A Conversation with Jeff Foxworthy
A Conversation with Jeff Foxworthy
Interview with the Blue Collar Comedian, Coming to Seneca Allegany Casino, April 22nd
If I said the line, “You might be a redneck if…”, there’s only one person most people would automatically have in their mind - Jeff Foxworthy. There is no mistaking those oh-so-funny one liners or the warm southern accent when they’re delivered.
Foxworthy has been a staple in the comedy world for decades now and is still selling out shows all over the country. Making a stop at the Seneca Allegany Casino for one show only on Saturday, April 22, the comedian continues bringing the laughs that we all need right now and considers it the best job in the world.
I had a chance to talk with him recently (well… talk in between the laughter), and I got the chance to, as he put it, have a fun conversation - not an interview - which he said he thoroughly enjoyed. Foxworthy is like comfort food. Warm, inviting and addicting.
The comedian’s career started back in 1984 when he was working at IBM and a bunch of co-workers entered him into a stand-up comedy competition against working comedians, not amateurs, at a local comedy club. He won the competition, which was his first time on stage and the rest as they say - you got it - is history. From there he garnered much success as a stand-up comedian and has become the largest selling comedy recording artist in history by talking about and identifying with America’s blue collar nation. His first comedy album, “You Might Be A Redneck If…”, released in 1993 sold more than three million copies by 1996.
His most popular bit, “You Might Be A Redneck If…” is still a favorite, not by just fans and audiences everywhere, but by other comedians. Teaming up with comedians Larry The Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White in the early 2000’s, they traveled coast to coast for three full years bringing their Blue Collar Comedy Tour to sold out venues wherever they went.
Foxworthy has continued his comedy success through TV specials and shows, radio shows, producing, hosting game shows and writing, authoring 26 books and counting. As an enthusiast of the outdoors, this multi-talented entertainer has his own online company, Foxworthy Outdoors, which has Foxworthy-brand hunting and outdoor products, as well as webisodes documenting his friends’ hunting, fishing and land conservation journeys.
Our conversation was so much fun and I got many thoughts about his life, but I think the thing that means the most to him is his fans that have been with him through the years and he truly feels blessed and thankful for the life he has because of them. I think he summed it up perfectly saying, “At the end of the night if they’re walking out saying, ‘Oh my God I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that’, it was worth every bit of effort to me.”
For more on Jeff Foxworthy visit jefffoxworthy.com. For tickets and show info visit senecacasinos.com and click on Seneca Allegany.
A CONVERSATION WITH JEFF FOXWORTHY
HULICK: You’re doing a show on April 22 at Seneca Allegany Casino. Do you have a Buffalo or western New York connection?
FOXWORTHY: Through the years I’ve been up there a lot and I think it’s because it’s more like a blue collar city. I remember thinking the first time I played there that I’m a kid from the south, and I wondered is this going to work? And when I got there I was thinking hey they’re just like we are in the south with a different accent. (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) Your jokes about upstate New York are hysterical. You have hit the nail on the head - the ones on the weather and how we handle it especially. My husband and I were heading to the store recently and it was 41 degrees and I said to my husband to be on the lookout for shorts and sandals. (laughs)
FOXWORTHY: (laughs) No kidding! And they do do that. (laughs) There’s always that guy that’s got shorts and a hoodie on and it’s like 12 degrees and I’m like… dude! Aren’t you cold? He’s like no I ain’t cold. (laughs) That’s not normal… it’s not OK!
HULICK: (laughs) My brother moved up here from Ohio and I warned him about the snow and the long winters and of course it’s impossible to make someone understand it. They have to experience it themselves.
FOXWORTHY: Well yeah. It depends on what you’re used to, because if we get a half inch of snow here in Georgia there will be 100,000 people dead! (laughs) We don’t have snow plows and all that stuff. I always say when we get an inch of snow you know in New York they got the TV on watching all of us driving into the ditch and walking home.
HULICK: (laughs) That’s too funny. You’ve done so many things in your career… stand-up, TV, producing, radio, you’ve written books... plus you have your own outdoor company. If you had to pick one of those things, what would you like to do the most?
FOXWORTHY: Well I will say this. I’ve always been creative. I write, I paint, I draw, I’ve invented games… and I’m very thankful that I’ve gotten to do a lot of different things, because creatively that’s fun to try something different, but if you put a gun to my head and said you couldn’t do but one thing, without a doubt it would be stand-up, which is kind of unusual because most people get into stand-up as a spring board for them to do TV and movies. Once they do that they don’t go back and do stand-up again. For me I just love that live aspect of it. I love looking in the people’s faces… you know two seconds after it’s out of your mouth if it’s funny or not. I’ve always done a lot of couples stuff - talked a lot about men and women and why does my wife do this and why I drive my wife crazy doing that, so when I’m looking out as I’m telling this stuff and you see people elbowing each other or they’re pointing at the other one you realize that - oh I’ve taken a part of their real life that they don’t think of as funny and made them laugh at themselves. There’s so many different ways to do stand-up, but that’s the way I want to do it. I just assume that if I think something or my wife says something, or my family does something I just assume other people are thinking and saying and doing the same thing. So when they come backstage and say… oh my gosh you’ve been in our house… that’s just such a great compliment to me. You made them laugh at themselves.
HULICK: We need you guys more than ever these days…
FOXWORTHY: It’s a very weird time in our country. We’ve lost the ability to laugh at ourselves and now we live in a world where everyone has to be right. That’s why people beat each other up on social media is they have to be right. Well when you have to be right that means somebody else needs to be wrong and no one wants to engage in a conversation where they have to be wrong. One of the advantages of age is you realize that, hell I’ve been wrong about so many things in my life. There’s things I argued vehemently against when I was 20 that I now argue vehemently for. The truth is we’re all wrong about something and we’re all wrong about a lot of somethings and so if you give up that need to be right, and if you have that ability to laugh at yourself, I think it makes it all so much easier because that’s what comedians do… they’re truth tellers. We hold things up and think why do we do this? Does anybody else have a mother that does this? Or does anybody’s husband do this? That’s what connects us and that’s what stand-up is all about is geographically we may be from different places but it’s finding those common threads that we have. We’ve kind of lost that and we need to get back to that.
HULICK: I know. Things are so different these days in many ways. Then you add in being “politically correct” and you get slammed around every corner you try and turn.
FOXWORTHY: Right! I don’t have to agree with you, and I’m not offended if you believe something, but you don’t have the right to make me believe the same thing. It’s very funny actually because comedians think about words; you know that because you’re a writer, and I think it’s very ironic that we live in an age where people are screaming for tolerance and diversity but the minute somebody doesn’t think, vote or act like they do they want to ruin their life and ironically that is neither tolerant or diverse. What makes life go round is we’re not the same. God infinitely created a million different trees and a million different fish and it would be awfully boring if we all looked and voted and thought the same way.
HULICK: Was there a moment when you knew you made it?
FOXWORTHY: Yes, I think for me it was… of course young people wouldn’t understand this, but when I grew up it was being on Johnny Carson. When you went on his show they would tell you that if Johnny doesn’t like your stand-up routine at the end of your six minutes he would just clap. If he likes you he’ll give you that big OK sign, and if he loved you he’ll call you over to the couch for a chat. When I got to the end of my six minutes I was scared to look because it was kind of like Ceasar deciding do I live or do I die.
HULICK: (laughs) Thumbs up or thumbs down.
FOXWORTHY: (laughs) Yes. When I looked he was waving me over to the couch. A few years ago I was doing the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and one of the producers came up to me and said they had gone back through some of the old files and they’d found this, as he handed me this 8x10 picture of me sitting on the couch talking to Johnny and Johnny had his head back and his mouth was wide open laughing. They asked me if I would like to have it and I teared up. That was a million years ago and I had nothing from that first time on the show and I said to them, you don’t know what this means to me, because that was my whole goal in life at that point, and I remember going home that night and laying in bed thinking… I don’t have a plan… that was all I ever wanted to do.
HULICK: (laughs) Now what, huh?
FOXWORTHY: (laughs) Exactly! Now what?
HULICK: We still watch that show on one of those retro stations and it is just so funny how people acted back then.
FOXWORTHY: He was the best. He knew how to make everybody look good. He didn’t have to top you, he was happy with promoting you.
HULICK: What is the funniest joke or one liner that you heard another comedian say?
FOXWORTHY: Jay Leno told me one not long ago (going into his best Jay Leno imitation)… You know people always say they can’t remember… meaning you’ll be on stage for an hour and a half and people will come back after the show and say I couldn’t stop laughing and I can’t remember a thing you said. So he goes on to say here’s a joke that’s totally clean and short and easy to remember. A man and a woman were married for 30 years and the woman passed away. When they were carrying her casket into the church for the funeral they cut a corner too sharp and banged it against the wall. They heard this muffled voice, so they set it down and opened it up and she was alive! She sat up, she climbed out. She lived for 30 more years and then she passed away and as they were carrying her casket into the church the husband shouted… watch the corner… watch the corner! (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) Oh my God! (laughs)
FOXWORTHY: (laughs) And it’s totally clean, but it’s funny. He told me that and I stood there and laughed for five minutes. I said to him… that’s brilliant! (laughs)
HULICK: Jay just played at the same place you’re going to play.
FOXWORTHY: He’s never going to quit. There’s a few of us like Seinfeld and Jim Gaffigan that are that way thinking stand-up is the greatest thing in the world. We do it because we absolutely love it. People ask me why I don’t retire and I say because I still love doing it. I’ve always had this fear that I didn’t want to be the person that stayed at the dance too long. I didn’t want to be that comic where people would be saying... oh my God, do you remember when he used to be funny and he’s not funny anymore. My wife always tells me that if I listen closely to the audience they will tell you and you’re not there yet because they are still laughing hard.
