me... I already feel sorry for her LOL! And from there I went straight to my final test for the day... a brain imPACT test... This is done at a computer terminal and its purpose is to check my memory, hand eye co-ordination and various other things... they then save this data and if I was to ever fall and injure my head/brain they would run this test to see if I am slower and hence have incurred brain damage... at least I think that's how it works... it was tough... 30 minutes of extreme concentration exercises after the day I had was no "walk in the park"... anyway after that I was done with all of the official meetings and tests and was allowed to do what I came here to do: PLAY DRUMS... Unfortunately Cirques main drum kit was stolen so they had to put together a makeshift drum kit for me... cymbals should be there tomorrow... at first it threw me off a little but then I really got into the weird setup and had a blast practicing in this huge room they are using for dance practice in the day for the new Elvis show... and now I am back in my room typing up this blog as I am sure tomorrow will be full of more cool impressions... time to get some sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

posted by eshan @ 03:18 0 comments

Off to Montreal

Wow, I can't believe the day has come to finally leave for Montreal to begin training for Cirque Du Soleils "Kooza"... After packing my bags (half of which are full of books I have been wanting to read for ages) Judy dropped me off at Duesseldorf airport.... We managed to squeeze in a coffee and some breakfast before we said our final goodbyes (well at least until October)... Tough going but we have had our fair share of experience at this in the past... First stop was Paris airport where I had to get my connecting flight to Montreal airport... typical musicians luck: in a cool city like Paris... but only for 40 minutes, hmmm... oh well, not complaining! Once I got to Montreal, Andre from Cirque picked me up and dropped me off at the Cirque residences where I will be staying for the next 2 weeks of training.... Even though I was soooo tired I couldn't resist taking a quick walk around the premises to see what awaits me on Monday morning.... One more day to get over this jet lag before the fun begins!

posted by eshan @ 22:49 0 comments

Bearded man

posted by eshan @ 22:43 0 comments

Rehearsal space Au Revoir

Alright, unfortunately the time has come to clear out my rehearsal speace *sob*... A lot of great practice memories here!

Before:

After:

posted by eshan @ 22:27 0 comments