REWARDING STUPIDITY : Things That Make No Sense Pay Off in Laughs--and Maybe an Award--for Bill Engvall

Bill Engvall is headlining at the Irvine Improv this week, but he’ll be taking the night off Saturday. The Texas native with the good-’ol-boy-next-door stage persona and a penchant for identifying the “stupid people” among us has a good excuse: He’ll be at the American Comedy Awards ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, where he’s up for an award as best male stand-up in a comedy club. (The awards show will air on ABC in May.)

“I am very proud of that,” Engvall said by phone last week from Lake Tahoe, where he was appearing at Caesar’s Palace. “When you’re on the road so long you wonder does anyone notice, or care about, what you’re doing. The nomination shows that you’re doing something right.”

Engvall, who tours 30 weeks a year, said that he’s decided against preparing an acceptance speech for Saturday night. “I thought, I know what to say if I get it,” he said. “It’s just that to be listed as one of the top five male stand-ups in the country is just, Whe-e-e-e-w! . . . It would be nice to win it, but the nomination is such a great honor.”

A gentle, low-key comic with unassuming humor and a “regular guy” style of delivery, Engvall said it’s basically his job to make fun of “stupid stuff.” And it seems that there’s a lot of it out there.

Only recently, he said, he and his wife were cleaning their carpet and he noticed that on the can of the carpet cleaner it says, “Don’t take this internally.”

“You gotta wonder,” Engvall said, “is there somebody cleaning their carpet saying, ‘Little bit for the carpet, little bit for me.’ ”

Engvall’s “stupid people” routine has become his signature piece.

“That’s what people remember,” he acknowledged. “I actually had someone say that to me in the casino: ‘Hey, you’re that stupid guy!’ ”

Lately, Engvall said, he has begun reprising some of his old material, routines that he used to do when he was starting out in comedy a decade ago: “It was really good stuff, but when I wrote new stuff I just put it on the back burner,” he said. (He talks, for example, about having to work his way through college: “My dad paid for tuition, books and room, but I had to have beer.”)

The father of two young children also has been doing more material on family life.

“We just had my daughter’s birthday and we had 20 little 5-year-olds at our house,” he said. “All my daughter wanted for her birthday party was Barbie to be at the party. So we hired this girl to be Barbie. She did a great job. In fact, she’s coming back to my birthday party!”

Engvall’s delivery is punctuated by an infectious laugh, a style that make routines he’s done hundreds of times seem as though he just thought of something funny that he wants to share with the audience.

“I enjoy every minute of being on stage,” he said. “There’s nothing better than the feeling when you’re in tune with an audience. When it’s there, it’s just such a magic moment: Everybody’s on the same wavelength: ‘Oh man, that happened to us. Remember what little Billy did?’ ”

Although a comic can’t make an audience forget it’s in a comedy club, Engvall said, he tries not to come off looking like a comedian.

“I try to come off more like we’re just sitting around and I’m telling you what I think,” he said. “I’m not a joke teller, I’m more of a storyteller--with jokes interspersed. Joke-jokes are good if you can write them really good. But I think stories kind of give more insight, (providing the feeling) that you really thought of this, that it’s really real to you.”

Among his recent real observations: those dry-cleaning bags that say, “This is not a toy.”

“I just can’t count the number of kids sitting on Santa’s lap saying, ‘No, Santa, I don’t want a bike or a train. Just a big old, clear cleaning bag will do me fine.’ ”

Who: Bill Engvall.

When: Thursday, March 26, and Sunday, March 29, at 8:30 p.m., and Friday, March 27, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., with Matt Weinhold and Todd Glass. On Saturday, March 28, Engvall has the night off and Weinhold and Glass co-headline.

Where: The Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine.

Whereabouts: In the Irvine Marketplace shopping center, across Campus Drive from the UC Irvine campus.

Wherewithal: $7 to $10.

Where to call: (714) 854-5455.