The Commercial Break - TCB Infomercial: Larry The Cable Guy

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

The Commercial Break Podcast | EP#842 Larry The Cable guy Bryan's talking to a guy who made sleeveless flannel fashionable, turned ‘Git-R-Done’ into a national anthem, and somehow convinced Pixar to let him voice a talking tow truck. Larry the Cable Guy — or as his mom calls him, Daniel — has been making us laugh for decades. From the Blue Collar Comedy Tour to Cars, he’s built an empire out of being unapologetically himself… and a little bit redneck.We’re talking comedy, character work, fame, and what it means to stay funny in a world that sometimes forgets how to laugh. So grab your beer, your toolbox, and a tissue… Larry the Cable Guy is on The Commercial Break. Larry's LINKS: New Amazon Special Watch EP #842 On YouTube Text us or leave us a voicemail: [phone]TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tcbpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CREDITS: Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Green⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits | TCB Tunes: Written, Performed and Edited by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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the good news is I got a money-back guarantee, so I guarantee you, you ain't going to get your money back. All right, that sounds going to be. On this episode of the Commercial Break. People that like you grow old with you. Yes. And so you really would like to catch the younger,

generation and do something for them, but it's so hard to really understand the culture that they're in that they like because you're in your culture and you're in your environment. But when Mayder came along, it is so cool now to go places and kids from five years old, four years old, all the way up into college and people in their 30s, I mean, they go, they it shows me just how popular it was the next episode of the commercial break starts now the 30 of the morning oh yeah cast and kittens welcome back to the commercial break i'm brian green this is nobody there's nobody sitting next to me best to you out there in the podcast universe chrissey continues her annual pilgrimage to the house that jeff built also known as memfo let's be honest

It's probably mostly Chrissy Because behind every good man There's a good someone And that good someone is Chrissy My good someone is Astrid And Astrid and Chrissy are the good Someone's behind the commercial break So it all, it's full circle here at TCB

She'll be back next week There's nothing wrong, she's fine, she's healthy Everything's okay that I know of She's just doing this She does this every year In case you haven't noticed And so this year The Train continues to roll on

With the help of Tina And then I'm doing some interviews Here by My Lonesome I sure do miss her, but she will be back soon enough. All right, it's a TCB infomercial Tuesday with Mr. Daniel Whitney, but you probably know him better by his surname, his Sirhan Sirhand name, also called Larry the Cable Guy. Now, I was just telling Aster before I came in the studio to record this.

I know Larry the Cable Guy in two different ways. I know him from my own young adulthood, as he became very famous as a stand-up comedian doing the blue-collar, comedy tour, TVs, Movies, Get Her Done, which we have all heard a cabillion times. You can hear it every time someone on TV swings a golf club, hits a bat, scores a basket. Well, maybe not so much of the basketball games, but the NFL, you can hear it everywhere. Why? Because Larry is one of those few comedians, actors, actresses, musicians who has transcended the art form into a cultural, phenomenon into the fabric of pop culture and so therefore I'm excited to talk to him. I know him now

also from my children as Mader from the Pixar smash mega success hit cars. As I watch these movies with my kids and I get a giggle and I see Mader running around being the heart and soul of the movie, you know, it's hard not to fall in love with the voice and that character. And my understanding is that Pixar created the character specifically for Larry the Cable Guy. And I'd like to ask him all about it. So you'll indulge me for a few minutes while I go down the rabbit hole regarding Pixar and cars with Daniel. Now, he also has a brand new special out. And it's not brand new. It's been out for a couple of months. But it is streaming currently. I'd like to present you the link in the show notes. Just open up the podcast app that you're listening to. Scroll a little bit

down this episode and you'll see a blue line that's called a hyperlink for those of you that are brand new to the internet you click on that open up a new window take you to the streaming special that he's got out just do that after you get done with the episode please do follow all the rules and regulations and listen to the episode all the way through and we'll all get through it together you know what I'm saying all right he's also I mean there's too many specials and TV shows and appearances and all that to list every single thing he's done down show notes, but I'll put a few of the more popular and, you know, the things that I think you need to know about Larry the Cable Guy and Daniel Whitney. He has a very interesting

history as to how he got into comedy, his time down in Florida, running around radio stations. I'd like to get into all of it, if you don't mind. Let's have a nice, long conversation with Larry the Cable Guy while we have him here, while he clearly something went wrong with his agent and she allowed him, she or he allowed him to come on the show. Let's have fun with it while we can. So I'm going to do this. I'm talking to you, the listener. I'm going to take a short break. But when I get back through the magic of, through the magic of telepodcasting, I'm going to have Larry the cable guy right here in the studio via that television screen right there. And you can watch it too. YouTube.com slash the commercial bright. Get her done. And we'll all have fun on this together.

So I'll do that. I'll take a break. What do you say? And we'll come back. All right. Sounds good. Hey, it's Rachel. Your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue. Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears. And I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to TCB Podcast.com and visiting the contact us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library, audio and video, just in case you want to look at Chrissy, at tcbpodcast.com. Want your voice to be on an episode of the show? Leave us a message at 212-4333-3-3-TCB. That's 212433-3822. Tell us how much you love us, and we'll be sure to let the world know on a future episode.

