tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight, a conversation with jeff cox for the, the creator of the blue-collar comedy to work. he is out this week for the american bible challenge. it gives contestants a chance to test their knowledge of the bible. it premieres thursday night on gsn. our guide you have joined us. -- we are glad you have joined us. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the west. -- in the u.s.

as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: i am pleased to welcome jeff fox were the to this program. at the talented comedienne is the founder of the blue-collar comedy to horror and the host of "are you smarter than a fifth grader?" i think this new program, i could hold my own. >> we would have celebrities come on at -- >> not me. i would never have done that.

>> that show was great because everybody thought they could do it. adults taking an elementary school test for a shot at $1 million. my mom would be good. tavis: my mama versus your mama. here is a clilp, check it out. >> the category is called faith- book. imagine biblical characters posted status updates. i will read postings and ask questions. each correct answer is worth 25 points and if you are wrong, you lose the point and the other teams can buzz in. hey, dad, i am getting ready for the big get away. where is the lamb? name. isaac's father's

>> abraham! >> absolutely right. [applause] and i often wonder what that conversation was like when they got back home after that threat. -- trip. >> daddy is crazy. >> all right. tavis: i am glad i saw this clip. the first question i have, if anybody can do this, foxworthy can. how do you do this and strike the right balance? you are talking about a bible trivia show and you can be accused of being a little sacrilegious and on the other hand you don't want to proselytize. you can get caught in a lot of trouble making fun of the bible. >> that was the challenge of the

show. the fifth grader is what they thought about me. would you be interested in doing a game show about the bible, i said no. everybody playing on the show, and nobody keeps the money. the girl played for a food pantry in texas. these women are out there every week feeding people that don't have enough teeth. even my wife said, you set yourself up here. this was written 3400 years ago, and it is written for us now. to make it contemporary, and to make it about us and make it fun, they were doing an interview with journalists from different religious publications, who you think you will catch grief about this? i want from the secular world.

there'll be some christians, but if god breves his attributes in to us, one of those is joy. if god could have stopped that adam and eve, but he allowed us to have kids so we get a tiny idea about how he feels about us. it the way we feel about our kids. when my kids are having fun and laughing, that thrills me. i think it is ok to make fun but is not ok to be irreverent. the only people jesus had problems with were the pharisees. they had head knowledge, but no heart knowledge. these people have both because they are loving somebody every week. they can turn around and hand the money for somebody else. tavis: have you always been a person of faith? >> i grew up in the church, my

mom sang in the church. a few years after college, you kind of walk the other way, but either people are running away from god or running toward it. it is an important part of my life, but i think people should see your faith. see it in a way you treat your family and friends and community. i tell this to my kids. we are intended to take care of each other. if we did what we were supposed to do, we wouldn't be looking at the government to take care of everybody. that is what the people on the show are doing. tavis: you open the door, i will follow un. i have the hardest time

believing that a guy that started the blue color tour could be a romney supporter. i'm not bashing on romney. what blue collar means to me, the attack workers are under, the poverty is threatening democracy. we can't get an increase in minimum wage. every race, ethnicity, culture. a think of americans being hit hardest. i think of the 99 and not the one. foxworthy supports romney? you tweeted about it? >> there are tweets going on without my knowledge. this is the thing that scares me. in 2008, one of the promise was to cut the deficit in half.

i read the paper front to back before anybody in my house gets out of bad. -- bed. it has gone up. i watch what is going on in europe and it scares me to death. as a comedian, everything you talk about, you take it down to the simplest level. what do we have in common? as a household, you can't spend more money than he taken. we can't keep raising the debt like this. that. why i did i am disappointed it has gone up so much. tavis: people that follow the

show no my politics well. i had the president as hard as anybody in this country about broken promises. minimum wage, and deficit reduction which should not be a priority over jobs. holding him accountable to what he said he was going to do. the average family not being able to live on more than you can bring in, in this race is going to turn on whether the average american voter feels obama understands his pain, never mind what he has been up against, or if romney understands them. i'm not sure that romney understands the plight of the

blue-collar workers. >> i don't think enough people pay attention to the deficit. they want jobs. i have been out there, that is where i live. it is everywhere. we are hurting. i don't like the divisiveness of battle. when i started doing comedy, half of the people hate you write off bad if you do political comedy -- or write off the bat if you do political comedy. if you say anything negative about him, the people immediately go, you're a racist.

i'm not. every tuesday i am doing a bible study for homeless guys. i love this country. i grew up by the airport with a dirt yard. you get out there and you have the opportunity, you work hard and you can be a success. i want that for my kids and my grandkids look at what is going on in europe and i don't want us to follow that path. tavis: i think you can be you, opposed to obama having nothing to do with his race just like you can be opposed to raw meat without begrudging him his wealth. -- romney without begrudging him his wealth. >> these are things that need to be talked about.

