Armed with a thick southern accent, and sporting outfits that favor baseball caps and cut-off shirts, Larry the Cable Guy, born Dan Whitney, has parlayed his "regular Joe" shtick into sold-out stadium shows, popular TV spots and an early, but successful movie career. He has become one of the top grossing stand-up comedians working today.
In 1986, Whitney stepped into a comedy club to try out his comedy act. The chance to perform appealed to him, and two years later, he gave up his job as a bellhop at a local Ramada Inn to make comedy the focus of his life. That didn't mean an instant morphing into Larry the Cable Guy, though.
To make a name for himself, Whitney pounded the pavement, hitting small clubs and eventually finding steady work as a radio DJ. In 1991 he started to gain some notoriety as a regular caller on radio shows across the country, where he played out various characters, most notably a blue-collar southerner whose line of work was installing television cable. On a bit of a whim, the comedian introduced the character on the nationally syndicated Bob and Tom Show radio program, where he closed out the short segment with a line that's as branded as the character itself: "Get 'er done." Larry the Cable Guy was born.
Dan Whitney had found his voice. He'd also found some like-minded comedian friends, including another up-and-comer named Jeff Foxworthy, whom he'd met in the mid 1980s. Together the two "riffed on old country accents" and told "jokes to each other that way." As Foxworthy's career blossomed, so did his friend's. Larry became a regular on Foxworthy's Country Countdown Show, and eventually the comedian syndicated his act to radio markets around the country. Real success and real wealth came about in 2000, when Foxworthy invited his friend to join him and fellow comedian Bill Engvall on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.
The show turned into a smash success, grossing $15 million, and selling another 1 million DVDs. The following year, Larry released his full-length CD, Lord, I Apologize. The name comes from another signature Larry the Cable Guy line, which went on to sell more than 500,000 copies.
Soon, Larry the Cable Guy (his face, his voice, his shtick) was everywhere; on The Tonight Show, on Live with Regis and Kelly, on Comedy Central of course, on the big screen as the voice of Mater in the 2006 animated movie hit, "Cars," and in stadiums across the country. His DVD special, Git-R-Done, which was released in 2005, sold more than 1 million copies and went platinum. That same year, the audio CD, The Right to Bear Arms hit stores and captured Billboard's comedy album of the year. It debuted at No. 7 on the charts, making it the highest selling comedy record since Steve Martin more than 30 years before.
The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, too, has been resurrected several times for many big-ratings TV performances, including a 2006 Washington, D.C., show that later earned a Grammy award.
In September 2009, Larry the Cable Guy released his fifth audio CD, Tailgate Party, a live performance that was recorded at the University Nebraska's Memorial Stadium before a packed house of 53,000 fans.
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