Pittsburgh comic Billy Gardell steps up his game with Monopoly host gig
Don't mind Pittsburgh comedian Billy Gardell if he feels like he just landed on Free Parking and won the cash in the middle of the Monopoly board.
First, he lands a hit CBS sitcom, “Mike & Molly,” which has just been renewed for a sixth season, and now he's hosting a new syndicated game show called “Monopoly Millionaires' Club.” The show will debut at 7 p.m. March 28 on ABC.
The new show, which coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Monopoly board game, was taped at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Twelve episodes were filmed in January, with a total of 21 planned for the first season.
“I don't think there's anything else like it on television. Watching someone win a million dollars is amazing,” Gardell says.
The show is produced in conjunction with several states' lotteries. The audience is made up of lottery winners who won their chance to participate.
“Everything about this show is big,” says Gardell, from the 50,000-square-foot studio to the host and the winnings. During tapings, there were two $1 million winners. “What's not to like: I get to host a great game show and change people's lives.”
Even the producers are heavyweights — Scott St. John of “Deal or No Deal.” and “Americas Got Talent” and Kevin Bellinkoff of “Scrabble Showdown” and “Family Game Night.”
“We chose Billy Gardell because he is able to interact with the audience to create that moment where drama can unfold,” St. John says. “He also has the ability to be funny and be a showman.”
Gardell has been displaying his versatility lately combining the hosting job on the “Monopoly Millionaires' Club” with guest hosting “The Late, Late Show” on CBS.
“Comedians are natural hosts and actors,” he says. “Nobody hits a punch line like a comedian. I had a blast (hosting ‘The Late, Late Show'). I could really like doing that down the line. Stand-up comics were made for that.”
He'll bring his stand-up act to the Monroeville Convention Center on April 24 and 25.
Stand-up, he says, is “my first love. I still think like a comic. Stand-up is mine forever, and I still love it.”
His best show ever, he says, was “the first show I did at the Byham for my ‘Comedy Central Special.' I will never be that good. Everything I learned in 20 years of stand-up came to fruition that show.”
When people talk about the “it” factor in comedy, most times, they are speaking of chiseled good looks or a dazzling smile to build a career around. Gardell's appeal is that he is just like the majority of us — someone trying to earn a living, trying to be a good husband, trying to be a good father and doing a great job on most days.
At this stage of the game, Gardell could have his pick of places to play, but being true to form, he chose Monroeville because he wanted his friends from his old haunts in Swissvale to be able to get there. He chose Monroeville for symbolic reasons, too. That's where he had his first paid gig — at the Funnybone Comedy Club in the cellar of the Parkvale Building.
Gardell made his break the old-fashioned way: He did the club circuit night after night, show after show and finally, at the age of 40, television found him.
“I'm glad I made it after 40,” he says. “If I would have made it when I was 20, I would have burned (my career) to the ground. Now, I have a wife and kid to think about.”
Grounded as he can possibly be with his busy schedule, Gardell returns his own phone calls and emails and always makes time to put family first. Growing up in Swissvale, he forged a belief that talent wins battles and hard work wins wars.
“My dad always said, ‘You ain't pretty. You ain't educated. You better outwork everyone,' ” he says.
Comedian Matt Wohlfarth is a contrituing writer for Trib Total Media.
