If you don’t know who comedian/host Jeff Foxworthy is … you’re probably not a redneck.
Through his famous redneck jokes; his Blue Collar Comedy Tour collaborations with Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall and Ron White; and his time hosting Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Jeff Foxworthy has captivated fans worldwide by sharing his brand of observational, family-focused comedy—all through his thick Georgia accent. He is the best-selling comedy recording artist in history, and has been performing clean throughout his career. Foxworthy is bringing his standup show to Spotlight 29 on Saturday, Oct. 21.
During a recent phone interview, Foxworthy explained how his touring schedule in 2023 is much, much different than it was when his kids were young.
“I would lease a plane, and I would fly home every night, no matter where my show was, unless I was on the West Coast,” Foxworthy said. “I would fly home every single night and get in at 1 or 2 in the morning, and I’d get up at 6 and take them to school. I’d go pick them up from school, and then I’d go get on a plane and fly out and do another show—for about 12 years. In fact, not long ago, I said to my wife, ‘When did I sleep?’ But it gave me 100 more days a year with my kids. Once they grew up, I’m like, ‘This is expensive,’ so I started flying Delta again, and so that’s what I do most of the time.
“If I’m going to the West Coast, I’ll try to do two or three stops in a row, and then come home. It’s more relaxed, and it’s a little easier on the body and the wallet than it used to be.”
While Foxworthy isn’t touring as much, that doesn’t mean that his love for standup is wavering in any way.
“I’m really enjoying this season of life, and I still really enjoy what I do,” Foxworthy said. “Sometimes people say, ‘When are you gonna retire?’ And I’m like, ‘Crap, I still love doing it; I just don’t love doing it at the pace I did it 20 years ago.’ Now my joke is: You’re paying me to get on a plane and sleep in a hotel room? I’ll do the show for free! Still, every night when those lights go down, and that light hits the floor, I’m like, ‘I’ve got the best job in the whole world.’
“I maybe do 50 shows a year now. When I first started, I think the first eight years in a row, I did at least 500 shows a year. … It was almost like the Malcolm Gladwell thing: You’ve got to do something 10,000 times to get really good at it, so that was kind of my approach.”
The pandemic helped Foxworthy realize the value of family time, he said.
“I enjoy my grandkids and my dog,” Foxworthy said. “I kind of learned that during COVID. I think the longest I’d ever been without doing a show was a couple of weeks—two or three weeks when my kids were born. Then all the sudden, COVID hit, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is what it’s like to sleep in your own bed on a Saturday, or to eat dinner with your wife.’ After touring came back, I just kind of said, ‘You know what? I don’t want to stop doing it, but I’m not going to do it every weekend.’ I spread it out a little bit and savor it, and it’s worked out nice.”
During 40-plus years of writing and performing, Foxworthy has endured many moments of fatigue and burn out. Foxworthy preaches: “You can’t write when you’re exhausted … but it’s also something you can’t force.”
“Kenny Rogers said to me one time that the best careers in entertainment are like a lava lamp. You heat up for a little bit, and then you kind of cool down, and then you come back, and you heat up again, and then you cool down,” Foxworthy said. “What he meant by that was when you hit those hotspots, it’s exhausting; you can’t sustain at that level. I had that in the beginning with the ‘you might be a redneck’ stuff and then doing The Tonight Show and Vegas and stuff, and then it cooled off a little bit, and then we came back with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, and it heated back up for several years, and then it cooled off a little bit. Then I was doing Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
“For me, I think I’ve always remained interested in standup, because I’ve gotten to do other things that kind of satisfy that urge or that curiosity. There’s just something about standing there and making people laugh—it just makes you feel so good. Or somebody coming back after a show and going, ‘Oh my god, I can’t remember the last time I laughed that much.’ We all need it. It’s that reprieve from whatever our particular struggle in life is. It’s that little reprieve where we set it down for just a second. Music is the same way.”
“Writing, in any form, is not necessarily fun, and it’s never easy, but there’s a big satisfaction in it when you grind through it, and you get something that you’re proud of or that you like.”
Jeff Foxworthy
Foxworthy has said in other interviews that music and comedy have interesting parallels. He said they have some definite differences, too.
“Once you write something that’s a hit, you’re going to be playing that all night, every night, for the rest of your life,” Foxworthy said. “I’m sure Chubby Checker got sick of singing ‘The Twist,’ but that’s what people wanted to hear when they saw Chubby Checker. As a comic, it kind of doesn’t work that way. You’re always expected to have new material, so you can never rest being a comic. You’ve almost always got to be writing.
“Kind of the only downside of being a comedian is you’re on the road by yourself. I think with a band, there are probably some real good things about having buddies around you—and there are probably some bad things, like getting sick of them. With Blue Collar, I was like, ‘Well, this is fun. I’m not out by myself; I’m hanging out. Instead of going to lunch by myself. I’m going with my friends.’ Comedy is very freeing, and I’m sure musicians feel like this. Back in the mid-’90s when I was doing a sitcom, it was frustrating to me, because I would read the script, and I would be thinking, ‘This is not funny.’ The beauty of being a comic is, sink or swim, live or die with it, you’re saying what you want to say, which is really cool.”
Foxworthy shared his thoughts on the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. While the writers’ strike is now over, it was still ongoing as of this writing.
“It’s very hard to try to get anything done right now,” Foxworthy said. “I had a couple of things I was writing on, and that stopped, and then I’ve had a couple of pitch ideas for shows, but people are like, ‘Well, we don’t know how long before we’ll be back in production.’ I’ll be glad when it’s resolved. … Writing, in any form, is not necessarily fun, and it’s never easy, but there’s a big satisfaction in it when you grind through it, and you get something that you’re proud of or that you like. Whether it’s a movie or a TV show or standup, none of it goes without good writing, so I think they deserve to be compensated for that.
“We don’t write because we love to write; we write because we have to write. For me, starting the process every time, it’s not fun. It’s that dreaded, blank page, but then once you get into it, you’re like, ‘Oh, my god, I know how to do this.’ Then when you get something, you’re so glad that you committed to it and put in the work.”
Jeff Foxworthy will perform at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 21, at Spotlight 29, 46200 Harrison Place, in Coachella. Tickets are $35 to $120. For tickets or more information, call 760-775-5566, or visit www.spotlight29.com.
