Bill Engvall

William Ray Engvall Jr. (born July 27, 1957) was a U. S. Navy doctor, who then went into private practice. His mother Jeanne (née Shinkle; 1936–2023) was a histotechnologist and realtor. During his childhood, he lived in Winslow, Arizona and Dallas, Texas (middle school years). He went to Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas and chose to play trombone when the teacher gave him the choice of either that or tuba, leading him to join the jazz marching band, After graduating, he attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, intending to earn a bachelor's degree and become a teacher. While at Southwestern, he was a member of Xi chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order.

Bill Engvall left college without graduating and worked a series of jobs including being a tour guide at Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown and disc jockey in a Dallas nightclub. While being a club DJ, he ventured into stand-up comedy at amateur and open mic nights around Dallas.

Career In 1990, Bill Engvall moved to Southern California to dedicate himself full-time to comedy. Early recognition came from hosting the cable show A Pair of Jokers with Rosie O'Donnell and an appearance on The Golden Palace where he played Blanche's son Matthew, a stockbroker turned aspiring comic. Other early appearances included hosting A&E Networks An Evening at The Improv as well as stand-up routines on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Late Show with David Letterman. Engvall released two more albums by the end of the 1990s: Dorkfish in 1998 and Here's Your Christmas Album in 1999. The latter featured narrations by Engvall, as well as songs he co-wrote sung by session musicians. One of the original compositions, "Here's Your Sign Christmas", also made the country charts in both 1998 and 1999. Like most of the albums before it, this included two tracks that merged stand-up lines from the album with a musical track. The title track featured guest vocals from T. Graham Brown, Tracy Byrd, and Neal McCoy, while "Shoulda Shut Up" featured Julie Reeves. He posted a video on YouTube confirming his retirement on December 30, 2022. His final performance was at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City the next day. In 2025, Engvall came out of retirement from comedy when he announced a show to be performed at the Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Welch, Minnesota, in September 2025.

Blue Collar Comedy Tour

In 2000, Jeff Foxworthy and Engvall launched the first of six Blue Collar Comedy Tours. The tours also featured Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy and were largely responsible for their breakout success. Each of the six years of the tour was very successful and spawned three films, a satellite radio show, and a television series titled Blue Collar TV on The WB Network.

The Bill Engvall Show

In 2007, Engvall starred in his own sitcom where he played himself as a family counselor. The show lasted three seasons.

Game show host On June 6, 2011, Engvall took over as host of Lingo on Game Show Network. According to an interview in American Profile magazine, he said that he jumped at the chance to host the show, citing the fun that his friend Foxworthy had hosting Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Engvall had been a fan of Lingo when it aired a few years previously before ending in 2007, admitting that his wife always beat him to the answers. When asked if there were any plans to have buddies Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy appear on Lingo, he replied, "You never know! I would love to have them on the show because it would be a blast. I would really dig that."

Dancing with the Stars In 2013, Engvall was announced as a contestant on the 17th season of Dancing with the Stars paired with professional dancer Emma Slater. In the first week, he danced a foxtrot and received a score of 18. The second week was Latin week and he received some higher scores from the judges receiving a 21 for his jive. In the third week of competition, he received his highest score of 24 with a Paso Doble to the Lone Ranger theme song. Throughout the rest of the show, the judges usually placed Engvall and Slater at the bottom of the leaderboard, but an enormous fan base kept them in the competition, resulting in higher-scoring contestants, e.g. Christina Milian, Snooki, Brant Daugherty, Elizabeth Berkley, and Leah Remini being voted out instead. On November 18, Engvall and Slater made it to the finals, along with Amber Riley, Jack Osbourne, and Corbin Bleu. The two finished in fourth place.

Comedic style Engvall's most well-known routine is "here's your sign". In this routine, he offers "signs" to people whom he considers lacking in intellect. These jokes typically take the form of another person asking him a "stupid question", to which Engvall typically responds with a sarcastic response before telling the person "here's your sign". Other jokes in his routine include anecdotes about his life as a father and husband, typically in the form of self-deprecation. He is an ordained minister and graduated with a degree in Christian Studies from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix in 2021.

Discography

Albums Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications(sales thresholds) U.S. Country U.S. U.S. Comedy Here's Your Sign Release date: August 28, 1995 Label: Warner Records 5 50 — U.S.: Platinum Dorkfish Release date: October 13, 1998 Label: Warner Records 16 119 — U.S.: Gold Here's Your Christmas Album Release date: September 28, 1999 Label: Warner Records 44 — — Now That's Awesome Release date: August 22, 2000 Label: BNA Records 14 133 — Cheap Drunk: An Autobiography Release date: September 24, 2002 Label: Warner Records 37 — — Here's Your Sign Reloaded Release date: November 11, 2003 Label: Warner Records 37 — 12 A Decade of Laughs Release date: October 26, 2004 Label: Warner Records 27 183 1 15° Off Cool Release date: February 27, 2007 Label: Warner Records 16 93 1 Aged and Confused Release date: October 6, 2009 Label: Warner Records 29 159 2 Them Idiots Whirled Tour(with Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy) Release date: March 13, 2012 Label: Warner Records 45 — 1 Ultimate Laughs Release date: March 9, 2014 Label: Warner Records — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart