but we can say at that point in time in the early 90’s,
when Def Comedy jam was making stars, it was a reality
that you could see any of them at Phat Tuesdays and
eventually see them on screen or TV.
As with every great story, there is always a final
chapter as these things come to an end. Phat
Tuesdays was rapidly moving along but the work of
running the club and trying to maintain a rising
career was finally taking its toll on Torry. He knew
he had created a pivitol location for rising stars
and since there was nothing like it in Hollywood,
he fought hard to keep it open. But alas, he
finally relented and passed the torch of the
venue to someone else and finally just focused
on his career.
Now fast forward twenty years later since the
grand opening of the comedy nightclub,
Phat Tuesday is coming back to Los Angeles.
This time the market is completely different;
there are other promoters in Hollywood who
have taken the torch and have created their
own lane- some of which are direct
descendants of what Torry spawned. From
Chocolate Sundaes at The Laugh Factory,
Mo’ Betta Monday’s at The Hollywood Improv,
to All Def Digital’s Comedy Show, the
landscape is completely saturated. Torry now
faces the challenge of working with these
promoters to create opportunities while also
trying to keep a balance for others in the
marketplace. There is even a new wrinkle he
didn’t have to deal with when he first launched;
social media! As you already know, when Torry
launched there was no such thing as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram or any of these types of platforms,
so now he has to create the balance of working with
the local promoters and making sure his new Phat
Tuesdays is still hot as it was on social media. As
everyone knows now, social media can either make or
break your new venture.
Anyway, we got a chance to sit down and discuss all of
these things and what’s the plans moving forward for Phat
Tuesdays with Torry and he made some very interesting
point about the comedy landscape and how he plans on
bringing back his venture with a new twist. (See the
interview at the beginning of the story)
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