November 10, 2025 • 38 mins
n this powerful episode of Comedy Saved Me, comedy legend Bill Engvall reveals how laughter serves as therapy and shares the comedic advice that has helped millions navigate life’s challenges. Best known for his iconic “Here’s Your Sign” bit and as a founding member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour alongside Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, and Larry the Cable Guy, Bill opens up about the transformative power of humor and why comedy is essential for mental health and healing.
Bill discusses how his relatable, observational comedy became more than entertainment—it became a lifeline for people dealing with divorce, loss, stress, and everyday struggles. From selling cars in Texas to selling out arenas worldwide, he shares behind-the-scenes stories from the Blue Collar Comedy phenomenon and explains how communal laughter creates powerful healing moments.
In this candid conversation, Bill offers comedic advice on staying authentic in a changing world, reveals how “Dancing with the Stars” taught him about vulnerability, and reflects on what he’s learned after decades of using laughter as therapy for audiences everywhere. He shares emotional fan stories that prove comedy’s power to heal, unite, and help us survive the absurdity of modern life.
Whether you’re a longtime fan or discovering Bill Engvall for the first time, this episode explores why laughter isn’t just the best medicine—it’s essential therapy we all need.
Topics covered: Blue Collar Comedy Tour, the healing power of laughter, comedy as therapy, mental health and humor, “Here’s Your Sign” origin story, comedic advice for difficult times, Jeff Foxworthy, vulnerability in comedy, and the evolution of stand-up.
Perfect for fans of: stand-up comedy, mental health podcasts, Blue Collar Comedy, Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, Larry the Cable Guy, comedy history, and anyone seeking laughter as medicine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
There's an art and a science to comedy, you know,
And I don't think people understand that how hard it is.
Although Seinfeld once had a bit He said that they
did a survey of people's top five fears, and number
two was death. Number one was speaking in public.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Alen Hoffman, and welcome to Comedy Save Me, the show
that explores the healing power of laughter and how it
helps us all more than we sometimes even know. Our
guest today knows something most of us forget. Laughter isn't
just entertainment, it's literally survival. The man who gave us
here's your Sign didn't just create the catchphrase. He created
(00:44):
a lifeline for millions of people who need to laugh
their way through the absurdity of everyday life. From selling
cars in Texas to selling out arenas as a part
of the legendary I remember this so clearly. Blue Collar
Comedy Tour was awesome. Bill and is one of the
biggest names in the business who's turned observational humor into
(01:04):
cultural movement that reminded us that we're all in this together.
Stupid signs at all. But here's the thing about Bill
behind the laid back drawl and the everyman persona is
someone who deeply understands the transformative power of laughter. He's
seen it heal marriages, men broken hearts, and bring strangers together.
He has lived it, breathed it, and dedicated his life
(01:27):
to it. And today we are so lucky on Comedy
Save Me to be talking about more than just the jokes.
We're going to dive into why laughter matters, how comedy
has shaped his journey, and what happens when you dedicate
your life to making the world a little lighter, one
punchline at a time. With Bill Angvill next right here
on Comedy Save Me, Comedy Saved Me. Bill Angvil, Welcome
(01:54):
to Comedy Save Me. I'm so happy you are back
in action and you decided to come out of retirement.
This is such big news in the comedy world. Did
you realize how big this was.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Not at the time when I In hindsight, what I
should have done is just taken a break because I
was burntout. And as we'll get into, if I'm burnout,
then it doesn't reflect the show's not as good. And
I knew when I caught myself watching Housewives of Salt
(02:25):
Lake City it was trying to come out.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Of are Oh no, I better check myself then, because
that's sort of a staple. Thanks for warning me. I'm
getting close to burnout.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Ah, oh you're fine.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, we're so glad you're back here. Here's your Sign
bit sort of became a cultural phenomenon that brought millions
of people together through laughter. In fact, I remember a
little music video with Dwight Yoakam in it, which was
It's Still Hysterical. I had to revisit it again because
it was so good. Can you take us back to
the first time you saw how powerful lead that Joe
(03:00):
connected with audiences and what it meant to you to
have given so many people that shared language of humor.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, at first I should probably give you a small correction.
It wasn't Dwight Yoakum. It was Travis Tritt sang this
song and music. Listen, don't worry about it. It's funny,
that know. The short answer to is that I had
no idea how big that was going to get. I mean,
it basically became the Where's the Beef of the nineties,
(03:30):
The thing here with the catchphrase, whether it's here's your sign,
whether it's you might be a redneck or get or
done or whatever. You can't go into these thinking I'm
going to write a catchphrase, because you don't know whether
that's going to be it or not. I get young
comedians all the time asking me, how do I write
a catchphrase? I go, well, that's the deal. You don't
you write it, but it's up to the audience. And
(03:53):
I remember the first time I heard someone say here's
your sign and they weren't directing it at me in
other words, like didn't know I was within in proximity.
I was. I was in a grocery store and the
little girl that was checking everybody out couldn't get something
going on the cash register, and the manager came over
(04:14):
and hit like one button and it looked at her
and said, here's your sign. And I went, oh my god,
I go, this is uh, it's it's something bigger than I.
If it wasn't for here's your sign, we probably wouldn't
be talking right now. We got so huge. And when
Travis an interesting story that when we I released my
(04:35):
first album, here's your Sign, it was all I had
to compare to was Foxworthy and you might be a redneck.
And of course he had hit the stratosphere with that,
and so I thought when my manager, we had the
same manager at the time, and I remember thinking, okay,
(04:55):
he said, we're going to release the album. Here's your sign.
I go, all right, here we go. Let let's let
the roller coaster begin. And the first week the album
came out, we sold one hundred copies across the country.
That means we sold less than two a state. So
I was like, wait a minute, we're supposed to be
getting big and getting our name known. And then we did.
(05:18):
The problem was on the album, the song wasn't on it,
and so we released the video with the Travis Tritt
singing the song, and it literally went from one hundred
copies a week to ten thousand copies a week, which
was incredible the power that that song had. Now, that
was back when CMT was allowing us to do a
(05:40):
little funny videos with country singers. They loved the singers
loved it, and I loved it because they showed everybody
a different side of these artists. That thing. A quick
funny story about it when at the time I was
on tour with Joe Diffey, who unfortunately we lost in
just a great guy. But I went to him and
I said, I was on tour with him and I said, hey, Joe,
(06:03):
we're going to release a song as won't if you'd
sing it, And he goes, oh, yeah, man, I'd love
to do that. He said, let me get clearance from
the record label. And he went to the record label
and said, they want to do this song and they said, oh, Joe,
you don't want to. You don't want to be part
of a novelty song. You got a career going here,
and so he said they won't let me do it,
(06:24):
and Travis Tritt did it and it was number one
for fifteen weeks on the country charts, which was at
the time, you know, other than Foxworthy, was unheard of,
and here we are. We were rolling. And it's funny
because it kind of became my in a comedy form
of if like I remember the Bye by Miss American Pie,
(06:47):
if I I could do ninety minutes of killer comedy.
But if I don't do they here's your sign people
walk out going, oh, he didn't do here's your sign?
So I have to kind of have to. I have
to do it now.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I wonder you could probably do an entire set
of just here's your sign just like together, right.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, you would think so, but I think after a
while people might get a little tired of that.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I understand. I totally get it, and it's almost like
a musician, you know, you've got to play the hits. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, And that was one of the interesting things about
coming out of retirement was I was kind of flipping
out about, oh man, I got to write a whole
new ninety minute set, and in the morning I thought
about it. Now, you don't have to do it, because like,
if you and I were going to go see Aerosmith
on the way to the concert, not one of us
is going to say, oh, I hope they play all
new stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I can't believe you just said that, though, because when
I was younger, I used to work at a radio
station and Aerosmith was is still one of my all
time favorite bands all time. I'm originally from Boston, so
you kind of have to be an Aerosmith fan. But
I used to say, man, they're putting out another album, like,
(07:59):
can't they give room to somebody new to come in?
