While appearing on “Dancing with the Stars,” comedian Bill Engvall said, “I tore my groin, pulled my hamstring, and then I had to have a knee replaced.”
Following that, he also got shingles and kidney stones, he said. Though “it wasn’t fun at the time, it made for really funny material,” he said.
Those who see him perform Thursday at Genesee Theatre will hear all about his life after “Dancing with the Stars” in a preview of his newest comedy sketch, “Just Sell Him For Parts,” coming out later this year.
Engvall said he got to thinking that his doctor might say to his wife, “Why don’t you sell him for parts?”
Known for his acting in sitcoms including “Designing Women,” “Delta”, and “The Bill Engvall Show” as well as the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour” with Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White, the prolific performer has released platinum and gold albums and written several books, including his 2007 autobiography “Bill Engvall — Just A Guy.”
Engvall uses real life situations for his material — a family camping trip, for example, where he used a fly swatter as a surrogate hamburger flipper, or was it the other way around?
He talks about anything, including toilet paper and poop, but he keeps it clean, he said. It’s his hallmark and what he thinks has kept him going for nearly four decades. People come up to him after his solo shows and say, “Thanks for keeping it clean,” he said. “I’m not Disney on Ice,” but he doesn’t pepper his routine with swearing and vulgarity either.
Engvall said his family moved often when growing up and he found being a funny guy was a good way to make friends.
But he never seriously considered becoming a stand-up comedian, until he was working at a night club as a DJ in the early 1980s, he said. “I was having a blast doing that,” he said. One day a friend asked him if wanted to go down the street to a new comedy club. It was amateur night
After “a couple of rounds of liquid,” and some encouragement from his friend, Engvall got up on stage, told stories about working as a DJ, “and people laughed.”
He was then offered a job to serve as the club’s MC, and his boss from the night club who was there at the time, told him to go for it.
Over the years, Engvall has come to espouse a certain philosophy of entertainment. “I don’t want to be a comic’s comic,” he said. In other words, he doesn’t do comedy to impress other well-known comedians.
“They’re not the ones who are paying me,” he said.
He prefers seeing a husband elbow his wife in the audience after he’s told a joke as if to say, “He’s talking about you.”
Engvall said he’s tried other entertainment venues besides comedy, for example, appearing in “Dancing with the Stars,” because, “I want to push my fans. I want to be water cooler talk.”
There’s likely plenty of water cooler talk among his fans these days.
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He’s playing a homeless Santa Claus in “A Wish For Christmas,” a movie to be released in November. And he stars in the movie, “The Neighbor,” portraying a sinister neighbor, available via on-demand and on Blu-Ray and DVD.
“It’s a horror movie. I’m a huge fan of horror films,” he said. “I loved Vincent Price.”
He’s getting good reviews for being scary instead of funny, he said, and would be happy to get asked to do another horror flick.
“Our neighbor called my wife the other day and asked, ‘Is there something we should know about Bill?'”
“My first love, though, is comedy,” he said, especially when he’s alone on stage. Though he enjoyed touring with Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and White, he said they had to share the stage and each only got about 20 minutes of time.
“My style is storytelling,” he said. “In a stand-up show, I get 90 minutes.”
Plus he loves that “high-wire without the net” atmosphere he can only get when performing live.
Engvall said Americans could all use an extra dose of comedy right now. “And when people leave my show, I want them to think life’s not that bad.”
Besides, he said, it’s easier to laugh than cry. “When my daughter was little, about 5 years old and I picked her up from school, I asked her what she learned, she said, ‘Daddy, I learned it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.'”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Bill Engvall
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 29
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $40.50-$53.50
Information: 847-782-2366; www.geneseetheatre.com