Or you can make fun of us. That'd be fine, too. We might not air that, but maybe. Oh, and if you're shy, that's okay. Just send a text. We'll respond. Now I'm going to go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors. And then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break.

Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit BestWestern.com for complete terms and conditions. What's up, guys? It's Candace Dillard Bassett, former Real Housewife of Potomac. And I'm Michael Arsino, author of The New York Town. bestseller, I Can't Date Jesus, and this is Undomesticated. The podcast, where we aren't just saying the quiet parts out loud,

we're putting it all on the kitchen table and inviting you to the function. If you're ready for some bold takes and a little bit of chaos, welcome to Undomesticated. Follow and listen to Undomesticated, available wherever you get your podcasts. The legendary Larry, the cable guy, is with me right now on the Telepodcasting Machine. you very much. I'm really, I'm really grateful for your time, as I was just mentioning, you know, I know you in a couple different ways. I know you because I like you. I like your comedy. I think

you're very, obviously, you have a gift for being funny. And then I see you through a whole different world, which is the Pixar world. And, you know, my kids are just, they just think that Mater is the best thing ever. Cars is the best thing ever. Mater is the best thing ever. But I'm more...

Woo! Yeah. You're like Tomader without the time. Do you have a... Do you guys have a new like serialized show you're doing on Disney Plus? Is that right? Yeah, we have a brand new one where I think it's going to be 60 episodes. Holy. But it's coming out on Disney Jr.

It's going to be on Disney Jr.? Oh my God. My kids are going to fucking flip. Yeah, going to be on Disney Jr. I'm looking for the, we've had a ton of these. You know, we used to do tales from Radiator Springs. And then, oh, it's cars on the road again. The last one was on Disney Plus, and this one is on Disney Jr.

And the reason it's on Disney Jr. is there's, uh, Mader's got a couple of new friends that I think everybody's kind of like on Disney Jr. So I think is it, I've talked to, um, a lot of people who have done voice work characters and they have been immortalized in these characters. And now there's generations of children who, I've grown up, and, you know, could you have ever imagined when you started reading? How did you get the job for Mater?

I never would imagine a million years. I, you know, I was out on the road, and I had just really started heavily touring, just jumping in between large theaters and arenas in 2002, and I got a fax. Back when we had fax machines, I had a fax. Kids, I'll explain that in the outro. That's so weird. You talk about a fax machine, and you're thinking, you know, but man, that was really in the past a fax machine.

But it was just, my manager said to go look at the fax machine, and it said it was a note from Pixar. It was a very nice note talking about how they loved my, stand up and but they love my voice was the perfect voice and they said we would love you to be the voice of our small town

tow truck Zeb and his name at the time was Zeb that just doesn't fit I told no it doesn't so I told my manager oh what does this mean I go

and I was already doing pretty good I just got a good footing and stand-up and all these dates and I'm busting it and I'm so excited because my stand-up career is kicking and I literally said I don't want to have, do I got to go

all over there and audition or what do I do? Because I don't, I mean, I'm never home. I don't want to have to fly. I mean, I'm very flattered but what does this mean? And he goes, well, you got the part. I go, I got the part. He goes, yeah, you don't have to audition.

They like your voice and you, You already got the part. And I'll be honest, my first thought was, man, I'm going to start watching Pixar movies. I'm going to figure out what the shit's all about, yeah. Now, I know, I know about them, but I, you know, I didn't have any kids. I was, let's see, in 70, 83, yeah, I mean, I was in my late 30s and I wasn't married yet. I had no kids, so, you know. Yeah, why would you know?

The Pixar wasn't really in my movie interest, you know. Right. And so I went and I got some stuff and watched them. I was so excited. And that's how I got it. And I went out there just to give you a little brief of it. I went out there. Well, first of all, I started tearing up and shed a little tear there

because I'd been doing this character on radio for so long. Yeah. I did Larry the Cable Guy on radio stations for 13 straight years, a total of 25 to 27 radio stations every week pushing Larry the cable guy. It was just a radio character. And then, of course, I started breaking out doing stand-up, doing the character. But, you know, all those, you know, all those years of not getting paid and doing it, not knowing where it would lead, but it was fun to do.

And just, just the fact that all that work came to fruition of something that you would have never thought would have happened to it. Yeah. And I was just so thankful. I could not believe it. And, and I go out there, and John Lasseter was so nice to me and all the Pixar crew. As a matter of fact, when I went out for the weekend, the punchline in San Francisco in the early twos, they gave me the weekend so that I could make some money while I'm out there

because, you know, so I just don't sit around doing nothing. They said, yeah, come on out and work the club. So I went out and worked the weekend at the punchline. And, man, I just had a blast. and, oh, an interesting story about that. I, I'm not really up on, like, computers and stuff like that. I'm a, I'm a 1963 model, so, it takes a minute. It takes a, it's moved so fucking fast right now, too, and I understand.

