Comic comes home to celebrate Bonkerz
“Mike & Molly” star Billy Gardell is coming home to Central Florida to celebrate a comedy club central to his career.
“Orlando was my launch point as a stand-up comedian,” said Gardell, 48. “I cut my teeth as a stand-up in Orlando in the summer of ’87. I started at Bonkerz comedy club, and this is their 30th anniversary. I’ve had such a long relationship with them, it’s really heartwarming to come home and work for them.”
Bonkerz Comedy Productions presents Gardell at 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Beacham, 46 N. Orange Ave. in Orlando. The show, postponed from September after Hurricane Irma, is for patrons 18 and older. Tickets, ranging from $20 to $30, are available at ticketfly.com.
The comic said he was excited to do a show in downtown Orlando, where he used to “run with 3 bucks in my pocket, wondering if this would ever work out.”
It worked out extremely well for Gardell, who starred opposite Melissa McCarthy on “Mike & Molly” from 2010 to 2016 on CBS. He then played Col. Tom Parker, the manager of Elvis Presley, in the CMT drama “Sun Records.”
“Mike was a sweet, kind guy who would do anything right. The Colonel was this dark, cynical guy,” he said. “I wanted to show that I could do dramatic work as well.”
Gardell recently made a guest appearance on “Young Sheldon” and will return to that CBS sitcom in February. He is excited to see what new series opportunities come in the next pilot season.
He continues to perform in theaters, in casinos or at corporate events each month.
“What’s going on in my life is always what I’ve talked about. Right now that’s losing weight; my son is 14,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how to hang out with my wife again. After 18 years together, we’ve had every discussion and every argument. We’re trying to figure out where we go from here. It’s fun to talk about being a couple who’s survived this long.”
Gardell, a graduate of Winter Park High School, also can talk about his comedy start. “In 12th grade, I realized there was going to be no college that was going to teach me this class. There’s no class on how to be a stand-up comic,” he said. “I knew that’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t have the grades, the looks or the money to go to college. My path was set. I knew I was going to be a stand-up.”
Bonkerz was there for him, and he praised owners Joe and John Sanfelippo, who are brothers, and their partner, George Maltezos.
“I had been sneaking under age into their open mic night,” he said.” I finally came clean with them. They said they knew. They gave me a job.”
He cleaned the club at night, then hosted and seated people. He also answered phones during the day, washed the club awning and drove comics to the airport.
Bonkerz taught him about the comedy club business, Gardell said. “They helped secure in me that get-it-done-no-matter-what-it-takes attitude,” he added.
Orlando means a lot to Gardell in his career, but also in his life. (His Gardell Bros. Pizza in Hunter’s Creek closed in 2016 after a year.)
“I’m originally from Pittsburgh; I learned how to daydream in Florida,” he said. “The times I spent in Florida, I learned to write, I learned what my voice was, driving up and down those highways in Florida to bar one-nighters. I couldn’t put a value on the experience it gave me as a comedian.”
He said he met a lot of great comics from his time here, including Tom Rhodes, Darrell Hammond, Wayne Brady and Carrot Top.
“We had this really eclectic group that went on to be successful,” Gardell said. “It was a good thing, because comics didn’t hate each other back then. I think it’s a little more competitive today … We were just out to enjoy each other and try to be funny.”