Jeff Foxworthy returns to Bass Hall on September 27

by PegNews wire

For nearly two decades, the Atlanta, GA., native has been sharing his everyday observations about Southern living with audiences worldwide.

Comedian, actor and author Jeff Foxworthy returns to Bass Performance Hall on Sunday, September 27, 2009, at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $45-$75, and will go on sale THIS SATURDAY, May 2, at 10:00 a.m.

Jeff Foxworthy’s name is synonymous with common-man, blue collar comedy. For nearly two decades, the Atlanta, Ga., native has been sharing his everyday observations about Southern living with audiences worldwide. He has been nominated for three Grammy® Awards, starred in his own self-named sitcom and toured as a part of the hugely successful “Blue Collar Comedy Tour.” Currently, Foxworthy hosts Fox’s popular quiz show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Foxworthy says making the transition from stand-up comedian to quiz-show host was, initially, a little daunting. “When I walked in there the first day, I was like, `I don’t know if I can do this or not,’” Foxworthy said in an interview with entertainment Web site Bullz-Eye.com. “But you get to use a lot of stand-up. It’s like me being back in elementary school, and my goal is the same: I’m still trying to make the class laugh – only now I’m getting paid for it.”

Even though the self-described class clown spent plenty of energy on making his friends laugh, Foxworthy took his time breaking into the professional comedy circuit. After graduating from Hapeville High School, he attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta before becoming a mainframe computer maintenance worker for IBM. In 1984, at the urging of his buddies, he entered, and won, the Great Southeastern Laugh-Off at the Punchline comedy club – his first taste of stardom.

Instead of moving to Los Angeles or New York City in hopes of making it big, Foxworthy hit the road, fine-tuning his redneck jokes and anecdotes in shoebox-size clubs. “Jay Leno told me early on, `the way you get good at something is to do it every day,’” Foxworthy told interviewer Glenn Beck. “And I just decided, you know what, I’m going to travel this country. The first eight years I did stand-up, I did over 500 shows a year and went to all 50 states. I was out there with, to me, the backbone of the country: the rural country.”

It was in this rural landscape that Foxworthy picked up the material for not only his stand-up routines but a series of popular albums. After capturing the “Best Stand-Up Comic” award at the 1990 American Comedy Awards, Foxworthy released a string of hit records, such as 1993’s You Might Be a Redneck If…,” which sold 3 million copies, and 1995’s Games Rednecks Play, which was nominated for a 1996 Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album.

The success of Foxworthy’s records led to a shortly-lived sitcom, The Jeff Foxworthy Show. The show was canceled after two seasons, but Foxworthy’s career barely flinched; he received another Grammy nomination in 1999 for his album, Totally Committed.

Foxworthy has spent the 2000’s even busier, balancing a family life (in 1985, he married his high school sweetheart, with whom he has two daughters) with his comedy career and writing career. Foxworthy has penned several books, including his autobiography, No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem, and he was also a part of the highly successful “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” with Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White.

Through it all, Foxworthy says he’s never struggled with finding fresh material. His hunt for it, he says, never goes further than what is in front of him: his family or a mirror.

“I remember early on, looking at billboards and watching commercials and thinking, `What am I gonna talk about?,” he said in his interview with Beck. “And I decided if my wife says it, if I think it, if my kids do it, surely we’re not the only ones. And so I just kind of trusted to talk about my life and my family. I had no idea there were that many other people out there like us!”

To charge tickets by phone, call (817) 212-4280 in Fort Worth; 1-877-212-4280 (toll free) outside Fort Worth; or order online at www.basshall.com . Tickets are also available at the Bass Performance Hall ticket office at 525 Commerce Street. Ticket office hours: Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Source: Bass Performance Hall