Torris Fairley

Early Life


Torris Fairley is a comedian, producer, and promoter born and raised on the Westside of Chicago. He grew up in a family that were fans of the stand up comedy and has expressed that the sound of his mother's laugh had a major influence on him:
"My mom has this laugh that makes things funnier than they are. You can't fake her type of laugh. It's a laugh from the soul and hearing it growing up is what influenced me to want to make people laugh. I've always credited Richard Pryor for sparking my brain to become a comedian, but my mom was the first to spark my brain to make people laugh. I fell in love with laughter because of her."


Career


When Torris was 16, he watched"Richard Pryor: Live In Concert" , which he describes as "a life changing moment". This is when his love for stand up reached a new height, as he thought about what it would be like to be on stage performing a routine that made a huge crowd of people laugh for more than an hour. He also claims that after watching "Eddie Griffin: Dysfunctional Family", he knew for sure he wanted to give stand up a shot.


On June 7, 2004 he moved to Las Vegas at the age of 19.


His first attempt at stand up happened in late 2005.
" The first time I went on stage I did pretty good for my first time. Then I went on a couple more times and thought I was getting the hang of it. Then one night I went on stage and totally died. Not one thing was funny and being on stage telling jokes and to have no one respond was the most uncomfortable feeling at that moment. I quit after that".
Torris decided stand up wasn't for him.

On March 10, 2010, Torris decided to give stand up another shot and since then has performed in many cities that includes hosting and headlining spots.


Torris produced his first comedy show and called it "The Northside Comedy Jam". The show lasted for a little over a year. Since then, he has produced numerous shows in Las Vegas, Chicago, and Salt Lake City.


In April of 2017, he moved to Salt Lake City, UT, where he currently hosts "A Fairley Good Open Mic"; a open mic event that serves as a showcase on the last Monday of the month.