A Conversation with Jeff Foxworthy
At Home, On Stage, Still Loving It
By Monica Jones
In a recent phone call, Foxworthy talked about the work, the writing, and where it all began.
After more than four decades on the road, Jeff Foxworthy is headed to Columbus.
Best known for his stand-up and the kind of observational humor that made him a household name, Foxworthy has built a career around material drawn from everyday life, the kind audiences recognize immediately.
On May 1, when he takes the stage at RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, it may look a little different than his usual life on the road.
“I’ll probably spend the first half of the day on a tractor cutting grass, go in, take a shower, drive down to Columbus for the show,” he said. “And then get to sleep in my own bed in Harris County. This is highly unusual for me.”
“This is fun,” he said.
And you can hear it.
Being able to spend part of the day at home, then head into Columbus and be back that night offers a version of the work that feels a lot less like work and more like taking a small road trip to visit friends.
And within that, the work still sits at the center of it all.
“If you asked me what I was, I’m a stand-up comic who has done a lot of other stuff,” he said. “I’ve done television and movies, but I’m a comic.”
It’s a straightforward answer, and he means it. There’s no branding around it, no effort to dress it up.
That same clarity shows up in the work, too. He just wrapped filming a new special, The Joke’s on Me, expected to be released in early summer, a project built around showing how a set actually comes together.
“To do a comedy special takes a year of hard work,” he said. “I’ve never seen that process shown. I think people enjoy seeing behind the curtain.”
For him, that process always comes back to writing.
Even now, writing remains both the hardest part and one of the most rewarding.
“After 42 years of it, I still don’t know what people are going to laugh at,” he said. “Part of that is frustrating, and part of it is what makes stand-up so fun.”
And in Columbus, that’s exactly what he’s bringing to the stage, whether he knows what’s going to land or not.
“Half of it will be brand new,” he said. “But half of it is stuff I did twenty years ago… the kind people still come up and tell me they love.”
He laughed, admitting there are moments he has to go back and remember how the joke goes himself.
Listening to Foxworthy talk about writing, it’s clear how much the landscape has changed and how much hasn’t, especially when it comes to what actually gets a laugh. He’s never felt the need to chase shock value to get there. For Foxworthy, the goal has always been to build something that holds up, not just in the moment, but over time.
“You didn’t have to turn it off when your aunt and uncle came in the room,” he said.
That approach didn’t happen by accident. Foxworthy remembers a number of mentors who helped him along the way.
Foxworthy is quick to point to the people who made room for younger comics. One of those was Jerry Farber, whose club, Jerry Farber’s Place, became a starting point for many in the Atlanta comedy scene.
Foxworthy recalled working clubs while he was still at IBM and said Farber was instrumental in giving newer comics a chance at a time when there weren’t many places to get it.
“Jerry was wonderful about giving young comics stage time,” he said. “At a time when there just weren’t many places to work, he gave me that chance. He was so good to young comics.”
He also remembers Rodney Dangerfield pulling him aside after a set and offering him a spot on one of his showcases, and Jay Leno helping put him on the radar for Johnny Carson, a moment he still considers one of the highlights of his career.
“It’s been fun to be able to turn around and do that for somebody else,” he said.
And he has.
Foxworthy has done that in quiet ways over the years, encouraging and supporting comics he saw something in early on, including voices like Nate Bargatze and Leanne Morgan as they’ve built something of their own.
Foxworthy still talks about his career with a kind of disbelief. “I tell everybody I’m two decisions from drywalling,” he said.
It’s the same easy familiarity that follows him offstage, too, the kind that makes a run to Home Depot feel less like spotting a celebrity and more like running into Jeff.
Offstage, though, the biggest source of joy in his life right now has nothing to do with comedy.
“Grandkids,” he said. “I had no idea I had that much untapped love inside of me. I’ve never loved human beings like I love these little jokers.”
“It doesn’t mean that I enjoy my gift any less,” he said. “It’s like, I just don’t want to miss this.”
And that part of it, the part that isn’t about the road or the stage, says a lot about where he is right now.
For Columbus audiences, that means the May 1 show at RiverCenter for the Performing Arts offers more than a familiar name and a catalog of material. It’s a chance to see someone who has lived every version of the work, from the early grind to the long road to the stage he still loves, and who gets to treat this night not as just another stop, but as something that feels a little closer to home.
Some of it is brand new. Some of it has been around a while, and still lands.
And if you want to be in the room for it, you still have a chance. Tickets for An Evening with Jeff Foxworthy are available through RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. As always, skip the resellers and go straight to the source at rivercenter.org, and make sure you’ve got a seat.