Larry on gasoline: “Three dollars a gallon? I wouldn’t pay that for wine.”

LEWISTON – A sold-out crowd of 4,500 people – wearing “Git R Done” ball caps, t-shirts and even tattoos – filled the Colisee on Tuesday to laugh with comedian Larry The Cable Guy.

The spring rain stopped neither the crowd nor Larry.

“Nice weather today if you’re a mushroom,” said the 43-year-old performer, known for his redneck one-liners. “I almost wore sleeves tonight.”

His jokes, often rude but usually funny, kept the crowd laughing for more than an hour.

“It’s just good, old-fashioned redneck entertainment,” said Dave Mihalik, a trucker from Monmouth who bought his tickets the day they went on sale in February.

Two-fisting beers as he sat several rows from the front – wearing the ball cap and cut off flannel that seemed to be the night’s uniform – Mihalik smiled and said Larry had been copying him for decades.

“My friends say I’m that guy,” said Mihalik, his wife sitting several seats away with embarrassment.

He wasn’t alone.

“He acts like I do,” said Richard Combs, a Lisbon Falls man who wore a “Git R Done” t-shirt over an ample belly and, pulling off his hunting jacket, displayed a “Git R Done” tattoo on his biceps.

Combs said he’s been a fan of the comedian, whose real name is Dan Whitney, for several years.

“He’s more down to Earth than most of the guys out there,” Combs said.

Larry’s act – a little bit “Hee Haw,” a little bit rude – seemed to please everyone who attended.

The comedian took the stage to booming applause as loudspeakers blasted the theme from Burt Reynolds’ “Smokey and the Bandit.”

“Git R Done!” he yelled and the applause grew louder. “That’s all I do. Say Git R Done’ and get $100.”

For more than an hour, he sprinkled his act with the catch phrase, earning an ovation each time.

“This is going to be the dumbest show you’ve seen in your whole life,” he said. “But it’ll be funny.”

The work was polished, though. The Lewiston concert was the last stop in a tour that began on Jan. 10. People familiar with his act, a regular on TV as part of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour – would recognize the themes.

His subjects ranged from WalMart and Home Depot to midgets, people with retardation and his own weight problem. He slammed the media, anti-gun activists and liberals, whom he called “up-tight PC libs.”

He talked about his sister, calling her “madder than a one-legged waitress at the I-Hop” and “madder than a cross-eyed teacher trying to keep her pupils straight.”

He also took aim at the high price of gasoline.

“$3 a gallon? I wouldn’t pay that for wine.”

Not every joke hit a home run.

“I feel like I’m talking at the U.N. and nobody’s got their headphones on,” he said. He followed a rude joke about the Keebler elves with the sales pitch, “That’s funny. If you can’t laugh at that, you’re a Communist.”


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