Ron White is one of comedy’s straightest shooters, a scotch-soaked comic as wry as he is funny. You may know him as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, or as his criminal alias “Tater Salad.” Before his Oct. 10 show at the Township Auditorium, White talked with The Daily Gamecock about his favorite comedians, the most inappropriate place he’s been drunk and his advice to aspiring comedians.
The Daily Gamecock: When can we expect your next comedy album? Are you working on one?
Ron White: You know, I don’t know if I’ll ever do another one. I think I’ll just tour — people like to watch me live. And records, it’s kind of silly to put them out, because there’s not a ton of money in them and television doesn’t want to pay what they’re worth. And I make all of my money touring anyway. So I doubt I would sell it to television again and probably won’t release another one.
Some people never do. Like [Jay] Leno, he never released a comedy album. But as a result, he hasn’t changed his act much in the past 15 years. So you kind of paint yourself into a corner if you release them to keep writing, keep working.
TDG: How often do you think a comedian should write new material?
RW: Every day. Every day. And you should get on stage that day and perform it, not just write it. You just do that every day. Do I? No, I don’t. But I do it more than ... most comics that are in my position.
TDG: Who are some of your favorite comedians working right now?
RW: Well, you know, I love Louis C.K. I think he’s really funny, I’ve never seen him live. And Dave Attell really makes me laugh hard. I like all of the New York comics, I don’t know if they like me or not, but I do. I like ... what’s her name, the Jewish girl from New York?
TDG: Sarah Silverman?
RW: Sarah Silverman, yeah. I think she’s twisted in a nice way. I still enjoy (Jeff) Foxworthy’s work. I don’t get to see him very much, but I think he is just such a prolific writer of Southern comedy. Not just Southern comedy — middle class, blue collar comedy, which is very easily spread throughout the planet. I was always a big fan of Carlin, and I like Joan Rivers’ stuff, too. They’re not touring right now, but they’re coming on tour. They’re starting a tour next year. They’re touring together. Everything’s going to sell out.
TDG: Would you describe yourself as an especially Southern comedian?
RW: I don’t know. I guess because I’m Southern, but I mean I’m from a little big town in Northwest Texas of 700 people. I’m that for sure, so that makes me Southern, but I don’t think many of my jokes have a Southern connation to them at all because they laugh at them just as hard in Maine. So, I think they’re just jokes. More than anything else, I’ve lived all over the place ... More than that, I’m just a comedy writer — it all comes through my eyes. So, if it’s Southern, it’s Southern. It certainly comes from that perspective, because, you know, that’s who I am.
TDG: How do you think you fit in with the rest of the Blue Collar Comedy Group, comedically speaking?
RW: I think that it was all a great match and I made a great counterbalance to ... Larry the Cable Guy, so in that respect it gave a balance. I know those guys don’t dress really nice or anything, but they’re really nice people and that’s ... just the way it worked out, and I think it balanced nicely ... I mean, the two biggest comedy albums of all time are Blue Collar 1 and 2.
TDG: Would you prefer to be recognized for Blue Collar Comedy or from your solo work?
RW: I don’t care. They’re both my work, and Blue Collar made me famous, and I’m certainly proud of those accomplishments that the four of us made together and that it’s continued on another twelve years after the end of Blue Collar, about twelve ... That’s just a miracle.
TDG: You’ve done some acting before — Horrible Bosses, for example. How interested are you in acting more?
RW: Well, I turned down Horrible Bosses 2, so that’ll give you some idea how important it is. They wanted me to do a bigger role in Horrible Bosses 2, and I said no, because I’d have to cancel a date and I don’t cancel a date — I work for my fans. That’s how I make my money. They don’t pay me any money to do movies. My fans get together and throw away quite a chunk of change, so I won’t chump them.
TDG: What’s the weirdest encounter that you’ve had with a fan?
RW: A couple of years ago in Oxnard, this big guy in his underwear came staggering out from behind the curtains. He was back there with my crackerjack staff, and he just came walking out on the stage. I wasn’t facing that way, I was looking the other way, and they just started laughing — they thought it was part of the show, and I’m like, “What the f---? What I said wasn’t that funny!” And I turn around and look and there’s this big galoot coming at my in his underwear, and he was harmless. He had novelty underwear that had four legs or something that he could rotate around, or the s---stain moves ... I don’t know what the f--- his deal was, but he did spend the night in jail. You really can’t f--- with me when I’m on stage without paying some sort of price.
TDG: What are your favorite drinks that aren’t scotch?
RW: Tequila. I own a tequila company, and I believe it to be the finest drink of liquor in the entire civilized world. It’s called Number Juan, and my brother in law and I run it, and it’s just fantastic. We win more medals than any other tequila company — every event we go to, we walk home with gold medals. So, we’re kicking, kicking, kicking.
TDG: What’s the most inappropriate place you’ve been drunk at?
RW: I dunno, I can’t think of any ... Church? No, that’s not that bad ... a wedding? Nah, that’s expected. Couldn’t be a bar. I don’t know, probably drunk over at my in-laws’ house when everybody else is not nearly as drunk as me.
TDG: In your standup, you have a distinctly witty, sardonic delivery. How long did it take for you to develop that unique style?
RW: I think some of it you’re kind of born with, but it certainly evolves. That’s always been who I am and why I was funny to begin with, so it’s something that I think I’ve been for a long time. And I’ve also had really good timing with words for a long time, and I also used to listen to my uncle preach all the time. He was a brilliant man with an amazing command of the English language.
TDG: What would your advice be to a college student that wants to be a comedian?
RW: There’s only one thing that you have to do and that’s you have to be true to your nature. You have to be true to who you are, and not somebody else. That’s harder to do than it sounds, and that needs to be the goal because you are interesting — who you pretend to be is not interesting at all. And if you look for a common denominator in anyone who’s real successful in this business, that’s the only one. The only common denominator from all the big comics is that they were true to who they were, and they were all different. It doesn’t matter who you are, it just matters that you are who you are. And so whether it was Cosby or Pryor or Kinison or Hicks or Foxworthy, that’s who those guys are. So, your comedy needs to come from that perspective, no matter what.