And then I realized, no, they've They've they still got
to make a living, make new things.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Hey, hey, hold on one second. I don't know how
we're Somebody just rang the doorbell home.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh, go get it, go ahead, go ahead, let's see
who it is. Sorry, who is it?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Okay? Do you want to know who it is?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, it's the plant lady.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The plant lady.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
She comes in and waters the plants and stuff when
we're gone.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Oh that's so nice. So now she knows she thought
you maybe weren't home.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
No, no, she knew this was her day to come.
I just didn't pay attention to it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I love it. That's great. Last show I did, the
lawn Doctor came. So I feel your pain about that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It's uh, it's so funny. How as much as I'd
liked to be Hollywood and stuff like that, this is me.
This is me, the doorbell ring in, the dog's bark
and the.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So listen, don't don't ever be Hollywood. It you is
just so refreshing, And it's like talking to a normal person.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I try. I try to be normal, but you know
who seems like the harder I try. I finally realized
that maybe sometimes I need to just step out of
the way for a little bit, you know, let let
life happen.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And get out of your own way.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, get out of my own way, that's the uh.
But yeah, back to what you were saying about Aerosmith,
it was I was kind of the same way. I
was a huge rocker. A lot of people don't know
that that that I was.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All right, hit me with some of your favorite bands.
Are we talking like Moley Crue. Are we talking glam
rock or hard rock? Heavy metal?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Or I was I wasn't into heavy metal, but uh,
I was. I'm definitely a classic rocker, whether it's Aerosmith
or whether it's Boston or whether it's you know. And
that's what's hard to accept sometimes is the songs I
grew up with now are considered golden oldies, which, oh please,
that says about me.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm with you, I'm with you all on all of it.
It's just hard to.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Imagine my most weird band that people go what. I
was a huge Alan Parsons Project fan, one of the best.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Come on, yeah, that's so cool. I love that. Yeah.
It's interesting too now because all of these songs are
coming back in commercials we see on TV now. Yeah,
that never happened when they were big. It was you.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Got labeled to sell out because yeah, you know, then
all of a sudden, everybody went, oh, wait a minute,
the Stone's got one hundred million dollars for them to use.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, and that only happened a few years ago. It
was like in the early twenty twenty one or twenty
two or something like almost every major band from you know,
nineteen hundred to today sold their back catalog. Yeah, that's
crazy obviously to commercial companies. Let me ask you, since
we were talking about this, the Blue Collar Comedy Tour,
(10:55):
you helped to create this like communal experience that we
were just talking to and it was it wasn't just
a comedy club bill. It was arenas full of people
that you were making laugh and share this experience. Is
there when you were there going through this at the moment,
did you what was it that you witnessed about this
(11:15):
this sort of healing, unifying power of laughter when thousands
of complete strangers could kind of join arms and do
the same thing at the same time together.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, I think that was one of the keys to
blue collar success. Was we were your neighbors, you know,
we weren't you know, it wasn't this kind of artificially
created group, you know, like the monkeys or whoever Jake Jake.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Is that puppy.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, that's Jake the He's got a nice bark, but
that's about all he'd got. So the thing back to again,
Here we go, the normal life. The I remember we
held the record for selling out the Nashville Arena in
twenty four hours, and at that, you know, we were
(12:08):
finally dethroned by bon Jovi, which is two names that
just don't go together, blue collar comedy tour and bon Jovi.
But it was I remember we would get to the
arena and I used to make a habit of this.
As I would walk. They usually had a center stage
and everybody was around us, and I used to go
before they opened the doors to the stage and I
(12:30):
would just look around and go, this is insane. This
this is not stand up comedy. You know stand up comedy,
like say, it was the old brick wall in front
of the you know microphone. And I remember one night
I forget where we were. We were somewhere in the Midwest,
and for whatever reason, we had all come from different
locales and the promoter got four limousines, which was silly
(12:55):
because we just rode together in the same car. But
after the show, so we all had chartered planes because
we were coming in from different areas. And after the show,
the limousines pulled out of the arena and we went
to this little regional airport and there was the four
jets lined up in a row, and each limousine pulled
off to a jet, and I remember standing on the
(13:18):
steps of my plane looking at Jeff and I said, Dude,
this is as close to rock and rolls we're ever
going to get. And the funny thing was we all
could do. The deal was everybody did twenty minutes and
I don't care how good your set was. What people
really really tuned into and loved was at the end
(13:39):
of the show when we would come out on barstools
and we would all sit on each corner of the
stage and we would just tell stories. And that was
people's favorite part of the whole show was because I
think what it did was it made us human. We weren't,
you know, we were just four guys. And I think
if you were to ask the guys, they would all
say that we were just four guys who were good
(14:01):
at their craft. But you know, we were all just
taken back about how big this had gotten. I mean
there was blue collar dolls for God's sakes at one point.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
It's because you were authentic.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
People can tell you, yeah, we we didn't try to
be somebody. We weren't. Uh, it was just you know,
and we imagine being on the road with three of
your best buds and you're selling out arenas and it's
stupid money and uh people are you know, people would
dress up like Larry at some point. I think all
(14:35):
of us had kids that would dress up as we.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Were, you know, the cable guy. There's like an audience
filled people. Yeah, I love that. So yeah, well it
was it had an impact. I almost it's like mash
you know, it was everybody watched it, so everybody had
the experience together. Everybody could talk about it together. And
because you're pulling in these arenas of people, that's a
(15:00):
large swath of people and they all talk to people
and so on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, and I think that we all really appreciate the
fact that these were working class people. I mean, there
was we hit an audience said Hollywood had heart, you know,
had basically ignored yep. And I'll tell you one of
my favorite stories to this day about talking about how
comedy has a healing faction to it. I was years ago.
(15:29):
I was at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Detroit, Royal Oak, Michigan,
just outside of Detroit. I found this out later on.
But a lady had come to the show, and she
said she wrote a letter to the club owner and
she said, I don't know, I don't remember his name,
but he was the last one on the show, and
that would have been me. She said, please tell him
(15:51):
he cures cancer. And what happened was she had gotten
diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she said, I had to
make a choice. I could either wallowing this or I
could just go on with my life. She goes, I
went to the show. I laughed for seventy five minutes.
