Jeff Foxworthy headlines
night of comedy at Elliott Hall
 By
Jenny Jones
Senior Writer
For Jeff Foxworthy, it all started at a Michigan
comedy club.
"(The fans) were kidding me after the show about
being a redneck," Foxworthy said, "and I was like; well now wait a minute,
if you all think you don't have rednecks, come over here and look out
the window … people are valet parking at the bowling alley."
It was this incident that motivated Foxworthy to
write a repertoire of redneck jokes.
"I mean, I know what I am, and I wasn't trying
to deny it, but apparently a lot of people don't know what they are,
so I wrote things like 'Ten Ways to Tell,'" Foxworthy said.
Foxworthy will appear Saturday as part of the Blue
Collar Comedy Tour with Bill Engvall, Ron White and Larry the Cable
Guy at the Elliott Hall of Music.
Since the premiere of "You Might be a Redneck if…"
audiences of young and old have laughed and recited the southern flavored
jokes.
"It was just one of those things; it wasn't like
I was thinking 'ah this is gonna' be my hook,'" Foxworthy said. "From
the first night I did it, not only were people laughing, they were turning
around and pointing at each other."
It wasn't Foxworthy's imaginative, far-fetched
jokes that audiences connected to. It was the jokes that reflected reality
that people couldn't get enough of.
"Like if you have a complete set of salad bowls
and they all say Cool Whip on the side. You know that's my sister, God,
every bowl in her house is a butter tub or a Cool Whip tub," Foxworthy
said.
Foxworthy's career didn't start with the redneck
jokes, however.
In 1984 Foxworthy was working at IBM as a computer
repairperson when his co-workers asked him to attend the amateur night
at a local comedy club.
"I was the guy, I swear every office or school
has this guy, that sat in the break room and did impersonations of the
boss and, you know, got in trouble for it," Foxworthy said.
He agreed to go to the comedy club and entered
the amateur contest.
"I had no idea what I was doing, but I got on stage
and I won the contest," Foxworthy said.
After the contest Foxworthy knew that stand-up
comedy was what he wanted to do. So he quit his suit and tie job at
IBM.
"My parents thought I had absolutely lost my mind,"
Foxworthy said. "My mother is sitting at the kitchen table going, 'What
is wrong with you; are you on drugs?'"
Five years later, Foxworthy appeared on Johnny
Carson.
"And my mother, I swear to you she said, 'You know,
you wasted all those years at IBM,'" Foxworthy said.
His decision to join the comedy circuit was not
a surprise to his friends.
Several years ago, when Foxworthy was performing
in front of approximately 7,000 people in Atlanta, he received a note
backstage from his high school principal.
"It said, 'I cannot believe I'm shelling out money
to hear the same kind of crap I used to try to stop,'" Foxworthy said.
"I kept that one; I framed that one 'cause I remember sitting in that
office a few times and him going 'What do you think you are, a comedian?'
… Well yeah."
Foxworthy is the largest selling comedy recording
artist to date. He has also appeared on television shows such as "The
Tonight Show" and "The Late Show with David Letterman." In addition,
Foxworthy starred in his own show, "The Jeff Foxworthy Show," which
ran for two seasons.
He's the host of "The Foxworthy Countdown," a weekly
syndicated three-hour radio show.
Despite the fact that Foxworthy enjoys appearing
on television and radio programs, his true love is stand-up comedy.
"There's just something about a live show," Foxworthy
said.
Laura Clavio, assistant director of Convocations,
said it will be a show the entire family can attend; "Jeff Foxworthy
and Bill Engvall are just great comedians."
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