By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, April 10, 2015
Legendary Alpharetta stand-up comic Jeff Foxworthy has a deep abiding love for the Fabulous Fox Theatre, a sacred place where he saw Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Jimmy Buffett and Harry Chapin in concert as a teenager and young man.
Since the late 1980s when he became a big star, he has also headlined the Fox at least 10 times and will return again April 18 as part of the 40th anniversary of the "Save the Fox" campaign in the mid-1970s. (You can buy tickets here.) The theater at the time was in bad financial shape and Southern Bell was ready to raze it when the Atlanta community united to buy the Fox back and reopen it.
"I try not to do too many shows there because it's so special to me," said Foxworthy, who was a teenager at the time of the "Save the Fox" campaign. "Every time I'm there, I get excited. It's like my Fenway Park, a sacred place. It's my favorite theater."
The last time he performed there, Foxworthy said he purchased a whopping 600 tickets out of his own pocket for friends and family. "I'm losing twice," he said. "I'm not only not selling the seat but I'm paying for it! And I still had people mad at me who didn't make the cut."
His wife Pamela Gregg convinced him to scale back his generosity. This time around, he's only buying 200 tickets for the Foxworthy crew.
Foxworthy said he has been on a creative roll the past year after he was sidelined for several months with a bad disc in his neck. He came up with a concept that is along the lines of his "You might be a redneck if..." jokes.
In this case, it's how technology has made his kids think they don't have to know anything because they could just Google it. So he now has so-called "facts of life" that his kids cannot Google.
For instance:
"Your wife can have long, beautiful hair or you can be on time. You can't have both!"
"If you're trying to go to the bathroom in an emergency situation, it's not a wise idea to unbutton your pants before you get there to save a couple of seconds because the muscles might interpret that as a signal to abandon all posts. Two seconds of time savings turns into an hour and a half of mopping and laundry."
If those types of jokes don't excite you, Foxworthy said he always does a few "redneck" jokes, his comedic equivalent of "Freebird." "There might be a coup if I didn't," he said.
The good news is he has literally thousands of "redneck" jokes to choose from in his brain. For 25 years, he has sold a daily "redneck" joke calendar and has a database to ensure he never repeats the same joke. That's more than 9,000 redneck jokes. "It's bottomless!" he said.
On another "Fox" topic, Foxworthy is also thrilled that Fox Network has revived "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader," a hit game show from 2007 to 2011 (including a brief run in syndication.). It returns this summer and Foxworthy was relieved when Fox asked him to host again. "That's my show," he said with pride. "That's my baby."
He has already taped the episodes and said the fifth graders are well cast. He said toward the end of the first run, he'd meet some fifth graders who were trying to be too cutesy, too much like actors. He prefers regular fifth graders with no particular entertainment agenda.
Surprisingly, GSN has yet to renew another show he hosts called "The American Bible Challenge" after three seasons. "I'm waiting," he said. "I hope it comes back."
Foxworthy also recently signed on with Sirius/XM to create a comedy channel with Larry the Cable Guy later this year which replaces the existing Blue Collar comedy channel. He had no input into that previous channel despite the reference to his original tour with Larry, Ron White and Bill Engvall. He heard complaints the material heard on the channel was sometimes "too dirty."
This time around, he said he will be actively involved with the new channel and will ensure it stays as clean as Foxworthy himself on stage. He will also get a free Sirius/XM subscription though how much he'll listen is a question mark.
Foxworthy normally drives in silence and will jot down notes as joke ideas come to him. (Yes, he's guilty of jotting and driving.). He also keeps a notebook by his nightstand so he can write joke ideas in the dark if they come to him in the middle of the night. And he has a notebook in his bathroom for the same reason. He said quite a few of his best jokes from while he's showering. His youngest daughter even bought him a pad he could use in the shower.
"I just love doing stand up," he said. "After a week or two not going on stage, I get bored. I get itchy," he said. "I remember a year ago, the traveling was getting tiring. I talked to Andy Stanley [of North Point Community Church] and was thinking of stopping the stand up. He said, 'Why? You have this gift. Why should you stop?' I was kind of taken aback. I still enjoy it. My fear is staying too long. I don't want to be that guy people say, 'Remember when he used to be funny?' "
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