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The Cable Guy Cometh
Parallel Entertainment Photo
Daniel Whitney, aka, Larry the Cable Guy
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Published: November 20, 2008
Updated: 11/19/2008 08:05 pm
No, his name isn't really Larry, and he's not really a cable guy.
But comedian Daniel Whitney has built a thriving career on Larry the Cable Guy, his stand-up comedy persona.
Larry is the ultimate Good Ol' Boy, scruffy and unkempt, clad in a sleeveless flannel shirt and ball cap as he tells jokes. He often laughs at his own jokes, like a friend or relative at a party, throwing in his catchphrase "I don't care who you are, that's funny right there!"
His more popular catchphrase "Git-r-done" -- think Nike's "Just Do It" slogan, only more red-necky -- adorns caps and T-shirts. He has recorded six hit comedy albums, starred in films including the Blue Collar Comedy Tour concert films and Disney's hit Cars (he voiced Mater, the kindly tow truck), and he tours most of the year.
Whitney, 45, describes Larry as an exaggerated version of himself. "I kind of equate it to Sarah Silverman," he said. "In her stand-up and her TV show, she magnifies herself into a character, which is what I do too. I don't know what percentage of me is in the character, but it's enough to be realistic and enough of an exaggeration to make it a character."
Pig farmer
He was born and raised in Nebraska. "I grew up in a small town raising pigs," he said. "And I grew up around old cattle farmers with their accents, and I picked that up pretty easy." His natural speaking voice is recognizable, but he puts on a thicker accent as Larry.
Whitney has been a stand-up comedian since the late 1980s.
"I was always funny, cracking jokes and stuff like that," he said. "I was always a fan of comedy from when I was kid -- Henny Youngman, Milton Berle, Phyllis Diller, guys like that."
He was also a fan of Steve Martin, Monty Python's Flying Circus and Hee Haw.
His friends persuaded him to get up on stage in a comedy club during amateur night. He enjoyed it and created several characters for his stand-up routine, including an old woman named Iris and a wisecracking cable installer. Larry the Cable Guy started out as a three-minute part of his act and grew increasingly popular thanks to radio. "I had a buddy on a morning show who said we need characters," Whitney said. "I called in, and it kind of hit."
He began making more radio appearances, but was careful not to let the radio work take away from his first love, stand-up comedy. "I learned one thing when I started: Never learn how to do anything else, and they'll never ask you," he said. "I didn't learn how to run the boards or play the records. I just did bits on the air. I had a blast."
As his popularity grew, Whitney stopped using his own name on stage. "It didn't make sense to tour as Dan Whitney when I'm Larry the Cable Guy," he said. "People didn't know my real name, so that's what I did, and I started touring like that."
Whitney's specialty is one-liners, inspired in part by his fondness for Youngman and other classic comedians.
"I love silly jokes, I love goofy jokes and stupid jokes, and I like writing clever jokes as well," he said. "I'll take a clever joke and wrap around that the dumbest jokes I can write. I like that mix of comedy. That's how my writing style is."
Larry's success led to recording comedy albums, three of which have gone gold, and the wildly successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour alongside fellow Southern comics Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Ron White. In 2003, they released a concert film of their tour, which led to two more films and a weekly sketch comedy series.
Though he often gets lumped in with other Southern comics, Whitney says that he has fans all over the country. "I do just as good in the West and Northwest and Northeast as I do in the South," he said. "There's no difference.... Our stuff works all over the place."
Write funny jokes
He and Lewis Black, the acerbic comedian who attended UNC Chapel Hill, are good friends. "We do different styles of comedy," Whitney said. "I think he's hilarious, and he thinks I'm funny."
The key to being a comedian is simple, he said, "You write funny jokes."
His act continues to evolve, especially since he got married and had kids.
"They've given me plenty of material," he said, "and it helps bring the character even more to life. I put the kids into the act, and of course I embellish."
He covers such subjects as family, gas prices, music, and his days in the dating scene in his act. But he rarely goes for political humor. "Times have changed," he said. "You used to be able to make jokes about that, but now everybody's too uptight about it, so I kind of lay off of it."
He tours from January to May, then works on film projects in June and July. "Then August and September I take off, except an occasional fair or festival, then I'm back at it again in November. I'm constantly out there. As long as the people enjoy it, and I'm doing fresh material, I like to work."
Next year, Whitney will venture into foreign territory -- literally. He is doing his first European tour, called the Larry the Cable Guy World Tour, with stops scheduled in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, England and Ireland.
"They hear me all the time in England on the BBC, I can figure out England," he said. "And Ireland, I know they'll get me. But Denmark kinda throws up a question mark."
Larry the Cable Guy will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday at War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro as part of his "Eat, Drink and Be Larry" comedy tour.
Tickets are $44.25 and are available at Ticketmaster outlets, at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at 852-1100 or at the Greensboro Coliseum box office.
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