She went back to the doctor the next day and
they told her she'd been misdiagnosed and have goosebumps all over. Hey, listen,
(16:16):
I didn't cure her cancer, but what I did was,
for seventy five minutes, I let her forget some of
the most horrific news you could get. And she said
tell him. I said, thank you, And it was just like,
I'll never forget that as long as I lived. And
that's what I try to tell young comedians, is you
never you always got to do your show, whether it's
(16:36):
five fifty people or whether it's five thousand people. You
don't know who's in that audience and how you're going
to affect their lives. And when I finally realized the
power that comedy has, it was like the world open,
The comedic world opened up to me, and I realized
I didn't I didn't have to try to be somebody
(16:57):
I'm not and I could just do be Bill and
that was good enough.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Wow, that's pretty powerful stuff. Bill.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, yeah, that was minally Wow. We'll be right back
with more of the Comedy Save Me Podcast. Welcome back
to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You've talked about growing up in Texas and finding your
voice in comedy. Was there a specific moment, like an
epiphany you had where laughter, either making others laugh or
comedy itself for you literally saved you your life or
hope to get through something difficult.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think if we're baling brutally honest here, when I
was in the club circuit, you know it was I lied,
loved the club circuit. I had a blast doing it,
but I had a dark side. I started drinking and
it wasn't because I wanted to drink. It was because
(18:04):
you're trying to kill the pain of being away from
your home, being away from the babies, my wife, and
I think the defining moment for me was one I
used to go and I would drink at the club
because they gave free drinks, and I remember I would
go back to the hotel room and I knew I
had to call Gail, my wife, and I would be
(18:26):
looking at the phone, going, she's gonna know, she's gonna know,
and sure enough I would soon I would say hey,
and she goes call me back tomorrow when you're sober,
when you're sober, and I could have lost everything, her,
the kids, my career, and thank god, I do thank
God for that because I did. I was too dumb
(18:50):
to see what was happening. And then I finally just
I was lucky enough to be one of those people
that could say, Okay, I'm going to stop, you know,
because there's bigger things than work here. So and back
to the retirement thing. I think that's what brought me
out of it was I figured that God had given
me this gift to be able to make people laugh,
(19:13):
and who am I to say, no, that's not what
I want to do. I have. I had to kind
of turn my life over to him, and thank god
I did, literally because it was It's what made me realize,
you have a goal. I know now what my purpose
on this earth is, and it's to make people feel
(19:34):
That always say in interviews, I always hope that people
leave my show feeling better about themselves than when they
got there. When you can do that, it's it's amazing,
not only what it does for them, but what it
did for me. You know. I love making people laugh
and I love the fact that that people will. They
had a hundred other ways they could have spent their money,
(19:55):
but they decided to come see my show, and it's
my job to do livered.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What you just said was so huge. And how many
years did you take off or when you were tired
and you were a couple of years, a couple of years, Yeah,
And during that time were you ever when did it
finally hit you that you needed to go? Like, when
did you realize who what you're calling was? I mean,
you would have think you've been doing this a long time, Bill,
(20:21):
so to say just a couple of years ago, was
when you finally realized what your calling was. That's a
big deal, right.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
It went from being just a job to a passion.
And you know, I love them. I love when I
always say I know I've written a good joke. When
I see a husband or a wife kind of elbow
each other and go, oh yeah, that's you right there, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that has all the time. That's what made me was
that I got a funny story. One night we were
(20:51):
doing Blue Collar and as after the show, and Ron
and I went down we were staying the night, and
so we went down to the bar. And I've known
Ron since he went up on open mic night and
we were sitting at the bar. I had was. I
tried so many different things. I mean I tried the
rock and roll opening with the music and the lights
and all that. And Ron White, of all people, said,
(21:14):
you know, Bill, I remember today. I'd go up on
stage and I'd just gut the room and then they'd
introduce you, and you'd come up there with that slow draw,
and within three minutes it was Ron who And I
realized that Ron White of all people, showed me that
go back to who you were. I was so and
this is on and I've told Jeff this. I was
so busy trying to be Jeff that I forgot to
(21:37):
be me. Wow, that's a great compliment to Jeff Foxworthy,
because you know, he was who I patterned was. He
was all I had to judge by.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
It's the highest form of flattery.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's thank god it all worked out the way it's
supposed to, because it's it's you know, I'm having fun again.
And you know, like when I do my show now,
there'll be some new stuff, but then, you know, like
that we talked about earlier, then I'll do some of
the old classics. Uh, and you forget that sometimes there's
people in the audience who may not have heard that
bad you know, whether it's you know, like you said,
(22:09):
I've been doing I've been doing this for almost forty
five years.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And it's just turning forty. Now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I wish I was just turning forty. I'll be I'm
on the south side of getting close to seventy.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So get out of here. You know who you remind
me of? You always have kind of reminded me of.
Tell me that people haven't told you this before, but
a certain lead character in a show called Yellowstone, Oh, yeah,
Kevin Costner.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, you get that every one. So I actually tried
to get my agents and stuff to send him a
letter saying, hey, you might want to look at this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Oh yeah, that's a standard as some new character only.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
But yeah, it was I get that quite a bit.
I'll tell you a funny story about Kevin Cosser. Well
years ago. I'll tell you how far back it was.
HBO was doing a special on Willie Nelson's sixtieth birthday
and my job, I wasn't even on the show. My
job was just to keep the audience up in between.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Takes your audience fluffing basically.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, I was a fluffing for the audience.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, and sit okay, right in.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Front of me in the stage was Kevin Costner and
Gary Busey, and Gary Busey was hammered, I mean hammered
and just not really the kind of audience you want
to have. But Kevin Costner was laughing and hitting the
table and stuff. And so we went backstage. Somebody came
in and they said, hey, Kevin Costner wants to meet you,
(23:30):
and I said, great, I'd love to meet you. But
this is how far back this was. Dances with Wolves
had just come out, all right, And so Gail's with me,
and we're backstage, and I see Kevin Costner walking towards me,
and I see Gail walking towards me, and they haven't
seen each other yet, and Gail was a If Gail
was going to cheat on me, it would be with
Kevin Costner.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
To be fair, you do look alike, so maybe she
could have made a mistake. It was dark.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I would love to believe that, but the h and
so I see him, and also I see my wife
see Kevin Costner, and he's talking to me and saying, hey,
I really enjoy your stuff. You're very funny, and I said,
thank you very much. I'm a big fan. And Gail
was standing next man. She hadn't said a word the
whole time, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her
(24:16):
into him and said, and you are such a good sport.
And then he walked off. And I looked at Gail
and I said, why didn't you say something? She goes
because it would have come out.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh my god, he just he made her so nervous.
I have to tell you, it's a very strange thing.
I had a similar situation where I ran into Kevin
Costner at an event because he has a band, right,
and he wanted to come on a show that I had.
There was a music show on A and E years
(24:46):
ago called Private Sessions, and he was like, Hey, I
want to be on your show. He tells a friend
and my friend says to me, come over here, motions
me over. We're at some hotel somewhere and I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Like, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I don't want to be one of those people. No, no,
come here, comarree And I go over and I said,
what's going on? He said, Lynn, this is Kevin, Kevin,
this is Lynn. And next thing you know, Kevin has
my cell phone and he's programming his manager's number and
it to call so that he can be booked on
my show. And I'm looking across and my husband's looking
at me like why does he have your number phone
(25:17):
in his hand or what is going on? But he's
just is he not the most real? Oh he's totally real,
genuine straight shooter.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, I listen. Would if I could have a dream,
it would be that he and I did a project
together or something, because uh, but I don't know if
that's ever going to happen, but it would sure be cool.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Well we put it out there so you never know.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
By the way, if you got Kevin's number, now you
win the phone poker game. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I haven't even thought to go look until you just most.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
And for a long time I had John Travolta on mind.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Wow, how did that go?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Okay? Okay? That was another weird That's the thing about
this business. You get Sometimes you get thrown into a
situation and us school, how is this happening? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So I had I was coming to Gail and I
were coming back. We flew into LA on a charter
plane and I said, I'm going to go in and
get the bags. And I walk in and there's John
Travolta sitting in the lobby because he's a pilot and
he's going to take his plane out, and I swear
to you. Then he looked at me. He goes, hey, Bill,
how are you doing? And I was like, you know me,
(26:25):
I'm good, John, and he goes we started talking, Yeah,
here's my number. And I was like, I looked at you.
I go I have his phone number.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Now what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So I can win the phone poker game.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I know, like, what am I going to really call
up Kevin and you're going to call up Travolta?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
John, what's up? When we met at an airport and
he may have been recruiting me, I don't.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Know, No, but another one of the genuine ones in
the world, you know, just so.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I think that's you know, I remember when I had
my sitcom, The bill Ing woll Show on TBS. We
had we gave Jennifer Lawrence her first job. She word
my daughter on my sitcom, and I remember she was
I remember one day walking into her dressing room and
I turned to the producer and I said, we're going
(27:20):
to be right in the episode where she goes off
to college real quick, because you just she had it.