I understand. I get it. And what's funny about that is when I went to college at a small Baptist college in Georgia. I worked at Radio Shack, 214 or something, Candler Road, Decatur, Georgia, and I worked at Radio Shack down there, Mills Creek Road. Anyway, that's where I am. That's where I am. I'm in Georgia. Okay, yeah. There you go. My college was 214-5, Candler Road. Right up the, right up the road from a South to Cab Mall. And I worked at that radio shack. But it was really funny. People were buying

computers and at the time they sold a tandy 2000 and the color 64 color computer and I was in charge of like selling things what's the difference we need to? And I go well this is 2000

this is only 64 so this has got more parallel yeah it's got more zeros. Yeah. That's how I used to sell. But anyway, long story short, I'm out there, and so I don't know anything about computers, but in the crowd that night, and I had no idea, I finished my show, and I'm watching John

Laster, he's sitting with a guy, and they're just laughing their heads off. I had such a great time, and I get done and shaking hands, saying hi, and thanks. A lot of Pixar people came out, and one of the waitress comes up and goes, man, that is so cool that he came to your show. And I go, yeah, John's awesome. He goes, no, Steve Jobs. He never goes out. I go, Steve Jobs, who's that?

Steve Jobs, man. Whatever. Okay, cool, dude. Yeah, Microsoft. Who's who that guy? Apple, whatever. But, yeah, he was there. And they said, he never goes out.

And the fact that he came to your show, it was a big deal, like the way. He never goes out. So he was at the show. It was just a really fun weekend, and I did, I only had, I'll be honest with it, I only had maybe 20 lines, 15 lines maybe. Really? Something like that. And I got done. There might have been more than that.

It seemed like only about 15. There might have been 25 maybe. But I get home, and I had such a good time, I get home, and then I go out on the road. So I'm heavily touring. I come home for about 10 days from a six-month trip and I got to think, I go, whatever happened to that cartoon? I haven't heard anything.

Remember when Steve Jones gave and saw me? Whatever happened to that one? Honestly, I thought they didn't like it. And so they just moved on. They canned me or whatever. And I told my manager, go, man, did they fire me? Do they not like it? because I haven't heard from them in like six, seven months.

And he's like, yeah, whatever did happen to that. Yeah, let me call and find out what's going on. And so now I'm worried. So he calls back and he goes, hey, are you sitting down right now? And I go, oh, man, don't tell me. I don't, you know. And in my head, I'm going, well, at least I didn't tell a ton of people. So I'm not going to embarrass myself.

I just told a few people. and my wife knows and well I wasn't married then she's my girlfriend at the time and he goes they are rewriting some of the movie because they think

Maider brings so much heart and soul into the movie they want to add more of Maider and right then I could yeah I couldn't believe it I'm like this is the coolest thing ever And so after that, man, I went over for one, two, three, I think four sessions. I flew to Emeryville and stayed the weekend and did like, yeah, I signed the wall over there.

Between the first, first three, two movies, I signed the wall over there, I think, ten times. Gee. This has got to be. I talked to Pat Nosswald, who's Remy. Right? And I, in these characters that will live on forever, they're, they're freaking rides. They're rides. You go to the parks and they're rides and you're there. Your characters there. And this is all stems from, like now that I'm hearing the story, this all stems from not some, can you fit in this box? Can you do this voice? It stems from, we wrote this character with you in mind. Like, you are the character. And that to me is a level of, I mean, just like the respect, the honor, all the work that you put in, like you said, to manifest itself in such a incredible way, has got to be, just must feel so awesome. I can't think of any other word.

It really is. It's, it, I can't explain it. I'm so happy that it turned out to be what it did, because it is a really cool character. And just kids of, I mean, it brought in a whole age. group because, you know, like any rock and roll band, the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, we had our fans. Yeah. And our fans grow old with us, you know, and you have a certain amount of material that sometimes goes to the younger people, because you'll talk about things that they've been through as well. But my stuff was pretty much, I was a one-liner, no-nonsense kind of guy, and I had a crazy sense of humor.

You know, I grew up with Monty Python's Flying Circus and Benny Hill and he-ha and the Dean Martin Roasts and Johnny Carter. So that was my kind of style of humor. But like with any entertainer, people that like you grow old with you. Yes. And so you really would like to catch the younger generation and do something for them, but it's so hard to really understand the culture that they're in that they like because you're in your culture and you're in your environment. But when Mayder came along, it is so cool now to go places and kids from five years old, four years old, all the way up into college and people in their 30s, I mean, they go, they, it shows me just how popular it was. They come up to me all the time. I did a thing it was, and to prove that was really crazy.

I got invited to do, just come in and say a few words to all the University of Nebraska Athletic Department. Very cool. And just to kind of open it up and welcome everybody and do some jokes. And I told my buddy Troy, who's the athletic director, I said, Troy, they don't know. I mean, my comedy is really not for college games. You know, I'm not, you know. It's not my target demographic.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, they're going to love you. I said, okay, so I came out. I did a couple of riffs off Troy, and then I did, I opened up with a Willie Nelson pot joke, you know, because one time I met Willie Nelson and the whole deal. So I'd do this joke. I get nothing. And now I'm dying.

Now I'm going, you know what, I'm dying. I'm only up here for five minutes. I've got maybe one laugh. And so I go, well, let's switch gears here in my head. So then I go, hey, does anybody know this? Woo-hoo. Hey, my name's Mater, La Tom Mater without the top. They went nuts and raised their hands.

