Cirque has grown to become one of the world's most successful entertainment empires and one of Canada's best-known exports

Since its humble beginnings in 1984, close to 90 million people have taken in a Cirque show. Laliberté now employs more than 4,000 people on five continents, and his company has turned its headquarters of Montreal into a circus arts hub.

SHOOT: Fascinating story. And recently Laliberté visisted space for the 7th time. But he's not necessarily a saint:

Agi.it: This is the 7th visit to space for the 50-year-old Canadian billionaire, depicted in an unauthorised biography as being addicted to sex, drugs and various other excesses. http://www.agi.it/world/news/200910021255-cro-ren0019-space_soyuz_with_cirque_du_soleil_founder_docks_with_iss

On Friday, before his return, he will be the centre of a global multimedia event broadcast in 15 cities on five continents to promote awareness of the scarcity of water.

SHOOT: That - water scarcity - is a worthy cause, and worth focussing on.

clipped from www.cbc.ca Often credited with reinventing the circus for modern audiences, Guy Laliberté was born in Quebec City in 1959. As a young man, he decided to pursue a career as an entertainer. After dropping out of college, he supplemented his skills as an accordionist by studying with street artists and buskers in Quebec and in Europe, picking up such talents as fire-eating, juggling and stilt-walking. While performing with a troupe of talented but rag-tag street performers in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984, the confident, entrepreneurial Laliberté convinced the Quebec government to fund a series of shows to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's arrival in Canada. His newly named Cirque du Soleil incorporated the excitement, theatricality and intimacy of busking with the acrobatics, artistry and drama of the circus, doing away with animals and the divided three-ring setting. His musical mélange proved a winning formula.