i get frustrated sometimes because people aren't paying attention to the issues. whichever way you want to vote, that is the great thing about living in this country. but pay attention to the issues. tavis: we are in television and part of that reality, of the ignorance of the american voter, what aides and the bets that is that people tune into a political channel to have what they believe reaffirmed. if you feel this way, fox will assuade you and msnbc will a ssuade you. somebody will tell you what to think and how to spin the argument. a dodger dog just believe it because you hear somebody say it. tavis: speaking of believing in,

when you watch a tv show, say, jeopardy or family fued, whatever. there is an affirmation, stuff you can use. you can see the answers to the questions pop up. i am trying to figure out what is that i can't take away. how do i benefit knowing that abraham was isaacs father? what is the take away from the audience? >> this stuff is as relevant to us when it was written thousands of years ago. the lessons taught there are still relevant to our lives. it is like the 10 commandments. you have to do this. everything was created, the person knows best how it functions. if you will do this, your life

is going to be better. your life is going to be easier. if you follow, you can take those lessons and to make them contemporary and relevant. if you don't do it, that was part of my thought. if i don't oppose this, somebody else is going to. maybe they won't be able to take some of that stuff from the old testament. and put it in the context. >> how did you find the funny when you are sitting with the producers? >> is both. sometimes you will be talking

about it before the show. sometimes the show goes the opposite way. that was the thought of the blue collar tour. with standup, you're prepared. larry the cable guy says something stupid and it was right off the cuff and it was funny. you want to be respectful, but i think you can be joyful. there has to be someone where it has appealed. >> suspect i can ask this question of the number of comedians that have a particular following or a particular brand or style of comedy. what would you describe is at the epicenter -- >> i will tell you where the

whole idea came from. when the kings of comedy started, there was a big article about it. this is a show for the urban hip audience. i said to bill engvall, that is leaving a lot of people out. [laughter] there is a lot of money out there. we call it the blue collar tour, but somewhere in it -- chris spencer used to open for me all the time and he did a lot of things for the wayans brothers. they want to know if we can do a book called "we might be ghetoto if --" i would help them. there were some many things that i thought were redneck -- if your working television sets on

top of your non-working television. if your mother has never had her entire foot in a pair of shoes. that's redneck, no, that's ghetto. [laughter] when it works best, you are talking about what you know about. i was lucky as a comment -- comic. surely we are not the only ones. after my shows, you've been in my ohouse. is this funny? i don't know how women can lie down on the couch and take a nap without sticking their hand in the front of their pants. my wife said, i don't know the

other guys do that. everyone laughed and everywoman turnaround and hit the man next to her. we have a sleep button there. get your hand on it. talk about what you know. the redneck jokes, i always wore jeans and i would go the new york and chicago. a redneck from georgia, i'm in detroit, they're kidding me. the club is attached to a bowling alley that has valet paing. people are valet parking at the bowling alley. than don't get redder that. tavis: every the media i ever talked to that had a chance to do carson remembers it fondly.

what do you recall? and is that one of those moments, that you knew you could do this. you could make a career out of this. >> other than doing the tavis smiley show. i said to my kids, for a stand- up comedian, there were three tv channels. johnny carson was mount everest for a stand-up comedian. i did a 500 shows a year. every night, sometimes two or three different places to get the chance for that six minutes. he did not come back and say hello. the first, walked through the curtain, there he is. you do your six minutes and you're scared to look. if he didn't like you, he would clap. if he liked you, he would give

you this. if you get to the end of 6 minutes, you are scared to look because it is like caesar deciding if you are going to live or die. he called me over. i have a black-and-white photo, i am in the chair talking to him and he is laughing. that is all i ever wanted to do. i was laying in bed said, i have no plan. that is all i ever wanted to do. now you have 700 tv channels, but back then, that was it. and of john a. like you, you were made. i won the american comedy award. i had a showtime special. it was off to the races because of johnnie. tavis: i was reading the other day, probly the new york times. there was a big piece that i did

with chris rock and he was asked by this reporter whether or not -- if he was going to do stand- up comedy. he said, i will specifically go back to doing comedy clubs when they really do have a no cell- phone policy. he went into a wonderful explanation that i was fascinated to read about how difficult it is the craft your material because every club you go to, they are watching you. folks in the audience stealing your material, recording your material and putting it on line. a joke starts out bad. i have to work this thing three or four different ways.

how can i get on stage and really do a great show if i don't have a place to work it out? i asked you, how do you work your stuff out? >> a funny story. the first time i ever saw chris, he was 16 years old. he was in the lobby doing his homework and he would go in and have nothing to talk about. he is great, just no life experience. now he is one of the greatest of all time. here is the thing people don't understand. jay leno was really helpful because he was kind of the king. he was one night at the waffle house in atlanta and he said your goal should be to write one new middle week. you won't be able to do it but that should be your goal. i said, i can write 32 minutes a week. every night, in my best year, i would come up with 45 minutes of

material. it is that hard to come up with something everybody is going to laugh at every time. it is that difficult and it is a process. different people do in different ways. if people laugh at it, i would add to that thought a few things. i imagine the shaping a mountain out of clay. out of anything i've accomplished, the thing i'm proudest of is a sold more comedy records than anybody ever. allied said, you will probably always have that because nobody buys records anymore. the record that won't be broken. but it is weird. and when we did the blue-collar thing, part of our livelihood was selling the video. every night you are on stage, there are hundreds of people

filming you. and you know they are downloading it. this is how i feed my kids, my livelihood. it has changed dramatically. chris is right, it is a process. somebody's hbo special o'brien's that out for a year and a year. tavis: your record won't be broken and you won't be adding to it either. not with all those cameras in your face. my mom watch is my show every night, and i was saying earlier that i could hold my own because i was raised in church seven days a week. my mother and my sister were part of a national team, the bible bowl championship. my mom and sister were part of

the national team. >> we have to get her on the show. tavis: that is a good idea, actually. >> she has to love god somebody else. tavis: she will stay home, then. [laughter] i can be heard charity. the show is called american bible challenge, hosted by the one and only jeff fox were the. good talking to you. that is our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with dion reeves about his new documentary about the technology of filmmaking. that is next time, see you then. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the

right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. pbs.