MR. `YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF...'

BEVERLY HILLS -- Jeff Foxworthy comes from Atlanta but right now he shares the 90210 zip code with a lot of people who don't know they're rednecks.

Foxworthy does know he's a redneck, a state of being he defines as "a glorious absence of sophistication." He himself says, "I consider a six-pack and a bug zapper fine entertainment."

Foxworthy will perform Friday at 8 p.m. at the Show Me Center. Tickets are $18.

Foxworthy is best-known for his signature set-up -- "You might be a redneck if..."

Sample punch lines:

-- ...the most common phrase heard in your house is "someone go jiggle the handle."

-- "...you've ever been too drunk to fish."

A book, a best-selling album and a video all have come out under the title "You Might be a Redneck if..."

The first book has been followed by four others: "Red Ain't Dead," "Hick is Chic...A Guide to Etiquette for the Unsophisticated," "Check Your Neck," and the new "Games Rednecks Play."

The last is about his hometown's role as host of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

"People in Atlanta are real proud but you know we're going to screw it up," he says.

"When they let that many doves go at the opening ceremony you know there's going to be some guys in the parking lot with shotguns."

The Olympic flame also could confuse rednecks, he says. "You can't have a fire that big in Georgia without a pig on it."

Though as a kid he'd memorize Bill Cosby albums, Foxworthy was only the funniest IBM engineer around until the night 10 years ago he took a dare and won a stand-up contest at a comedy club. He was hooked.

A short while later his wife, Pamela, an actress, encouraged him to quit his $30,000-a-year job and become a $20-a-night comedian.

Since winning the Great Southeastern Laff-Off in 1985, he has worked his way up to opening for country acts like Garth Brooks and the Judds, and now sells out 2,500-seat theaters on his own.

He recently signed a deal with Viacom to write and star in a half-hour sitcom.

Despite his upbringing and concert experience, Foxworthy isn't a country comedian of the type to be found on "Hee Haw."

He plays the Poconos, Chicago, Denver, all over.

"I just happen to have this accent," he says.

The redneck routine takes up only about five minutes worth of his two-hour show.

Nobody has ever been offended by his redneck jokes, he says.

"Really it's the opposite," he said. "The more guilty they are of it the better they like it."

He tries not to offend people and to keep his act clean, he said.

"To me, hurting people isn't funny."

The redneck jokes work because almost everyone is a full-or part-time redneck, Foxworthy says, adding:

"Once it's in your blood it's there forever."