Larry the Cable Guy figured he had more than adequate training to act in his first feature film.

 “I was in ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ in Pawnee City,” the Blue Collar comic from Nebraska said in a phone interview to promote “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector,” which opens today in theaters across the country.

“And I was in ‘South Pacific,’” he joked. “All I did was one line, but the one I did was frickin’ funny. That’s how I got my experience.”

The lovable redneck laughed.

Larry — known as Dan Whitney to his friends and family — has lots of reasons to laugh these days.

The movie comes on the heels of the TV show he did with fellow Blue Collar comics Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall and The WB and his first book, “Git-R-Done.”

Larry also continues to sell out his standup routine.

He’ll miss the opening of his movie, however, because he’s playing in front of 7,200 fans tonight in Providence, R.I.

Not bad for a small-town Nebraska farm boy.

“You know what, I’m very thankful,” he said. “I’m fortunate I have great fans who like what I do. I’m one of them. I grew up the same way they did.”

He hopes his fans will like his latest endeavor.

Directed by Trent Cooper, “Health Inspector” features Larry as a big-city health inspector investigating an outbreak of mysterious food poisonings at the city's swankiest restaurants.

The movie, penned by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer, co-stars Tony Hale (“Arrested Development”), Joanna Cassidy (“Boston Legal”) and Joe Pantoliano (“The Sopranos”).

It wasn’t screened in advance for critics, but Larry, 43, said people who like his standup performances should like his movie.

“(The writers) kept the movie like my standup,” Larry said. “I wasn’t going to do the movie unless it reflected my act. They kept it like that. It’s really funny.”

Not that Larry kept to the script. He estimated he ad-libbed about 30 percent to 40 percent of the time.

“I also did my owns stunts,” he laughed. “No animals were harmed.”

Larry has been working the talk-show circuit these past few weeks. On Wednesday, he was with Jimmy Kimmel (ABC) and the “Best Damn Sports Show Period” (Fox Sports).

Today, he’ll be on “Good Morning America” (ABC), “Cold Pizza” (ESPN) and “Showbiz Tonight” (CNN Headline News). He said he’s finding it all a tad overwhelming, especially when people like Denzel Washington throw kudos his way.

He met the Academy Award-winning actor while taping a spot with Regis and Joy Philbin. Washington gave Larry a “git-r-done” shout out.

“I was, like, ‘No way,’” Larry said. “He told me he was a big fan. I told him to ‘go on, get out of here.’”

Through it all, Larry has maintained his loyalty to his home state. He has a house just outside of Lincoln. And scenes in “Health Inspector” feature him in a Husker cap.

“I couldn’t be prouder of my state,” he said. “When I grew up there, it was the greatest time in my life. I’ll always try to mention my home state.”

That includes his high school roles in “Bye Bye Birdie” and “South Pacific.” After all, they helped launch him to movie stardom.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.

For more

Look for Joel Gehringer’s review of “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector” in Saturday’s paper.