Overview

Paris Nights: My Year at the Moulin Rouge opens with a bored twenty-seven-year old Cliff Simon staring out at the ocean from his beachfront house, wishing he was somewhere else. Gavin Mills telephones him from Paris inviting him to join him at the iconic Moulin Rouge. Cliff sells everything he owns, leaving Johannesburg, South Africa for the City of Lights. He learns that his spot at the Moulin is not guaranteed and is forced to audition. Making the grade, he is put into can can school before he is allowed into the company. His adrenaline is pumping from excitement and fear, both of which he has faced before. Taking a look back, we see twelve-year-old Cliff helming a racing dinghy in the midst of a thunderstorm on the Vaal River. His father yells at him not to be a sissy, and he brings the boat back to shore alone. We then travel to London with his family escaping the tumult of Apartheid. He trains for the Olympics, but drops out, enrolling in the South African military where he subjected to harsh treatment and name calling Fokken Jood. After a honorable discharge, he works in cabaret at seaside resorts and is recruited as a gymnast in a cabaret, where he realizes that the stage is his destiny. The memoir fast forwards to Cliffs meteoric rise at the Moulin from swing dancer to principal in Formidable. Off stage he gets into fights with street thugs, hangs out with diamond smugglers, and has his pick of gorgeous women. With a year at the Moulin to his credit, doors open for him internationally and back in South Africa. He earns a starring role in Egoli: Place of Gold, and marries his long-time girlfriend, Colette. On their honeymoon to Paris, Cliff says, Merci Paris for the best year of my life.

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9781943848928

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Reviews

Cliff Simon, a South African native, got the chance of a lifetime when his friend Gavin informed him that there was a position as a dancer available at the famed Moulin Rouge in Paris. He didn't hesitate to get the next plane to Paris where he would spend the next year in the cabaret troupe: first as a swing dancer, then as chorus boy, and ultimately as a principle performer. This book explores his year in Paris, which was full of fun, friends, adventure, and the hard work of regularly performing two shows a night. If the aim of a good memoir is to let the reader into someone's life and give them a taste of some interesting and unique experiences, then this book definitely measures up.</p>--Manhattan Book Review (11/29/2016)

...feels like a well-crafted adventure novel; at times I would forget that I was reading a non-fiction biography. The author's descriptions of places, situations, and people are almost poetic.--Loren Stephens, book reviewer (08/11/2017) Cliff Simon, a South African native, got the chance of a lifetime when his friend Gavin informed him that there was a position as a dancer available at the famed Moulin Rouge in Paris. He didn't hesitate to get the next plane to Paris where he would spend the next year in the cabaret troupe: first as a swing dancer, then as chorus boy, and ultimately as a principle performer. This book explores his year in Paris, which was full of fun, friends, adventure, and the hard work of regularly performing two shows a night. If the aim of a good memoir is to let the reader into someone's life and give them a taste of some interesting and unique experiences, then this book definitely measures up.--Manhattan Book Review (11/29/2016) A colorful and illuminating memoir of a cabaret performer.--Kirkus Reviews (11/29/2016)

Author Information

Cliff Simon is best known as the evil Baal in Stargate and Stargate Continuum, he has had guest appearances in the NCIS franchise, Twenty-Four, Castle, The Americans, and numerous other television series, usually playing the tough guy. With his rugged good looks inherited from his Lithuanian father and Polish mother, he has worked as a runway and print model in the United States and South Africa, and has done voice over work for video games. He makes his home in Los Angeles, where in his downtime, he windsurfs, practice martial arts, and hangs out at the beach with his pit bull, Duma.

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