Interview with Fan Yang of the Gazillion Bubble Show
By: Michael Gilboe Mar. 08, 2007
Fan-Yang is the holder of 12 Guinness World Records and David Letterman called him, "The greatest bubble artist in the world."
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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 104. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.
Broadway Bullet Interview: Fan-Yang of the Gazillion Bubble Show
BROADWAY BULLET: I believe when we were children everybody went through a phase of having fun blowing the bubbles out of the rings, but I don't know if anybody could have been considered totally sane if they said to themselves "I'm going to make a career out of this". But we have Fan-Yang with us who is the creator, and star, and impresario of "The Gazillion Bubbles Show" here for the first time in America. Hi how are you doing?
FAN-YANG: Fine, thank you. Feeling great in America.
BB: And what did your mother tell you when you told her "I want to make a living playing with bubbles"?
FAN-YANG: Well first of all, she doesn't know what I am doing at all. My playing with liquids and mixing things together, she must be thinking "that boy is playing around" or something. But she never thought I'd be a performer/artist, neither did myself. I never thought I could bring "Bubble Show" to this level, to this standard, and perform it around the world.
BB: Well before we get into it, this show of yours just recently opened at New World Stage just a few days ago – as we tape this – and you've already extended it twice to September, is that correct?
FAN-YANG: Yes, that is correct. We run first one week in January and we had phenomenal success, the show was created a huge impact in New York and also for American audiences, and then we decided to extend the show. My manager, Ron Severini, from casting talent, we worked together to we decided to extend for four weeks and after that we'd see. The show is running very strong and we think that we need to have more people see the show so we extended now, through September 2nd.
BB: What do you think it is about your show, what do you do in your show that's so that makes it so entertaining that drives everyone to see it?
FAN-YANG: I think the bubble is the first thing everyone looks for, every child, and for all of us. People of all ages are fascinated about bubbles, about its particular shape, about its reflecting the lights. It's beautiful to watch. And, of course, I am able to manipulate those bubbles and bring the bubble to a totally new, artistic level, new artistic dimension. So I am making the bubble every size, shape, and hue. When people come to the show they just cannot believe what you can do with the bubble. And people of all ages are just into it, fascinated, they love it. I think myself also really enjoy working with bubbles, and there is no boundary because it is my childhood imagination, and I put it together and I use the bubble media to put together dream and art, and I put the science. All together I think it's a very neat show. The only show in the world with bubbles on this standard.
BB: And you mix it with quite a light show and with music as well, right?
FAN-YANG: Yes, the show is a multi-million dollar stage production, with fantastic lighting, special effects I'd never seen before, the laser, music. All together is an 85 minute show and I think from the beginning to the end people are just glued to the stage because they don't know what is going to happen, they just float with the bubbles.
BB: I have to say, I want to ask you, what is your heritage? Because with the name Fan-Yang, and you look to be Asian, but I am hearing kind of a German accent. So I am kind of curious what your heritage is.
FAN-YANG: Yes, I have to say that I come from everywhere, I also say this to the audience during my show. I was born in Vietnam, my mother is Chinese-Vietnamese and my father is from Europe from Hungary. So when I was two years old my family moved to Yugoslavia, the country it does not exist anymore, and I grew up in Yugoslavia and I did go to Germany when I was sixteen years old I spent a few years in Germany. And then I went to Canada, so I was everywhere.
BB: I was beginning to say "was I an idiot for saying Germany?"
FAN_YANG: Good guess.
BB: And so somewhere along the lines, how do you discover that you've got a talent for bubbles?
