Jeff Foxworthy is an American investor and the largest selling comedy recording artists in history. He has received several Grammy Awards nominations and has emerged to be one of the most successful and respected comedians in the U.S.

He has become a household name thanks to his redneck jokes and ability to reveal the humor in everyday life and interactions. Aside from being a comedian, Jeff Foxworthy also has a keen eye for business and this has enabled him to brand his stand-up routine into a multi-million dollar merchandising empire.  

Jeff Foxworthy’s Bio

Name: Jeffrey Marshall Foxworthy

Born: September 6, 1958 (Atlanta, Georgia)

Nationality: American

Spouse: Pamela Gregg (Pamela Foxworthy)

Children: 2

Occupation: Comedian, Business man, Investor, Television and Radio Personality, Author

Credited For: Being the largest selling comedy recording artists in history

Net Worth: $100M (As of March 2012)

Website: http://www.jefffoxworthy.com

Jeff Foxworthy’s Early Life

Jeff Foxworthy was born in 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia as the first born child to Jimmy Abstance Foxworthy and Carole Linda (Camp) Foxworthy both of who were of English descent. His father, Jimmy Abstance Foxworthy was an

IBM executive and his grandfather, James Marvin Camp, was a fireman for more than 30 years in Hapeville. They lived in the affluent suburb of Hapeville, Georgia.

Jeff Foxworthy attended Hapeville High School where he was a very competitive football player who made several visits to the local emergency room because of his slight built nature but after having enough of the emergency room and treatments, he quit playing football altogether.

Throughout his youth, Jeff Foxworthy was a class clown who kept everyone in a good mood and during his free time, he would listen to the recordings of comedians like Bob Newhart, Flip Wilson, and Bill Cosby.

The latter (Bill Cosby) was Foxworthy’s favorite comedian because he managed to entertain people without using profanity unlike many other contemporary comedians.

After graduating from Hapeville High School, Jeff Foxworthy decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by enrolling in Georgia Tech, Atlanta, where he majored in computer technology and although he never graduated, he still went ahead to work at IBM for five years as a technician in the mainframe computer maintenance department.

While still at IBM, Foxworthy realized that he gained more enjoyment and satisfaction from making his fellow co-workers laugh than actually working with computers and after much persuasion from his fellow IBM co-workers, he entered and won the Great Southeastern Laugh-off, at Atlanta’s Punchline comedy club, in 1984.

It was also at the Atlanta Punchline comedy club where Jeff Foxworthy met his wife to be Pamela Gregg Grethe (a former actress), and the two tied the knot on September 18, 1985. The lovely couple have two beautiful daughters; Jordan born in 1992 and Julianne born in 1994.

Jeff Foxworthy Ventures Into Comedy

A while after Jeff Foxworthy won the stand-up contest, he quit his job as an IBM technician and decided to pursue a full time career as a comedian, and with the support of his wife, he went on the road laying down the framework to become the next big thing in the comedy world.  

It was however at a club date in Detroit, Michigan that Jeff Foxworthy discovered what would become his most famous comedy theme line: There was a bowling alley offering valet parking next to the club and seeing the irony, Foxworthy darted to his room where he compiled characteristics that make a person a redneck (In his own words, a redneck is a glorious absence of sophistication) . His redneck jokes would later spread like a burning bush thanks to country music which was in the 1990s experiencing a big boom and he particularly became famous by being a curtain raiser for country music superstars Garth Brooks and Emmylou Harris.

During the early 2000s, Jeff Foxworthy’s career received a boost thanks to the Blue Collar Comedy Tour in which he and three other comedians (Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White and Bill Engvall) toured the U.S performing before multitudes of people. The Blue Collar Comedy Tour lasted for three full years after having been extended after an initial run of 20 shows.

Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck jokes of country dwellers who aren’t sophisticated have been one of his best weapons in the comedy world and despite referring to himself as a typical “redneck”, his current stand-up rate is a lucrative $250k a night and this has enabled the “You Might Be A Redneck If”……., comedian to bank millions of dollars every year (In 2011 he earned more than $5 million as a result of such road trips)

Jeff Foxworthy The TV Personality

In 1995, Foxworthy starred in The Jeff Foxworthy Show which aired for only one season on ABC although in 1996 it was aired on NBC for yet another one season. Foxworthy later said that the networks did not see the whole picture nor understand how to effectively market his comedy brand since they thought his stand-up was “too Southern” for national networks. The Jeff Foxworthy Show later aired on Nick at Nite and CMT in 2005 and 2006.

Jeff Foxworthy has also played host in several shows and a few of them include:

• Country Weekly’s “”TNN Music City News Country Awards” show for 1998, 1999 and 2000.
• The game show- “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”
• The Bucks of Tecomate

Jeff Foxworthy was also the main subject of a Comedy Central Roast in 2005 and he is currently the host and producer of The American Bible Challenge on GSN.

Jeff Foxworthy The Shark Tank Investor

There were a lot of speculations when Jeff Foxworthy was chosen to appear as an investor

in the Shark Tank Show since many thought the stand-up comedian famous for the one liner “You Might Be A Redneck If”……., did not have enough business acumen whereas in reality he had a lot more to offer e.g. his large fan base, reality TV know-how as well as a Hollywood touch to the show, something which the other shark tank investors/sharks didn’t have earlier on.

Shark Tank for those not aware is an American Reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett and aired on ABC television. The show basically involves entrepreneurs presenting their business ideas to a group of five investors better known as the sharks who are willing to invest in start-ups that they see as promising and if the idea is good enough, they’ll even fight each other for a piece of the cake (in monetary terms of course). The show first premiered on August 9th 2009.

Jeff Foxworthy appeared in season 2 and was present in only 2 episodes.

Jeff Foxworthy The Author

Jeff Foxworthy has authored more than 26 books which have sold millions and a few of them include:

• You Might Be a Redneck If… (1989)
  

  

• No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem! (1996)
• The Redneck Grill, co-authored with R. David Boyd
• Jeff Foxworthy’s Redneck Dictionary: Words You Thought You Knew the Meaning Of (2005)
• Dirt On My Shirt (His first children’s book released in February 2008)

To sum it up, Jeff Foxworthy who is a devout Christian has:

1. Released 6 major-label comedy albums (The first two certified 3×multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America)
2. Sold more than 15 million records
3. Been involved in the voice work of several movies (e.g. The Smurfs – Handy)
4. Been involved in the radio business (Blue Collar Comedy Radio)
5. Leveraged his brand and influence to build a multi-million dollar empire (He has released several specials ranging from DVDs to films and he’s also started his own lines of beef jerky and barbecue sauce)
6. Done much much more……..

I love comedy. God has given me this platform-Jeff Foxworthy