Doing stand-up comedy is like playing golf, Billy Gardell says.
In addition to starring in "Mike & Molly" and "Bob Hearts Abishola," Billy Gardell made appearances on "Young Sheldon."
“You take time off and your swing gets bad. But once I got my feet back under me, I fell in love with it again.”
Gardell returned to clubs and theaters after his CBS comedy, “Bob Hearts Abishola,” ended its run last year. Like others on the show, he wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Producers tried to pitch it to other networks and streaming services but that wasn’t in the cards.
“If you get a three-year run on television these days, it’s big,” he says. “But five is probably the max now because syndication isn’t what it used to be. They’re still trying to figure out how to do streaming and get advertising dollars and a bunch of stuff that’s above my pay grade.”
While the 55-year-old Gardell also dipped a toe in the film world (he has “The Vortex” opening in a handful of cities), he thought stand-up might be the career to revisit.
Billy Gardell as Bob and Folake Olowofoyeku as Abishola in "Bob (Hearts) Abishola."
“I stopped doing stand-up for three years and thought I was done with it. Then I went and made myself unrecognizable by losing 170 pounds. When you go out now, you realize most of the businesses are driven by the internet and social media – and I’m not big in those areas, so I reach out through newspapers and television shows, and I’ve just started to build a social media presence to reach a younger audience.”
The upside to the new approach? Gardell’s television presence (particularly “Mike & Molly,” which airs in syndication) has endeared him to a younger audience. Those younger fans then bring their parents to his shows and “we get a nice crossover.”
Comedy pull
When both comedies were airing on CBS they had big crossover audiences. Now those generations are ready to see their sitcom fave in person.
During those shows, Gardell talks about the change in his appearance, his 25-year marriage and life with a 21-year-old son.
The weight loss – which was apparent in the closing season of “Bob Hearts Abishola” – came about when his health was in jeopardy. “You can’t put work over health,” he says. “And I finally understood that. I needed to be healthy and that was my priority.” He opted for bariatric surgery and started to see his profile change.
To stay there, he watches what he eats, exercises three or four times a week and embraces consistency. “Every day when I eat, it’s kind of like Groundhog Day. I stick to a very healthy diet and try to stay within three to five pounds. If I’m up a pound or two, I’ve learned you have to be kind to yourself. Being obsessive and yelling at yourself or being down on yourself is not going to get you anywhere. If you go up a couple of pounds, it’s time to tighten down and get back to where we need to go. I work with a nutritionist every week. My (weight) number is 210. If I hit 210, that means it’s the red-light number; we’ve got to do a couple extra walks this week or we don’t have any nibbling on desserts this week.”
Before he embraced a change, Gardell says he got as high as 380 pounds. “The idea that you can look in the mirror and go, ‘I don’t look that bad,’ is a delusional thing. The reason I think I talked myself into being OK with that (weight) was because my blood numbers were always good. But they started to creep up and I got Type 2 diabetes, which is gone now because of the weight loss. I was just in a place where I thought I might be in some real trouble if I didn’t make a big change … and that’s what did it for me.”
During the COVID pandemic, Gardell noticed people with sleep apnea, asthma, obesity and diabetes were at risk. “I had all those things at that time, so it kind of scared me straight.”
New avenues
While film work has fascinated Gardell (he was in “Bad Santa” and “You, Me and Dupree,” among others), he hadn’t done a drama.
Hit sitcom star brings his stand-up act to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Feb. 14.
In “The Vortex,” he plays a house comedian at the MGM Grand, circa 1980. “It centers around the fact that this guy has a gambling addiction and the way he gets through it is by spending all his time being a psychiatrist for the local nuts around him. He doesn’t have to look at his own problems and then there’s a spiritual kind of thing that makes him realize to be free he has to make a big choice. It was a fun experience.”
Gardell figures those extra-curricular activities will help him build the next big thing on his resume. “Sometimes you do things for less money so that you can show yourself to be a different kind of artist. That’s how you keep growing.”
Son Will, he says, is interested in the entertainment industry and makes his own films. “He likes acting a little bit, too, but he likes the other side of the camera a little more.
“We have a very good relationship. I always tell him, ‘Look man, I’m not going to ever blow up at you but if you’re honest, I’ll shoot you straight. That way, you have a safe place to tell someone whatever you need to tell them and ask whatever questions you need to ask.’ We built that trust over the years and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”
Gardell has assured him and his wife that he’ll cut anything from his act that makes them uncomfortable. “But they actually come and laugh because my humor is not mean-centered.”
Fighting fires
While the Gardells’ home was spared during the recent round of fires in California (they were evacuated for several days), they have been acutely aware how it has affected friends and neighbors. “We were part of the lucky ones. Now, we’re looking for what we can donate to help others and where we can volunteer. The community’s been really rallying around each other – I’ve never seen anything like it, not in 28 years out here.
“Whoever said, ‘May you live in interesting times,’ really should just get lost.”