They're laughing. They're like, it's Mater! That's Mater! And so for the next 15 minutes, all I did was Mater Lines, and they asked me, I say, you got any questions? They threw out questions, and I killed it. They loved me. I'm like going, thank God for Mater, man.

He pulled me out of this situation. It really is bizarre. And then when I got done, some girl, or Troy told me the next day, he goes, man, he goes, I got a lot of good words from the kids. They loved it. That was one of their favorite starts to this season. And don't feel bad that first five minutes because one of the girls from the volleyball team, or one of the girls from the softball team came out to me and said,

hey, tell Dan, that's my real name, of course. He says, tell Dan he did. He was awesome. And tell him not to worry about nobody laughing early on. Because I'll be honest, I don't think anybody there knows who Willie Nelson is. I'm like, oh, my gosh. I thought he was internationally, no. Yeah, he's a weed smoker, if anything, you know.

College kids smoke weed, you gotta know who fucking will and else it is. I should have used Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar would have gotten them going. I don't even know. Maybe Kendrick Lamar is phased out. It all moves so fast these days. I can't keep up. It goes quick, but going back, not to talk too much, but going back to what he said about.

This is why you're here. Please, I'm enjoying this immensely. Please go on. Where they specifically like you for the character. And it's funny because when I, I first got in there before I ever did my first line. I just wanted to make sure I did good. And so I said to John, hey, John, real quick, is Mayter, do you envision Mader like really,

is he a slower guy or do you want him more of a fast-paced type guy? And he goes, well, he's you. He goes, he's you. I just, that's why I hired you because you're Mater. So you just, tell you what, you just do what you do. on stage and i'll be happy and i said okay so that's what i did i just i just took what i do on stage and did it as maeter and he loved it and so yeah so when i think that's what made her really made made made her really endearing and successful was uh i basically he's me it's authentic to

you yes it's you it's coming through yeah he's me putting on an accent Because I really, I feel like in real life, not on stage because my show was so wacky in one-liner. It's, but I feel like off stage, I'm kind of like Mater, you know. So I felt like I put really a lot of my personality into the Maider character because, you know, Meader's like me. He's nice. He likes people. He's naive. He doesn't know like trying to sign up today to get on this call. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I figured it out. Yeah. So I think that's probably why that worked. I think that, you know, in those movies, and then we'll move on. I didn't mean to bring you here just to talk about Mater, because there's lots of stuff that you do. Yeah, no. I love this. Mayer bought me this studio.

I'll talk about Mader. Mader pays for everything, so I'll talk about Mader all day. I think that's another thing that I'm enjoying about this conversation is how much you enjoy the arc of what happened, you know, behind the scenes with Mater, how you became Mater. And I think when you watch those movies, obviously Owen does a great job. Like Lightning McQueen, you know, we all root for Lightning, right? But one of the, I think that Maider pulls it together. He is like the heart and soul. He's the guy who's giving color commentary in the heart and soul of the movie. And I believe that's probably what John saw.

when he went back and said six months later, we got to put, this has got to be like the connective tissue in these movies. And what a brilliant choice. I guess that's why Pixar has been so successful because they know what the hell they're doing. But then now, 23 years later, you're doing another 60 episodes of the character.

Are there plans to do another movie? As anybody talked about doing another movie? Well, here's, no, I don't know if they, this is, I mean, I don't know any part of that. sure they just had me do the voices but i will say um i in my opinion i think that the the cars on the road that was on i think that was cars on the road there's been so many of them but the one that was on disney plus yes we watched it and it was mader it was me yeah made her going to his sister's wedding oh yeah and mcqueen and mader went to it were traveling across the

country to get to his sister's wedding And that was nine, 10-minute episodes, I believe it was. And I kind of consider that. That was probably would have been the fourth movie because it was one continuous story. Yes. It was just nine different things that happened to them along the way. So you pull out, you pull out the ending and just continue it. That's a movie.

Yeah. And I think nowadays with the story, streaming services that the companies have. I think now it's more cost-efficient instead of this big, long production, and then paying the cost to promote it and the whole movie side of it. I think it's more cost-productive, I think, to put it on one of your streaming services, bump up your streaming services, because everybody that's got kids and loves cars, They're going to want to see it.

Yep. They don't want to go to the theater. So I think that's probably what you're going to see now. You might be right. Yeah. Disney Plus, there's short episodes. There's 60 of them. And they're awesome.

