Behind the scenes of Cabaret Celeste at a vanity mirror, Matthew Richardson (AKA Jessica Bigtop) is brushing on electric blue eyeshadow preparing for the evening’s performance. In a few hours, Richardson will be commanding the stage at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, emceeing a sultry cirque-meets-cabaret show, smoothly transitioning between French and English for the mixed-language Montreal audience and also rolling around the stage at the axis of a giant Cyr wheel in a gracious and precise dance with the law of gravity.
“Everyone has their own superpower,” says Richardson, 37, a former graphic design artist who entered the world of cirque more than a decade ago. “I find
→ Continue reading at Forbes
