I know what Disney has done when it comes to my career and I will never forget that of course." Actor Corbin Bleu on board the Disney Wonder as part of the "Disney Channel Summer at Sea" celebration.
Corbin Bleu is at a loss for words.
Ever since becoming a sensation as a singer, actor and dancer in the High School Musical movies, Jump In!, his own albums and more, he’s been interviewed thousands of times and asked many questions over and over again. So, what is the one question he would most like to be asked — the one never asked before?
He pauses for a few seconds and laughs. “Where do you go with a great opportunity like that? I think one of the major issues that isn’t always touched upon is the true heart behind things. I know for my sake, it comes from my family’s background. I am here right now with my father, my mother and my younger siblings. I would not be able to do anything I do if it weren’t for their support.
“My father is an actor and he’s been my coach since I started. He taught me the number one rule: that an actor always listens — listening in a scene, listening to your counterpart in the scene, to the director and everyone around you. There is always something to learn.” Next up for Corbin is a regular role on a new series for another network called The Beautiful Life.
Corbin was one of the stars who shared a Disney Cruise Line voyage with their fans during the recent “Disney Channel Summer at Sea” aboard the Disney Wonder. Unlike a typical S.S. Tipton cruise on The Suite Life on Deck, everything here was smooth sailing. And it became a normal, everyday thing for Disney Wonder guests to glimpse these stars enjoying fun, entertainment and dining nearby.
For a star like Corbin, it was a pleasure to appear for his fans and for his friends at Disney. “99 percent of fans are usually respectful and polite,” he says. “As long as everybody remains polite and respectful, then I am cool. Beyond that, I know what Disney has done when it comes to my career and I will never forget that of course.”
One of the cruise’s highlights was a concert in which Corbin paid tribute to one of his major influences, Michael Jackson. He also counts Sammy Davis, Jr. and Fred Astaire among his idols — and like so many of us, he loves cartoons! He voices of Coltrane on Phineas and Ferb and the lead in Disney’s English-language version of the animated fantasy The Secret of the Magic Gourd. “I had a blast doing that!” he says.
The opening act for Corbin’s concert was a duo whose superstar status seems to shine on the horizon. Sisters who have been singing together since early childhood, Jonnie and Brookie are the first to win the title of “The Next Big Thing,” voted by Radio Disney listeners.
“This has been so fun, getting to walk around and hang out with fans,” Jonnie says. We just love going out and talking to them and we have made so many new friends.”
They’re not amateurs by any stretch; they have their own album and 11 years’ experience performing for tens of thousands, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Through it all, their focus is on positive change.
“We go into schools and teach the kids about having good character,” Brookie says. “We are the only two teenagers who go in do a full concert and talk to kids about doing right in school, not doing drugs or smoking all that stuff. It’s not uncool to do the right thing and to help people.”
But nice as they are, surely they must occasionally behave like any siblings, right? “We’ve had a few fights right before going on stage,” Jonnie admits with a grin. “It’s usually about something dumb.”
“We forget the fight while we are on stage and when we get off stage we are totally normal,” adds Brookie. “Usually we end up laughing about it.”
Tiffany Thornton pauses for a little R & R with Minnie Mouse.
Jonnie and Brookie also laugh about Sonny With A Chance (yes, they really do watch Disney Channel). If the show’s runaway success is any indication, adults are tuning in as well. That should be no surprise since the show recalls landmark TV comedy in the tradition of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Your Show of Shows and Saturday Night Live.
“We have writers from SNL,” says Tiffany Thornton, who plays diva Tawni Hart on Sonny. “We have Brian Robbins from All That, Kenan and Kel and Amanda Byne’s show and lots of other great people.”
Though her acting talent convinces millions that she really is as shallow and self-absorbed and her TV character (and clearly she is not), Tiffany’s first love is singing. “One person that inspires me a lot is Reba McIntyre. She just carries herself with such grace. You could just tell that she enjoys what she does.”
If she wished upon a star, Tiffany dreams of playing Glinda in the musical Wicked, the role originated by another of her inspirations, Kristin Chenowith.
Tiffany’s personal values affect her career direction. “I think faith is important to all the kids on Sonny,” she told us. “What better company to work for than Disney when that is such a strong part of your life?
“I especially want my music to speak to kids, to help them understand we’ve all been there before, this is how I got through it and here is an idea that might make you feel better in this situation.”
Tiffany’s already started mining for gold in the music department, having recorded an upcoming rendition of “If I Never Knew You” from Pocahontas for DisneyMania 7 plus a video version of “Someday My Prince Will Come” for the Diamond Edition Blu-Ray® and DVD of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“I am beside myself with that opportunity — to be, in a way, part of the first huge animated feature that Walt Disney ever did,” Tiffany says. “You never forget any of these characters. Every time I walk into Disneyland, I am in awe. I am in disbelief. I think, ‘Oh my gosh, I work for this phenomenon.”
For Doug Brochu, few things fill him with awe more than Pixar films. He’d love to voice a Pixar character someday. For now, he’s focusing on being part of a comedy team that harkens back to Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges. Doug plays Grady opposite Brandon Smith as Nico, as Sonny With A Chance‘s resident “brain trust,” forever entangling themselves in nets, scarfing down sandwiches and stumbling over practically everything.
Naturally, behind the goofiness there is tremendous preparation, creativity and, yes, intelligence. Offstage, Doug is a low-key person who looks to comic icons like Jack Black and Chris Farley for his spark. In fact, it was an impression of Farley doing his famous “in a van, down by the river” schtick that bowled over the producers in his audition. After he was paired with Brandon, it was like catching lightning in a bottle.
“What I love about this show is that it has a lot of classic comedy, but we also take some pop culture jabs,” Doug says. “We did jokes about ‘Bonus Jonas’ and kidded Camp Rock as ‘Camp Hip-Hop.’ It’s great that we can do that.”
Sonny With A Chance funnyman Doug Brochu high fives an adoring crowd.
Doug gave us a run-through of how the show is created. “A typical week starts Monday morning and we do a table read of the script. As we read, we can kind of tell when the others are laughing ‘just to laugh’ and when they really think it’s funny. Either way, I’m really glad they do that for our sakes!
“There’s a production meeting after that, so some of us go to school and some hang out. We rehearse Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and usually there are rewrites to the script on all those days.
“Thursday and Friday we shoot. Friday is a live audience and that’s when you do get a much better energy. The kids are laughing and we build off it.”
Doug and Brandon use every spare moment to hone their comedy routines to perfection, coming up with dozens of possible variations. The scenes are then shot as written as well as with the young stars’ embellishments. “It’s really rewarding when they choose a shot with something we improvised,” Doug says.
Doug vividly remembers the first time he meet the charmingly kinetic Brandon Smith: “He had his Bluetooth on, a beret and a scarf. I’m sitting there in my cargo shorts and t-shirt, thinking ‘Are we really gonna click?’ We are so different, but we balance each other very well. It was just instant.”
Sketch comedy is an integral part of Sonny With A Chance. One of the early sketches was “Battling Grannies,” with Doug and Brandon as feisty old ladies who wielded outrageous nudging and one-upmanship as weapons.
While he was not doing a direct parody of his own grandmother, Brandon told us that she did inspire him. Then, right then and there, he launched into a sidesplitting granny rant: “Brandon, put away the fruity pebbles! You spilled the milk! C’mon now baby, you gotta clean up!”
Reverting to his natural voice, he continued, “Her real voice is definitely more of a warm grandma voice but she still is nagging nonetheless. It’s actually a mix of my mom, too. My mom can get her nag on as well — but don’t tell her I said that!”
Brandon credits his family with an endless supply of comic characterizations. “I feel like I’m walking into an Eddie Murphy routine every night with the crazy stuff that goes on in my house! Everything my dad says is funny. They really have given me energy and inspiration because going home is funny.”
Brandon’s Sonny audition was an impression of Eddie Murphy. He’s been compared to Chris Rock and he does a sidesplitting Bill Cosby (“It’s a Jell-O Pudding POPP! My wife Ca-MEELE!”) Yet while he definitely shows the potential to headline a one-man comedy concert, Brandon is very quick to credit the team of writers, producers and other cast members for the success of Sonny With A Chance.
“We rock out on the scenes,” he says. “They let us add our own spice to each scene it gives it that much more of an edge. It is a collaborative effort from the actors, writers, producers, craft services no one’s trying to get their shine, we’re all trying to shine together. That’s what I love about our show.”
Brandon also credits Sonny star Demi Lovato for putting the show first without a “star ego” getting in the way. “Demi is amazing,” he says. “She is all about the final product as opposed to her one funny line and that makes it that much more believable to the audience. You don’t see anybody stand out to be the funniest all the time. Everybody’s doing their little part and adding their moments to make the bigger picture awesome.”
Roshon Fegan poses with a fan on board the Disney Wonder.
Another performer who appeared with Demi in a Disney Channel production was Roshon Fegan. Playing the role of Sander, he sang and danced in the original movie Camp Rock and will reprise the role in the upcoming sequel.
Roshon is delighted that his acting career has landed him great opportunities, including a small role in Spiderman II, but music is his passion.
“I became a music producer at the age of six,” he says without pretension. “I built my own studio started buying software. I played the drums, the piano and most recently, guitar. I play every instrument I want to play.”
By the time he reached the ripe old age of 12, Roshon had gathered enough music tracks and confidence to produce his own album. “Now I’m seventeen and I have my own production company. I’m working on my second album, which is a little more advanced — should be a lot more, actually! My music and videos are all online under “Ya Boy Ro,” which is the other name I go by.
The only challenge Roshon hasn’t seemed to conquer is being categorized. “I can’t even find a genre for my music when I put it up on iTunes. I don’t want to get trapped in single categories. I want to share my music with other people.”
With all this art and enterprise, when does Roshon sleep?
“What’s sleep?”
He’s only half-kidding, of course, but meeting Roshon, or any of these other young performers, makes one want to get out the old “to do” list and get moving. Each was an inspiration in his or her own way.
There’s something cool about watching someone on TV and/or listening to their records and then seeing them in person. At concerts, you can’t always meet them in person and get autographs like you can on the “Disney Channel Summer at Sea Cruise.” It’s a rare opportunity — and the cruise is great, too (see the recent blog for details).
The “Disney Channel Summer at Sea” Cruises may be just a fond memory now , but even the stars would probably agree that, no matter when you sail, any Disney Cruise Line vacation is a pretty amazing experience.
