-
Name: Bill Engvall
-
Date of Birth:
July 27, 1957
-
Place of Birth:
Galveston, Texas, USA
Mini-bio:
If ever there were a comic geared to one particular demographic, Bill Engvall is he. Hailed by many fans as one of the true protgs of Jeff Foxworthy (with whom he has often performed), Engvall caters ... read moreto fans of "redneck comedy" -- one-liners and anecdotes about pickup trucks, beer guzzling, tailgating, deer hunting, and assorted acts of blue-collar mayhem. Oddly, Engvall (unlike, say, Larry the Cable Guy) often sports a far more polished look than many of his contemporaries with the same brand of material. Through it all, Engvall remained imminently successful and racked up a massive and loyal fan base of American everymen.Born William Ray Engvall Jr. on July 27, 1957, in Galveston, TX, the future comedian/actor reportedly moved around a great deal with his family as a tyke. Engvall acted in local productions as a child and adolescent, then launched a series of successful routines at the Dallas Comedy Corner. He moved to Los Angeles with his wife in 1984, and first gained public recognition some time later with an appearance on the popular CBS sitcom Designing Women in the very early '90s and a guest-star spot on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (the mecca for standup comedians) just prior to Carson's departure. In 1992, Engvall landed a recurring role on the short-lived sitcom Delta (with Delta Burke as a struggling country singer); he played Buck Overton, the husband of Delta's cousin and number one fan, Lavonne (Gigi Rice). Unfortunately, ABC canceled that program after less than one year.Engvall's standup albums began appearing in 1997. He benefited hugely from his association with Foxworthy, who featured the comic in an occasional supporting role on his sitcom The Jeff Foxworthy Show; the two then teamed up with Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White for the mega-successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which spawned its own concert film in 2003. Doubtless banking off the success of these efforts, the WB network launched an SNL-style sketch comedy program, Blue Collar TV, in 2004 -- to which Engvall often contributed material. Following several solo performance films (including Bill Engvall: Here's Your Sign Live in 2004 and Bill Engvall: 15 Off Cool in 2007), Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy co-starred in the feature comedy Delta Farce (2007), as a couple of blue-collar Joes mistaken for Army personnel. In mid-2007, Engvall finally scored his own sitcom, appropriately titled The Bill Engvall Show. Co-starring Nancy Travis and Tim Meadows, the TBS show followed the work and family life of family counselor Bill Pearson (Engvall). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
Bill Engvall mini-bio: Born in Galveston, TX, Bill Engvall was a nightclub DJ in Dallas until the call to
comedy became too strong to deny. After startling amateur-night audiences at
several local clubs and a brief stint in St. Louis, Engvall arrived in Los Angeles
in 1990. He hosted the Pair of Jokers cable special with Rosie O'Donnell and also
appeared on Evening at the Improv and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 1992, he
was awarded Best Male Standup at the American Comedy Awards, and moved into sitcom
TV with an appearance on Designing Women and a regular role on the short-lived
Delta. Signed to Warner Bros. in 1996, Engvall released his countrified debut
album, Here's Your Sign -- also the title of his most famed bit -- in 1996. A tour
with like-minded everyman comic Jeff Foxworthy was next; that in turn led to a part
on Foxworthy's sitcom that was as brief as the show itself. The Dorkfish LP
followed in 1998, and Engvall saw both it and his debut achieve gold-record status.
His seasonal effort, Here's Your Christmas Album, appeared that same year. In
mid-2000, Engvall released Now That's Awesome and embarked on the Blue Collar
Comedy Tour, again with Foxworthy, and also with two other comics they'd recruited,
Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White. The quartet's act proved to be very popular, and
the tour continued over the next several years, spawning several albums, a movie,
and a cable television show along the way. Despite Blue Collar's collective
success, Engvall continued releasing material on his own as well. Cheap Drunk: An
Autobiography appeared in 2002, followed a year later by album number six, Here's
Your Sign Reloaded. A roundup of some of Engvall's best material was released in
the fall of 2004, entitled A Decade of Laughs, before his next all-new album, 15?
Off Cool, surfaced in February 2007.
fb100000364231996
