Signs point to evening full of laughs

Bill Engvall has been performing stand-up comedy since the early 1990s, and out of the countless routines he’s written over the years, he’s most famous for three little words: Here’s Your Sign. That’s Engvall’s signature catchphrase, which has its origins in a routine wherein the comedian hands out figurative “I’m stupid” signs to people who ask ridiculously dumb questions.

Beyond that oft-repeated punch line, Engvall is most closely associated with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, a hugely popular troupe of comedians (Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White) that spawned three concert documentaries, a TV series and a satellite radio program.

Engvall has mostly been touring on his own since the peak of Blue Collar’s popularity – he’ll be performing at Northern Quest this weekend – and that experience is, he says, totally different from playing gigs with a group of other comics.

“It’s a lot more boring,” Engvall said from his home in Salt Lake City. “When you’re by yourself, there’s a lot of down time. Comedy’s weird because when you’re onstage you’ve got 2,000 new best friends, but then they go home.”

Engvall has taken on a number of roles during his long career: He’s a comedian first, of course, but he was also a sitcom star – “The Bill Engvall Show” ran for three seasons on TBS and co-starred a pre-Oscar Jennifer Lawrence – and a game show host. But his most recent gig was as a contestant on the 17th season of the ABC show “Dancing with the Stars,” and Engvall says he originally turned the network’s offer down. (He says his wife eventually persuaded him to do it.)

“I’ll be honest with you – I thought I’d be on there for a week, maybe two at the most,” Engvall said. “The only dancing I’d done up to that point was honky-tonking with a girl in one arm and a beer in the other hand.”

He and professional dancing partner Emma Slater ended up finishing in fourth place – “Glee” star Amber Riley won the season – which Engvall credits not to his abilities on the dance floor but to his loyal fan base.

“When we finally got eliminated in the finals, I had danced six hours a day, seven days a week for 13 weeks without a day off,” Engvall said. “Now, I’m 57, and 57-year-old men are not designed to dance six hours a day, seven days a week. We’re designed to dance once a year drunk at a wedding. But if they called me back, I would go back. It was just that much fun.”

The physical toll from his “Dancing” stint – he had knee replacement surgery shortly thereafter – is all fodder for Engvall’s stand-up routine, though, and he says he’s constantly honing and adding to his arsenal of jokes while he’s out on the road.

“I have to write new material all the time, because it keeps me from getting bored and because with audiences, I get repeat business,” he said. “If you were to go see Aerosmith, you’d hope they play ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Toys in the Attic.’ You don’t want to hear the new stuff. But with comedy, once you’ve heard the joke, you’ve heard it.

“The show I’m doing at Northern Quest … is all material people haven’t heard before. I try to find stuff that people can relate to. I know I’ve found a good joke when I see a wife elbow her husband or vice versa.”