For actor and comedian Billy Gardell, who portrayed Chicago police Officer Mike Biggs on the CBS-TV sitcom “Mike & Molly,” stand-up is an extension of TV.
“My fans are mostly ‘Mike & Molly’ fans,” Gardell said. “‘Mike & Molly’ was a working-class sitcom, and my humor is working class humor, so it really fits. I grew up in a working-class area in Pittsburgh where you do not take yourself too seriously. In my stand-up show, I talk about being crazy when you are young, but not being a hypocrite as an adult.”
Gardell will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. The show is rated R for strong language.
“When you’re a young comic, you’re angry,” said the 47-year-old Gardell. “Once you’re successful, you wonder, ‘What can you gripe about?’ But I find I can still make truthful observations. There are always struggles in life, and I can relate to people and talk about how to get through this. As I have gotten older, it is less important about making a point. I just want people to laugh for an hour or so.”
Gardell is probably best known for playing opposite Melissa McCarthy in “Mike & Molly,” which ran on CBS-TV from 2010 to 2016 and continues to air in syndication. Before “Mike & Molly,” he co-starred in the television series “Lucky.”
His other television credits include guest spots on “Yes Dear,” “Judging Amy,” “My Name is Earl,” “The Practice” and “Monk.” He made his motion picture debut alongside Anthony Quinn and Sylvester Stallone in “Avenging Angelo,” and appeared in “Bad Santa,” “You, Me & Dupree,” “Undrafted” and “Jersey Boys.”
“I did stand-up for 10 straight years on the road,” said Gardell of his 29-year career in show business. “Then I moved to Los Angeles and did another 10 years before I was in the hit ‘Mike & Molly,’ so it was about 23 years to become an overnight success.
“I had done guest star spots on TV shows like ‘The King of Queens,’ but I was always keeping stand-up alive,” he said. “It keeps you sharp as a performer, and it pays the bills.”
Gardell’s next project is portraying Col. Tom Parker, the infamous manager of Elvis Presley, in “Million Dollar Quartet,” Country Music Television’s upcoming eight-episode drama series inspired by the Broadway musical of the same name.
“Million Dollar Quartet” is set in Memphis during the early days of the civil rights movement. It’s the true story of young musicians Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis who combined the styles of hillbilly country with the 1950s R&B sound and changed the course of music.
“Million Dollar Quartet” is scheduled to be broadcast in March 2017.
“Things are a little different after a successful sitcom,” Gardell said. “I saw the script for ‘Million Dollar Quartet,’ and I thought the Col. Tom Parker role was the perfect other side of the coin to easy-going and nice Mike Biggs. The role is tricky to play. He is a con man: full of greed and manipulation. But he has to be likable.
“When you have a sitcom that is a hit, you have to take a break before going into another sitcom,” he said. “You want to show more range as an actor.”
But Gardell is pretty sure he will never take a break from stand-up.
“I love stand-up first and foremost,” he said. “‘She’s the one that brought me to the dance.’ All through ‘Mike & Molly’ I would go out and perform stand-up. You can keep that going and do it whenever you feel like it.”
Randall Mielke is a freelance reporter for the Beacon News.
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Billy Gardell
When: Saturday
Where: Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora
Tickets: $55-$65
Information: 630-896-6666; www.paramountaurora.com