We recently had a chance to chat with Guy Torry about his new role on ABC Family’s new hit dance competition series Dancing Fools. You may recognize Guy from his successful 52 city comedy tour “The Kings of Comedy.” He has also appeared doing stand up on BET’s “Comic View,” Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend,” “Showtime at the Apollo” and “Russell Simmons: Def Comedy Jam” on HBO. He has also appeared in feature films such as “Funny Money,” “The Last Stand,” “Dead and Deader,” “Slow Burn,” “Stuck on You,” “Runaway Jury,” “Don’t Say A Word,” “Pearl Harbor,” “Life,” “The Animal” and “American History X.”
We chatted with Guy about the new series Dancing Fools, his comedy, and the new documentary he’s working on. He also chats about why working with Melissa Peterman is so fantastic.
Check out our interview with Guy Torry here:
Pop City Life: Dancing Fools is like America’s Funniest Home Videos with a dash of Dancing With The Stars. How would you say Dancing Fools is different from other dance competition shows?
Guy Torry: It’s fun. It’s more interactive. Even on Dancing with the Stars they’re professional dancers mixed with celebrities. These are people like everyday people, real people out in the world who just do it for fun. They don’t really put their videos on the internet to win money. They just do it because it’s fun, and we select them, and I think that’s what makes it different. But it makes people who are not in the entertainment industry and out there in the real world just say, “Hey, you know what? I have a chance to be on that show,” and they have their 5-minutes of fame or 15-minutes of fame or turn it in to a career. I think it makes it different that way because it relates to everybody. Everybody loves to dance, and most of us are fools.
Pop City Life: What’s your favorite part of working on the show?
Guy Torry: Working with host Melissa Peterman. I mean she is really talented. I had no idea how talented she was, how funny she is, how quick-witted she is, and how generous she is. You know we have the four really good dancers on the show and their job really was just to dance us in and out of break. It was Melissa’s idea to really include them in to the show so America could know who they are. They have names and they’re professionals and the skits that they do were really all Melissa’s idea. She’s a very generous and gracious host, and you don’t find that a lot in Hollywood. It’s all about me, me, me, me and nobody wanting to share the spotlight, but she was really generous and to see that was just great. Working with her was really a treat.
Pop City Life: Do you have any plans to work on another comedy tour or another standup special?
Guy Torry: I’m working on a special right now. I’m touring the Improv and Funnybone around the country and along with other comedy chains, and I’m looking to put together my special but do so myself so I can own it and shop it to whatever network I’d like to, whoever gives me the best deal and I see that can put me in the best light. Yeah I haven’t done a cable special yet.
I’ve done a couple of DVDs earlier in my career, but I think now I’m ready—I’m very picky. I just don’t want to be on TV just to be on TV, and if I’m going to put some product on TV, it’s got to be worth it. I look at a lot of specials these days and some of them, they just don’t look wellwritten or well-put together. I may be shooting myself in my own foot or standing in my own way, but I’d rather put out a quality product rather than to just be on TV to be on TV. But definitely look for a special in the near future and also a documentary I’m actually shooting on standup near future and also a documentary I’m actually shooting on standup comedy.
Q) Who are some of your favorite standup comedians?
Guy: I will say Def Comedy Jam really inspired me to do standup but definitely Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Lenny Bruce is one of my favorites. I think he was before his time. Chris Rock, my brother Joe, Martin Lawrence, Moms Mabley, Red Fox from my home town, Dick Gregory. The list goes on and on. Steven Wright. Chappelle. My comedy is like a pot of gumbo; it’s kind of a mixture. George Carlin too is another one. Bernie Mac, I study all of them. I have at least about 150 vinyl albums of comics that I just listen to and study.
Q) What made you decide to be a part of this show?
Guy: Well, it was a different type of a show for me. I’m a standup comic who is usually late-night, after dark comedy, but I love dancing and I love watching dance clips on the internet all day so this was a perfect marriage between me and the show. It opened me up to a whole new audience actually.
Q) Can you tell us a little bit about the content and who it is for? Is it more for adults or children or is it all-around family friendly?
Guy: It’s on ABC Family and that’s who it’s for to me; it’s for everyone, but I think the audience of ABC Family is good [all] around family. I think adults can watch it with their kids, and they don’t have to worry about any content that they don’t want them to see. It’s a fun viral video show that puts the everyday American or someone abroad in to your living room and just acting a fool. I’m so glad that people love to dance, people love to act a fool, and we have technology to share with the world. We put it all in one cute show, and we have a beautiful tall blonde to introduce the clips and a crazy VJ who plays the videos, and it’s just fun. It’s a party. It’s a family party.
Q)On your show is it a long filming day or do you guys have a lot of like blooper-type things to hold it up or is it pretty much since it’s a lot of video pretty cut and flow?
Guy: It’s funny because it could be a long day if I wasn’t having fun and if Melissa wasn’t as good as she is it would be a long day, but it’s not really a long day. It goes by actually pretty quick and it’s really an easy day. It’s not taxing at all. I remember one day we shot kind of all day and I had Rolling Stones tickets, and I was like, “Man I hope I get out in time to go see the Stones.” I’d never seen them live but I was able to shoot a couple of shows, and then go to the concert and still had energy. Actually I think doing Dancing Fools helped me get my energy up for the Rolling Stones concert. Watching Mick and those guys was a treat. It’s not a long day at all for me.
Q) What kind of music do you like to dance to?
Guy: If you look at my iPod I have everything honestly from Andrea Bocelli to Snoop to Two Chainz and anybody in between. From jazz to a little bit of country, a little bit of rock, old R&B, new R&B. I like mashups because like I said, that I am friends with these VJs out in St. Louis called Screen Works, and they do these mashup videos with some of everything, every genre of music. I just love watching those but they kind of put it in the club beat mode. I don’t want to say techno but the club beat so everything from Sting to Nelly to Snoop to you name it, Creed and anybody else, so it’s a lot of fun.
We’d like to thank Guy for taking the time to answer some questions for us! We really appreciate it. We had a great time talking to him. He was so nice.
You can catch Guy on Dancing Fools Wednesdays on ABC Family.
If you haven’t already, you can follow Guy Torry on Twitter here.
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