[quote name='mykevermin']Dice notwithstanding, those are all poor examples simply because the remainder all had public moments in and out of character. You could interview Jim Varney, or Paul Reubens, but Larry the Cable Guy hasn't, since his popularity occurred, even so much as acknowledged that he has heard of a person named Dan Whitney.
Am I surprised that he's a phony? I suppose I am somewhat surprised, at least in the sense that, ironically enough, the very people who come to see him and worship at his altar are the very people who he mocks in his persona. He is a stereotype of American simpletons, and those very people are his fanbase. I s'pose the same can be said of many Black comedians as well (Rudy Ray Moore comes to mind, even though I doubt he's a character any longer), but I digress.
I am surprised that he's so good at playing the character that evidence showing him out of character is so hard to come by. And, at that point, when someone is that far into "deep" roleplaying, are they truly phony? Again, I digress.
I'd say that Dice is *possibly* the only example that comes close to the roleplaying that Larry does, but even then I'm hesitant to accept that argument.[/QUOTE]
To this day there are a LOT of people who recognize PeeWee Herman but the name Paul Reubens means nothing to them. He largely avoided breaking cover until after his scandal. (Although contrary to the retroactive belief, PeeWee's Playhouse was laready canceled before the incident.) Reubens was a Groundling and the character evolved over time but most of the people right here in LA don't know who the Groundlings are or how many talents honed their skills there.
Likewise, a lot of people would never recognize Jim Varney in a lot of his roles as also being the man behind Ernest P. Worrel. He could easily evade recognition in public just by acting and dressing normally
And actually, I've seen plenty of prior references to Dan Whitney. He's been interviewed out of character. (
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7277749/larry_the_cable_guy_bared/ ) The Larry Wiki entry has plenty of data. He doesn't make a huge effort to hide from scrutiny but nor does he try to have Dan Whitney be famous rather than Larry.
I'm the kind of person who likes to use IMDB to find weird coincidences and such. I have a real fascination for animation and video game voice over performers and the odd places they turn up. Sometime it leaves me with questions I'd ask if I ever met the person. For instance, one of Christopher Judge's first credited roles was for an episode of MacGyver but under the name of Doug Judge. (Apparently his real first name since he's also used D. Christopher Judge.) Then seven years later he gets the role on Stargate SG-1 that has comsumed a major portion of his life since.
I imagine it's in some interview or article somewhere but I've never seen mentioned whether that one MacGyver episode had any bearing on getting called to audition for Stargate. Did Richard Dean Anderson, who was involved in getting the series launched, have anything to do with it or did he not even recognize him at first? It's makes for an interesting bit of trivia no matter how it works out.
But most people aren't that big on the trivia. Or in the case of Larry fans, are illiterate and cannot use IMDB.