But it was it, and that it was she was
just Jenny. She was. She didn't try to be and
I think that's why people loved her at the Oscars.
She's fallible, you know, she and blessed her little heart
when she got started getting all these movies. For about
the first two or three of them, she would always
(27:41):
thank me, uh for giving her that job. And she's
done all right for herself, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's pretty special. I mean that's for you to see
that too and to want to push her out as
opposed to keep her.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I lovely kep her, but I knew we weren't going
to be able to.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Well, the world has been through
a lot since your sitcom there, Yes, and I could
list a million things nine to eleven, the pandemic, political division.
How have you seen comedy's role evolve as a source
of relief or escape and what do you think what
(28:19):
responsibility do you feel that the comedians have to help
people when the times are really the darkest.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I think that's when we need comedy the most. You know,
it used to be and people went to a comedy
show to just kind of get a break from life.
And now, you know, there was a period of time
where it's almost like people were coming to the show
hoping you would say something that would offend them, Yeah,
so they could shout out or whatever. And I just
(28:50):
took I just took that to me as like, just
do your stuff, don't you know. My stuff's always been
middle of the road, middle America. That's what people wanted.
They just wanted some kind of stability, like to help
me get through this. As a comedian, I've always felt
like it was my job to do what I got,
not to tell you what you should think or how
(29:12):
you should because I don't care. I don't care what
your political beliefs are or anything. I just my job
is to make you laugh. And if I can do that,
then we've both achieved a goal. You know that that
you're you're a little more relaxed now. I'm I'm having fun.
And you know, there's there's a niche for everything. You know,
(29:35):
some people like that kind of in your face comedy
and stuff. I always don't be like, well, if you
come to my show, just sit back, you're gonna laugh,
and you're gonna walk out of here feeling good.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I love that. I wish you were my doctor. Imagine
if your doctor said that to you every time you
went to an appointment.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, everything, Just sit back, relax, put on the seatbelt.
As your understanding of laughter and the power of the
actual physical laughing, has it changed who you are as
a person, not just as a performer, Like, now that
you know the power that it has.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I think maybe, uh, there was a period of time
where I like I said, I didn't really, it was
just a job. You know. It was a thank god
it worked out because I was literally not trained to
do anything else. You know, that's where you say comedy
saved my life. I didn't. I didn't know what I
was gonna do. You know, if this comedy thing hadn't
(30:33):
worked out, I had no b plan, there was no backup. Uh.
And I don't know if maybe subconsciously I knew that
and it made me work harder at it. Yeah, but yeah,
it was. Uh, it's one of those things. And just
the actual if you think about how good you feel
when you laugh out loud, I mean, there's no bad feeling.
(30:54):
The endorphins kick in and you walk out of there
feeling great. I think if we can all as a
as a society, just remember that not everybody's out to
get you. Sometimes it's good just to sit back and laugh.
And Uh. I'll tell you a story that my dad
was a doctor at the time and he was telling
(31:15):
me I remember never forget to you know, he was
an anesthesiologist and had done all this stuff. I remember
one morning at breakfast, he said, you know, I've always
wanted to try a stand up comedy. I went, what,
I go, Why you're a doctor. You you've got you
heal people, he goes. They did a study that in
an operating room situation, even when a patient is under sedation,
(31:39):
if the room is light and there's kind of laughter
and stuff, people heal. I think he said, people heal
three times faster than they do if if the room
is you know, somber and people aren't talking. And so
when he said that, I go, Wow, I go, this
is way bigger than than I have. I had then
(32:01):
my comprehension. I think that for that because he reminded
me that your job is to make people laugh, and
if you do that, you're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, even if you're not a brain surgeon or yeah,
you know you don't have to, you're healing people in
a different way exactly exactly. Wow, that's pretty cool. And
that you know that too. It's almost like I remember
getting into the business when I was a kid and
always feeling sort of like, yeah, I know, I know
it's not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not
(32:33):
some you know, philanthropist or you know whatever. And but
when you realize that what you do can help people
then it changes and all of a sudden, you don't
feel inferior just because you're an entertainment or you know.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Right well, and especially live with comedy, because you know,
Rodniey Dangerfield summed it up, you know when he said,
you know, he did that, I don't get any respect.
Comedy is just starting to gain that respect that it
deserves because you know, people my friend and I would
would be on the road and we used to laugh
that people would go, We'll just get up there and
to your stuff. You know. It's there's there's an art
(33:09):
and a science to comedy, you know, And I don't
think people understand that that how hard it is. Although
Seinfeld once had a bit he said that they did
a survey of people's top five fears and number two
was death. Number one was speaking in public.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You're the second person.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, and what you're saying is you'd rather be the
guy in the box than the guy given the eulogy.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
It's true. I never knew that though you're the second
person in the last two weeks that had said that
to me. That statistic.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, it's it's crazy. And you know, and I tell
you this. The other thing that I love it I
love making people laugh. I love it when people will
come up to me and say, you know what, I
was having a really crappy day and you made me
laugh and thanks. You know that, That to me is
like the greatest compliment you can get.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's the best. And how can you not want to
do that. I can't even imagine what you were doing
when you were retired. Yeah, well like that to me,
I would need that all the time. I would need
to know that I was helping and being helped by
that just by helping others, I mean, right, there isn't
And also, I want to say something to the listeners
right now. Bill, you are one of the biggest names
(34:25):
in comedy, and you are probably one of the most
down to earth people I've ever spoken to in the
entire entertainment industry. So I just want to say thanks
for even carving out the time for us today and
for sharing your vulnerable side and giving us a peek
at what it's really like, because it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's an incredible power. I am just so honored and
humbled the fact that whatever reason, the gods of comedy
reached over and touched me and said you're going to
be the one, and now you know, it's so funny
because now every once in a while, like if I'm
working on some new stuff, I'll go to a club
(35:06):
and you know, on an open mic night or whatever,
just to work out some material, and invariably one of
the young comes ago. I've been listening to you my
whole life, and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
What, how is that even possible? I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, but it's got that power, and you know, I
hope that you know it's funny you mentioned about the
being just a kind of a homegrown guy. Somebody asked
me there was a we were playing a game where
they go, what do you want written on your headstone?
And I hope with all my heart that they can
write There's one I told my wife. I said, the
(35:44):
first one I want to have on my headstone is Wow,
it's more human than I thought it'd be.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
She goes, I am not putting that on your headstone.
And the more I thought of my thought, I really
do hope with all my heart that when people remember
me that it'll be in one phrase he was a
nice guy.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I can't even I don't even know how to go
on to the next thing. With you, because that's just
first of all, I love the first one though, because
everybody who would come to visit your headstone you and
see that that would laugh, and so you would continue
to make people laugh.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Way hopefully they would laugh.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, And then you reminded me of a story real
quick of my grandfather when he was dying when I
was really little, and they wouldn't let me in the
room to see him because it was really difficult. But
I remember standing out in the hall with my whole family,
and I wonder if this is why I always like comedy.
It was that or Carol Burnette. But I'd see the
nurses coming out of the room cracking up. Bill. My
(36:46):
grandfather he's literally taking his last breaths, and he's joking
with the doctors and the nurses, and they're coming out
of the room and they're laughing and crying at the
same time because they can't believe they're laughing while this
man is dying.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So well, you know what that tells me? He got it,
he did, he got it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
He did. Yeah. Well, Bill, it's been such a pleasure
talking with you.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
No, it's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
It's so honored. Here's your sign, it wasn't my time?
