The first clown in space, Guy Laliberte, has launched a 14-city poetic planetary extravaganza to promote clean drinking water from the International Space Station.
The billionaire space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil described his journey as a “poetic, social mission.”
The two-hour live One Drop show, broadcast online on Friday, included guests such as former US vice president Al Gore, musician Bono, actress Salma Hayek and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette — as well as a musical theatrical performance by Laliberte’s circus troupe.
It started with a reading of a poem by author Yann Martel, describing a conversation between the Sun, the Moon and a drop of water. Throughout the show, several people read bits of the fable.
Gore used charts and video to warn of melting polar ice caps, water pollution and extreme weather causing droughts and flooding.
“To solve the climate crisis and safeguard our planet and its beauty ... will require global effort,” he said.
Australian Tiffany Speight sang from the Sydney Opera House. Inuit singer Elisapie Isaac belted out haunting lyrics in her native language, while rappers Fnaire performed from Morocco.
Throughout the show crowds danced and cheered in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, New York’s Times Square and at outdoor concerts worldwide.
The 14 segments were broadcast from South Africa, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Britain, Japan, France, India, Morocco, Australia and several cities in the US.
Acrobats swam underwater with whales in the Pacific Ocean, as others swung from a makeshift ship dangling high above a pool at a Las Vegas casino.
In Moscow, ballet students of the State Academic Maliy Theatre splashed in a curtain of rain with Bolshoi Ballet star Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
U2 rocked a stadium crowd in Tampa Bay, Florida as part of what Bono described as “an out of this world event.”
A former stilt-walker and fire-eater, Laliberte entertained his fellow crew members with a soap bubble show during their Soyuz flight.
He is due to return to Earth today.
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