FAN-YANG: When I started to work with bubbles I was eighteen years old, when I really started to get into it. But everything comes from my childhood, my imagination, and as a little boy I was fascinated about the reflections of the lights on the surface of the water. I grew up in a very poor family, and I used to play in the river near by and seeing the water spread the small bubbles that were floating on the surface of the water I was fascinated by the reflections of the light on the small bubbles, trying to play with them. And I was just having a dream, how can I make the biggest bubble possible and reflect the lights and I was fascinated by the rainbows, every time I saw the rainbows I was just thinking of that all the time. And then it just happened, after many years ago, a friend of mine brought me a small gadget. It was a very small bubble toy I was playing with and blowing the bubbles. And then there was a bubble flying into the atmosphere and it landed on the grass, and the grass was wet. At that moment, I captured the reflection from the light surface of the soap, and I caught a good reflection – like on the rainbow. And then I decided to find a way to make the biggest possible bubble and see the different reflections of the light. This is how I started. I never thought I would bring this kind of performance to the stages around the world. And by following my imagination, I just started to try to find the best possible mixture to make the biggest possible bubble I could make. This is how I started.
BB: So how long did it take you, at this point, to start making a living with bubbles? Did anybody think you even could? Did you think you could?
FAN-YANG: No, I didn't do the bubbles because I thought, "okay, I am going to do a bubble show", no this was nothing I thought would do the living. This was something I thought of like a hobby. I was an enthusiast, I love the bubbles. And because I was so poor, and I never had a toy, I never had anything; so the only thing around – I grew up in the nature – was everything surrounding me, and one of these things was a bubble and liquid and water, obviously. It was somehow, I have to say, from my heart. I did not do the bubbles because I want to make money, I did it because I love the bubbles. What I do onstage, what everyone sees really comes from my heart.
BB: So still, at some point I should mention this is a multi-million dollar show, this is your first time in the U.S. aside from a nine show limited engagement here.
FAN-YANG: Yes.
BB: At some point, somebody said, "I'm going to invest a couple million dollars in a stage show for you to go and play with bubbles in front of an audience." How does that come about? How do you meet the right person to take that and turn it into a big show?
FAN-YANG: Well this production, I produce it all by myself, I've been working with the bubbles for the past twenty two years. Of course it was a very small bubble show, bubble art, when I started and through the years it makes a bigger and bigger show. And then I developed a unique kind of bubble toys, which is now selling in forty countries around the world. So slowly, with the income from the toys, I put it together and I invested into the show. It was like $200,000-$300,000 a production, so I just expanded this with time. Now the show has become very big, it's a mega scale bubble production and the biggest show in the world. And, if I ever went to someone and said, "I have an idea for the biggest bubble production, it costs a couple of million dollars" they would say "get up from here"
BB: I am definitely impressed, through all this I did not realize that you really built this up from scratch and step by step for so long. So now that you've actually come to New York, what are your further goals?
FAN-YANG: Well I would actually like to share my dream and fantasy, not only to the people of New York, but to people of America and to the rest of the world. And I think it would be nice to make a tour in the United States and America has the biggest entertainment industry, and they show almost everything from people of New York to Vegas, there are fantastic shows out there. But they never saw Bubble Show, they've never seen a bubble production. This is the most unique show, I think, and unique opportunity for everyone to experience the show with bubbles. There is something fascinating that people have to see it to believe it.
BB: Well I know you have some fantastic color programs, I imagine you sell these at the show? Hopefully we can maybe get a couple of them and we'll put them up on our website because besides talking, I think our listeners should surely come to broadwaybullet.com and check out whatever photos we can put up of this show because it really gives an idea of the colorful entertainment.
FAN-YANG: Yes, but when people come to the show they can also experience themselves being in a bubble because we are conducting the bubble photography. So they can step inside the gigantic colorful soap bubble and capture a photo and bring it home for the experience. This is something we do before and after the show.
BB: Well this has been fascinating. I definitely wish you the best of luck with the rest of your New York run, from the sounds of how well it's going, I'm sure a national tour or you could play for a long time in Vegas with something like that. So I wish you the best of luck. And hopefully our listeners will be able to catch you, if not in New York, then when you come near their area.
FAN-YANG: Yes. Thank you so much, we appreciate it.
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You can listen to this interview and many other great features for free on Broadway Bullet vol. 104. Subscribe for free so you don't miss an episode.
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