Star of the mega-popular CBS series Mike and Molly, Billy Gardell’s down-to-earth personality shows a level of humility that is just as imposing as his career: his website’s bio shares that he’s appeared in Lucky, My Name is Earl, Monk, Judging Amy, and The Practice. As well as helping others find their comedic voices through the Showtime series Billy Gardell Presents Road Dogs, and his own albums; Gardell’s comic sensibilities are a side-splitting comedic kick to the ribs.

Part of the Wild West Comedy Festival, Gardell will be playing two engagements: one on May 14 for the “Friends of Tim Wilson” benefit show, and another Zanies Comedy Club appearance on May 15. Billy recently spoke with the Pulse to discuss his both shows.

Murfreesboro Pulse: Our first question is a multipart question: You’re coming to Nashville for the “Friends of Tim Wilson” benefit that is a part of the Wild West Comedy Festival. On a personal level, who was Tim Wilson, how did you come to meet him, and what was his impact on comedy for you?
Gardell: Tim Wilson was a great, great comedian. A comedian respected by his peers. And just a guy that was very special on stage. Probably the closest thing to the “Mark Twain of Stand-up Comedy” that we’ve had, you know? I met him probably 20 years ago and I was working in a place in Mobile, Alabama. He was the headliner and I was the featured act and he called my manager,  who I’ve been with now for 20 years as well, and he called him, who was his manager. Same managers. And he called Chris and said, “I’ve got the next Jackie Gleason right here.” And he had been a proponent, and a believer in me, and a friend, and a mentor. And he stayed that way until he passed.

So when you compare him to Mark Twain, was that in terms of clever wordplay? In terms of wisdom?
Nah, no. Don’t compare him to Mark Twain. What I’m saying is he’s the Mark Twain of stand-up in the South. Because he was . . . and yes, what you’re saying with the words, he was truly a wordsmith. He could construct bits and stories and tell stories I think better than most of the Southern comics. I think he’s up there with the greatest ones. Him, and James Gregory and Ron White. He’s in that class.

Touching on the subject of “highest class of comedian,” and excluding the obviously important Tim Wilson benefit, we’d like to ask you a question to help readers make a selection: If you could only see one act at the festival, who would it be?
Umm, I don’t know. There’s  a lot of great guys I’m fans of there. I would say . . . I probably gotta toss up there between seeing my buddy Steve Byrne and seeing Billy Burr, who I think is probably the best guy out there doing it right now.

On the WTF Podcast with Marc Maron, you had mentioned that Pittsburgh is always in your heart. For those of us who haven’t been, what makes Pittsburgh such a special place for you?
Well, I think that any working-class town can identify with that place. It’s a place that you’re taught that your word is your accountability, you know. Your community is important. You have pride in your town. You know what your town does. And you work hard, you sacrifice. And you stay humble through that. You become a blue-collar person. I think any of the Southern farming towns have a lot more in common with the Northern mill towns than you would realize. That work ethic, that family value, that’s what holds with me.

The reason Pittsburgh is so special to me is that it’s where all of those things tend to be focused. It’s where I’m from. It’s my home. But I think that anywhere you go that’s a “working-class” town I think there are common threads.

In Halftime you’ve joked about “playing a sloppy first half” of your life.
Yeah, it’s a joke but it’s true [laughs].

How do you plan on changing the second half?
Well, I’m just workin’ on it man, you know? I don’t really drink any more, and I don’t do drugs. I’m trying to exercise a little bit, and trying to lose weight. It’s been a slow fight, but I’ve been getting there. And yeah, I’m just trying to hang on and make sure everything’s okay. I think what happens is, you realize you become mortal. When you turn 35, 40, you start to realize, “I’m not bulletproof anymore. I gotta take care of myself.” And so I’m in that transition right now. I let it go too far. I gotta get rid of some weight. But that’s about the last demon, is the refrigerator.

