"I think that attitude far outweighs my talent, my passion, or anything I have achieved in life. And it's accidental. And because of those accidents, I recognize how important your theory is of attitude."
Howie Mandel
These days,
Howie Mandel
is hanging in there OK, all things considered. "In my humble opinion, I'm doing fine," is what he says. On the plus side, he's got his nine-seasons-and-no-stop-in-sight judging gig on America's Got Talent; he's presiding over a reboot of Deal or No Deal on CNBC, the game show that brought him, his whisk-broom soul patch and his shaven pate to super-duper-size national attention from 2005 to 2010; and he's got his famous name working overtime on his new Showtime special, Howie Mandel Presents Howie Mandel at the Howie Mandel Comedy Club, which is his first solo stand-up special in 20 years (it premieres tonight). Plus, he continues to tour, playing as many dates as he can during any given year. All good stuff.
Howie: I think that attitude far outweighs my talent, my passion, or anything I have achieved in life. And it's accidental. And because of those accidents, I recognize how important your theory is of attitude. I didn't go into it knowing I had the right attitude. I don't pursue anything cognizant of my attitude. But if I look back on everything and compare it to other people that I think have a lot more to offer than I do, the only difference between them and me is my attitude.
I just did this. I did a show on CNBC and which is the business channel. And they said, "What do you think making it is?" And I said, "The only difference between you and Elon Musk is he did it and you didn't. The only difference between Steve jobs and you is he did it and you didn't." Because if you think of those ideas, his attitude was, "I don't give a s**t about what academics is telling me I should be studying and what I should be doing." He just said, "This is my passion." And he had the attitude, just him living in the moment and going, this is what I'm interested in, this is what I'm going to do, and I'll f**k around in my garage.
... I have some writing on the wall just outside this office, it says, what would you do if you were guaranteed that you could not fail? 'What would you do if you were guaranteed you could not fail?'
... This is what I call making it, making it is to find something in life that you're excited about, that is your path... And once you find that, you made it because fame and money comes and goes. You're not going to be the richest guy in the graveyard, and it doesn't matter...
...I don't think that articulately, but because of... as an element of my ADHD, I don't think of ramifications. So I don't have a GED. I did not finish school. It was a tough time in my life. I didn't have a lot of friends because I act without thinking of the ramifications. I can't sit. I can't Listen. You're in my office, but I don't have an office because I really can't. This is the longest I've sat all day!
Howie: But what I'm saying is I just did it. So whatever I did, which got me in trouble, everything I've ever been punished for, expelled for had people get angry at me about is what I get paid for today. And the thing was that in the mid-70s, I'm not good in sports, so I didn't have that. I'm not good in music, and I wasn't a dancer. So disco was all the rage. I didn't go to the clubs like the studio 54s.
When somebody went, "Ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel," and I showed up. In my mind, if I had to analyze it, that was going to be the joke. I'm not a comedian, and I had just gotten introduced in front of an audience of strangers, and I'm not a comedian. I stood there after he introduced me. I remember seeing the microphone. I mean, this is as vivid as it was yesterday. There's all these strangers. You've been on stage. The spotlight is in my eyes, so you're kind of blinded. But in the front row or the front two rows, there's just people kind of looking up and these are strange faces and it was like, holy f**k, they're waiting for something.
I mean, really they want me to say something. I couldn't think of anything, and fear just enveloped my whole body. But not fear in a bad way, a fear like the adrenaline you get as you're on a roller coaster and you climb the highest first hill. And just as you're going to go over the edge, you're going to scream, and that adrenaline runs, and I went f**k. So I started going, if you look at old Youtube, I started going, 'Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right." And then they were giggling and I was like, "What, what, what, tell me what you would, you..." And I was just waiting and trying to get something. But the contorting and the fear and the 'okay, and the okay', and the 'what, what' became a signature piece.
And because I have OCD and I won't touch anything, I carry rubber gloves with me. I don't anymore because I wasn't medicated at the time, and I had my hands in my pocket and I pulled out my rubber glove and then I pulled it over my head and started breathing through my nose and the fingers were going up and down. And then I went, "Okay, good night." And I walk off stage
A guy came up to me, Mark Breslin from Toronto, Canada, Yuk Yuk's, where it's the same club where eventually that's where Jim Carrey came out of, Norm McDonald came out of, and a plethora of other people that you have no idea that are behind the scenes now writers, and directors, and everything. But he said, "Come back tomorrow night." I said, 'Oh, okay.' like I always do.
It became a good place for me to hang out because there was like-minded, for all intents and purposes, weird and different people. And as I've told my children, I don't care if you're a grounds keeper or a waiter, it's really important to have something.
I came out to California because I had met some other comics that were there, and one of the comics said he could get m into the Comedy Store, I was out here on business and I went to the comedy store. There happened to be a producer in the audience named George Foster who in 1978 or '79, he was doing a comedy game show called Make Me Laugh with Bobby Vet.
He said, "Do you want to do television?" I went, 'Yeah.' I'm in f**king Hollywood!
So he says, "Come to my office next..." It was the first time I was ever on a lot. I went to KTLA. He had me try to make his secretary laugh. He said, "You're very good. Can you take tomorrow?" I taped five shows, went back to Toronto, continued in retail, and the show aired.
It was a different time. You could be on one television show and your life would change. I started getting calls from the Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show...
...When they say you want to go up on stage, I go, 'Okay' And when I do that, it is okay. And you know what? I'm okay. Career-wise, I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay.
If anyone were to ask, 'Who is Howie Mandel? I'd say Howie is 'yes'. He's 'okay'. As opposed to 'no', because that's the foundation of his attitude.
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