"But my publicist was like 'No, go say 'Hi,' he's just right down the hall and you're both guests.' So I head that direction, and all of a sudden here comes Denzel Washington strutting down the hall, and he had a suit on, and I was about to say something but first he goes, "Hey, it's Larry the Cable Guy - Git-R-Done!" "My publicist said we should go meet him, but I was nervous, because it's Denzel Washington," Larry said. His favorite such encounter came on the set of "Live With Regis & Kelly" where his fellow guest was Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington.
"I was hoping nobody would recognize me and maybe they'll just think I'm some kook, but then a cab driver pulled up and leaned out the window - the driver definitely was Iraqi - and he says, 'Hey, Larry the Cable Guy: Git-R-Done!'" Then there was the time for his History Channel show where Larry mimicked the Naked Cowboy in Times Square by wearing just underbritches and a cowboy hat. He got a kick out of Mike Huckabee uttering a "Git-R-Done" in the 2008 Republican presidential primary campaign. Git-R-Done!' then they'll start laughing. "I'll be walking down the street and someone will recognize me and say, 'Hey Larry. It's a great way to meet people," Larry said. When people spot him in public, they also can't wait to shout at him his comic catch phrase, "Git-R-Done!" "You do all these big projects - like voicing Mater whose such an iconic character - but people will come up and say, 'Hey, I love your Prilosec stuff.' I find that to be really funny." Though lately people have been more eager to ask him about those silly commercials he does for heartburn medicine Prilosec. Larry co-stars in the new "Tyler Perry's Madea Christmas," though his most famous film role was the voice of Mater, the bucktoothed and backwoods tow truck in Pixar's "Cars."ĭid he do any intense method acting to prepare to play Mater? "They didn't hire Dan Whitney for their movie.
He's a cable guy, but what does that mean? I don't know."įilm critics have bashed him for playing the Larry character in all his movie roles, "but that's what I do," he said. "The funny thing is I don't ever do jokes about being a cable guy," Larry said. At one radio gig, he invited listeners to come down to get a Larry the Cable Guy for President T-shirt "and the first seven vehicles that showed up were all cable trucks," he said. Larry's career took off on radio in the early 1990s, with his guest appearances a popular segment on stations in Nebraska, Florida, Baltimore, Kansas City and New Hampshire.That's when he launched the Larry the Cable Guy character as a mock 1992 presidential candidate. 866) also alerts visitors they're in the native home of Whitney, aka Larry the Cable Guy. His childhood home, across from a cattle barn, is on a street now named in his honor (after his real name, Daniel Whitney). Larry shot off a batch of Zambelli fireworks last July 4th at a party held by his wife's family in Wisconsin. "That was one of the best programs as far as us showing how an immigrant became an American citizen and worked hard and had ambition and was able to achieve his dreams where he couldn't have done it anywhere else." Zambelli came here with nothing, and I do mean nothing," Larry said. "That's a great American story, of how Mr. One of his favorite episodes from his 2010 to 2012 History Channel show "Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy" took place in New Castle at Zambelli Internationale Fireworks.
Last February he entertained at the State Theatre in Uniontown. He's no stranger to these parts, having performed many times in Pittsburgh, once leading the Terrible Towel Wave at Heinz Field.