Brad Garrett, Emmy Award-winning actor and published author, appeared at a book signing at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, back in May. As he says, “Only the big rooms, Johnny!”
Garrett, there to promote and sell his new (and only) book, When the Balls Drop: How I Learned to Get Real and Embrace Life’s Second Half, was standing near the table when a woman approached and said to him, “I would like to buy a book.”
Garrett said, “Thank you,” and the woman asked, “Where’s the Jane Austen section?”
It was a time when Garrett, who performs a spot-on impression of his hero Rodney Dangerfield, didn’t get no respect.
“I swear to you, that happened,” Garrett says during a highly informal phone conversation. “So, Izzy took her to the Jane Austen section and sold her two books.” Izzy is Garrett’s longtime girlfriend, IsaBeall Quella.
“When you’re on these book tours it’s a lot of work and you’re really on your own in terms of getting out and promoting and hitting book stores,” Garrett says. “You think it’ll be more of a team effort with the publisher, but it isn’t. I’m thrilled that end of it is over.”
But writing the book, an examination of living as a middle-aged man, Garrett says, “was a great experience, cathartic, revealing, even frustrating. I am glad I did it, but I’m not doing another one.”
Garrett is back in Las Vegas to host a week’s worth of shows at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the MGM Grand (he’s appearing at the club with Carl Labove and Heath Harmison through August 30).
Garrett has been working and operating the club at the MGM’s underground promenade for three and a half years. He often jokes about plying his craft “in the basement,” which he reliably jokes is “what happens when your ex-wife spends all your Raymond money.”
But there’s an air of restlessness in those comments, as Garrett has enviously eyed a choice room on the hotel’s casino level: the Beacher’s Madhouse nightclub and theater.
“I thought of maybe moving up there, and it was lightly discussed, putting in something that was bigger than just a comedy show. I would love to do comedy with a variety feel—with music and a few ideas to expand on a traditional comedy show,” Garrett says. “But what we’re doing is working, with the low ceiling and a good footprint for the show. I gotta say, things are going well in the basement, better than ever. We’re loving it, so my thought is, ‘Don’t [screw] it up.’”
Garrett still makes monthly appearances, with prices set $20 higher when he’s in the room than not. The return visits aren’t needed to turn a profit, Garrett says, but because, “I love it. The club is running on its own and could run on its own, and we’ve been in the black almost from the beginning.”
And, there is the not-unimportant issue of the real Brad Garrett actually turning up at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club. “When we discussed this originally, moving to the MGM, my presence was important to what I do,” Garrett says. “We get a lot of repeat customers, especially over the last 18 months, and I think there is something special about me being here. I mean, anyone can put their name on a club and never show up. I don’t want to be that.”
Through his stand-up performances and writing, Garrett remains a relevant TV actor. His latest project is the FX show Fargo, which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Best Miniseries and returns for a second 10-episode run on October 12. Garrett joins a cast loaded with talent, including Ted Danson, Jean Smart, Jesse Plemons, Kirstin Dunst and Patrick Wilson.
Garrett is a rare soul who performs ample charity work without making a big deal of it. His public philanthropic organization is the Maximum Hope Foundation (named for his kids, Max and Hope), which provides money and assistance for practical needs for families caring for children with life-limiting illnesses.
The next Maximum Hope Celebrity Poker Tournament is set for September 19 at the MGM Grand, in the wide-open space at Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill (the buy-in is $250; rebuys and add-ons are $100; and the grand prize is $10,000). Garrett raised more than $100,000 in last year’s event. He’s also a spokesman for and supporter of Nathan Adelson Hospice in Las Vegas.
With his regular stays in Vegas, during which he spends between a week and 10 days in the city, Garrett is sometimes tempted to relocate here full-time. But not today.
“I don’t know, I love Vegas, but I love Malibu, too, and I’m an LA guy,” he says. “My kids are in high school for a couple, three more years. I wouldn’t relocate them, for sure. But down the line, who knows? I might do more of a 50-50 split.”
If there’s another chapter for the comic who runs the club in the basement, that would be it.
