He began is career as a stand-up comic, but for Billy Gardell that really was just the beginning. He stars with Melissa McCarthy on the hit sitcom “Mike and Molly.” The 45-year-old hosts television’s “Monopoly Millionaires’ Club” and is in a new movie, “Dancer and the Dame,” available on DVD now. He and his wife, Patty, have one son and live in southern California.
You have so much going on. I’m presuming you are making enough that you don’t have to work so hard.
That’s the Pittsburgher in me. You've got to work like you don’t have a job. You keep working while you can work.
That’s interesting. I know you started out working hard labor.
I was in a warehouse for Zayre. It was a precursor to Target. We were unloading trucks and sorting stuff and putting it on pallets and getting it ready to ship out onto the floor.
You were just a teenager. Did you drop out of school to do that?
No, I was working about 40 hours a week after school. I’d go in and work 4 to midnight, you know, help take care of the family. I was actually doing it down in Florida. My parents had gotten divorced, and my mom had moved us to Florida. We did the school year in Orlando and then me, my brother and sister would get on a bus and we would go back up to Pittsburgh for the summer. That was the way we got to see my dad. We’d sit around in the one room that had that window air conditioner all summer long.
At what point did you know you were funny enough to go on stage?
You know, my humor comes from that Pittsburgh mentality that is just don’t take yourself too seriously. The other thing that I always saw in Pittsburgh with my dad and his buddies was we are an industry town — or we were — but we’re still a hard-working town. To get through a hard day’s work, a little levity helps. I think Pittsburgh is great at that. [laughing]
Did you ever have an incident during stand-up or at another point in your career where you thought this is not going work?
Usually you live and die as a stand-up by your last show. I had to spend many an hour re-evaluating what it exactly it was I was doing with my life. [laughing] It’s usually after you bomb terribly. On the good nights, you think, “Oh, I will do this for the rest of my life.”
What happens is, once you have been doing it for 15 years, you realize you don’t have a choice. This is your gig because what are you going to put on a resume? I’ve been making funny noises and telling jokes for 15 years. You are in too far.
You have really taken off. Did you find the transition pretty easy into acting?
I have been very lucky, very blessed. Yeah, you know I have a great cast, and I learned a lot from them. I got to do some stuff early on in my career that kind of built up to that. I would say working with [executive producer] Jimmy Burrows during the first two years of “Mike and Molly” was a huge help. He really, really took me under his wing.
I don’t know if this is true, but it is said that Melissa McCarthy was told, “Don’t lose weight. It’s your character.” Have you ever been told anything like that?
I don’t think any of that is true. No, no, no, no. I haven’t been told any of that. They said, “Take care of yourself. We want to do this a long time. If you do [lose weight], good, we will write that into the show. If you don’t, good, we will write that into the show. We will make it real.” That is what has connected our audience to us, I think.
How did your parents adjust to your fame?
They’ve been good. My dad said, “Never give up on your dream,” and my mom said what a mom should say, “Keep your job at the warehouse for the insurance benefits.” [laughing] You know? They’ve been great, though. I’ve gotten to take them to do some bucket list things, and it’s been a treat.
Billy, a lot of comedians talk about a dark side. Is there a deep darkness or is it all joy?
I think at one point there was. Yeah, man, I came from a broken home. My mom was divorced a couple times, so we had to go through a couple stepfathers and be separated from my dad. I don’t think any life doesn’t have a little bit of rain. We certainly had ours, and it affected my comedy early on.
In your early 20s, you don’t know why you are mad but you think you are supposed to be mad. As life kind of unfolds, then you you see where you’re at and things are OK. I started to come to a kind of a gratitude that I had a wife and a child, and I’ve been able to do this for a living my whole life.
I was headed back to Pittsburgh — I’ve told this story a million times — but before “Mike and Molly” hit, I was going to jump on the radio on WDVE because I just wanted to come home and have a job where I could see my family. I was away on the road when “Mike and Molly” hit. Through all that I’ve been grateful for a good portion of time now.
You do not have a super strong Pittsburgh accent.
Well, I have to tone it down a little bit because of TV. Sometimes I’ll say something real Pittsburghese and they will say, “Can you please say that clearer?” [laughing]. It takes me about two days when I’m home. The closer I get to Swissvale, the worse it gets. By Friday, I’m saying, “Hey, where yinz goin’? You gon’ aut? [laughing].” I mean it comes right back. On Steeler Sundays out here. I have my Pittsburgh friends over and we get around each other and it becomes fun and infectious.
What’s interesting is when other people try to do the accent.
Oh, they are terrible! They don’t get our accent right. I think you have to be from there. There is nothing worse than an actor trying to do a Pittsburgh accent. I hate it.
Because you are doing “Monopoly Millionaires’ Club” and have guest-hosted talk shows, I was wondering if you would ever want to do a talk show?
That is one thing that I would love to do. I got to guest host “The Late, Late Show.” I really enjoyed it. It fit like a glove. If that were ever to present itself, I would absolutely do it. I think for stand-ups that is a pretty easy transition.
To hear more of this interview, go to post-gazette.com.
Patricia Sheridan: psheridan@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2613, Twitter: @pasheridan.
First Published: June 15, 2015, 4:00 a.m.