Do you think that’s a demon that a lot of people struggle with, or is that a manifestation or symptom to a much greater problem?
No, I think that food’s a tough one for a lot of people. Some people don’t eat it at all to the point where they hurt themselves. Some people go too far the other way, like me. There’s very few people that are very good and moderate, and I admire those people for being able to do that. It’s a tough thing. Because where I grew up, food was a very emotional thing. In my house, if we had a bad day, they’d say “Let’s eat.” If we had a good day they’d say “Hey, let’s eat!” So just kind of working on it, you know? Working on trying to figure out how to break that cycle. Or order a salad instead of cheeseburgers. I gotta admit, I don’t think salad tastes good. It just tires you out.

Are there any favorite healthy foods or food recipes you recommend for people?
I’ve kind of switched over to a lot of fruit. I don’t know why, but I’m on a pear run right now. I’m eating pears [laughs]. I would say that I like lean meat. Any lean meat. I do a pork tenderloin that I love, which is fairly lean. It’s just a little bit of lemon, little bit of olive oil, and smoke that. And then a little of salad with some olive oil. Just trying to get the healthy stuff going for me, or at least lean if it can’t be healthy.

You’ve also shared in the “Halftime” special your scrutiny of pharmaceutical companies, and the influence they have on American lives. Have you received criticism for those sentiments?
Uh, you know, you always get some folks that disagree with you. You can’t have an opinion and not have somebody disagree with you. My opinion is that I don’t think we’re that sick, and I don’t think we focusing enough on true problems. I think there’s an area of pharmaceuticals that work on curing things, but I think that there’s a big area that realizes there’s a lot of money in scared people.

So, per your perspective, this is a lot of “fear mongering” to get people to buy drugs for problems that could potentially be fixed through other means?
I don’t know . . . it depends on whose diagnosis is what. Depends on what you have. But before you run to the medicine cabinet, you should make sure there’s not another solution. That’s all I’m saying.

Having opened for Dennis Miller, Jerry Seinfeld and  George Carlin, do you find yourself differentiating between comedic styles?
First of all, I didn’t get to open for Miller, I was on his show. I was on his show as a “man on the street.” And he was very, very good to me. I never opened for Seinfeld; I worked for Seinfeld in Orlando. I was working at the club when he was there. I did open for Carlin.

Apologies
No, it’s a common misprint, and I want to make sure I get it right.

Well, in terms of Miller and Carlin, did you find yourself differentiating comic styles for each show?
No, no. Those are the kind of men that are unaffected by what you do. And which every great headliner should be. A headliner should be able to see what’s in front of him and then follow it. That’s why you’re the headliner. Now that being said, you should cast smartly who you open for. But when I got the chance to open for Carlin, it doesn’t even compare. I’m not gonna make any kind of impact that’s gonna destroy his show.

Any favorite George Carlin stories?
I asked him what I should write about. I only got to open for him once, so if I asked for advice, he could give me some advice on writing. And he said “Write about what’s happening in your life so that your act is always evolving.” And I said “Well, what if nothing is happening in my life?”, and he said “Well, get busy livin!” [Laughs]

What is the next stage in development for the Billy Gardell Presents Road Dogs series?
You know what, Showtime has passed on doing any more of ’em. They did the set of three as a group of specials, and then they just decided that they were going to go a different direction. They want to get more into the single hours. And it saddens me, because I really enjoyed doing it. There were about 10 other guys I wanted to do it with. But I’m grateful we got to do the three specials we did.

Do you have plans outside of that series to do something with those other guys? Is there maybe an opportunity “down the line” to work with them?
You know, once in a while, some of those guys I’ll bring out on tour with me, just so they get to work with me. I’ve worked with Ben Creed quite a bit.  I’d love to bring Kenny Rogerson out with me. It’s just a chance to work with your friends on a really fun level.

Part of the draw for Mike and Molly is that it has a greater appeal to authenticity. With your persona, do you feel that the stereotype of showbiz’s inauthentic nature is fair?
I don’t know what you mean. That’s a lot of big words. What do you mean?