Is a tour coming up for you?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, that's the new tour. Yeah. It went for him
from here's your sign, It's finally time to now it's
here's your sign, it wasn't my time?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Thugs it rhymes. It's good that you can find that
at at Bill Angvil dot com. And was there Do
I see something else? Something about just sell them for parts?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Oh? That was Is that a special That was a
special idea that I really loved. I just loved the
title just because it came from as you get older,
you start you know, I did you know these things
start breaking down and uh, you know you're getting older.
And my fear was the doctor was going to go
to my wife and go just sell them for parts.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
It's better than getting sent out to pasture, I guess.
Bill Engel, thank you so much for coming out of
retirement to save all of us with your laughter. I
can't wait to see all the new things that you're
going to be doing. And thank you for healing all
of us with your laughter and for coming on comedy.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Save me man. It's been my honor, and thank you
for doing this
Comedy Saved Me.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
There's an art and a science to comedy, you know,
And I don't think people understand that how hard it is.
Although Seinfeld once had a bit He said that they
did a survey of people's top five fears, and number
two was death. Number one was speaking in public.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Alen Hoffman, and welcome to Comedy Save Me, the show
that explores the healing power of laughter and how it
helps us all more than we sometimes even know. Our
guest today knows something most of us forget. Laughter isn't
just entertainment, it's literally survival. The man who gave us
here's your Sign didn't just create the catchphrase. He created
(00:44):
a lifeline for millions of people who need to laugh
their way through the absurdity of everyday life. From selling
cars in Texas to selling out arenas as a part
of the legendary I remember this so clearly. Blue Collar
Comedy Tour was awesome. Bill and is one of the
biggest names in the business who's turned observational humor into
(01:04):
cultural movement that reminded us that we're all in this together.
Stupid signs at all. But here's the thing about Bill
behind the laid back drawl and the everyman persona is
someone who deeply understands the transformative power of laughter. He's
seen it heal marriages, men broken hearts, and bring strangers together.
He has lived it, breathed it, and dedicated his life
(01:27):
to it. And today we are so lucky on Comedy
Save Me to be talking about more than just the jokes.
We're going to dive into why laughter matters, how comedy
has shaped his journey, and what happens when you dedicate
your life to making the world a little lighter, one
punchline at a time. With Bill Angvill next right here
on Comedy Save Me, Comedy Saved Me. Bill Angvil, Welcome
(01:54):
to Comedy Save Me. I'm so happy you are back
in action and you decided to come out of retirement.
This is such big news in the comedy world. Did
you realize how big this was.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Not at the time when I In hindsight, what I
should have done is just taken a break because I
was burntout. And as we'll get into, if I'm burnout,
then it doesn't reflect the show's not as good. And
I knew when I caught myself watching Housewives of Salt
(02:25):
Lake City it was trying to come out.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Of are Oh no, I better check myself then, because
that's sort of a staple. Thanks for warning me. I'm
getting close to burnout.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Ah, oh you're fine.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, we're so glad you're back here. Here's your Sign
bit sort of became a cultural phenomenon that brought millions
of people together through laughter. In fact, I remember a
little music video with Dwight Yoakam in it, which was
It's Still Hysterical. I had to revisit it again because
it was so good. Can you take us back to
the first time you saw how powerful lead that Joe
(03:00):
connected with audiences and what it meant to you to
have given so many people that shared language of humor.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, at first I should probably give you a small correction.
It wasn't Dwight Yoakum. It was Travis Tritt sang this
song and music. Listen, don't worry about it. It's funny,
that know. The short answer to is that I had
no idea how big that was going to get. I mean,
it basically became the Where's the Beef of the nineties,
(03:30):
The thing here with the catchphrase, whether it's here's your sign,
whether it's you might be a redneck or get or
done or whatever. You can't go into these thinking I'm
going to write a catchphrase, because you don't know whether
that's going to be it or not. I get young
comedians all the time asking me, how do I write
a catchphrase? I go, well, that's the deal. You don't
you write it, but it's up to the audience. And
(03:53):
I remember the first time I heard someone say here's
your sign and they weren't directing it at me in
other words, like didn't know I was within in proximity.
I was. I was in a grocery store and the
little girl that was checking everybody out couldn't get something
going on the cash register, and the manager came over
(04:14):
and hit like one button and it looked at her
and said, here's your sign. And I went, oh my god,
I go, this is uh, it's it's something bigger than I.
If it wasn't for here's your sign, we probably wouldn't
be talking right now. We got so huge. And when
Travis an interesting story that when we I released my
(04:35):
first album, here's your Sign, it was all I had
to compare to was Foxworthy and you might be a redneck.
And of course he had hit the stratosphere with that,
and so I thought when my manager, we had the
same manager at the time, and I remember thinking, okay,
(04:55):
he said, we're going to release the album. Here's your sign.
I go, all right, here we go. Let let's let
the roller coaster begin. And the first week the album
came out, we sold one hundred copies across the country.
That means we sold less than two a state. So
I was like, wait a minute, we're supposed to be
getting big and getting our name known. And then we did.
(05:18):
The problem was on the album, the song wasn't on it,
and so we released the video with the Travis Tritt
singing the song, and it literally went from one hundred
copies a week to ten thousand copies a week, which
was incredible the power that that song had. Now, that
was back when CMT was allowing us to do a
(05:40):
little funny videos with country singers. They loved the singers
loved it, and I loved it because they showed everybody
a different side of these artists. That thing. A quick
funny story about it when at the time I was
on tour with Joe Diffey, who unfortunately we lost in
just a great guy. But I went to him and
I said, I was on tour with him and I said, hey, Joe,
(06:03):
we're going to release a song as won't if you'd
sing it, And he goes, oh, yeah, man, I'd love
to do that. He said, let me get clearance from
the record label. And he went to the record label
and said, they want to do this song and they said, oh, Joe,
you don't want to. You don't want to be part
of a novelty song. You got a career going here,
and so he said they won't let me do it,
(06:24):
and Travis Tritt did it and it was number one
for fifteen weeks on the country charts, which was at
the time, you know, other than Foxworthy, was unheard of,
and here we are. We were rolling. And it's funny
because it kind of became my in a comedy form
of if like I remember the Bye by Miss American Pie,
(06:47):
if I I could do ninety minutes of killer comedy.
But if I don't do they here's your sign people
walk out going, oh, he didn't do here's your sign?
So I have to kind of have to. I have
to do it now.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I wonder you could probably do an entire set
of just here's your sign just like together, right.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, you would think so, but I think after a
while people might get a little tired of that.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I understand. I totally get it, and it's almost like
a musician, you know, you've got to play the hits. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, And that was one of the interesting things about
coming out of retirement was I was kind of flipping
out about, oh man, I got to write a whole
new ninety minute set, and in the morning I thought
about it. Now, you don't have to do it, because like,
if you and I were going to go see Aerosmith
on the way to the concert, not one of us
is going to say, oh, I hope they play all
new stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I can't believe you just said that, though, because when
I was younger, I used to work at a radio
station and Aerosmith was is still one of my all
time favorite bands all time. I'm originally from Boston, so
you kind of have to be an Aerosmith fan. But
I used to say, man, they're putting out another album, like,
(07:59):
can't they give room to somebody new to come in?
And then I realized, no, they've They've they still got
to make a living, make new things.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Hey, hey, hold on one second. I don't know how
we're Somebody just rang the doorbell home.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh, go get it, go ahead, go ahead, let's see
who it is. Sorry, who is it?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Okay? Do you want to know who it is?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, it's the plant lady.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The plant lady.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
She comes in and waters the plants and stuff when
we're gone.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Oh that's so nice. So now she knows she thought
you maybe weren't home.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
No, no, she knew this was her day to come.
I just didn't pay attention to it.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I love it. That's great. Last show I did, the
lawn Doctor came. So I feel your pain about that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
It's uh, it's so funny. How as much as I'd
liked to be Hollywood and stuff like that, this is me.
