Bill Engvall

I was born in Galveston, Texas in 1957 in the middle of a hurricane. I guess because of the drop in the barometric pressure it affected my brain and I was destined to become a stand-up comic, although at that age I wasn\'t aware of my destiny. We moved a great deal when I was a child and so I used my sense of humor to make friends quickly. The final die was cast when in third grade we had a class play. We were doing the play \"Clementine\" (which for those of you who may not be aware, this was a western). I had always wanted to be a cowboy but because my voice was still too high and combined with the fact that I was a bit scrawny, I was forced to play the role of Clementine. Yes, in third grade I was wearing a dress and singing the theme song. So it was either become a cast member of \"La Cage\" as a female impersonator, or become a comic. Obviously I chose the latter much to the delight of my parents.

I was always the \"Class Clown\" and over time became very good at it. I started doing comedy on stage at the Dallas Comedy Corner where I honed my skills by watching guys like Garry Shandling, Robin Williams, Jay Leno and more. After two years of doing shows in Dallas, I was ready to hit the road. When I started doing road work I realized how much I loved the job. I could work at night, sleep in late, and the drinks were free. It filled all three of my job requirements!

In 1982 I got married to a wonderful woman who I am happy to say is still with me after all these years. She is either the best woman I have ever met or the craziest for putting up with being married to a comic. We moved to St. Louis in the summer of \'84 where we continued to save money for the big move to Los Angeles—the mecca of comedy. This is where you have to be, or so I had been told. When my wife was six months pregnant we loaded up a U-Haul truck and packed our two dogs off to the promised land. My timing has never been great. Yeah, move when your wife is pregnant—good choice!

Once in Los Angeles, I had several goals: one was just to make enough money to pay the rent on the overpriced house that we were living in, and the other was to become a big TV star. At least I met one of those! When the day came that I got my first audition, I asked my lovely bride to help me study for the part. Years later I was to find out that as we were reading the lines together she nearly went into labor. Not because it was time to have the baby but because I was so bad at acting that she nearly freaked into labor. I couldn\'t act my way out of a wet paper bag. Needless to say she got me into some good acting classes. My first part was on \"Designing Women\" and after that I was hooked. I had tasted the forbidden fruit and loved it. There were a couple of years with no parts in any shows for Bill Engvall, although I continued to work the road becoming a better comic.

Then I got my first big break: I got to do the \"Tonight Show\" with Johnny Carson. Can you believe it? I was going to be on with the man—JOHNNY CARSON. I was as scared as I have ever been. The spot went great and I thought, \"Here we go!\" Then nothing, no calls from big producers, no calls from movie people. I guess they were all out of town the night I did the \"Tonight Show.\" I then got another break when I won the American Comedy Awards Standup Comic of the Year in 1992. This was a huge coup for me since no one had any idea who I was other than those great fans that attended comedy clubs. After that I landed a role on the \"Delta Burke Show\" which ran for a year and was promptly cancelled for reasons that still baffle me.

Now it was time for my first album, Here\'s Your Sign, and thanks to all of you fans who made it the number one selling comedy album of 1997. I then started touring with Jeff Foxworthy, whom you all know, and we had a blast on the road together. I subsequently ended up with a part on his television show. In October of 1998 I released my second album entitled Dorkfish and couldn’t believe that I was still doing this for a living. Here’s Your Sign went Platinum meaning that it sold over 1,000,000 albums and Dorkfish was well on its way toward that milestone also. I started doing concerts across the country on my own tour and was having the time of my life. I now had two children who still remain a wealth of material and was working on my third album.

In the year 2000, Now That\'s Awesome was released and Jeff and I started the \"Blue Collar Comedy Tour\" with two other comics who most of you now know as Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy. This tour ran for three years and culminated with the release of the \"Blue Collar Comedy Tour\" movie in 2003. We recently filmed a sequel to be called \"Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again\" which will be released in December of 2004. The movie also spawned a TV show called \"Blue Collar TV\" which airs on the WB on Thursday nights, and my own standup special \"Bill Engvall\'s Here\'s Your Sign—Live\" aired on Comedy Central and was released on DVD in August of 2004. It still amazes me that what started out as a hobby has become one of the loves of my life and a job all rolled into one. I hope that I see all of you at my concerts, and have the chance to meet you personally.

Thanks again to all of you who have helped make my dream come true.