Larry the Cable Guy Details Recording First Special in More Than a Decade (Exclusive)

On April 7, Larry the Cable Guy released his first solo standup special in more than a decade. He had previously partnered with Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall on shorter specials in recent years, but Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated puts him back in front of a crowd by himself. As it turns out, the process of setting up his special was fairly straightforward.

Speaking with Pop Culture in an exclusive interview, Larry revealed that he had been asked if he was interested in doing a new special. He looked at his set, realized that he had about "47 to 57 minutes" of material ready and just had to write a few more jokes. So he headed to his local club in Nebraska, which is about 50 minutes away from his home. However, Larry didn't want to simply go do a few short minutes of work and potentially take time away from another comedian, so he and the club manager came up with a different method.

"You know, it just... when you're on stage, I would throw in six or seven brand new one-liners while I'm on stage," Larry said. "And just to see how they worked out and then yeah, then I would go up to the local Funny Bone up here in Omaha and I'd try out jokes. I've been working there forever, I know the girl that owns it, Coleen, really well.

"And I'll go up and it gives me a chance to work on new material and then we do it for a charity. Like we'll pick a charity somewhere in the area and I'll come up and do a show and that's what we'll do it for. ... I mean if you can raise some money for a charity, why not do it? I mean go up, take a night and the charity gets the proceeds and it's good stuff.

Larry may have dabbled with political jokes earlier in his career, but his new special is focused more on topics like Walmart, county fairs, and doctors driving fancy cars. The reason, as he explained, is that the news is on 24 hours a day and "people are sick of it." He may have referenced wearing a hazmat suit to Walmart, but that was merely a coincidence. His goal is to simply make everyone laugh with his jokes. Although the potentially negative reactions also play a role.

"I'm not a political comedian, first of all, so I don't concentrate all on politics. I used to do some political stuff. I would write a joke and, I mean, you can't avoid it. There's always something funny that happens," Larry said. "You write a funny joke and you want to do it, but you can't even write a fun, clever political joke or somebody gets bent out of shape because everybody's a four-year-old bed wetting baby."

At this point in his career, Larry says that he doesn't want to deal with the "hassle" associated with political jokes. He just wants to make people laugh and have a good time. This mindset also extends to his own comedy viewing considering that he is going to sit down and watch a comedian for jokes. He's not heading to show or starting a special with the intention of hearing their "opinions about the educational system."

Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated is out now on the Comedy Dynamics Network. It is available streaming on iTunes, Amazon, and on VOD through cable providers. The next special coming out on CDN will be Dan Cummins' Get Outta Here; Devil! on April 28th.