Submitted photo Larry the Cable Guy returns to Warren for an 8 p.m. show Saturday at Packard Music Hall.

Daniel Lawrence Whitney, better known as Larry the Cable Guy to comedy fans and Mater to children, said there were good reasons to release his latest comedy special, “It’s a Gift,” on Prime Video.

“A lot of blue collar people are on Amazon because people in small towns, in the rural communities, they all get Amazon coming to their house, so they all have an Amazon Prime account,” Whitney said. “Pretty much everybody can get it if they want to see it, so I think that really helps. It seems to me a lot more rural and southern type acts go to Amazon Prime, and it seems like a lot more of your big city acts go to Netflix.”

However, that wasn’t the main reason he switched from Netflix (for which he did two solo specials and a third with fellow Blue Collar comedian Jeff Foxworthy) to Amazon.

“I went for whoever paid more,” he said. “I’ve been very blessed. I’ve had a really great career, and so I’ve got a really cool, built-in following. It doesn’t matter where I’m at, if they want to see my special, they’ll go find it. I’ll just tell them where it’s at.”

Where Larry the Cable Guy will be on Saturday is Packard Music Hall for an 8 p.m. show.

Since “It’s a Gift” just premiered last September, Whitney said he’s in the early stages of working on new material. But that doesn’t mean the live set will be identical to the Prime special.

“It’s a mixture,” he said. “You’re always trying to add new stuff, so I don’t do it exactly word for word. There’s some jokes that I’ve written new tag lines for or changed something around, so the setup will be the same and the joke will be different. That’s just how it works. All my jokes are quick and short, so I always think of new tags and new add ons.”

And in his Larry the Cable Guy persona, Whitney is likely to say whatever pops into his head at the moment. At one point in “It’s a Gift,” he tells the audience that he’s also hearing some of these jokes for the first time.

“That joke actually came out of me thinking of a funny tagline after a joke, and it made me laugh,” he said.

“I told the crowd, ‘You know, I’m hearing this for the first time myself,’ and it got a huge laugh. I’m gonna keep that in there. That’s funny.

“I learned a lot of that from the old school guys, especially (Johnny) Carson. He would make sure that he wrote some stinkers, so that he could do the save. The saves are fun, and a lot of times funnier than the joke itself.”

Whitney, 62, grew up watching Carson and the standup comedians who regularly appeared on the late night show back when a good set there could make or break a comic’s career. No single outlet has the same impact today.

“You could do Jimmy Kimmel 20 times, and nobody gives a crap,” he said.

He’s impressed by the comedians who’ve learned to use social media and YouTube to stand out in a crowded field and build a following, but he’s glad he started when he did. Whitney described himself as the kind of comedian who would focus on the one guy in the front who wasn’t laughing instead of the thousands that were. Now the comedians who use social media to build themselves up also have to deal with the folks who use it to tear them down.

Whitney has thicker skin today.

“The older you get, the more you cover yourself with a shield called not giving a (crap),” he said. “Once you have a wife and kids, you realize that’s not your main priority. Number one is love your family. Your family is first, and your job comes second.”

But just like those hustling comics today, Larry the Cable Guy and the other performers on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour became successful enough to play theaters and arenas because “blue collar” not only referred to their style of comedy, but also to their work ethic.

“It’s like what Foxworthy always used to say, ‘There’s a lot of people funnier than us, but we’ll be darned if anybody’s gonna outwork us.'”

There also are those unexpected opportunities that have a lasting impact. For Whitney, it was being cast as the voice of Mater, the banged up tow truck in the Pixar animated film “Cars.” He shared stories about sitting across from costar Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward at the premiere party and chatting with costar Cheech Marin as if it was yesterday.

He also remembered director and former Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter telling him at that party that he thought there were more stories to tell with the Mater character. Lasseter was true to his word. Whitney has done three “Cars” films and multiple TV series. He’s about halfway through voicework on a new Disney Junior animated series.

“They’re really funny,” he said. “I know it’s on Disney Junior, but this really could be on regular Disney. If you’re an adult and you’re watching them, you’re gonna laugh. I’m in the studio laughing the whole time. It’s really fun. I got a lot of leeway with this character., so I think people really do enjoy it with their kids. There’s good adult humor, kid humor. I’m really happy with them.They’re not just half assed just to get it out. They’re really putting a lot of work into them, and the writing is really exceptional.”

Whitney said he believes that some of those young kids who first heard him in the original “Cars” movie in 2006 now are fans of his standup comedy. However, those with Disney Junior-aged toddlers should probably leave the little ones at home on Saturday.

“I say my act is PG-13 — pretty good for 13 minutes.”

If you go …

WHO: Larry the Cable Guy

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Packard Music Hall, 1703 Mahoning Ave. NW, Warren

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $65 to $132 and are available through Ticketmaster.