I'm filming these. And as I go filming these, I've never had more fun. I mean, I have fun at all of them, but I don't think I've laughed as much as this new series because there's a lot of really funny stuff. things that me and my my buddy chris that does all the sound and stuff up in omaha where we call in to pick our emeryville i mean we laugh i mean there's some good stuff so i think they'll probably go in that route i doubt you're i don't know you might but i don't think you would see another movie i think the success now is just to keep it going with these small shorts and

i think that's probably bring another you're bringing another generation in with that disney junior too i mean i have small kids and this is what they watch right they watch disney junior and and disney junior it's a smart business it's a smart business model but then it's also good television and i got to be honest like of all the channels we could watch i'm not i'm not arguing with disney junior like it's i kind of like you going to get bluey on there now it's great it's oh yeah absolutely and and uh they're uh they're definitely doing the smart way you know and when i first saw that they were putting in uh back the day when I found out that there was a billion-dollar theme park going in, I said to

myself, I think there's probably going to be some more of these. I mean, you've got to put gas in the tank to get people going to the theme park. Yes, you do. And now I think they're planning another one at this one. You never pay to go to a Disney park, do you? I'm sure you can walk in the front door. That's a good thing. When my kids were younger, that was.

definitely a really good perk right there. I swear I'm madeer. I swear a meter. That was a check with security. Yeah, that's definitely a really good perk. No doubt about it. 13 years. You did 27. Did I get that right radio stations? Just were you doing this voice for free? Tell me more about this. Yeah. Well, when I, you know, when you're a stand-up comic and you're not popular, you're just trying to put butts in the seats, you look for other forms of income that can keep you out on the road and do stand-up. So I had a buddy of mine that was on a rock and roll station, and he's, I think he's got a show on a series. Now, Ron Bennington, he had a comedy club in Clearwater,

and Ron is so funny, man. He's like one of the funniest guys on the planet. Him and I got to be good friends. And so I would go over to his club as much as I could and do time and all that. But he wanted to get off the road. So he got on a morning show called 95 Y&F over in Tampa. And I was doing characters on stage. One of them was Larry the Cable Guy.

So he, oh, you got to call my radio station. And that's a hilarious character. So that's how I started. I started doing Larry the Cable Guy character. And so I ended up acquiring around 27 stations across the country, mainly in the Midwest and the south. There was a couple up in the northeast, up in Albany, New York. And then I had like Arizona, I had a couple in California. Where else?

I think that was a Colorado, Denver. So I would do these call-ins. Only, I think only three or four stations paid me monthly to do it. Now, the station in Orlando was where I was based out of. So I would go in as part of the morning show. Whenever I wasn't on the road, I was a morning show person. So I was just a sidekick hanging out with Mark and Gloria on the morning show. And then when I had to go on the road, they'd let me go on the road,

and I would just do my call-in commentary like normal. They treated me really good. It was awesome. And it was in Orlando and central Florida. It was, and Tampa, C. Pete, it was a really popular. Larry the cable guy got really popular. I mean, they've been saying Girda down in central in Florida since 91, since I, it's 92 since I was on the air. And it was fun.

But I didn't get paid by all of them. Three or four stations paid me. I made a really good extra living. with the Orlando morning show, and then I'd go on the road. But when I first did Larry the Cable Guy on stage, was in around 1995, and a guy named Les McCurdy

at the McCurdy's Comedy Club in Sarasota, a build-me is Let Dan Whitney, aka Larry the Cable Guy, from the radio station. And it's sold out two shows in like 20 minutes. No shit. And to be, yeah, and to be honest me, I was kind of mad at him because at the time,

Larry the cable guy was just a radio character. Right. It's just a bit you're doing. You're like, I'm not going to go up on stage and do the whole thing as Larry. It was a bit that I was doing. It was nothing close to my act. My act was fast-paced, one-liners, goofy physical humor, just outrageous, sane, stupid.

I mean, that's the kind of stuff that I like, you know. And so Larry, you know. uh what am i going to do you know they're going to so i get on stage and they're yelling out you're done do some larry we want to hear larry so i i dipped down into that and i basically just took my act and did it as the character i got done with that first show and uh i'm signing autographs and taking pictures and it was unbelievable so les came out to me and he said have you ever thought about doing your whole show like that and i said no not really it's so for less from what I do

besides it's a radio character. I don't have any jokes for it. He goes well just do your jokes. Just can you talk like, can you talk like that for an hour? I go, Les, you know me. All I do is hang out in country bars and I grew

up at a pig farm in Nebraska. I went and my roommates were from Dalton, Georgia and Beaumont, Texas. I can talk like a freaking redneck with the best of it. A day long, yeah. You know, because it's like Foxworthy says in his act, because I is one, you know. And so I kind of consider myself one anyway.

You're an honor to remember. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I drove over in an 86 trans amp with teetops with big blue firebird on the hood. So I think I qualified. Yeah, I got this. So I went and I changed and I put on what I drove over in. I had a pair of lace-up, roper, horse ride boots, and I had a pair of jeans, a cut-off. Nebraska T-shirt and a NASCAR hat.

That's what I drove over. Went on stage, he took my name off, introduced me as Larry the Cable Guy. And from that point on, I had like three radio stations at the time or four maybe while I was doing it. And a light bulb went off and I said, man, you know, if I could get more radio stations to get on, they could promote me at these comedy clubs and I could start selling some pretty good tickets. And that's what I did. And that's why I never asked for any pay. I told, because radio stations were, when I'd go into a comedy club, they would say, boy,

what's this thing you're doing on the radio? They would always ask me because it was on bitboard across the United States for these morning shows. Yeah. And I would tell them, well, you know, this is what I'm doing. I said, I'll do it for you guys, too, if you want. Well, we can't afford that, you know, these radio, they're no charge. And I said, you ain't got to pay.

