Hick Shtick -- Jeff Foxworthy Finds A Niche With His Unique Brand Of Country Humor

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Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Saturday, Paramount Theatre; $25.75, 628-0888. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Foxworthy was in his element.

The Southern-fried funny man, famous for his "You might be a redneck . . ." jokes, called from the Country Music Fan Fair in Nashville, an annual week-long blowout at which country stars and would-be stars interrupt their tours and recording sessions to perform for, and meet, tens of thousands of fans who swarm country music's capital.

"Every time I come here I'm able to get 40 to 50 redneck jokes," Foxworthy drawled. "I've signed everything from programs to snapshots to bra straps."

He gathers material from observation and from the fans.

"Being a comedian, people tell you things they wouldn't tell their therapist," he explained. "They just start spewing their darkest secrets."

Country music has been good to Foxworthy. Thanks largely to airplay on country radio stations, his "You Might Be a Redneck If . . ." CD is the biggest-selling comedy album of all time. "Party All Night," a hit single he recorded with the band Little Texas, and "Redneck Games," a song about the upcoming Olympics in Atlanta, recorded with Alan Jackson, have pushed Foxworthy's latest album, "Games Rednecks Play," past the 2 million mark in sales.

"Since Day One they've just kind of opened their arms and let me in," he said. "Within country music, there's probably a bigger connection with comedy than in any other kind of music.

"That was fortunate for me eight or nine years ago when country music suddenly became younger and the audience became younger. There was just a void there, there wasn't a newer-generation comedian for 'em, so there was a slot open when I came along."

But Foxworthy connects with more than just country fans. His material is so sharp and clever, he's become one of the top mainstream comedians. He's been on "The Tonight Show" 22 times. His sitcom, "The Jeff Foxworthy Show," just completed a troubled season on ABC, with changing air times and uneven ratings, and was dropped. But it was picked up by NBC, which put Foxworthy more in control and plans to feature the show on Monday nights next season.

He got a $1.75 million advance for his hardcover autobiography, "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem!," currently on The New York Times bestseller list. His seven paperback books of redneck jokes have sold more than 2.2 million copies.

Foxworthy said Southerners like to laugh at themselves, and find his material not only inoffensive but close to reality.

"And that seems to be the key to it," he explained. "The closer I keep it to the truth, the better it works.

"One of the newer ones is, `If your working television sits on top of your nonworking television, you might be a redneck.' And that's my grandparents! I go in their house and they've got their brand new TV on top of the old console. `Why waste a good piece of furniture?,' my grandpa says. It's true!"

Sometimes his jokes cut a little too close to home.

"Folks come up to my wife in airports and go, `Are you the one with the cold butt?,' " Foxworthy said, referring to one of his routines about her.

"I have to give her total credit" for his success, he said. When he quit a good job at IBM to become a comedian, she supported him, financially and otherwise. She's still his main confidant.

With all his success, Foxworthy says the greatest reward is hearing people laugh at his jokes.

"Laughing is one of the absolute best feelings people can have," he observed. "It's right up there with the big O!"