Bill Engvall Talks Evansville Show and Going Back to College with Ryan and Leslie [INTERVIEW]

Comedian and one of the founding members of the wildly popular Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Bill Engvall is back on the road for a one-man comedy show that includes a stop at the Victory Theater in downtown Evansville on June 26th (2021). Before coming to town, Bill took a few minutes out of his schedule to talk with us over the phone about how he spent the unplanned downtime the pandemic forced him into, and what you can expect when he takes the stage.

Despite his enormous success, a career in entertainment wasn't Bill's first choice. According to the biography on his official website, Bill actually worked as a radio personality in Dallas, Texas with the goal of one day becoming a teacher. That all changed when he took the stage at a comedy club's open mic night when he got his first taste of what it felt like to make people laugh. Not long after, he moved to the bright lights of Los Angeles to pursue his newfound passion.

In addition to his stand-up career, he landed several TV roles including an appearance on Designing Women, and a regular role on Delta Burke's 1992-93 sitcom, Delta, as Buck Overton. More TV and movie roles followed until Bill became a household name in 2000 thanks to the success of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

Get our free mobile app

As his career has progressed, he's taken a couple of opportunities to stretch his acting chops beyond comedy. In the 2016 film, The Neighbor, he took a dark turn playing a man who seemingly terrorizes a young couple who moves into the neighborhood. More recently, he played a role in the independent film, No Running, a sci-fi thriller IMDB lists as a story about "a black high school student (who) finds himself under suspicion after his classmate's mysterious disappearance." The film made its debut at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

We spoke with Bill earlier this week to talk about those roles, as well as how he feels about being back in front of crowds, and why after dropping out of college in 1975 he decided to go back. Take a listen to our complete interview in the player below.

Tickets for Bill's show at the Victory Theater start at $46 each and are available now through Ticketmaster.