Fame & Fortune: Comic Ron White 'Blue Collar' drinker's finances are set, so he parties on
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Bankrate: What about Larry the Cable Guy?

Ron White: That he has a four-year degree from a Baptist college, and that he's the only comedian on our tour who has a college degree.

Bankrate: Do you think the growing divide over the last few years, or at least the perceived divide, between the red states and blue states has helped Blue Collar Comedy's popularity?

Ron White: I don't know. Our concerts sell hugely in red states or blue states. All of our records sell well across the board. So I don't even know if it's had any impact at all. It's not something I pay a lot of attention to. I don't even follow my own career very closely. I find out usually on Wednesday where I'm going on Friday. I show up, and I only concentrate on my show and my jokes.

Bankrate: At one point, you had a development deal with FOX. Tell me about that.

Ron White: We made a pilot. They spent $2.2 million making a 22-minute piece of film. It was very funny, I thought. It was called 'Senor White.' There was a period in my life where I got very frustrated with comedy, and I'm kind of impetuous. So one day I just pulled up stakes and moved to Mexico and operated a pottery factory. That's what 'Senor White' was about. I owned and operated a small pottery factory. And the show was very funny. The opening scene was a high shot of me passed out on a dirt road in this little village in Mexico with a bottle of Scotch -- empty -- no shoes on, and my voice-over said, 'I've always loved Mexico.' And I have. It really looked like they were going to pick it up for a long time. I mean, I bought a nice suit to wear to the upfronts, that's how long it held in there. But ultimately they chose the four shows that had the biggest stars in them, and I was not one of them. They picked 'The Ortegas' with Cheech Marin in it, which my manager saw. He called me and said, man, this thing sucks, and the head of development said, 'That's the nicest thing anybody has said about it yet.' But in L.A., it could have been somebody from NBC owed Fox a favor to bail him out or whatever -- it's so political that at this point, I choose not to participate. I had another development deal with the WB. I had one with ABC. I get development deals, but then you pour your heart and soul into something and they make decisions based on something else. Not that the show was the end-all, be-all, it wasn't 'M.A.S.H.' or 'All in the Family,'but it was certainly worth putting on television. Betty Thomas directed it, from 'Hill Street Blues.' She's an A-list Hollywood director, and she did a great job.