White Light/White Heat

Comedian Ron White is a cultural anomaly. He’s a tough cigar-and-scotch man’s man who supports the troops, but also a dope-smoking marriage-equality advocate who believes that everyone’s a little gay. He’s toured with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, yet he’s never self-censoring...

By Josiah Hesse

May 16, 2013

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Comedian Ron White is a cultural anomaly. He’s a tough cigar-and-scotch man’s man who supports the troops, but also a dope-smoking marriage-equality advocate who believes that everyone’s a little gay. He’s toured with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, yet he’s never self-censoring about his feelings on social-conservative issues. “We’ll look back twenty years on these ridiculous laws and laugh real hard,” he says, referring to gay marriage and marijuana prohibition. “They put people in jail — really? For smoking a plant that grows naturally in a ditch? The more conservative people die off and more young people come in, it will change. But it takes generations to change anything.”

Although the self-styled comic enjoys expressing his opinions on world affairs, he has a strong distaste for topical comedians, preferring a more personal touch in his performances. “If you’re going to get your comedy from television, you’re not going to be doing it at the same level that I do it,” White explains. “It’s going to be similar to everyone else. I pull from my own life, so it has an original feel. Their stuff feels clunky and boring; they have structure writers who can sit around and do that shit all day. But not me. I’d rather smoke pot, watch cartoons and play some golf.”

White will be working tonight, though, with shows at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Buell Theatre in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets are $46.75 to $56.75; for more information, visit denvercenter.org.
Fri., May 17, 7:30 & 10 p.m., 2013

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