Victor E. Chan: Interview With A Musical Theatre Actor And Musician

Victor E. Chan is a multitalented actor, singer and musician known for his work on The Crier, Dog Bowl, and Association. Victor is most renowned for his musical theatre performance work, but is also active in the film and TV industries and started his career behind the scenes before finding success on the other side of the curtain.

As part of our series celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, we are shining the spotlight on our AAPI friends working across the Arts and entertainment industries.

Hi Victor, thanks for talking with us at TheatreArtLife! How are you doing, and how are you coping with the pandemic at the moment?

Whenever someone asks me that, I always say that “I’m doing better than most.” When the pandemic first hit, I was performing in a new musical at the La Jolla Playhouse called FLY and we were shut down after our third show once we had officially opened.

I was able to file for unemployment before everyone else had. At the moment, my days are filed with Zoom meetings with my agency, virtual cabarets, and lots of video editing for my wife. She teaches high school show choir and, of course, everything had to go virtual.

Your career has spanned across various disciplines so how did you get your start in the industry, and what first inspired you and drew you to the Arts?

As a child, my mom was always asking me to sing her favorite songs to her. It wasn’t until I was 11 that I got into our school choir and from there our school musical. I remember the first musical I ever did was something called The Tracers Of Lost Parts Of Speech. I still remember the 8 parts of speech because of the title song from that show.

I fell in love with being on stage from then on.

How did your path progress from starting out in the industry to where you are now, and what did that journey look like? I understand you consider yourself a ‘late starter’ in the musical theatre world?

Yes, I didn’t start pursuing musical theatre professionally until I was 29. Most of my contemporaries already had been in the business for 6 to 10 years. It’s funny actually, before becoming an actor, I was an audio engineer and was the resident “sound guy” for the San Diego Repertory Theatre in the mid 90s. I moved to Connecticut for year, came back to San Diego, worked for an AV Department at a number of hotels. I finally decided I needed to be on stage again and auditioned for a professional new musical.

Now, here’s the funny part: it was for the San Diego Repertory Theatre. Sam Woodhouse is the Artistic Director for “The REP” and he was directing the musical. He told me that when I walked in the audition room, he said to himself, “Okay. Let’s see what this sound guy is gonna do.”

Apparently, I blew him and the playwright away because the playwright turned to Sam and said, “Well, we’re definitely hiring him.”

I did a couple of other shows in the next 2 years, but in 2002, I got hired by Disney to open Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular at The Hyperion Theatre in Disney’s California Adventure. That’s what really kicked things into high gear.

It’s always interesting when a career moves and evolves, is it possible to choose your favourite moments or career highlights so far?

I’d have to say that my hands-down career highlight is originating the role of Crush in Finding Nemo – The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Since we ran 7 days a week, I actually co-created that role with the supremely talented Bert Rodriguez but I was the lucky one to be the one on the cast album.

(If you didn’t know, that show was written by Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. This was after Avenue Q and before The Book Of Mormon)

And conversely, what has been the biggest obstacle or challenge you’ve overcome in your work?

Well, the obvious answer would be race related but I think most people understand those dynamics now. The not so obvious answer is simply scheduling. I remember my agent telling me that they had to pass on a co-star on an Aaron Sorkin show because I was booked in a musical in Florida.

What advice would you give to your younger self if you could go back in time? What do you wish you knew then that you know now?

Honestly, I’d just tell my younger self that you have what takes. In my younger days, I always heard, “I support you BUT…”

Don’t listen to those sentences after the word “but.” It’s all just noise.

And looking to the future, what can we look forward to next from you? Are you currently working on anything?

There were things planned before the pandemic but ALL of those have either been delayed to an indeterminate time or simply cancelled. But things are opening back up so we shall see…

And final thoughts from you Victor, what’s a fun fact our readers might be interested to know about you?

A little known fact is that I served in the US Army in the early 90s. I started out as a tactical satellite operator but only did that job for 8 months before being getting into situations where I was singing for the Army full time. That’s an interview for another day. Haha.

Links:

@VictorEChan on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Victor E. Chan on IMDB

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