Do you feel that with a show such as Mike and Molly that doesn’t just show a bunch of uber-pretty, CW Network hand-model rejects, that the body-image shaming of entertainment is a fair stereotype?
[Laughs] Look, man, you just gotta keep going until you find the opportunity that you’re going to succeed in. And that might take a long time. It took me 24 years to find the right role. So the thing about it, there’s a lot of pretty people in Hollywood. There’s some of them that are cool, and there’s some of them that don’t have a lick of sense, and are arrogant and doofy, but people like all that. Fans have a different take on everything. I think there’s room for a lot of that. Our particular group I think is the closest thing to real people in the sitcom world that’s out there right now. And I’m very proud of that. I personally think that getting successful at 40 really helped me because I was very grounded by the time I was 40. I had a wife and a kid. I think that had success come for me at 22, it probably would have been a different story and I’d probably be unemployed by now.

Really?
At that age, for success and money and people telling you you’re right all the time, it’s not hard to see where some of these kids fall off the edge.

So what you’re saying is that you could have been a Justin Bieber type?
I don’t think I’ve ever been small enough to be Bieber, but I think that I would have caused some trouble.

With the show having been renewed for its fifth season, what can the fans expect?
Five, yeah, it’s number five. We’re very excited about that. We’re going into syndication this year, and we’re all looking forward to going back in July. I think we’re just really hitting our stride again. We changed directions with the show at the beginning of the year last year. We had to get out of the corner of Melissa [McCarthy] being pregnant. Of Molly being pregnant. Because we’ve got the best physical comedienne in 20 years. We can’t put her in the hospital bed for two months (Laughs). So we had to come up with a different direction, and I thought that Chuck Lorre did that beautifully. He gave her a little bit of a mid-live crisis, and a bit of “What do I want to do with my life?” and “How does the family react to that?” So I think we’ll be exploring more of that. We’ll be going down more of that path next year, and try to get her where she wants to be Molly-wise, and then the family will follow behind. We’re gonna have Molly figure out her life, I think, towards this next one. Or at least think she does.

With the construction of the character arc of your character from the show, Mike Biggs, what would you consider a “happy ending” for the series?
A happy ending for the series, when we end it? I think that that’s when we should have the kid. I think that would be a beautiful last episode.

Really?
Yeah, “circle of life” type of things. I’d like to see Carl [Reno Wilson] find somebody. Get him kind of happy. And I think they should have the family all celebrate the birth of the first grandchild. I think that would be amazing. But I don’t know what they’re gonna do. They don’t tell us more than a week ahead of time.

Outside of the success of Mike and Molly, are there any roles or types of characters you’ve always wanted to play?
You know, it’s not so much roles as I would like to work with certain people. I really admire John Goodman’s career. I like that. I’d love to see that happen after sitcoms for me. I love what he’s done for the Coen brothers. I’d love to be in those kinds of films. I’d love to work character work in those kinds of films. That’s something I really long for.

For your career so far, what would you consider your crowning point? Sesame Street?
[Laughs] I think that Sesame Street is a jewel in the crown. Absolutely. I mean, that’s big time to be able to go one with Elmo and do a letter or a cheer.

That means a lot to people all over the world as well. It’s such an institution.
It’s incredibly nostalgic. It’s one of the things that’s held on from childhood that’s been around for so many years. Everybody identifies a good feeling with that. To be a part of that is a big honor.

Mr. Gardell, is there anything else you’d like to share?
Thank you for all of the support from the Mike and Molly fans, and I’m looking forward to coming to Music City.
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To purchase tickets to the May 14th show featuring Madigan, Ralphie May, Ron White , Billy Gardell, James Gregory and Killer Beaz check out TPAC’s website for the event. Billy will also be doing a May 15 special engagement show at Zanies Comedy Club, and tickets can be found via Zanies Nashville’s website . Alternately, you can check out the website for the Wild West Comedy Festival. Be sure to follow Billy Gardell on Facebook and Twitter as well.