This is me, the doorbell ring in, the dog's bark
and the.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So listen, don't don't ever be Hollywood. It you is
just so refreshing, And it's like talking to a normal person.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I try. I try to be normal, but you know
who seems like the harder I try. I finally realized
that maybe sometimes I need to just step out of
the way for a little bit, you know, let let
life happen.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
And get out of your own way.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, get out of my own way, that's the uh.
But yeah, back to what you were saying about Aerosmith,
it was I was kind of the same way. I
was a huge rocker. A lot of people don't know
that that that I was.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All right, hit me with some of your favorite bands.
Are we talking like Moley Crue. Are we talking glam
rock or hard rock? Heavy metal?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Or I was I wasn't into heavy metal, but uh,
I was. I'm definitely a classic rocker, whether it's Aerosmith
or whether it's Boston or whether it's you know. And
that's what's hard to accept sometimes is the songs I
grew up with now are considered golden oldies, which, oh please,
that says about me.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm with you, I'm with you all on all of it.
It's just hard to.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Imagine my most weird band that people go what. I
was a huge Alan Parsons Project fan, one of the best.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Come on, yeah, that's so cool. I love that. Yeah.
It's interesting too now because all of these songs are
coming back in commercials we see on TV now. Yeah,
that never happened when they were big. It was you.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Got labeled to sell out because yeah, you know, then
all of a sudden, everybody went, oh, wait a minute,
the Stone's got one hundred million dollars for them to use.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, and that only happened a few years ago. It
was like in the early twenty twenty one or twenty
two or something like almost every major band from you know,
nineteen hundred to today sold their back catalog. Yeah, that's
crazy obviously to commercial companies. Let me ask you, since
we were talking about this, the Blue Collar Comedy Tour,
(10:55):
you helped to create this like communal experience that we
were just talking to and it was it wasn't just
a comedy club bill. It was arenas full of people
that you were making laugh and share this experience. Is
there when you were there going through this at the moment,
did you what was it that you witnessed about this
(11:15):
this sort of healing, unifying power of laughter when thousands
of complete strangers could kind of join arms and do
the same thing at the same time together.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, I think that was one of the keys to
blue collar success. Was we were your neighbors, you know,
we weren't you know, it wasn't this kind of artificially
created group, you know, like the monkeys or whoever Jake Jake.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Is that puppy.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, that's Jake the He's got a nice bark, but
that's about all he'd got. So the thing back to again,
Here we go, the normal life. The I remember we
held the record for selling out the Nashville Arena in
twenty four hours, and at that, you know, we were
(12:08):
finally dethroned by bon Jovi, which is two names that
just don't go together, blue collar comedy tour and bon Jovi.
But it was I remember we would get to the
arena and I used to make a habit of this.
As I would walk. They usually had a center stage
and everybody was around us, and I used to go
before they opened the doors to the stage and I
(12:30):
would just look around and go, this is insane. This
this is not stand up comedy. You know stand up comedy,
like say, it was the old brick wall in front
of the you know microphone. And I remember one night
I forget where we were. We were somewhere in the Midwest,
and for whatever reason, we had all come from different
locales and the promoter got four limousines, which was silly
(12:55):
because we just rode together in the same car. But
after the show, so we all had chartered planes because
we were coming in from different areas. And after the show,
the limousines pulled out of the arena and we went
to this little regional airport and there was the four
jets lined up in a row, and each limousine pulled
off to a jet, and I remember standing on the
(13:18):
steps of my plane looking at Jeff and I said, Dude,
this is as close to rock and rolls we're ever
going to get. And the funny thing was we all
could do. The deal was everybody did twenty minutes and
I don't care how good your set was. What people
really really tuned into and loved was at the end
(13:39):
of the show when we would come out on barstools
and we would all sit on each corner of the
stage and we would just tell stories. And that was
people's favorite part of the whole show was because I
think what it did was it made us human. We weren't,
you know, we were just four guys. And I think
if you were to ask the guys, they would all
say that we were just four guys who were good
(14:01):
at their craft. But you know, we were all just
taken back about how big this had gotten. I mean
there was blue collar dolls for God's sakes at one point.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
It's because you were authentic.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
People can tell you, yeah, we we didn't try to
be somebody. We weren't. Uh, it was just you know,
and we imagine being on the road with three of
your best buds and you're selling out arenas and it's
stupid money and uh people are you know, people would
dress up like Larry at some point. I think all
(14:35):
of us had kids that would dress up as we.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Were, you know, the cable guy. There's like an audience
filled people. Yeah, I love that. So yeah, well it
was it had an impact. I almost it's like mash
you know, it was everybody watched it, so everybody had
the experience together. Everybody could talk about it together. And
because you're pulling in these arenas of people, that's a
(15:00):
large swath of people and they all talk to people
and so on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Well, and I think that we all really appreciate the
fact that these were working class people. I mean, there
was we hit an audience said Hollywood had heart, you know,
had basically ignored yep. And I'll tell you one of
my favorite stories to this day about talking about how
comedy has a healing faction to it. I was years ago.
(15:29):
I was at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Detroit, Royal Oak, Michigan,
just outside of Detroit. I found this out later on.
But a lady had come to the show, and she
said she wrote a letter to the club owner and
she said, I don't know, I don't remember his name,
but he was the last one on the show, and
that would have been me. She said, please tell him
(15:51):
he cures cancer. And what happened was she had gotten
diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she said, I had to
make a choice. I could either wallowing this or I
could just go on with my life. She goes, I
went to the show. I laughed for seventy five minutes.
She went back to the doctor the next day and
they told her she'd been misdiagnosed and have goosebumps all over. Hey, listen,
(16:16):
I didn't cure her cancer, but what I did was,
for seventy five minutes, I let her forget some of
the most horrific news you could get. And she said
tell him. I said, thank you, And it was just like,
I'll never forget that as long as I lived. And
that's what I try to tell young comedians, is you
never you always got to do your show, whether it's
(16:36):
five fifty people or whether it's five thousand people. You
don't know who's in that audience and how you're going
to affect their lives. And when I finally realized the
power that comedy has, it was like the world open,
The comedic world opened up to me, and I realized
I didn't I didn't have to try to be somebody
(16:57):
I'm not and I could just do be Bill and
that was good enough.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Wow, that's pretty powerful stuff. Bill.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, yeah, that was minally Wow. We'll be right back
with more of the Comedy Save Me Podcast. Welcome back
to the Comedy Save Me Podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You've talked about growing up in Texas and finding your
voice in comedy. Was there a specific moment, like an
epiphany you had where laughter, either making others laugh or
comedy itself for you literally saved you your life or
hope to get through something difficult.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think if we're baling brutally honest here, when I
was in the club circuit, you know it was I lied,
loved the club circuit. I had a blast doing it,
but I had a dark side. I started drinking and
it wasn't because I wanted to drink. It was because
(18:04):
you're trying to kill the pain of being away from
your home, being away from the babies, my wife, and
I think the defining moment for me was one I
used to go and I would drink at the club
because they gave free drinks, and I remember I would
go back to the hotel room and I knew I
had to call Gail, my wife, and I would be
(18:26):
looking at the phone, going, she's gonna know, she's gonna know,
and sure enough I would soon I would say hey,
and she goes call me back tomorrow when you're sober,
when you're sober, and I could have lost everything, her,
the kids, my career, and thank god, I do thank
God for that because I did. I was too dumb
(18:50):
to see what was happening. And then I finally just
I was lucky enough to be one of those people
that could say, Okay, I'm going to stop, you know,
because there's bigger things than work here. So and back
to the retirement thing. I think that's what brought me
out of it was I figured that God had given
me this gift to be able to make people laugh,
(19:13):
and who am I to say, no, that's not what
I want to do. I have. I had to kind
of turn my life over to him, and thank god
I did, literally because it was It's what made me realize,
you have a goal. I know now what my purpose
on this earth is, and it's to make people feel
(19:34):
That always say in interviews, I always hope that people
leave my show feeling better about themselves than when they
got there. When you can do that, it's it's amazing,
not only what it does for them, but what it
did for me. You know. I love making people laugh
and I love the fact that that people will. They
had a hundred other ways they could have spent their money,
(19:55):
but they decided to come see my show, and it's
my job to do livered.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
What you just said was so huge. And how many
years did you take off or when you were tired
and you were a couple of years, a couple of years, Yeah,
And during that time were you ever when did it
finally hit you that you needed to go? Like, when
did you realize who what you're calling was? I mean,
you would have think you've been doing this a long time, Bill,
(20:21):
so to say just a couple of years ago, was
when you finally realized what your calling was. That's a
big deal, right.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
It went from being just a job to a passion.
