The Blue Collar Comedy Tour was a comedy troupe featuring Jeff Foxworthy with three of his comedian friends, Bill Engvall, Ron White, and Larry the Cable Guy, who had replaced fellow comedian Craig Hawksley, who performed in the first twenty shows on the tour. The troupe toured together for six years beginning in January 2000 at Omaha, Nebraska before finishing in 2006 at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C.[1]
As of 2011 Foxworthy, Engvall and Larry still do comedy tours together but not under the Blue Collar Comedy name.
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Foxworthy had already established himself as a well-known, Grammy Award-winning stand-up comedian, best known for his jokes and stories about life as a redneck. Foxworthy had cast best friend Engvall in the NBC version of The Jeff Foxworthy Show, and featured Larry on his nationally syndicated, weekly, country radio show The Foxworthy Countdown. White was brought on as his comedy is based around personal experiences retold in his smoking drinking Southern United States persona. The tour that featured these four "good ole boys" proved to be such a hit that they recorded a live album in November 2001 and the first DVD called Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie in the spring of 2003.
During all films, at the last portion of the film, all four entertainers go on stage and collaborate with each other presenting the last material for the show. Often, they tell personal stories of their wives, family, past experiences, etc. Each time there has been a case where a cast member shared something to close the show: Jeff in Blue Collar Comedy Tour: the Movie does his classic "You Might Be a Redneck" routine with the others sometimes joining in with their own. Bill also does "Here's Your Sign". In Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again, Larry closes the show with him playing a song with his Confederate flag themed guitar called "I Believe". All four members during this number tell what they believe after Larry plays a series of notes, all of which at the end have a few discorded scales. In Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One For the Road, a Rolodex of the four members' old photos was assembled by their wives. All members comment during this.
Due to the tremendous success of the tour, album, and live DVD, these comedians went on to record a second live DVD called Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again and a series on the WB (which Comedy Central later picked up for a short time) called Blue Collar TV (minus Ron White, but he would make four guest appearances). A third and final (according to Comedy Central) Blue Collar movie was produced for Comedy Central entitled Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for the Road, which premiered on the channel June 4, 2006. Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for The Road was released on DVD on June 27, 2006.
In March 2006, the group started a Blue Collar Comedy channel on Sirius Satellite Radio titled Blue Collar Radio. The station features not only various stand-up acts from the four members but various acts from other working class-esque comedians such as Brian Regan, Rodney Carrington, Kathleen Madigan, John Caponera, Rodney Dangerfield, Ray Romano, and others as well. When Sirius Satellite Radio merged with XM Satellite Radio, this brought more coverage of the channel. Blue Collar Radio can be heard on Sirius XM 97.
Recently, Bill Engvall hosted a tour of comedians who were considered the next Blue Collar Comedy comedians. The act consisted of Reno Collier, Juston McKinney, Jamie Kaler and John Caparulo. They released on CD/DVD entitled Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation.
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