Coming full circle for the artistic director of Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza
Jamieson Lindenburg talks about how he went from being fired as an usher to directing Kooza, which is showing in Hong Kong until July 13
I WAS BORN IN St Petersburg, Florida, in 1984. My mum called me Mr Sparkles or Mr Showman. I was always putting on a show. I was always entertaining whoever was around. I definitely had something. That’s why I think they encouraged me to go into theatre. There was just something a little different. They recognised something special.
NO ONE KNEW I could sing until I was probably nine or 10. When they heard me sing in the school choir, that was when it turned into “put him in lessons and let’s help facilitate that as much as we can”.
I’D NEVER HEARD OF Cirque du Soleil, but I was absolutely blown away by what I was seeing. I was studying theatre, so it was quite a contrast to Broadway, which is what I went on to do.
I BROKE SOME OF the rules – I was very late to work as a 15-year-old high-school student is – and I was let go. I was disappointed, but didn’t even think about Cirque or that I could ever perform or be involved in that capacity because I finished school for theatre.