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Born to Bag Groceries
In college at Georgia Tech, he had trouble keeping his grades up, and had big doubts about his future. The school eventually asked him to take some time off, which suited Foxworthy fine. If he'd had a tattoo, he jokes now, it would have said, "Born to bag groceries." He actually worked at a local supermarket, then followed his father to IBM, where he wore a suit and tie but never rose above an entry-level job.He wasn't great at fixing computers, but folks would call with technical problems just to hear him tell jokes and play pranks. He once convinced the office switchboard operator not to answer the phone, claiming that the technician working on the line would be electrocuted if she did. When the phone rang, the operator, afraid the call would bounce from one receptionist to another, took off running through the building shouting, "Don't answer the phone! Somebody might be electrocuted!"
In 1984, a co-worker suggested Foxworthy try out at an Atlanta comedy club called The Punchline. His first appearance -- five minutes on his father cutting his toenails with bolt cutters -- proved prophetic in more ways than one. "I found my job and my wife on the same night," he says, remembering the pretty woman named Pamela "Gregg" Grethe who caught his eye.
A few months later, Gregg came to the club again. Foxworthy went over to chat, spilled Coke on her sweater, and knew, after their next date, that they would marry. The two wed in 1985 in New York City's Central Park. "Our wedding photos are Polaroids of the preacher, Gregg, me, and our witness, a guy who was there sweeping the park."
Gregg encouraged Foxworthy to see how far he could take his comedy, but he didn't find the nerve to quit his job at IBM until the comic Steven Wright caught his act and said: "You should be doing this for a living." He started with out-of-town weekend gigs; Gregg, who'd had a brief career as a TV actress, kept them above water by selling milk at a dairy. "She'd work all week, then take the bus wherever I was playing," Foxworthy recalls. "She'd sit in the club with a notepad writing, 'This is funny,' or 'You need to do this differently.' "
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