Larry the Cable Guy is about to become a daddy for the second time in just over a year.
"Hey, my wife's hot," Larry — aka Dan Whitney — confided. "She has restless egg syndrome."
What's that?
"I don't know but she got pregnant. . . . I think in just one take."
In October, their 13-month-old son will become a big brother to a baby girl.
"We wanted two (kids) and we wanted them quick. We wanted them to be able to go to school together, be about the same age," Whitney, 44, explained in a voice that had barely a hint of the redneck twang central to his Cable Guy persona. "We're really blessed. We got what we wanted, a boy and a girl."
The twang comes back a bit when he adds, "Plus by the time they're out of diapers, I'll be in diapers. . . . They're getting teeth and I'm losing teeth."
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He was speaking last week from his part-time home in his native Nebraska, near Lincoln. He lives there about five months a year, about 80 miles southeast of the town of 1,200 where he grew up.
He spends the other seven months or so in Sanford, Fla., a town near Orlando that's filled with Southern folks. When he's there, his twang is as natural as the sun shining over Miami.
The accent may change with the location, but the personality is the same.
"I wear Wranglers and laced-up ropers, and I wear cutoff shorts and a ball cap," he said. "When I go out, that's how I dress. It's kind of goofy to get dressed up to go up to the tractor supply company.
"At the end of the day, that's what it boils down to: Whether they think it's a character, real or what, if it makes them laugh, who cares?"
In less than a decade, Whitney has gone from little-known radio call-in sidekick to a star in the hugely popular "Blue Collar Comedy" troupe with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Ron White, to being a household name recognized by three little words spoken in a twangy slur: "Git 'er done." The catchphrase has taken on a life of its own.
"My wife and I were lying in bed one night about 3 in the morning watching the rerun of the FFA convention" — that's Future Farmers of America, if you were wonderin'. "It was a wild time that night. There was this girl running for president, and all of a sudden she goes, 'Like Larry the Cable Guy says, we just need to git 'er done.' "
Then there was the big star moment:
"I was on '(Live with) Regis and Kelly,' and Denzel Washington was in the green room next to us. And my publicist said, 'Oh, I just love Denzel. Can we meet him?' I came around the corner with Maggie, (Houlehan) and as soon as we came around the corner Denzel was walking towards us. And before I could say anything, Denzel Washington put his hand out and said, 'Hey, get 'er done.' It was kinda neat. You just don't know who's a fan."
The Cable Guy's phenomenal success — he regularly sells out arenas, and his records and videos boast multiplatinum (millions) sales — rests as much with Whitney's humor as his humility.
"The cool thing about us Blue Collar guys is that we're regular guys. We've got family and kids. We just happen to be funny," he said. "And we do jokes that we think are funny, and we really could care less about the PC stuff. . . . We know they're paying good money to laugh, and that's our job — to make them laugh."
Featuring Reno Collier
• When: 7:30 p.m. next Thursday.
• Where: Tucson Arena, 260 S. Church Ave., Downtown.
• Tickets: $42.75 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000; or the Tucson Convention Center box office.
• Online: www.myspace.com/ larrythecableguy.
• Coming up: Larry the Cable Guy returns to Arizona for a Dec. 16 concert at US Airways Center in Phoenix.
