William Ray Engvall Jr. (born July 27, 1957)[1] is an American retired stand-up comedian, actor, and television host.

His commercially successful album is the 1996 debut Here's Your Sign, certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Engvall spent most of his childhood living first in Galveston, then in Winslow, Arizona, then moving back to near Dallas, Texas during middle school.

Following graduation from Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, where he chose trombone when the teacher gave him the choice of either that or the tuba which led him into the jazz marching band,[2] Engvall attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, intending to earn a bachelor's degree and become a teacher.

Engvall left college without graduating and worked a series of jobs, including tour guide at Inner Space Caverns, and disc jockey in a Dallas, Texas nightclub.

[4] It was while working as the club DJ that he first ventured into stand-up comedy at amateur and open mic nights around Dallas.

Early notoriety came from hosting the cable show A Pair of Jokers with Rosie O'Donnell and an appearance on The Golden Palace where he played Blanche's son Matthew, a stockbroker turned aspiring comic.

[6] In 2021, Engvall announced his intention to retire from stand-up comedy after his "Here's Your Sign, It's Finally Time" farewell tour.

Each of the six years of the tour was very successful and spawned three films, a satellite radio show, and a television series titled Blue Collar TV on The WB Network.

And the third week of competition, Bill saw his highest score of 24 with a Paso Doble to the Lone Ranger theme song.

Throughout the rest of the show, the judges usually placed Engvall and Slater at the bottom of the leaderboard, but an enormous fan base kept them in the competition, resulting in higher-scoring contestants, e.g. Christina Milian, Snooki, Brant Daugherty, Elizabeth Berkley, and Leah Remini being voted out instead.

[16] Other jokes in Engvall's routine include anecdotes about his life as a father and husband, typically in the form of self-deprecation.