Country Comedians Boast 'Flyover' Appeal

04/24/2004 4:34 PM, Reuters
Jim Bessman

Country comedy is currently a hot commodity, spawning strong-selling CDs and DVDs and receiving plenty of TV exposure.

Among the genre's stars are Jeff Foxworthy , Bill Engvall , Rodney Carrington, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy, Cledus T. Judd and T. Bubba Bechtol.

The burgeoning popularity of the country comedy genre is succinctly explained by J.P. Williams, head of Parallel Entertainment. The management company handles Foxworthy, Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy and White.

"To a large degree, everything in comedy skews to hip-hop, urban and Hispanic," Williams says. "But between Los Angeles and New York are the so-called 'flyover' states, with 250 million people who want somebody they can relate to."

Larry the Cable Guy agrees. "It's something that resonates with people who work for a living. Those flyover states -- that's America. People going to work, having kids, doing their stuff. They can relate more to a comedian talking about real, everyday things than a comedian in a suit and tie -- and I can go from yard work to the stage in the same outfit."

Larry the Cable Guy's Hip-O album "Lord, I Apologize" recently reached No. 53 on Billboard's Top Country Albums chart. White's Parallel/Hip-O disc "Drunk in Public" is now No. 20 on the same chart, while Carrington's Capitol collection "Greatest Hits" is No. 42.

Also charting are Warner Bros.' long-established country comics Foxworthy and Engvall. "The Best of Jeff Foxworthy: Double Wide, Single Minded" is No. 60. Engvall's "Here's Your Sign: Reloaded" is No. 71.

Meanwhile, Larry the Cable Guy, White, Foxworthy and Engvall continue to benefit from their participation in the Blue Collar Comedy tour, the top comedy concert tour of the past two years.

The tour has spawned both a live CD (currently No. 28 on the Top Country Albums chart) and DVD (which recently peaked at No. 19 on the Top DVD Sales chart).

Williams says TV exposure will further broaden the base for his comedy clients. The WB Network is working on a series, "Blue Collar TV," starring Foxworthy, Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy. And Engvall, White and Larry the Cable Guy will each star in their own Comedy Central specials this spring/summer.

The surprising sales success of country comedy product and concert tickets has naturally led country labels to expand their comedy artist rosters.

Warner Bros. Nashville sales VP Peter Strickland and Hip-O head Pat Lawrence indicate that their labels are looking for new country comedy artists.

Capitol, the label that brought the world Carrington, Tim Wilson and multiple albums by phone-prankster character Roy D. Mercer, has just released Unknown Hinson's "The Future Is Unknown." Hinson is a semiserious shtick singer whose music, Capitol sales VP Bill Kennedy notes, falls loosely under the country comedy banner.

RANGE OF STYLES

In fact, country comedy is a loosely defined genre. Larry the Cable Guy, whose humor is more adult, points out the broad range of styles among his fellow country comedians.

"Jeff's known for his 'redneck' stuff, and is more family-type. Same with Bill Engvall," he says. "Ron White's more like a Southern Dean Martin . And I don't know what the hell I am, except that my crowd was Jeff's before they got married and had kids."

Engvall thinks his act "is very much non-country. It's very middle-of-the-road, Cosby-esque, real life.

"I hear 'country comedian,' and I think of people like Minnie Pearl and George Lindsey and T. Bubba Bechtol and Andy Griffith ," Engvall says. "Not to take away from what they did, but it's so far from what I do. My stuff appeals to farmers, doctors, plumbers, everybody. So I say it's not 'country comedy' but 'comedy for the country."'

Williams agrees with the "not necessarily country" nature of country comedy. "The Cledus T. Judds of the world are country, but these guys are more mainstream," he says of his clients. "They just happen to have Southern accents.

"If I did a show with Jerry Seinfeld , Richard Jeni and Dom Irrera, it wouldn't be called 'Northern comedy,' just 'comedy.' And if we were just 'country,' we wouldn't have the second-largest comedy tour in the last four years next to the 'Kings of Comedy,"' Williams says.

Syndicated morning radio program "The Bob and Tom Show" has long featured comic country artists, going back to Kinky Friedman and Pinkard & Bowden. Co-host Tom Griswold, who has produced recordings for Carrington and Wilson, notes that mostly rock stations carry his show.

"We certainly don't have a country base, but we've always welcomed country," Griswold says.

"There's something about 'good old boys' that people always like -- but you can't throw them all in one big stew," Griswold says. "But there is a certain commonality . . . It's nice to find someone like Larry the Cable Guy who's really funny and whose point of view we can all understand."

Larry may hail from a small town in Nebraska and reside in Florida, but he notes that his "most loyal crowds" are Northeastern.

"We sold out in Portland, Maine, did two shows for 2,400 in Erie, Pa., and did two sellouts of 2,800 in Albany, N.Y.," he says. "We can do shows all day long in Baltimore."

Reuters/Billboard