Family comedian finds a place on the Strip

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.

He’s just a regular guy with an irregular career — stand-up comic, actor, writer, producer.

Bill Engvall takes his almost squeaky-clean act to Treasure Island on Friday night, becoming the first non-Cirque du Soleil entertainer to perform in the venue.

Engvall talked to the Sun from his home near Los Angeles about his varied career, including his most recent project: “Bait Shop,” a comedy (what else?) he recently finished shooting with Billy Ray Cyrus (Hanna Montana’s dad).

“The bait shop is sort of like a redneck barbershop,” Engvall said. “The movie is about a guy who’s going to lose his bait shop because his balloon payment came due and he didn’t have the money.”

Engvall became famous with the comic routine “Here’s Your Sign” and then became very famous with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which also included Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy. The Blue Collar guys no longer tour together — all are busy with their separate careers.

“The tour put me over the top, but it became like being married to a rich girl,” Engvall says. “After a while you want to show people you can make a living on your own.”

But Engvall leaves open the possibility of a reunion tour in the distant future.

“I never say never. I would love to see a reunion tour some year. Those guys are so much fun to work with. They are great guys.”

How’s life treating you?

I tell you, if anyone’s ever had a dream, they’re out of luck ’cause I’m living it.

Over the past couple of years I’ve interviewed all of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour guys. I’m proud of that.

There you go. You’ve hit the lowest point you can hit in your career. It’s nowhere but up from here, Jerry.

You’re a busy guy, lots of irons in the fire. Did you ever dream you would be an actor?

When I was a little kid living in Winslow, Ariz., I would go to the drive-in with my dad and we’d watch, like, “Rio Bravo” and “Sons of Katie Elder” and “High Noon” and I’d sit there in the pickup truck with my dad and think, “I’d like to be an actor.” But when you lived in Winslow in the 1960s you didn’t tell your dad you wanted to be an actor. There were a lot of other things you could tell him, but that wasn’t one of them.

But from then till now, I’ve got two shows on CMT, one’s called “Country Fried Home Videos,” and we’re starting a new one called “Country Fried Planet.” My sitcom, “The Bill Engvall Show,” has been picked up for a second season — we’re starting preproduction on that — and we’ve just finished filming a movie that I wrote three years ago. So I think I finally made it as an actor. I’ve made it from Winslow. Plus, I get my name in big lights on the Strip in Las Vegas.

What else can you ask for?

I don’t really know. I don’t gripe, because me griping is like somebody telling somebody else that the motor on their Rolls-Royce is messed up. Nobody really cares.

You’re actually from the town made famous by the Eagles in “Take It Easy”?

What’s funny about that is that I hear the Eagles weren’t even in Winslow. They were in Flagstaff, but it didn’t sound as good in the song. I don’t know if that’s true or not. It’s just what I’ve heard. But they have a corner dedicated to the Eagles in Winslow.

So where are you from originally?

I was born in Texas but my dad was in the Public Health Service so we moved a lot. We actually lived in the King’s Canyon area for a while, on the Hopi Indian reservation. He was the doctor for the Hopis. When their medicine man couldn’t figure out what was wrong they came to him. “You might want to go see like a big doctor now.” That was my dad. We lived in Winslow from the time I was in the first grade through the ninth grade. Other than here in Los Angeles, that was the longest place I ever lived.

You’re going to be performing at Treasure Island rather than your usual venue, the Orleans. What happened?

I’ll tell you. I had been working Vegas seven years in a row, at the Stardust, which I loved. It was so sad when that went away. I worked there during the National Finals Rodeo. Then the Orleans was kind enough to pick up my contract and I was there for three years. Then Treasure Island came along and said, “We want to try something in the Mystere showroom.” Apparently I am the first headliner they’ve had in there. You know what, I say this in not any demeaning sense to the Orleans or to the Stardust, because they were so magnanimous to me and I would play there again at any point, but there’s something about having your name on a marquee right there in the center of the Strip. It’s just unbelievably cool. To me it’s funny because the first time I ever played Vegas I had less billing than a 99-cent shrimp cocktail. I swear to God. It was at the Riviera. The marquee said, “Loose Slots, Good Buffet, 99-Cent Shrimp Cocktails and Bill Engvall at the Improv.”

Will you be performing any acrobatics in the Mystere Theatre?

No, and I will not wear leotards either.

You just finished shooting a movie. What was that like?

The thing I’m most proud of is it’s so clean, a family film. Your 3-year-old could watch this. It’s what I wanted to do. It’s where I made my living, really. I learned from guys like Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart. The cleaner you work, the longer you’re going to work. That’s the thing I love about my audience. You don’t ever want to hear this phrase: “I loved your movie but I couldn’t let my kids watch it.” It’s the same with my series, “The Bill Engvall Show.” It’s family entertainment. I catch so much flack. Nobody’s ever going to call me edgy, and I’m fine with that.

So you aren’t a big fan of the foul-mouthed comics?

Nobody loves a dirty joke more than me, but if I’m sitting there with my wife I don’t want to sit there for an hour and a half of that, or through a movie with all this cussing for no reason. You know, there are 200 million people in between Hollywood and New York, and that’s who my audience is — the guy who works for a living, raises his family, that’s my audience, not the producers in Hollywood and New York.