A preacher who struggles with addiction and mental health issues. An author who wrote a book about his past, even though parts could be embarrassing to disclose. A clean comedian who, although his job is to make people laugh, still has bad days.
Fundamentally, he’s a Christian who simply wants to be used by God, a man whose God is opening doors left and right, including writing and acting in a movie loosely based on his story.
This is Mickey Bell.
“I’m telling you, it’s one of those moments where you need to be careful what you ask God for because He might just give it to you. When I first started out, I knew that God told me that I was going to go and start opening up for Christian artists. That’s what I did for the first three years.
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“Then it seemed like from there it just propelled. God started using me. I think some of it had to do with comedy, but I think some of it also had to do with the mental health piece that I talk about. People started bringing me in to talk about subject matters that they either could not talk about or did not want to talk about,” said Bell.
Since his first performance at a TAB Media retreat in January 2019, Bell now does about 250 comedy shows a year. In 2025, he added to this extremely busy schedule telling his story at Celebrate Recovery groups. As of June 2026, he has already shared with more than 70 CRs.
“I think what is so cool about my story, in dealing with a fall as a pastor, is that I’m able to display in front of them that it’s not just about drugs and it’s not just about alcohol, but even pastors can celebrate recovery.”
On top of everything else, Bell is now making a movie starring himself and Dean Cain. During JCFilms Studios’ production of “The Holy One,” Bell told Cain his story idea about a fallen pastor who finds God’s grace in the aisles of an auto parts store.
Thus, “Second Chance” was born.
‘Heartwarming redemption’
According to Embellish Creative Company, this film “promises to deliver a heartwarming redemption story with a side of laugh-out-loud humor. The film will mix Mickey Bell’s trademark humor with Dean Cain’s seasoned screen presence to tell a story that’s equal parts inspiring and hysterical.”
This popularity might make one think Bell is all about the applause. Though he is a self-described people pleaser, his mission through his comedy, his book and now even more so his movie, is to share God’s love and laughter, how church may look to the unchurched and that addiction and mental illnesses are real, treatable and need others’ help.
“The movie may be able to open up and reach people that I may never be able to reach doing comedy or doing CRs or my book. … Then also promoting things like Celebrate Recovery and talking about mental illness — that it’s OK to go get the pill; it’s okay to take medication; the importance of having someone in your life, either a counselor, a pastor or someone that you can go and sit down and talk to on a regular basis.
“I’ve already fought through the hell. I might as well now see how many people I can keep from going there themselves,” Bell said.
OK to laugh
One of Bell’s most difficult hurdles is with those who feel that it’s not OK to laugh inside a church.
“They don’t understand that laughter is an emotion that is a gift from God. If you can take a person who had a bad day and you have a moment where you could break away and laugh, endorphins are released inside of your body that could change your entire day, entire attitude and your entire future. You can’t get that from preaching.
“You can have fun and still live for Jesus. If you don’t learn how to laugh and not take everything so seriously, this world … is going to wear you out. So you better learn how to take things with a grain of salt and how to laugh some things off because this world is heavy now, and it’s only going to get heavier.”
However, a major aspect of Bell’s comedy is bringing to light what church is like to the unchurched.
“There’s nothing more humorous than pointing out the things we do as a church. How do you reach the unchurched? If you were to think about what we say and do inside the Church, now filter that into the eyes and ears of people that have never been to church before. They would think we’re absolute lunatics.
“I mean, think about it. A pastor gets up there and says we can go to heaven, but it’s going to take the blood. The person is going there saying, ‘Whose blood? Mine? Yours? Who are we talking about?’
“There are people who have been in church for so long they have forgotten what it looks like from the outside looking in. If you will start looking at it from the unchurched’s point of view and start making decisions pertaining to that view, you’ll start reaching more people,” Bell said.
Though these components are important to Bell, it still always comes back to sharing who God is.
“When they come to my concerts, I want them to know we’re going to have a blast. We’re going to have a good time. We’re going to laugh and have so much fun, but at the end of the night when you leave, there’s going to be some inspiration that’s been imparted.”
If interested in becoming part of the movie “Second Chance,” go to www.JCFilms.org and scroll to the bottom where it says, “Get on set, NOW!” Filming will be in Danville, Kentucky, beginning July 2026.
Learn more about Bell on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram at @themickeybell and on YouTube at @ComedianMickeyBell.
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