It’s not a stretch to say that actor and comedian Billy Gardell isn’t the same guy he used to be. Literally.
The star of hit CBS sitcoms “Mike & Molly” and “Bob Hearts Abishola,” Gardell has undergone a transformative weight loss journey in recent years, dropping over 150 pounds, after having bariatric surgery in 2021, and changing his lifestyle since the pandemic.
“I was at 370 pounds, and then COVID hit, and I had all the dangerous earmarks,” Gardell told Revue. “I was overweight, (had) sleep apnea, asthma, type two diabetes. And, you know, that thing was outside waiting for me. So I had to shut it down. I just made a change, and decided, ‘You know what, I’m going to fix this thing.’ And I went and got bariatric surgery, and I just did my show, ‘Bob Hearts Abishola,’ and did my routine to lose weight. And now I’ve maintained that for three years, and I’m kind of ready to get back out there.”
When “Bob Hearts Abishola” wrapped up its fifth and final season this past May, Gardell really didn’t know what he would do next. After starring in two sitcoms for nearly a decade and a half straight, he took some time to think, before deciding to return to his first love, the standup comedy stage.
“I thought I was done with stand up,” Gardell said. “I’d taken three years off to make some health changes in my life. And when I came off of ‘Bob Hearts Abishola,’ I thought, ‘All right, maybe I’m done with stand up. And I don’t know, man. The bug bit me again.”
Gardell added that his comic buddies -- Christopher Titus, Steve Byrne, Alonzo Bodden, Ian Bagg, and Jay Leno, kept pestering him return to standup, and were instrumental in getting him to get back up on stage.
“I went down and saw Ian performing at the Irvine Improv with my wife, and man, it hit me,” Gardell said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to do this again.’ And so I got back up on stage, but like, I’m a different person. I’ve lost 173 pounds. I’m older. And so those were things to write about. And I’m an empty nester now. And so I found some inspiration again, and it’s just been fun to get back up.
“Now, that being said, I’ve gone back into the clubs because, you know, nowadays if you’re not on the Internet, no one knows who you are,” he added. “So it’s kind of like starting a band over, but with no pressure. And I’m really enjoying it.”
Gardell got his start in standup, grinding it out for decades on his long way to Hollywood. Nowadays, people of course know who he is from his widespread TV fame, even if they don’t quite recognize him after his dramatic weight loss.
“At this age, stand up is always my first love,” he said. “I love acting just as much. But stand up’s who brought me to the dance. And it’s great to be up on stage in this place where I’m doing it just because I want to do it. Like you feel that way at the beginning, and then if you get successful, there’s pressure, and commitments, and all that. And now I’ve come through that, and I’m at this place where I’m just doing it for the love of the game, and it’s very fulfilling.”
Looking back on the end of “Bob Hearts Abishola,” his second hit CBS sitcom with producer Chuck Lorre, Gardell said he’s so grateful to have had the opportunity to bring laughter and love into people’s homes every week.
“When you’re lucky enough to get a show, when it ends, there’s a lot of tears, and heartbreak, because you and the cast and the crew, you kind of become a family,” Gardell said. “We did that through COVID with no audiences, and it was just us in there trying to make this little show about love and family. And one of the great through lines of that show was that when you marry someone, you marry their family, and it shows you that we’re all kind of the same. We have a crazy mother, and we have a wacky sister, and we have a cool uncle. And it just reminds us that we’re all human. And that show did that beautifully. And so, of course, when it comes to a close, you can’t be too down. You’re obviously sad, but you got to have gratitude because to have that happen to me twice is just beyond my comprehension to this day.”
Married to his wife for over 23 years, with his son, now out of the house, and attending film school, Gardell continues to use family as the core of the inspiration for his own comedy. He added that growing up in Pittsburgh, before later moving to Florida as a kid, has stuck with him, and that Midwest sense of humor, that “sarcasm without the cruelty” as he calls it, is what he likes to do.
“I stay in gratitude, man,” he said. “I’m grateful for everybody who’s watched the work I’ve done. And they’re the reason my kid’s in film school, and they’re the reason I have a house. So I stay grateful, man. And I’m excited to see what the next chapter is. I got this new frame on this old jalopy, and maybe I’ll get to play the burned out fire chief, or the crooked politician or the bad guy. You know, I’d like to try to do that stuff now, but the experience I got on ‘Mike and Molly’ and Bob Hearts Abishola’ I will never be able to replace that. To do that back to back it’s beyond a gift to me.”
Billy Gardell
Dr. Grins, 20 Monroe Ave. #3f, Grand Rapids
Oct. 10-12, 8 p.m. (Thursday), 7:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. (Friday and Saturday), $35
Grinstix.com, billygardell.com
