COMEDY REVIEW : Stand-Up Engvall Spins Gold From Tall Texas Tales

SAN DIEGO —  Bill Engvall’s stand-up comedy act isn’t fancy. No high-road preaching. No deep messages between the lines or one-liners. Just a well-oiled routine refined in Texas.

Before a sellout crowd of 290 Wednesday night at the Improv in Pacific Beach, Engvall spent 45 minutes examining topics from a hilarious parachuting outing (“Hell, I had 30 minutes training”) to a trip to the zoo (“Is there some unwritten law that says when you take your kid to the zoo it’s mating day?”).

The transplanted Texan, now living in Los Angeles, is a splendid story-teller who eschews the bam-bam approach to his jokes, preferring to mosey through familiar subjects, which he uses as a base for his one-liners.

Engvall’s strength lies in his ability to act as if he, too, is hearing this material for the first time. He chuckles along with the crowd, pleased with himself, like a young boy finding acceptance and enjoying it. At times, he laughed so much he couldn’t get the words out.

His personality and boyish charm buoy his material, and his Texas drawl adds a benign warmth.

The stories ramble, moving from a story of the remains of a dork fish found in Nevada to an entirely separate tale about a romance, then returning again to the dork fish, weaving it into other stories. One of the things he does best is give animals a human voice, giving their side of the story as he carries on a conversation with them. In the voice of the dork fish, he gets hooked on a corn dog being used as bait.

Engvall, 34, also isn’t real happy when he has to deal with stupidity.

He wonders why a warning on some blow dryers tells people not to use them while sleeping. Or why Binaca buyers must be told not to spray the stuff in their eyes.

He talks about (a true story, he swears) when he pulled into a gas station with a flat tire and the attendant asked, “Tire go flat?” “No,” Engvall retorted, “I was driving around and the other three just swelled up.”

Jim Hope and Andy Kindler set the stage for Engvall.

Hope was a pleasant surprise as the opening act, a position on the bill that too often is an embarrassment for the club and the comic. Unlike Engvall, Hope spent his 15 minutes jumping from topic to topic, including a reference to graffiti in La Jolla (“Wellll, it was typed. . . .”). Relying on voices, mimicry and sight gags, Hope put together an entertaining routine.

Kindler on the other hand was mostly an annoyance. He started out by burying his grandmother alive, before mining Hitler and the Holocaust for a few light moments.

His shouting and screeching little laugh never caught on, and he had the distracting habit of telling the crowd how good his jokes were during his 25-minute stint. Later, however, he explained the mystery of his being there.

“I’m just doing this until the trust fund kicks in.”

Bill Engvall, Jim Hope and Andy Kindler perform at the Improv, 832 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach, through Sunday. Show times are 8:30 and 10:30 tonight, 8 and 10:30 Saturday and 8:30 Sunday. Admission is $10 tonight and Saturday, $8 Sunday. For more information, call 483-4522.