COMEDY : He Never Runs Out of Those Stupid People Tricks

Bill Engvall maintains that his fellow Texans look at things differently than anyone else in the country. Take the time he got a flat tire during a trip back home.

“I pulled into one of those little side-of-the-road gas stations,” he drawls in his act. “The attendant walks out, looks at my car, looks at me. I swear to God he said, ‘Tire go flat? ‘ “

Laughs Engvall, his own accent suddenly becoming as thick as Texas Tea: “I couldn’t resist: ‘No. . . . Hell, I was driving around and those other three just swelled right up on me.’ ”

With that, the unassuming comic with the good-ol’-boy-next-door stage persona--who headlines at the Brea Improv through Sunday--segues into his signature piece concerning his dislike of stupid people.

“I think stupid people should be forced to wear signs that just say, ‘I’m stupid,’ ” he says. “That way you wouldn’t rely on them, would you? . . . That’s my job basically, to make fun of stupid stuff and there’s a lot of it out there.

“It’s like, my wife and I moved from Texas to (Los Angeles) and our house was full of boxes. My friend comes over and he goes, ‘Hey, are you movin’?’

“I said, ‘No. . . . We just pack our stuff up once or twice a week just to see how many boxes it takes. . . . Here’s your sign.’ ”

Audiences who have seen him in clubs or on television (“The Tonight Show,” “A&E;’s An Evening at the Improv,” “Comic Strip Live”) may not remember Engvall’s name, but they remember his stupid-people routine.

“It’s really funny because when I start into it, you can see people go, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s that “Stupid Sign” guy,’ ” said Engvall in a phone interview from Dallas, where he was appearing last week.

Engvall has no problem finding examples of stupid people to add to his routine.

“I’m always on the lookout for stuff,” he said, recalling the time a guy came by to look at the car Engvall was trying to sell. “We drove it around for 30 minutes and pulled back into the driveway. We were walking around kicking tires, and he reached down and just grabbed the exhaust pipe and goes, ‘Man, that’s hot!’

“Here’s your sign . . . and the price just went up.”

Engvall, who prefers telling “little stories” as opposed to doing one-liners, says his comedy style has been compared to Andy Griffith, who did comedy monologues in nightclubs early in his career.

While saying he’s “not as country as Andy Griffith,” Engvall concedes that “my stuff is far from being hip. The one thing people like about my show is it’s universal. Everybody can relate to it. I think people enjoy going to a show and saying, ‘Something like that happened to me.’ ”

Engvall said his act can basically be broken down into “four chunks”: stupid people, family life (he’s married, with two young children), medicine (he’s somewhat of a hypochondriac) and animals (“I’m a big animal fanatic.”).

In his routine on animals, he talks about having his cat neutered. Cats, he says, have a harder time of it than dogs, who “kind of understand” what has been done to them.

“You neuter a cat, get ready for the guilt trip of your life. We brought our cat home from the vet. He’s dragging his butt on the carpet: ‘Look at me. What am I going to tell my friends? I used to be somebody in this neighborhood.’ ”

Critics have complimented Engvall on his ability to effectively use call-backs in his act. While not overdoing it, he’ll slip “sign” references into several bits. Says Engvall: “I try to make the show a complete circle where everything is called back at least once.”

Indeed, he mentioned the blow-dryer on the wall in his hotel bathroom that has a warning that says, “Do not use while sleeping.”

“I’m thinking, has this become a problem?” he said. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve been sound asleep, woke up, and I was doing my hair.”

Who: Bill Engvall.

When: Thursday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 18, at 8:30 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 16, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 17, at 8 and 10:30 p.m.

Where: The Improv, 945 E. Birch St., Brea.

Whereabouts: Take the Lambert Road exit off the Orange (57) Freeway and go west. Turn left on State College Boulevard and right on Birch Street. The Improv is in the Brea Marketplace, across from the Brea Mall.

Wherewithal: $7 and $10.

Where to Call: (714) 529-7878.