The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Jeff Foxworthy: Redneck roots, widespread appeal
You might be a senior citizen if you recall the first “You might be a redneck” jokes by Jeff Foxworthy. That’s because he started his best-known schtick a quarter-century ago.
They were always a small part of his stand-up act time-wise, but they jump-started his career and led to a TV sitcom that ran two seasons. Foxworthy will return to Mohegan Sun Arena for a stand-up date Saturday, Sept. 1.
An affable straightshooter who hosted “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” and “The American Bible Challenge” on TV, Foxworthy was a founding member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. And he’s written 26 books, from “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!” (1996) to the kids’ book “Dirt on My Shirt.”
“The whole (writing) thing kind of started with the redneck jokes because they were one-liners,” he said in a phone chat from his Atlanta home. “I wrote 10, and then I thought ‘Can you write 50?’ And then ‘Can you write 200?’ ... And people said, ‘This should be a book.’ And so that’s how it began.”
He writes all the time now, he said, including the
Monday we spoke.
“My wife says if I didn’t have something creative to do, that I would just explode,” he said, noting he also paints and had started a new painting this latesummer day, too.
Noting that Foxworthy’s father was an IBM executive, we asked him where he got his comedy reflexes.
“My mom’s family is really funny, and ... my dad was funny. He could put on the wingtips and the tie and behave himself, but he was quite the character.”
Foxworthy’s parents grew up on farms and his affinity for “the outdoor life rather than the urban thing” has led to him to becoming a salesman of branded wares online (Tshirts, a rifle scope that takes photos, beef jerky) as well as the largest-selling comedy recording artist in history.
Foxworthy’s Facebook page is a hoot, with an endless series of photos sent to him by fans spoofing redneck life (a tent with a wired air conditioner built into the side, a guy in a small boat displaying a fish with his own dentures in the fish’s mouth, a roadside
Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville. Saturday, Sept. 1, 8 p.m. $49-$29. 800-745-3000, MoheganSun.com sign saying, “My favorite essential oil is bacon grease.”).
“If you’re a comedian,” Foxwood said thoughtfully, “people will tell you things they probably shouldn’t tell their therapist.”
Foxworthy bought a farm from the Callaway family that runs Callaway Gardens resort in Georgia, where this Yankee reporter has actually stayed on vacation.
“If I’m not working, I’m usually on a tractor somewhere,” he said. “That’s kinda my escape.”
Foxworthy, 59, said his routine, which still contains redneck references, of course, “avoids politics at all costs because I want everybody to laugh. And my friends that do political humor, half the audience hates them every night.”
The fact that his comedy plays in Connecticut as well as the Deep South tells you something about the guy’s approach and clever writing.
“I was very lucky that early on in my career I
found the thing that worked for me,” he said. It was that anything funny that his family said or did would be relatable to others.
“We’re not unique ... and so I always just trust that. So if you go back and listen to one of my specials or listen to an album or CD, it’s always like a snapshot of what was going on in my life that year. I started talking about dating and then being a newlywed. Then I talked about having kids ... and so now 34 years later, my wife and I are empty nesters, I talk about that.
“I talk about how, when you quit raising your kids, then you start raising your parents. I swear they pass each other in the driveway.”
Foxworthy does about 70 concerts a year now, leaving him time for family, farm and even working to help the homeless at Georgia shelters. He empathizes with the homeless and loves performing stand-up, considering himself “one of most blessed guys in the world because most guys after 30-plus years hate their job. But I still love it. ... I’ve never tried to be polarizing. I always tried to keep it clean, but funny.”