HOW TO GO
Who: Torian Hughes with Jonathan Craig
Where: Wiley's Comedy Niteclub, 101 Pine St., Dayton
When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 15, and 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, March 16
Cost: $12 Friday and $15 Saturday
More info: (937) 224-JOKE (5653) or www.wileyscomedyclub.com
The modern sitcom has enjoyed a revival in recent years. However, the format was basically on life support in 2010 when Torian Hughes decided to make a career change and return to his first creative love: comedy.
“Reality shows became really big and that dried up a lot of the sitcom marketplace,” said Hughes, who performs at Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub in Dayton on Friday and Saturday.
“Not only did they do damage to sitcoms, the quality of sitcoms in general kind of made people not want to watch them as much,” he said. “Of course, they’re coming back now. Certainly, there are other people trying to walk that path.”
The writer-comedian — who worked on sitcoms such as “Eve,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” — left Hollywood and returned to Nashville.
“I’m living here (in Nashville) now, but mostly I’m on the road,” Hughes said. “L.A. is a tough place to live unless you’re career is just going gangbusters. Mine was going fine as far as comedy goes, but I was a sitcom writer. I had been doing that since 1996 and I suddenly found myself without a job doing it. I figured I might as well come home while I figured out what I was going to do next.”
Stand-up, for the most part, took a backseat to television work while Hughes was in Los Angeles. Despite his years of experience working in comedy clubs, jumpstarting his stand-up career took some adjustment.
“Unfortunately, it’s the type of thing where if you’re doing good at writing then chances are you’re not doing good at stand-up, because you’re not out doing it as much as you used to,” Hughes said. “It’s been good to be back actually doing it again. I really enjoy the immediacy of having people laugh at what I say instead of having to wait until the show airs.”
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