Bill Engvall

William Ray Engvall Jr. was born in Galveston, Texas on 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. Engvall spent most of his childhood living first in Galveston, then in Winslow, Arizona, then moving back to near Dallas, Texas during middle school. Following graduation from Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, where he chose trombone when the teacher gave him the choice of either that or the tuba which led him into the jazz marching band, Engvall 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. Engvall left college without graduating and worked a series of jobs, including tour guide at Inner Space Caverns, and disc jockey in a Dallas, Texas nightclub. It was while working as the club DJ that he first ventured into stand-up comedy at amateur and open mic nights around Dallas. ==Career==

In 1990, Bill Engvall moved to Southern California to dedicate full-time to comedy. Early notoriety 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 these 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 following day. In 2025, Engvall came out of his retirement from comedy when he announced a new show to be performed at the Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Welch, Minnesota, in September of that year. 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, Engvall 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 the Foxtrot and received a score of 18. The second week was Latin week and he saw some higher scores from the judges receiving a 21 for his Jive. And the third week of competition, Bill saw 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 Engvall a "stupid question", to which Engvall typically responds with a sarcastic response before telling the person "here's your sign". Other jokes in Engvall's routine include anecdotes about his life as a father and husband, typically in the form of self-deprecation. ==Personal life==

Bill and Gail Engvall (born August 5, 1960) have been married since December 18, 1982. They have a daughter named Emily (born June 9, 1986), a 2008 graduate from the University of Puget Sound who is married to Will Holden, as well as a son, Travis (born June 25, 1991), a 2015 graduate from Northern Arizona University; both of whom are often mentioned during his routines. Engvall resides in Utah when not on tour and maintains a blog for the Los Angeles Angels on the website of Fox Sports West. Engvall is an ordained minister. He graduated with a degree in Christian Studies from Grand Canyon University in 2021. ==Discography==

Albums ;Notes • A ^ ''Here's Your Sign'' also peaked at number 3 on Top Heatseekers. • B ^ ''Here's Your Christmas Album'' also peaked at number 33 on Top Holiday Albums. It was re-released in 2005. • C ^ A Decade of Laughs was the second number 1 album upon the 2004 debut of the Billboard "Top Comedy Albums" chart, after Lord, I Apologize by fellow Blue Collar Comedy star Larry the Cable Guy. Singles Other charted songs Music videos ==List of works==

Bibliography • ''You Don't Have to Be Dumb to Be Stupid'' (with David G. Brown), Longstreet Press 1997, • ''Here's Your Sign!'', Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2005, • Just a Guy: Notes from a Blue Collar Life, St. Martin's Press 2007, Filmography ==References==