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Ian Young

Conor Wylie is a Vancouver actor. Or maybe he’s a Vancouver real estate entrepreneur. Is he Chinese? Kinda, sorta. Does it matter? Yes. Probably.

	Vancouver’s affordability crisis has inspired plenty of things, but artistic endeavour hasn’t featured prominently. That’s a gap that Wylie is now filling. He takes to the stage on Thursday (February 5) as part of the PuSh festival, to present eatingthegame, an hour-plus show that tackles a host of sensitive subjects.

	Wylie - at least, the version who introduces himself on stage - is an actor-turned-property-developer, with a kind of cultish intensity familiar to anyone who ever saw a Steve Jobs keynote. It’s not immediately clear to the audience what Wylie is selling, but his pitch addresses issues of affordability, gentrification and the impact of Chinese money on Vancouver, woven together with his personal backstory.

	Like all good satire, it’s funny and relevant. Some of it is pretty squirmy stuff for polite Vancouverites, but Wylie, who wrote the show, doesn’t seem to mind. Above all, the portion that I saw had me asking: Is this guy for real?
WATCH: Conor Wylie pitches eatingthegame


He demurred when asked how much of the hard-charging yuppie persona that he presents on stage is the genuine Conor Wylie, saying “that will be addressed” in the show. “I’d rather not say, before the show. But there are some obviously fictional elements to it, and real elements as well.”

	The latter include references to Wylie’s Chinese heritage, which is not immediately obvious from his name or appearance. He’s half Chinese, on his mother’s side. “A lot of people guess that I’m Filipino. Sometimes Middle-Eastern,” he said.
The stage version of Wylie reflects a certain kind of real estate marketing with which Vancouverites will be familiar. You know the type - artsy shots of baristas, bicyclists and barbers, diverse free thinkers all, but united by the dream of a 600 sq ft condo. It’s a lifestyle that’s for sale, not a floorplan.

	Wylie said he hoped the show, with its themes of gentrification and unaffordability, would resonate in a city with the second-worst price-to-income ratio in the world. “Almost all of us are aware [of these issues], especially living in Vancouver. We’re all feeling the pinch of rent, the cost of living. So many of us, especially artists, are finding it hard to make ends meet. All of this real estate stuff is at the forefront of our minds.”

	Ironically, it’s often artists who have unwittingly formed the vanguard of the gentrification process in Vancouver - first come the artists, then come the developers. “It’s a well-documented phenomenon,” said Wylie. “There are lots of conflicted feelings about it, it’s true. But artists go where they can afford to go.”

	Wylie cited another reference point in the hipster-friendly marketing for The Independent, a Vancouver condo development slated for the corner of Main Street and Broadway. “It’s all cashing in on this ‘maker’ creative vibe of Main Street,” said Wylie. “But, from the outside, it looks to me like it’s just going to be a condo, like any other condo.”
WATCH: Spot the difference. Vancouver lifestyle real estate marketing at its finest, courtesy of The Independent

Regarding the show’s references to his Chineseness in the context of Vancouver’s real estate boom, Wylie said he was “absolutely” aware of the potential to offend. “But eatingthegame is a piece that wants to live in a tricky area,” he said. “A lot of the piece is about real estate and the tensions about investment in Vancouver, and a lot of it too is about eastern and western cultures, and me in the middle as a half-Chinese person.”

	Wylie said he felt his mixed heritage and racial ambiguity put him in a position to explore “what I am allowed to say, and what other people perceive me as being allowed to say”. “You think about a lot of ethnic comedians who will put on the accent, and play it like Russell Peters and claim it…and then a question arises for me, as a person who is half Chinese: Where do you perceive me to be, on which side of the line?”

	Wylie said he hoped the audience would come away thinking about the state of ambiguity in which Vancouver exists, too. “Consider what lines exist between east and west, and business and culture, and where on those lines we fit,” he said.

	Tickets for eatingthegame, presented by Hong Kong Exile and Theatre Conspiracy, can be purchased via the PuSh festival website.

	The Hongcouver blog is devoted to the hybrid culture of its namesake cities: Hong Kong and Vancouver. All story ideas and comments are welcome. Connect with me by email ian.young@scmp.com or on Twitter, @ianjamesyoung70 


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Vancouver actor is kind of Chinese, kind of a property developer, and he has a story to sell

Conor Wylie in real estate developer mode. Photo: YouTube

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The Hongcouver | Vancouver actor is kind of Chinese, kind of a property developer, and he has a story to sell