Comedian Mickey Bell discusses comedy, faith and mental health

On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 7, Christian musical artist Jason Crabb will be performing his God & Country concert series at the J.E . Broyhill Civic Center alongside The Sound, The Browders and comedian Mickey Bell. The concert will start at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6 p.m. Mickey Bell, in an interview with the News-Topic, shared details about the upcoming performance as well as his role within it, and how his life and history shape his comedy.

“I do clean comedy,” Bell said, “and the reason I do clean comedy is because my mother is still alive.”

Bell went on to say that the real reason is because he “wanted to be able to do a show that the whole family could come to. I wanted something where mom and dad could bring the kids, they could bring grandma and grandpa, that they wouldn’t feel the need to explain anything after the show.”

“The biggest applause I could get is teenagers, mom and dad, and grandparents coming up to say how much they could enjoy it,” Bell said. “I really work hard to make sure that happens.”

Bell said that a lot of his work revolves around sectarianism, drawing attention to patterns or habits within Christian denominations, things people may take for granted.

“I highlight things that people notice go on in the church,” He said, “that maybe they’re just too scared to say.”

Bell said he uses his performance to share his personal story, both as a vehicle for his comedy and as a source of inspiration for his audience.

“So I was actually preparing to be in ministry all my life,” Bell said, “began preparing at the age of 17. As an adult [he and his wife] started off in student ministry and then made our way up in the church.”

Bell was fired from the church following the revelation of what he described as “sinful behavior” that he turned to out of a combination of the pressure to leadership and unresolved childhood trauma.

“The weight I was place under caused some of it to come out. When I got fired from the church I had a career change. I started this journey of becoming a comedian and we’ve been going full force ever since,” Bell said.

Bell wrote his first book, “I am David,” in order to share that story. He said that the anxiety that came from being afraid of being confronted with his past actions.

“I ended up writing my first book about my life story to take the power away from met accusers,” Bell said. “If I write the book and I’ve very open about it then it takes the power away from those who might try to cause me to fall again.”

“I am David” covers topics including “sexual addictions, self-abandonment, adoption and depression,” according to the book’s description on Amazon.com.

Bell has also accidentally become mental health spokesperson, he said.

“When I started doing comedy I started right before coved I did not realize I would be a spokesman for mental health. I started talking about what it took to get out of bed each day … I wasn’t going deep and I wasn’t making a political statement, just admitting to the fact that I dealt with it,” Bell said.

“People started calling on me to come talk about it. People started asking for advice and it got overwhelming. I took out a blank sheet of paper and started writing down thoughts that would attack me, and it gave me a way to organize my thoughts on how to deal with it.

“The very first thing you have to tell people is that the battle of mental illness is how we deal with those thoughts. You had a tragic moment in your life and your brain doesn’t know how to deal with it. We have to stop the thought, determine if it is a lie, and replace it with the truth. You start living by that truth. You start dealing with [mental illness] one thought at a time, and people start finding that they can learn how to win with mental illness.”

The thoughts Bell wrote down turned into his second book, “Reverse the Course of Depression.”

Of Saturday’s performance, Bell said, “Whatever people come to my concert I want those who battle any type of mental illness to know that this is going to be a very safe place for people to come. They’re going to leave knowing how to fight their battle.”

The ticket booth for J.E. Broyhill Civic Center said that tickets will be sold up until the show starts at 7 p.m.