Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401080009
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The target this time: the Olympics in his hometown, Atlanta.
"You know we're gonna screw up," Foxworthy said in a telephone interview last week.
When they release the peace doves during the opening ceremony, he said the parking lot will probably be full of guys with shotguns hoping to bag a few for souvenirs. Or maybe supper.
About the Olympic torch: "We'll not have a flame that big without a pig on it," he said.
He can hear it now: "That's some damn good barbecue up at the top of them stairs."
And some of the events: the two-by-four relay and the high-jump over a clothesline.
It is comfortable territory for Foxworthy, who brings his stand-up act to the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium tonight and Saturday. He has turned redneck humor into an art form. OK, well, maybe not art, but at least a successful career in comedy.
His books, "You Might Be a Redneck If... ," "Red Ain't Dead," "Hick is Chic ... A Guide to Etiquette for the (Grossly) Unsophisticated" and "Check Your Neck," all of which poke fun at rednecks, have sold more than a million copies. He also has published a humor book about getting old, titled "You're Not a Kid Anymore..."
Combined with his stand-up work, the books have made Foxworthy, 35, a hot commodity.
He is one of only a few comedians who have graduated from the comedy clubs to larger auditoriums and theaters. He has done two comedy specials for Showtime, a television sitcom is in the works, and he regularly appears on "The Tonight Show."
Not bad for someone who didn't have any show business dreams 10 years ago when he was just another computer engineer at IBM in Atlanta. and whose comedy career only started because of a dare.
"I was always the funny guy in the break room," Foxworthy explained.
Then, a co-worker dared him to try his shtick on stage. But Foxworthy had never been to a comedy club before. So, he went to one just to observe. The next week, he wrote five minutes of material about his family and returned to the club the following weekend.
The club was hosting a comedy contest that night, and Foxworthy won.
"I knew two minutes into it that this is what I wanted to do," he said.
He quit his job at IBM three months later and hit the comedy circuit.
It was in Michigan when the inspiration for his "You Might Be a Redneck If..." test first hit him.
He was playing a club where people were giving him grief about his redneck Southern drawl. He countered that rednecks are everywhere, not just in the South. He pointed to a bowling alley next door to the club.
The bowling alley offered valet parking. "This is a baited field for rednecks," he told them.
That night in his hotel room, he wrote down five ways to tell if you are a redneck. The next night, he returned to the club and shared his list with the audience. It got big laughs. "I said, `God, I'm onto to something.'"
The redneck test soon became part of his routine.
He said it works well mostly because it is true - and because it comes from a fellow redneck. A New Yorker probably wouldn't get the same reaction. "It's like laughing with, instead of at," he said.
Rednecks particularly love the test. "The more guilty they are the better they like it."
Many of them give him suggestions. Two of his recent favorites are: You might be a redneck if you've ever been accused of lying through your tooth. And: if you own a Waffle House credit card. Foxworthy said he is always updating his list.
"I mix in some old ones with some new ones."
Rednecks aren't the only source for his material, however. His family also is fair game. He especially likes to joke about his mother because she is the most sensitive, he said. On "The Tonight Show" once, he did a routine on learning about sex for the first time and not being able to imagine his mother ever saying to his father, "Give it up, you pot-bellied stallion."
His mother left a message on his answering machine afterward that said: "Well, I guess I'll have to find another church to go to now."
His brother, Jay, a former Duke University football player, is another good source of comedy in the family. In fact, Foxworthy is working on a television sitcom where a character loosely based on his brother plays a central role.
The show, tentatively called "The Boys in the Back," is about a guy, played by Foxworthy, who moves in with his brother. They work together on the loading dock of a factory.
"There will be a few rednecks in it," assured Foxworthy, who is co-writing the show.
It is the comedian's second try at a television series. He made a pilot for CBS of another show, "Banner Times," that never aired. It was about a guy who moves back to his hometown to run the small-town newspaper.
"Sounds amazingly similar to `Hearts Afire,' doesn't it?" he said with some bitterness. "Hearts Afire" is a CBS show starring John Ritter about a guy who moves back to his hometown to run the small-town newspaper.
The jump from comedy to acting has taken some adjustment, he said. As a stand-up, he is accustomed to getting all the laughs. But as an actor, he said he has to share the laughs with his fellow cast members.
Foxworthy has one last project in the works as well. It is a book of his drawings of people he sees in airports, like Carl the Vampire Janitor. "He only has one pointy tooth. He doesn't have the set."
Airports, where Foxworthy spends a lot of time because of his touring schedule, also are rich with comedy material. All you have to do is listen and observe, he said.
He recalled an airport announcement he once heard: "Will the passenger who lost a hearing aide please come to the... ." Foxworthy laughed. "I thought, I wonder how long they've been making that announcement? For the fifth time! Will the passenger who lost a hearing aide please come to... ."
True story, he said.
"You can't make stuff up any funnier than that."
Jeff Foxworthy performs tonight and Saturday at 8 at the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium. 981-1201.
Keywords:
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by CNB