To watch
Chattanooga native Mario Tory will be featured on “The Next Level” tonight at 11 on Comedy Central (Comcast channel 39, EPBFI channel 73 in Chattanooga). The Atlanta-based comedian will have a viewing party at Home Slice Pizza, 2000 E. 23rd St. Doors open at 10 p.m. Admission is free.
Though he now calls Atlanta home, comedian Mario Tory wanted to be among family and friends when his half-hour special premieres on Comedy Central as part of Kevin Hart's new series, "The Next Level." A viewing party is planned tonight at Home Slice Pizza on East 23rd Street inside the Chatt Inn hotel.
"My dad is from Chattanooga, but my mom is from Rossville. We would jump across the [state] line all the time," Tory said this week during a media blitz through town to promote the show.
Tory attended Ridgeland High School, graduating in 1998, and later Chattanooga State Community College. He moved to Atlanta shortly after and was working a warehouse job loading trucks when he went to an open-mike night at a comedy club in 2007. Thinking he could do that, he signed up to perform the next weekend.
"It went well," he said. "Everybody has their ups and downs, and I've had mine, but I liked it."
He liked it enough that he has made it his career. While he has traveled doing stand-up, he works mostly in Atlanta, performing regularly at PhatComedy on Sunday nights, Comedy@Kats Cafe on Tuesdays and 255 Tapas on Wednesdays.
A versatile comic, Tory said he can work all genres, including clean. He was the host of the third annual Praise and Gospel Concert. He also had a starring role in a Christian play titled "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," which starred Jacky Clark-Chisholm, from the gospel group The Clark Sisters, and Reginald Ballard, who played Bruh-man on "Martin."
"I can do all varieties from clean to corporate to frat parties," he said.
He currently is the host at the Uptown Comedy Corner in Atlanta as well as a Thursday night Phat Comedy show.
"The Next Level" is a spinoff of Hart's Comedy Central series "Hart of the City," which premiered last year. In "Hart of the City," the superstar actor/comedian, known for the movies "Ride Along" and "The Wedding Ringer," travels across America to learn about the comedy scene in various cities and find each destination's budding stars.
For "The Next Level," Tory said, Hart and fellow producers were looking for professional comics who were well-known locally but had little, if any, television exposure. Tory fit the bill.
"They asked me to tape a show, and I did, and they liked it," he said.
He was then asked to record a segment for "The Next Level."
The episode that will be shown tonight features some stand-up material as well as interviews and backstage scenes with Tory. He spent four days in Los Angeles recording the episode, though he never met Hart.
Tory said comedy is not something he never dreamed he would be doing. In fact, he admits that most of his classmates at Ridgeland would probably be surprised to hear he has a Comedy Central special.
"I was not a practical joker or always telling jokes. No, that was not me. Everybody has a talent or something. It just took me until I was 27."
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.