Here's all I ask. I guarantee you it will get popular in a couple of months. And you can either pay me out of it. You can get it sponsored. You can pay me out of the sponsorship money, but you don't have to. All I ask is when I come work at the comedy club again, make it a radio station promotion, and just promote me as being at the club. It's a win-win for everybody. You promote it.

The comedy club doesn't have to spend as much money to promote it because you're already promoting it as a radio station. And that's how it worked. And that's when I started getting radio stations. And within, man, three years, I think, Rich Jenny, who was a friend of mine, who was hilarious, I think him and I became the top two highest paid comedy club draw comedians. And I was only doing Midwest South and a couple in the West. Wow.

But that's how that's. started that whole thing right there. And then the voice. So your awshucks maeter is not so awes shucks. This is so incredibly smart of you. This, you're thinking like, I mean, listen, I say, I say this to some people who have podcasts and, oh, you got ads. And at some point, you need to be compensated for what you're doing. If you're creating, and that's what you do for a living, then you have to be compensated. But you also have to think like a business sometimes, even while you're creating, right? And that's an incredibly smart of you to say, have it for free, but on the comeback, we can

figure out how we can help each other, right? Yeah, Foxworthy, you know, Jeff and I've been, for instance, 1986, and we'd always talk comedy back in those days, you know, staying in a condo down there in West Palm Beach, Florida. And him and Vic Henley would come down for Braves games and work the club. And so we would have to hang out for two weeks together. But he always said to us what he learned about stand-up is it's show business. And there's two words in show business. There's show, which everybody loves, but then there's the business, which not everybody loves.

Yes. And in order to have a good show, you've got to be good at the business end of it, or you're not going to get as much show. That is very smart. That's very smart. There's two words in there, show and business. And you really do, you know, some people are good at the business part. Some people aren't good at the business part.

Creative types often are known to not be so good at business and the numbers. But that's why there's a whole cottage industry called management and PR that can help you do that. Absolutely. But early on, you better be good at the business, at least to get up early in the morning and work the phones and get some gigs. And then a manager come along, an agent, and then you can really inquish some of those duties to them. Did you and Jeff, so you've known Jeff since 86. That's a long time. By the way, I live in Atlanta. So, and Jeff, if you live in Atlanta eventually, or you, I don't know if he still lives here now, but when I was in my 20s. Oh, he does. When I was in my 20s and 30s,

at least where I was hanging out, occasionally you would see him. He would come into a restaurant that I worked at and stuff like that. Extraordinarily nice human being. Like just a really down to earth, really nice guy, tells no one to go away. Shake everybody's being a really good guy. He's like my adopted older brother, man. He's really helping a lot and stuff, and we have really good talks. And yeah, Jeff is the man, man. He still lives there and has his hunting property down there, I think, in Columbus. And, of course, I live there for three years going to college in Decatur and then hung around a lot down. And you know, I'm telling the truth, because I call it Mayreta.

That's close to where I'm at. That's where I grew up. That was my, that was where, that was my hometown. Well, I mean, I was growing up. Born in Chicago, but I lived, I moved when I was 10 years old. So I'm, I'm as close to a native of Atlanta as you're ever going to get. Awesome. When you.

Down in Mayrata, down by the big chicken. That's still there to this day. Did you, you and, I mean, the blue collar is like the biggest, it was, the biggest thing since sliced bread for a minute there. That was amazing. How did that all come together? That was crazy. I was on the road. And this goes back to the show business thing we were talking about, about business. I was kicking butt out on the road. I was, you know, I was headlining all these comedy clubs. And the blue collar comedy two already had done maybe 15 shows together. Okay. Without me. I'm like the Ringo star of the Blue Collar time.

comedy tour. But it was basically just Jeff and his opening act Ron White and Bill Engball and his opening act, Craig Hoxley, rest of soul. And I guess I don't know that part of the story because I was not a part of them. But evidently, Craig just wasn't blue collar enough, you know. Yeah. And I guess, I don't know, there was something going on there where they were just, now they're just looking for a replacement. I have no. I don't know the story. I just know they were looking for replacement. And from what I heard, they just didn't find a blue collar enough and the whole deal.

So anyway, I just got home, and I had my first weekend off in like three months. So I'm out fishing with my buddy Greg out in Lake Butler, down in Windhamere, Florida. And I just get in the boat where there are an hour and a half, two hours. It's, what is it? It's Friday afternoon. And my manager calls me and says, hey, I don't know if you want to do this or not, but there's a show in Nashville called The History of Country Comics. It's hosted by Andy Griffith and Jeff.