And you know, I love them. I love when I
always say I know I've written a good joke. When
I see a husband or a wife kind of elbow
each other and go, oh yeah, that's you right there, Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that has all the time. That's what made me was
that I got a funny story. One night we were
(20:51):
doing Blue Collar and as after the show, and Ron
and I went down we were staying the night, and
so we went down to the bar. And I've known
Ron since he went up on open mic night and
we were sitting at the bar. I had was. I
tried so many different things. I mean I tried the
rock and roll opening with the music and the lights
and all that. And Ron White, of all people, said,
(21:14):
you know, Bill, I remember today. I'd go up on
stage and I'd just gut the room and then they'd
introduce you, and you'd come up there with that slow draw,
and within three minutes it was Ron who And I
realized that Ron White of all people, showed me that
go back to who you were. I was so and
this is on and I've told Jeff this. I was
so busy trying to be Jeff that I forgot to
(21:37):
be me. Wow, that's a great compliment to Jeff Foxworthy,
because you know, he was who I patterned was. He
was all I had to judge by.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
It's the highest form of flattery.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It's thank god it all worked out the way it's
supposed to, because it's it's you know, I'm having fun again.
And you know, like when I do my show now,
there'll be some new stuff, but then, you know, like
that we talked about earlier, then I'll do some of
the old classics. Uh, and you forget that sometimes there's
people in the audience who may not have heard that
bad you know, whether it's you know, like you said,
(22:09):
I've been doing I've been doing this for almost forty
five years.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And it's just turning forty. Now.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I wish I was just turning forty. I'll be I'm
on the south side of getting close to seventy.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So get out of here. You know who you remind
me of? You always have kind of reminded me of.
Tell me that people haven't told you this before, but
a certain lead character in a show called Yellowstone, Oh, yeah,
Kevin Costner.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Yeah, you get that every one. So I actually tried
to get my agents and stuff to send him a
letter saying, hey, you might want to look at this guy.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Oh yeah, that's a standard as some new character only.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
But yeah, it was I get that quite a bit.
I'll tell you a funny story about Kevin Cosser. Well
years ago. I'll tell you how far back it was.
HBO was doing a special on Willie Nelson's sixtieth birthday
and my job, I wasn't even on the show. My
job was just to keep the audience up in between.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Takes your audience fluffing basically.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, I was a fluffing for the audience.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, and sit okay, right in.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Front of me in the stage was Kevin Costner and
Gary Busey, and Gary Busey was hammered, I mean hammered
and just not really the kind of audience you want
to have. But Kevin Costner was laughing and hitting the
table and stuff. And so we went backstage. Somebody came
in and they said, hey, Kevin Costner wants to meet you,
(23:30):
and I said, great, I'd love to meet you. But
this is how far back this was. Dances with Wolves
had just come out, all right, And so Gail's with me,
and we're backstage, and I see Kevin Costner walking towards me,
and I see Gail walking towards me, and they haven't
seen each other yet, and Gail was a If Gail
was going to cheat on me, it would be with
Kevin Costner.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
To be fair, you do look alike, so maybe she
could have made a mistake. It was dark.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I would love to believe that, but the h and
so I see him, and also I see my wife
see Kevin Costner, and he's talking to me and saying, hey,
I really enjoy your stuff. You're very funny, and I said,
thank you very much. I'm a big fan. And Gail
was standing next man. She hadn't said a word the
whole time, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her
(24:16):
into him and said, and you are such a good sport.
And then he walked off. And I looked at Gail
and I said, why didn't you say something? She goes
because it would have come out.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Oh my god, he just he made her so nervous.
I have to tell you, it's a very strange thing.
I had a similar situation where I ran into Kevin
Costner at an event because he has a band, right,
and he wanted to come on a show that I had.
There was a music show on A and E years
(24:46):
ago called Private Sessions, and he was like, Hey, I
want to be on your show. He tells a friend
and my friend says to me, come over here, motions
me over. We're at some hotel somewhere and I'm.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Like, no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I don't want to be one of those people. No, no,
come here, comarree And I go over and I said,
what's going on? He said, Lynn, this is Kevin, Kevin,
this is Lynn. And next thing you know, Kevin has
my cell phone and he's programming his manager's number and
it to call so that he can be booked on
my show. And I'm looking across and my husband's looking
at me like why does he have your number phone
(25:17):
in his hand or what is going on? But he's
just is he not the most real? Oh he's totally real,
genuine straight shooter.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, I listen. Would if I could have a dream,
it would be that he and I did a project
together or something, because uh, but I don't know if
that's ever going to happen, but it would sure be cool.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Well we put it out there so you never know.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
By the way, if you got Kevin's number, now you
win the phone poker game. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
I haven't even thought to go look until you just most.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
And for a long time I had John Travolta on mind.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Wow, how did that go?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Okay? Okay? That was another weird That's the thing about
this business. You get Sometimes you get thrown into a
situation and us school, how is this happening? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Where am I?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So I had I was coming to Gail and I
were coming back. We flew into LA on a charter
plane and I said, I'm going to go in and
get the bags. And I walk in and there's John
Travolta sitting in the lobby because he's a pilot and
he's going to take his plane out, and I swear
to you. Then he looked at me. He goes, hey, Bill,
how are you doing? And I was like, you know me,
(26:25):
I'm good, John, and he goes we started talking, Yeah,
here's my number. And I was like, I looked at you.
I go I have his phone number.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Now what are you going to do with it?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Nothing?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
So I can win the phone poker game.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I know, like, what am I going to really call
up Kevin and you're going to call up Travolta?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
John, what's up? When we met at an airport and
he may have been recruiting me, I don't.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Know, No, but another one of the genuine ones in
the world, you know, just so.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
I think that's you know, I remember when I had
my sitcom, The bill Ing woll Show on TBS. We
had we gave Jennifer Lawrence her first job. She word
my daughter on my sitcom, and I remember she was
I remember one day walking into her dressing room and
I turned to the producer and I said, we're going
(27:20):
to be right in the episode where she goes off
to college real quick, because you just she had it.
But it was it, and that it was she was
just Jenny. She was. She didn't try to be and
I think that's why people loved her at the Oscars.
She's fallible, you know, she and blessed her little heart
when she got started getting all these movies. For about
the first two or three of them, she would always
(27:41):
thank me, uh for giving her that job. And she's
done all right for herself, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's pretty special. I mean that's for you to see
that too and to want to push her out as
opposed to keep her.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I lovely kep her, but I knew we weren't going
to be able to.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Well, the world has been through
a lot since your sitcom there, Yes, and I could
list a million things nine to eleven, the pandemic, political division.
