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Blue Collar star Bill Engvall makes ‘em LOL at the Desert Diamond

May 14th, 2009 Posted by: Pinbyte

I saw a good show recently on Saturday, March 7th. A friend of mine thought it would be fun to see Bill Engvall, who performed that night at the Desert Diamond Casino near Tucson. He is well known for being a member of the ‘Blue Collar Comedy Tour’, of which Jeff Foxworthy is a notable member. Viewers of the Blue Collar TV shows sometimes confuse him with Jeff, and Bill makes a joke about it.

Along with Ron White and the so-called ‘Larry the Cable Guy’, Bill and Jeff and them have created a comedic force which has no parallel. These guys are just plain funny, and keep it clean enough to be seen on TV. Bill Engvall was perhaps my least favorite of the group until I saw him perform live. He put together an act that had me laughing and applauding almost non-stop.

It is the first time I have attended an event at the Desert Diamond, the last big show there was Jerry Lewis, believe it or not. They have got some work to do over there. The entire seating area looks temporary, like it could be carted into storage overnight. The camera operator shooting for those big screens on the sides of the stage was incompetent to say the least (I resisted saying, “couldn’t film the broad side of a barn”, oops… I guess I couldn’t resist).

I am surprised that any big-name celeb would grace their stage. Still, it is small enough that there are no bad seats, if you can get one. Bill Engvall packed the house, there was not an empty seat visible. Ultimately, the venue did not detract from Bill’s performance or the enjoyment thereof.

I definitely admire Bill’s ability to deliver comedy with sincerity. For the most part, I don’t think he makes things up just to be funny, he is just good at turning everyday life into comedy… almost everybody will laugh. The audience was totally synchronized with his timing and I think he got more out of it than he expected. This Tucson audience rocked, and Bill rolled ‘em.

Bill announced, err… plugged that his partner in crime, Ron White will be performing at the same venue on April 17^th. I don’t see any other upcoming AZ dates on Ron’s site, so if you’re in AZ and want to see him, you’ll be coming to Tucson. Tip: At the Desert Diamond, go in at the service entrance and park near there. We parked near the main entrance and it took a half an hour to just back out of our spot after the show let out.

Bill Engvall could probably make even that situation into a funny story. He really is that good. Near the end of his 80+ minute performance, he goes into a bit about text messaging which made me laugh. It was especially relevant to me because my wife has been bitten by that bug recently, and like Bill, I just don’t get it.

Bill went on to talk about the text messaging shorthand, you know, things like LOL (laugh out loud). Bill had one of his own to offer. I’ll put it in context: “I saw Bill Engvall’s show recently and it was so funny it made me PMP.” I’ll leave y’all to ponder that.

- Pinbyte

Filed under: Event Reviews