And they got nine comedians. They want ten. So they got five on one show, five on the other, but they need one more, and your name came up. Well, we should get Larry the Cable Guy on the show. And this was before I was at famous everywhere, just comedy clubs at certain places. And I'm like, ah, when is it? Well, here's the problem. It's tonight.

it's tonight and tomorrow how quick can you find an airport and you're the oh here's the thing but here's the good here's the cool thing um it's at the grandel the original mother church of country music the grandel opery and as a kid a country kid growing up those were the things that really got to me yeah the opportunity to work at the Mother Church of country music that Grand Alopry. I've never done it. How cool would that be? And I was the only one not getting

paid because they didn't have the budget for me, but I'd already had a good, you know, I've already been doing pretty good. So I had to buy my own plane ticket, but they did put me up. No, I think they bought my plane ticket. So they'll get my plane ticket and put

me up for two nights, but I wouldn't going to get paid. But my thought was to that was, man, I don't I don't want to do it, but here's the deal. It's the Mother Church at Country Music. Yes. And I'll get to see Jeff because Jeff's been so busy. I've not seen Jeff in person now in a couple of years, just talking on the phone, but I haven't seen him in a couple of years.

But the main incentive was the Grand Alopry, and who knows who's going to be in the audience. Because at the time I was loving, but I was wanting to kind of get out of the comedy because do some theater stuff. But I was really wanting to be in the audience, somebody see me, and maybe George Jones or one of these big Alan Jess, somebody will take me out on the road. On the road. Yeah, interesting. That was in my head. So I went up and I did it, and I freaking slayed it. And that's the first time Jeff had ever saw me do Larry the cable guy.

And I get a call a couple of weeks later asking me if I was. wanted to try to be on this blue-collar comedy tour. Wow. They would love to audition you if you would like to be a part of it. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Are you kidding me? Travel around with Jeff and the guys. Now, I didn't know Bill at all.

I never met Bill. Ron, I met a couple of times. And I like Ron a lot. Yeah. And I like Bill, but I didn't know Bill, but I'd heard of Bill. And so I said, yeah. So I remember my first audition, they had me come up for a while. weekend and try it out.

First night was in Columbia, South Carolina, where I probably could have sold 2,000 tickets because I worked the comedy club there, and I killed it. And the other one was somewhere like that, too, Virginia, somewhere where I was already on the air. Sure. And so here's a great story about that. Can I cuss on here? Of course, yeah.

Okay. Well, excuse me for dropping this, but it's the story. and I can't. So the two people that were, the two agents that were there, that were in charge of all the booking of blue collar, they were there, and they were all watching me to see how well I did. And I'm on stage. First of all, there's getter dones all over the place.

And so I'm a one line of guy, and I only had 10 minutes. You know, Ron and I each had 10 minutes. Sure. And so there was, I'm about 40 jokes into five minutes. I don't want to stop. I'm boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And they said, Ron, who would never really come up and watch the first act, he just kind of hung out and then was time to go up.

He'd go on, do his 10 leave. Well, he came up to watch me. And Ron's awesome, man. And I only hung out with him maybe three or four times, but Ron was freaking awesome. I mean, how do you not like Ron? He's great. And Ron just came up to watch me and just, you know, because he's part of the hiring process. And one of the guys goes, he told me, he goes, we knew you had the job when you're five minutes in and you're about 40 jokes in.

The crowd is dying. Ron took out a cigarette, lit it, and went, oh, fuck. It kind of, but Ron even, I think Ron, I heard an interview one time with him or it was somebody that said it was really good for everybody because it kind of, I guess Ron had said he was kind of going through the motions and, you know, going up, getting off and kind of lit a fire. Kind of lit a fire to go up and each act made every act better. That was why blue collar was great. Each act made the other act lifted up even higher. We all try. We love, look, we all loved each other.

I still love it. I miss those days. I wish we could all travel again, but it just worked, you know. Yeah. So that's, so I left bass fishing. If I wouldn't have done that show at the Riemann, I would have never got that audition, and I would have never got on blue collar. So, show business, show business.

That's what you got to remember. Okay. So I just want to mention one more thing. I was watching the Rider Cup, and of course I knew you came on. I was watching the Ryder Cup over the weekend, the golf tournament, and I, at least on two occasions, heard, you know, someone takes back, they swick, get her done, you know, I go, holy shit, you know what, maybe even more crazy than the fact that you're Maider and Forever Maider and there's rides

and, you know, people can hear you in 50 different theme parks is the fact that this tagline, These words that you have said have now become part of the lexicon, the fabric of the American culture. People love to scream that in almost any situation. I mean, I've heard it's thousands of times. Well, it's good for anything. Yeah, it's good for any occasion. Get her done. Whatever you got to do, just get her done, give 110%.

Larry the Cable Guy has a brand new Amazon Prime Special. And we can see that on Amazon. I watch it over the weekend. It was very, very good. I'll put links in the show notes. I got to tell you, man, I have enjoyed this immensely. I love hearing you tell stories. I could do it for another hour.

So I'm going to request that at some point you come back on. I know you, you know, I know that you're very busy and showing up on podcast interviews is probably not on the top of your list. I don't mind it. I love, I love telling stories. I love what I do. I love life, I love people, and I think it's cool that people are actually interested at all in stuff that I do. I am a history of comedy buff.

I, you know, you obviously are woven into that fabric also. Thank you so much, Dan. I really appreciate this, and you're welcome back anytime. Links in the show notes, make sure if you got small kids, you turn on that. You know, we need some people to pay attention to cars. so it gets some success, and maybe it'll have some legs, that whole cars thing, that whole cars thing might turn into something. It's kind of in the dust, man.