How have you seen comedy's role evolve as a source
of relief or escape and what do you think what
(28:19):
responsibility do you feel that the comedians have to help
people when the times are really the darkest.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I think that's when we need comedy the most. You know,
it used to be and people went to a comedy
show to just kind of get a break from life.
And now, you know, there was a period of time
where it's almost like people were coming to the show
hoping you would say something that would offend them, Yeah,
so they could shout out or whatever. And I just
(28:50):
took I just took that to me as like, just
do your stuff, don't you know. My stuff's always been
middle of the road, middle America. That's what people wanted.
They just wanted some kind of stability, like to help
me get through this. As a comedian, I've always felt
like it was my job to do what I got,
not to tell you what you should think or how
(29:12):
you should because I don't care. I don't care what
your political beliefs are or anything. I just my job
is to make you laugh. And if I can do that,
then we've both achieved a goal. You know that that
you're you're a little more relaxed now. I'm I'm having fun.
And you know, there's there's a niche for everything. You know,
(29:35):
some people like that kind of in your face comedy
and stuff. I always don't be like, well, if you
come to my show, just sit back, you're gonna laugh,
and you're gonna walk out of here feeling good.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
I love that. I wish you were my doctor. Imagine
if your doctor said that to you every time you
went to an appointment.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
We're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, everything, Just sit back, relax, put on the seatbelt.
As your understanding of laughter and the power of the
actual physical laughing, has it changed who you are as
a person, not just as a performer, Like, now that
you know the power that it has.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
I think maybe, uh, there was a period of time
where I like I said, I didn't really, it was
just a job. You know. It was a thank god
it worked out because I was literally not trained to
do anything else. You know, that's where you say comedy
saved my life. I didn't. I didn't know what I
was gonna do. You know, if this comedy thing hadn't
(30:33):
worked out, I had no b plan, there was no backup. Uh.
And I don't know if maybe subconsciously I knew that
and it made me work harder at it. Yeah, but yeah,
it was. Uh, it's one of those things. And just
the actual if you think about how good you feel
when you laugh out loud, I mean, there's no bad feeling.
(30:54):
The endorphins kick in and you walk out of there
feeling great. I think if we can all as a
as a society, just remember that not everybody's out to
get you. Sometimes it's good just to sit back and laugh.
And Uh. I'll tell you a story that my dad
was a doctor at the time and he was telling
(31:15):
me I remember never forget to you know, he was
an anesthesiologist and had done all this stuff. I remember
one morning at breakfast, he said, you know, I've always
wanted to try a stand up comedy. I went, what,
I go, Why you're a doctor. You you've got you
heal people, he goes. They did a study that in
an operating room situation, even when a patient is under sedation,
(31:39):
if the room is light and there's kind of laughter
and stuff, people heal. I think he said, people heal
three times faster than they do if if the room
is you know, somber and people aren't talking. And so
when he said that, I go, Wow, I go, this
is way bigger than than I have. I had then
(32:01):
my comprehension. I think that for that because he reminded
me that your job is to make people laugh, and
if you do that, you're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, even if you're not a brain surgeon or yeah,
you know you don't have to, you're healing people in
a different way exactly exactly. Wow, that's pretty cool. And
that you know that too. It's almost like I remember
getting into the business when I was a kid and
always feeling sort of like, yeah, I know, I know
it's not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not
(32:33):
some you know, philanthropist or you know whatever. And but
when you realize that what you do can help people
then it changes and all of a sudden, you don't
feel inferior just because you're an entertainment or you know.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Right well, and especially live with comedy, because you know,
Rodniey Dangerfield summed it up, you know when he said,
you know, he did that, I don't get any respect.
Comedy is just starting to gain that respect that it
deserves because you know, people my friend and I would
would be on the road and we used to laugh
that people would go, We'll just get up there and
to your stuff. You know. It's there's there's an art
(33:09):
and a science to comedy, you know, And I don't
think people understand that that how hard it is. Although
Seinfeld once had a bit he said that they did
a survey of people's top five fears and number two
was death. Number one was speaking in public.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You're the second person.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, and what you're saying is you'd rather be the
guy in the box than the guy given the eulogy.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
It's true. I never knew that though you're the second
person in the last two weeks that had said that
to me. That statistic.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, it's it's crazy. And you know, and I tell
you this. The other thing that I love it I
love making people laugh. I love it when people will
come up to me and say, you know what, I
was having a really crappy day and you made me
laugh and thanks. You know that, That to me is
like the greatest compliment you can get.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's the best. And how can you not want to
do that. I can't even imagine what you were doing
when you were retired. Yeah, well like that to me,
I would need that all the time. I would need
to know that I was helping and being helped by
that just by helping others, I mean, right, there isn't
And also, I want to say something to the listeners
right now. Bill, you are one of the biggest names
(34:25):
in comedy, and you are probably one of the most
down to earth people I've ever spoken to in the
entire entertainment industry. So I just want to say thanks
for even carving out the time for us today and
for sharing your vulnerable side and giving us a peek
at what it's really like, because it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's an incredible power. I am just so honored and
humbled the fact that whatever reason, the gods of comedy
reached over and touched me and said you're going to
be the one, and now you know, it's so funny
because now every once in a while, like if I'm
working on some new stuff, I'll go to a club
(35:06):
and you know, on an open mic night or whatever,
just to work out some material, and invariably one of
the young comes ago. I've been listening to you my
whole life, and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
What, how is that even possible? I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, but it's got that power, and you know, I
hope that you know it's funny you mentioned about the
being just a kind of a homegrown guy. Somebody asked
me there was a we were playing a game where
they go, what do you want written on your headstone?
And I hope with all my heart that they can
write There's one I told my wife. I said, the
(35:44):
first one I want to have on my headstone is Wow,
it's more human than I thought it'd be.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
She goes, I am not putting that on your headstone.
And the more I thought of my thought, I really
do hope with all my heart that when people remember
me that it'll be in one phrase he was a
nice guy.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I can't even I don't even know how to go
on to the next thing. With you, because that's just
first of all, I love the first one though, because
everybody who would come to visit your headstone you and
see that that would laugh, and so you would continue
to make people laugh.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Way hopefully they would laugh.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, And then you reminded me of a story real
quick of my grandfather when he was dying when I
was really little, and they wouldn't let me in the
room to see him because it was really difficult. But
I remember standing out in the hall with my whole family,
and I wonder if this is why I always like comedy.
It was that or Carol Burnette. But I'd see the
nurses coming out of the room cracking up. Bill. My
(36:46):
grandfather he's literally taking his last breaths, and he's joking
with the doctors and the nurses, and they're coming out
of the room and they're laughing and crying at the
same time because they can't believe they're laughing while this
man is dying.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So well, you know what that tells me? He got it,
he did, he got it.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
He did. Yeah. Well, Bill, it's been such a pleasure
talking with you.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
No, it's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
It's so honored. Here's your sign, it wasn't my time?
Is a tour coming up for you?
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Yeah, that's the new tour. Yeah. It went for him
from here's your sign, It's finally time to now it's
here's your sign, it wasn't my time?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Thugs it rhymes. It's good that you can find that
at at Bill Angvil dot com. And was there Do
I see something else? Something about just sell them for parts?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Oh? That was Is that a special That was a
special idea that I really loved. I just loved the
title just because it came from as you get older,
you start you know, I did you know these things
start breaking down and uh, you know you're getting older.
And my fear was the doctor was going to go
to my wife and go just sell them for parts.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
It's better than getting sent out to pasture, I guess.
Bill Engel, thank you so much for coming out of
retirement to save all of us with your laughter. I
can't wait to see all the new things that you're
going to be doing. And thank you for healing all
of us with your laughter and for coming on comedy.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Save me man. It's been my honor, and thank you
for doing this
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.