Naptown Buzz: Brian Groce, Naptown Buzz, here with Larry the Cable Guy. Larry how are you doing today?
Larry the Cable Guy: You know what? I’m doing pretty good. Got here this morning, had some of that biscuits and gravy they got down there which is unbelievable. Then I had to have the uh tater tots and sweet potatoes with a fried egg on top of it – which was even better. Holy mackerel. My Glade Plugin’s going to start a carpet fire in about four hours. That’s good stuff. That’s why I am glad I work for Prilosec OTC. That’s what I’m here for – for Prilosec OTC, but this is the place. Any type of place there is food like this and you are a frequent heartburn sufferer, then see this is the perfect thing for you. You do Prilosec. You can go ahead and cheat and eat some of these foods. I guess. I don’t know. Read the box. It’ll tell ya’ how to do it.
NB: Carb Day is a great day to come out and do that. Have they told you what to expect out here on Carb Day?
LCG: Well, uh, I’m the perfect guy to have for Carb Day ‘cause I’ve been getting a lot of carbs in. No, um, uh, they told me what to expect. They told me what Carb Day is going to be. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve been to a bunch of races–Daytona 500 and Talladega and this is the first Indy race I’ve been to. So this is a fun experience to be at it, and I’m excited. You know the difference between Indy Car racing and NASCAR racing is don’t you?
NB: It’s a lot of speed
LCG: Indy Car is open wheel racing and NASCAR is open container racing.
NB: That’s about right. You’ll see a lot open containers out here.
LCG: I saw that you can bring in a cooler.
NB: You’ll see kids with backpacks that are actually cases of beer.
LCG: The first thing I thought about was you can bring in a cooler and a personal item. I’m thinking people can bring in a cooler–they’re drinking so much, they’re bringing their own livers in packed in ice.
NB: That’s about right. So have you ever-you typically watch the 500?
LCG: Oh yeah. Oh definitely I watch it. I mean, actually back in the day. Shoot, I just got done watching. I just got done doing something with Bobby Rahal, which is awesome because Bobby Rahal is a legend in Indy Car racing, and uh, you know, it’s just really cool to meet guys like. I remember Jackie Stewart talking <not audible>. You know. So, I mean, I’ve been watching for a long time, but you know I was never able to do anything like this. I come from a small town in Nebraska, and uh, so never got to do all these big events. Lately, now that I do what I do–now it’s really cool to be able to go to all these things that I always saw when I was a kid. So it’s a cool spectacle–no doubt about it. I think it’s cool I got to see the bricks, and uh, you know, it’s just really cool.
NB: If you look around, all the old timers are around here still. So, of all the things you do for a living, what do you enjoy the most?
LCG: Talking to you right here at this table.
<laughing>
LCG: I enjoy everything. I mean doing live stand up is great. Uh, doing Pixar movies voiceovers is great. Acting’s great. I love all of it, you know. I’m a people guy. I like people, and I just enjoy making people laugh, so they are all a lot of fun. I would say probably the live performance is probably the funnest thing you do ‘cause you get instant, instant response. A movie–you gotta wait a year; and a TV special–you gotta wait six months; and uh, you know, the animation–you gotta wait three years, so it’s just, uh you know, really cool . Plus I enjoy traveling. I enjoy seeing the country. I like doing stuff for Prilosec. I mean, that’s a good time you know. They gave me full access to places I never been before. I think probably another cool thing I did was a History Channel show cause I got–man–I got to go and see things people only get to dream of, and I didn’t take any of it for granted. I took it all in and just enjoyed it, you know. I got to launch jets of the USS Nimitz and walk around on the roof of the Pentagon. I mean, just really cool stuff. So yeah, I’ve had some fun times
NB: Speaking of movies, what do you have in the works right now?
LCG: Well I’m doing a sequel, you know. I’m doing some stuff for Fox Home Video. I do some sequels. I did “Tooth Fairy 2” for them, and they loved it, and it did real well. So then we did “Jingle All the Way 2.” So we just got done doing that, so it should be out after Thanksgiving this year.
NB: And how is it working with Disney and Pixar
LCG: Oh yeah, and I forgot to say we have “Cars 3” I think is coming out. We haven’t started it yet. I don’t know much about it other than I’m in it, and they announced it so that’s it
NB: So my eight-year-old son said, “Hey! Ask him if he can give us any tips on what’s going to go on with cars 3,” so…
LCG: I wish I could, but I don’t know what they gonna do, you know, but I do know that I enjoy doing Mater, and it’s changed my life. It’s really cool you know. I got kids now, and so it’s cool to be able to do projects that my kids can enjoy, and so, just a lot of fun and ‘Weee Whooo! My name’s Mater, like Mater without the tuh. Whatever you do–don’t eat the pistachio ice cream! It has turned.’ I mean, that’s just fun to do. I enjoy it.
NB: And speaking of kids, you and I have something in common.
LCG: What’s that?
NB: Could you tell us a little bit about your work with the hip dysplasia?
LCG: Well yeah, you got a kid?
NB: Yeah, my daughter, she’s getting ready to turn three, but last year she had to go through surgery on both hips.
LCG: Wow. Yeah, we started, if you have a kid with hip dysplasia, you know, it’s not a life threatening disease, but it’s, uh, it’s something that’s crippling later on in life or early on, you know. And when we first, and when my son first had it, we went on to research about hip dysplasia. Couldn’t find anything on it really. There’s 900 different websites, and they all tell you a different thing, so, uh, we came across a doctor that’s an expert in it in Orlando, and he said that if everybody was trained–if orthopedic–all these orthopedic doctors–child orthopedic–if they were all trained in the same method, we could cure this. We could make it so these kids never have to have an operation later on in life. You’ll see less and less people getting hip replacements because of the way we can do this, but you know, they all need to be on the same page. So, we started the International Hip Dysplasia Institute in Orlando, Florida where doctors can go and get educated and get trained, and uh, it’s the foremost place to go now if you have a kid with hip dysplasia. And you go on the Internet and type in you hip dysplasia…
NB: Yeah, Well my wife, the first thing she found was your…
LCG: The first thing that comes up, and so it’s a really cool deal. It’s uh, you know, eventually it’s going to be to the point where there will be products on there you can buy because you have a kid that’s in a body that’s in a hip cast. You can’t cuddle them like you normally can, or you can’t change them. It’s not easy to change them, so we’re going to come up with all kinds of stuff that makes it easier for mom and the parents to do stuff like that, so yeah, we got that started, uh, with my foundation, the Git-R-Done Foundation, and uh, we, me and my wife Cara and doctor Chad Price, uh, from Orlando. We all got together and formed that, so it’s a pretty cool deal, you know. Doctor Hodukavich–a lot of good brains at work down there, so we’re happy we did it.
NB: It’s great because we knew that I was going to be meeting Larry, and we got to bring that up because that’s–that’s tough.
LCG: Well it really is. Like I said, we’re fortunate that they don’t have cancer, you know. It could be a lot worse, but hip dysplasia is still a traumatic thing for a parent. Especially a new parent that never had kids just to watch their baby can’t crawl or can’t walk like the other kids, and they start behind. It just sucks to see your little one-year-old or two-year-old or three-year-old in a cast, you know. So this is a good thing and hopefully–hopefully 10 to 15 years from now, if not sooner, we can nip that in the bud.
NB: Just a final thing here–do you have anything you want to say to the race fans here in Indy?
LCG: Git R Done! I love Indy.
NB: Thank you
LCG: You got it man.