Are you going to go back out on tour? Are you going to do any more live shows? Yeah, no, you know, what I do now is, you know, I did it the right way. Jeff said, if you ever have a chance to don't miss anything your kids do, don't ever miss anything because you miss some stuff. So I started about five or six years ago, I started going down to only about 24 shows a year.

Smart. And it's still 12 weekends. Yeah, that's a lot. But I got to spend a lot of time at home. And I was able to do it, though, very thankfully, because of the Pixar stuff, because I'm always doing stuff there. And Jeff and I have our own station on Syria. So there was other projects that I had where I could stay home.

But, yeah, I don't travel as much as I used to, you know, but I still get to go out 12 weekends a year, play the star for the weekend, right, and try some jokes out. And it's pretty fun, so. Well, I'll put all those links in the show notes so people can catch up with you. Welcome back anytime. I really appreciate your time today. This has been awesome. This has been one of my favorite.

I've had hundreds of these conversations. This has been one of my favorite. Well, thanks for invite me. Let me ask you this before we go. What is the names of your kids that like Mater? Woo-hoo. Hey, this is Mater, like Tomator without the Tuh. Boy, I tell you what, I'm happier in the tornado in the trailer park that your fans have made her, and shoot, I just got done talking to your daddy.

Woo-hoo! We had a dad-gum good time. All right, then, if you ever get to the radiator springs, we'll all do us some backward driving. All right, don't forget, we's best friends. See you later. This is Mater. I'm going to be the best dad ever. That's incredible.

I love doing that. Yeah, play that for them. They'll get a kick out of it. I'm going to cut it right this second. They're going to hear it the second they get home from school. Thank you. I welcome you back. Please come back and tell me more stories.

And thanks for having me and invite me on. Thank you. Of course. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks. I appreciate it. I see you. Let me do something Brian has never done.

Be brief. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break. Text or call us. 212-333-3-tcb. That's 212-4333. 3822. Visit our website, TCBpodcast.com for all the audio, video, and your free sticker.

Then watch all the videos at YouTube.com slash the commercial break. And finally, share the show. It's the best gift you could give a few aging podcasters. See, Brian? That really wasn't that difficult, now was it? You're welcome. Check out the big stars,

big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music. Like NCIS, Tony, and Ziva. We'd like to make up our own rules. Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition. The substance.

This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome. Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Paramoose. While other money managers are holding, dynamic is hunting. Seeing past the horizon, investing beyond the best.

benchmark because your money can't grow if it doesn't move. Learn more at dynamic.ca slash active. What I don't know is whether or not I'm going to leave a part of that episode in toward the end. You'll know if you know, but if I didn't leave it in because it's got some identifying information about my children, which I refuse to put on air. But before I tried to let Larry go, as I was trying to wrap it up, he said, can I please have your children's names? And then in the voice of Mater, he gave them a very special message. It was about a minute long, minute and a half long message to my kids. And I can say there wasn't a dry eye in the house. And I am the only one with two eyes in this room right now because I will be the best. Dad ever! Holy shit.

What a nice guy. Wow. I'm taking aback. I really am. It's not often that I'm at a loss for words on this show, but today we'll go down as one of those. I mean, what a generous guy. He didn't shy away from talking about cars. As a matter of fact, I think we spent half the episode talking about cars and Pixar and his time there and gracious with his time.

gracious with his voice I understand he's gracious with his money and charities I'm going to leave it at that I was going to add a little commentary there but I'm not going to I think at the end of the day everyone on earth

wants the same thing time attention love and shelter and if we can start there on that common ground then anything else can be worked out all the other stuff is just details and details can always be worked out

as long as we're doing it respectfully. I really appreciated my conversation with Larry the cable guy. That shoots to the top of the list for interviews on this show. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for coming in. Really appreciate it. Okay. All the links in the show notes,

I'll try and put some more, you know, some of his more popular stuff, the links to. And I'm definitely putting the links to the Cars movie. So if you don't have Disney Plus or he canceled Disney Plus or you want Disney Plus, You can get it with ads. It's cheap. You can get it with ads.

I'll put a link to cars. I'll put a link to his brand new streaming special. I'll put a link to any show dates he's got coming up so you can buy tickets if he comes near you. And, yeah, what else is there to say? That was an amazing conversation with a pretty cool human being. So there you go. I'm still taking a back. I'm just taking it back.

What happened just now? Maiter from cars talking to my kids. That's cool. Crazy. That's crazy. A lot of crazy shit has happened because of this show, but that certainly has got to top the list. Got to top the list. Add the commercial break on Instagram, TCB podcast on TikTok, and YouTube.com slash the commercial break for all the episodes, including this one. The same day they air here on the audio, 212, 4333-3-TCB, 212433, 3822, questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas, and your free sticker still at TCBpodcast.com.

That is all I can do for today. I will tell you that I love you. I will say best to you. Until next time, I will say, I do say, and I must say. Goodbye. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex presale tickets can score you a spot trackside, so being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex.

Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at mx.ca.com. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence.

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Phenomenal launch into the air. Absolutely incredible. Air Transat! Fly the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. Oh, I'm going to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be in the world. Thank you.