HULICK: You know what Jeff? When that time comes maybe they’re not laughing because they’ve changed, not you.
FOXWORTHY: I hadn’t even thought about that… and they have changed… it’s a different environment. You know 20 years ago I never edited when I was writing. I’m not cruel or mean natured so if I said something that would hurt somebody’s feelings I wouldn’t say it. But now you find yourself in an environment where as I’m writing everything down long hand - yes I still do that before I put it in the computer - I’ll find myself hyper focusing on it making sure there’s nothing there that somebody’s going to get offended about and comics shouldn’t write that way. I know I’m not alone in that because my friends are saying they find themselves doing the same thing. I think we’re taking ourselves too seriously.
HULICK: I agree. I interviewed Larry The Cable Guy a few years back and I asked him what the funniest joke or one liner he’s heard another comedian say and he said right away… I have one you can print and one you can’t because you’ll get in trouble.
FOXWORTHY: Hopefully it swings back because we’re all idiots and none of us have life figured out. What you find as you age is some things aren’t worth fighting about, it’s not worth getting worked up about.
HULICK: There’s two things I could not do without in a day and that’s laughter and music.
FOXWORTHY: They’re both that release valve that keep you from going crazy. I am so blessed because both of my girls live 10 to 12 minutes away and when they come over, which is usually about every day, we’re always laughing… always laughing, and I’m so thankful to have a life like that.
HULICK: The fact that your life includes making other people laugh, it doesn’t get better than that.
FOXWORTHY: Yes, and I’ve always viewed it that way. I never felt like I had a job. I have the greatest occupation in the world. I love what I do. Sometimes I think… don’t say that out loud because they’ll make you get a job picking up heavy stuff. Just keep your head down and your mouth shut until they catch on.
HULICK: (laughs) Did you always want to be a comedian? Were you funny as a kid?
FOXWORTHY: I was always funny. I grew up in a little blue collar town and I didn’t know that being a comedian was an option. As a kid I would save my allowance and I would buy comedy records. In the early days it was Flip Wilson, Bob Newhart and Cosby and I would memorize them and I would go to school and perform them. I was a good student; my report cards were good, but it was said that I was always trying to make everybody laugh and I talked too much. I didn’t think that was a career option, I always thought you had to go do a job you didn’t like, which I did. The only reason I ever went on stage was because I was working at IBM fixing machines and I worked with a bunch of guys that went to the comedy club all the time and they kept coming to work saying… Foxworthy you’re funnier than these people and you need to do this. They entered me in a comedy competition. Not for amateur night, this was a competition for working comedians and I was like… crap you all… I don’t even have material! I went home and wrote five minutes about my family and I went on stage and I was a nervous wreck, but I knew a minute and a half into it… I thought this is it… this is what I want to do. Mark Twain said one time that the two biggest days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figured out why. This was me figuring out why I was born, this is my gift. I won the competition that first night on stage. I remember driving home beating on my steering wheel saying… oh this is it! I quit my job at IBM. My mother’s first question was… are you on the dope? Whatever the dope was!
HULICK: (laughs) No way!
FOXWORTHY: (laughs) I said no and I think I can do this. Five years later I was on Johnny Carson. The first thing my mother said about that was… well you know you wasted all those years at IBM.
HULICK: (laughs) Oh my God! (laughs)
FOXWORTHY: I’m like, oh for crying out loud mother… you can’t have it both ways.
HULICK: (laughs) She’s your mother and she’s thinking I’m going to have the final logical word. That’s hysterical!
FOXWORTHY: A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y!
HULICK: How did your show, “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” come about?
FOXWORTHY: Mark Burnett called me and asked if I would ever consider hosting a game show and I said no. I don’t think so. It just seems cheesy to me. I asked what the premise was and he said adults taking an elementary school test for a shot at a million bucks. I started laughing and said that’s brilliant because everybody’s going to think they can do it. So I thought that I could still be funny while good naturedly ribbing people. So we did it for six years and I loved doing it. I never would have thought I’d enjoy something like that. I said early on I don’t know why my brain has hung onto all the lyrics from the theme song from Gilligan’s Island, but it deleted everything about triangles. Your brain’s like... we don’t need that so get rid of it, but keep the Gilligan’s Island thing… we might need that.
HULICK: (laughs) Jeff I have had so much fun talking to you and I can’t wait to see you on April 22. Do you have a message for your fans that will be coming out to see you?
FOXWORTHY: Yes. I’m so grateful to them that because of them I have been allowed to do this for so long and I’ve never taken that for granted. I’m always thinking about how can I put a night together that they’ll be glad they came. I don’t take for granted their time and their hard earned money they spend on me.