Larry The Cable Guy is having some fun in Greenville. BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff
Daniel Lawrence Whitney, better known as Larry the Cable Guy, is huge.
He’s been “Gitt'n-R-Done” (his most popular catchphrase) throughout his almost three-decade career.
His accolades include being nominated for a couple of Grammys, winning four Billboard awards and winning a voice-over award for “Cars." He also has appeared in many movies and television shows, wrote a best-selling book, hosted his own radio show and has been touring arenas doing stand-up comedy for most of his life.
You can say Larry’s been pretty busy over the years.
First coming to prominence as one of the members of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour — a comedy troupe that included Bill Engvall, Ron White and Jeff Foxworthy — Larry has hit it big time as the voice of the popular character Mater in the Pixar movie franchise “Cars.”
Fans in the Fox Valley can see Larry live when he visits Oshkosh Saturday night at the Menominee Nation Arena with special guest Foghat.
Larry’s been keeping a low profile as of late when it comes to his stand-up dates, so catch him now while you can.
In the following interview with USA TODAY NETWORK, Larry discussed his latest tour, his Blue Collar buddies and why he doesn’t like cleaning port-a-potties.
USA TODAY NETWORK: About your current tour — there aren’t too many dates listed. Have you been slowing down on your stand-up career?
Larry the Cable Guy: I’m only taking about 35 shows a year. I still like doing it; I just don’t like being away from my house for too long. My kids are getting older, and the last thing I want to do is be on the road all the time. I’ve just been slowing down basically and just enjoying the kids. I’m making my own schedule up, so I think the winter time is a good time to do stuff because my kids are in school. I’m just kind of chilling out.
USA TODAY NETWORK: Compared to your "Blue Collar" shows and "I’ve Been Thinking" shows, what type of material will you touch on for this show?
Larry the Cable Guy: It’s not much different. I’m pretty much a one-liner comedian so I just keep them as one-liners. It’ll be a mixture of my Netflix special, plus whatever new jokes I’ve written since then. I’m not going to change my style of comedy; I write one-liners. People come to see me, and I’m non-stop for 75 minutes.
USA TODAY NETWORK: I interviewed your buddy Jeff Foxworthy last year, and he said what made the Blue Collar Comedy Tour so fun was being on the road with his buddies. What made that tour so special?
Larry the Cable Guy: We were friends, so it was always fun to travel around and do stand-up with your buddies. It was easy for us to bounce jokes off each other. We knew each other’s sense of humor, so we knew what to expect from everybody. There was no jealousy at all. Each one of us was happy for the other one’s success. A lot of times in stand-up there’s jealousy going on, but we didn’t really have any of that. Even when I traveled with Jeff — him and I have been friends since 1986 — it was two guys with the same sense of humor. It just worked out really good. Blue Collar was just an awesome time. It was the biggest foursome comedy tour of all time. They called it the Redneck Rat Pack.
USA TODAY NETWORK: Is that what made "We’ve Been Thinking Tour" so special as well?
Larry the Cable Guy: I was doing a benefit here in Lincoln (Nebraska), and I asked Jeff if he’d be my special guest. It was to raise money for Jack Hoffman, who was a kid with pediatric brain cancer. It was at the arena — probably 8,000 to 9,000 people at it. We did a thing at the end where we took questions from the crowd. People wanted to ask us questions, and it was really funny and we had a blast. So a couple of weeks later, we just started thinking we should do a tour together. We worked together for almost two years and there was a lot of dates. I think we’re probably going to do sporadic things together. But as far as a full tour? No. That’s why I only do 35 dates a year. So if you want to see Larry the Cable Guy and you don’t get in on one of those 35 dates, then you probably won’t get to.
USA TODAY NETWORK: What did you like about doing "Only in America" show for the History Channel? You were just being yourself and you were kind of ad-libbing, but it wasn’t your normal thing of what you’d think that Larry would do.
Larry the Cable Guy: Thank you by the way because it was one of my favorite things that I ever did. In the show, I wanted to give people a glimpse of myself as well. Every time that I do the show or every time I’m on stage, I’m in full-on character of Larry the Cable Guy. "Only in America" gave me a chance to be myself in some of it. When it came time to be serious we talked about serious issues, I didn’t put any character on it or any jokes. There was a time to be funny and of course my accent kicked in and we were telling jokes. I came out of character all the time on that show, and it was really fun. It freed me up. There were a lot of different things, and I got to do different facets of my personality. The only reason I quit doing the show was for the same reason: I didn’t want to be away from the house that much anymore.
USA TODAY NETWORK: It seemed like you actually learned about stuff that you normally wouldn’t. I’d have to say your favorite episode was making moonshine while your least favorite was cleaning the port-a-potties.
Larry the Cable Guy: (Huge laughter) Pretty close! My personal favorites were doing stuff on the USS Nimitz. Another one of my favorites that I thought was super funny is when I did etiquette class up at Connecticut. I enjoyed the one going to Oklahoma and going to the cattle barns and being an auctioneer. That’s how I grew up, and I always wanted to be a cattle auctioneer, so I got to be one on the show. The least favorite was cleaning the port-a-potties and hiking through caves. The port-a-potty was one of the ones that got me thinking that I had run my course with this show! You can tell during that episode I wasn’t too excited about it.
USA TODAY NETWORK: You make many donations to various charities. Please talk about The Git-R-Done Foundation.
Larry the Cable Guy: The Git-R-Done Foundation was formed in 2008, I think. My little boy was born with hip dysplasia and would have to get an operation either later in life or we can nip it in the bud and do it early. We came across a doctor at the Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital, Dr. Chad Price. And he said that people have been swaddling their babies wrong and he could correct my son Wyatt. We let him go to work and do his theories, basically be guinea pigs for this guy. It initially started off as a donation to the Arnold Palmer Hospital so he could go down to Mexico and work on underprivileged kids with their problems, then of course study it. So it worked, and we thought it was awesome. He said that in time he thinks he can eradicate hip dysplasia in people with the way people are retrained how to swaddle kids. Our first donation was $5 million to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital so they can develop an entire wing dedicated to hip dysplasia. Now they get people from all over the world coming in there.
USA TODAY NETWORK: You’re a superstar in Pixar land. What do you like most about being the voice of Mater?
Larry the Cable Guy: It’s a dream come true. I’m very happy that they asked me to do it. John Lasseter is a sweetheart. He loves Mater. There’s huge A-list actors who have never done a Pixar movie who would like to do one. I think now that I have kids it’s even more special that I got to do one. But not only just to do one but to do Mater and be in a cartoon that fortunately became a huge money-maker for them. Kids love it, and it’s really cool to know that I can go out to Adventure Land in California and take my kids to Car Land and see and hear Mater. It’s pretty neat. Not only was I in a Pixar movie but I was in three of them — and the only one that has its own theme park!
USA TODAY NETWORK: What do you hope to achieve or accomplish next?
Larry the Cable Guy: Just being a good father. I’ve had a really good career. Jeff started a couple of years before I did, and he’s always been my mentor. I’ve been doing it a long time. I love it, but I’ve been out there a long time. As far as any other goals in comedy, honestly I don’t think I have any; I think I’ve done all of them. I’m just enjoying the life that I’ve been blessed with. I’m enjoying my family; I’m enjoying my friends. I love getting on stage and telling jokes and making people laugh. There’s no better feeling than that in the whole world. I’ll do it till 100 if I can, but I’ll only do about 30 dates!
If you go
What: Larry the Cable Guy
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26
Where: Menominee Nation Arena, 1212 S. Main St., Oshkosh
How much: $53