Q&A With Ron White

Ron “Tater Salad” White has found great success as a solo stand-up comedian since the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” that made him famous parted ways. On Thursday, March 10, he will be performing his new stand-up show at the IU Auditorium. WEEKEND got a few minutes to talk to him about his work and what went into writing a brand new hour-long set.

WEEKEND You have performed at IU in the past, the most recent time being in October of 2008. What makes you want to keep coming back?
RON WHITE What makes me want to come back? (Laughs) I don’t know. You know probably, I go to every city in the U.S. every two years. There’s no reason for me to exclude Bloomington. You know, I guess I probably had fun. I don’t know, because I have fans there. There you go.

WEEKEND Obviously, people who pay to see you tend to like you, no matter where you are. But do you notice different ways audiences react to different jokes depending on where you are performing?
WHITE None. No difference at all. It’s the same in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as it is in Detroit, Michigan, as it is in Brunswick, Maine. The only place where it would be different would be in New York City in the small clubs. There they just laugh at subway jokes. But we don’t have a subway here so it’s hard for me to write them.

WEEKEND The advertising for your performance says that you are performing a brand new show. What goes into creating a brand new one-to-two hour stand-up show?
WHITE Well it’s about an hour and 10 minutes, my part of it is, and then there’s another act. The whole show is probably about an hour and 40. (Laughs) It’s really difficult to do. I mean you have to live on the stage all the time to do it. You have to go to every open mic night you can get your hands on, create open mic nights, nothing but stage time. Because it’s hard enough to write it but you got to work the beats out on it, of just exactly how the phrasing is going to be. It’s really a daunting task.

WEEKEND So, did you approach it wanting to come up with a one hour and 10 minute show or was it something where you found out you had enough material and you just decided to create a new show out of it?
WHITE Well, it’s really not that. Once I publish something, once I release an album or something, then I tour with that material, but my goal is to replace every joke that has been published with one that hasn’t been published. So you just take them out one at a time. As soon as I like something funny enough to go into the show, then I take something else out of the show and I keep doing that until it’s all gone.

WEEKEND What are the advantages and disadvantages you find to traveling as a solo comedian as opposed to as a group such as the Blue Collar Comedy Tour?
WHITE There’s not as much sharing. You know, I had a ball touring with the boys for years, and I miss it. I mean, I really do miss it sometimes. There’s really no real advantage to it. We got huge numbers when we were together, and it’s what made me successful. But, you know, I would rather do my own show. I’d rather go out and do most of the time and headline the show. That’s just more fun for me to do that.

WEEKEND What is a typical workday for you? What kinds of business do you have to take care of in preparation for a show?
WHITE Well, I mean, if I’m doing three or four cities a week like I am now there really is no preparation for it. Other than that I continue to work on new material all the time. You know I’ll look at my paperwork and decide which jokes I’m going to do, see what I’m going to try next and then I’ll just go out there and do a set and try to stick a couple of new things in there and see if they work. Usually they do. But you know I own a record company and several small businesses. So, I work pretty hard.

WEEKEND What kind of small businesses?
WHITE Well, Plastered Touring is my touring company, and we book other acts, too. Then I own a transportation company that owns a bus and a plane and, you know, they’re all support businesses.

WEEKEND Do you set aside time each day to write jokes or is it more of a spontaneous kind of thing?
WHITE I never sit down to write jokes. I never go, “Here’s my alone time.” It’s just when something waters through my mind funny I’ll write it down. That’s the whole system.

WEEKEND And that takes up most your time, do you think?
WHITE I mean, I just live my life and really just tell the story of it, so a lot of my stuff isn’t jokes. It’s just funny stories.