Howie Mandel: "Everything I've Done, I've Fallen Into"

Who is your Howie Mandel? Is he the crazy comic who got famous for blowing up a rubber glove on his head? Is he the host of Deal or No Deal? The character actor? The host of the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast? The voice of Gizmo from the Gremlins movies? Or is it the elder statesman of standup?

If it's the latter, and you're in Austin, then you're in luck, because Mandel headlines the Paramount Theatre tonight as part of Moontower Just For Laughs Austin 2023. Before the show, Mandel phoned the Chronicle to chat about the odd directions of his career, and the many ways in which he has become a household name.

Austin Chronicle: I grew up in the UK, and so I think the first time I saw you was as an actor, playing Dr. Wayne Fiscus in St. Elsewhere.

Howie Mandel: That was an accident. In the States, I had already garnered succes as a standup, and in the early '80s I did a Young Comedians special on HBO. It was me, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Lewis, and Harry Anderson, and it was presented by the Smothers Brothers. That thing blew me up, and I was having a very successful run as a standup, selling a lot of tickets.

I was out there on the road, but in the early '80s, the natural progression from standup was that you would get a sitcom. Robin (Williams) was doing Mork & Mindy, and Billy Crystal had Soap, and every comic ended up getting on television. So I went and had a general meeting with MTM, you know, Mary Tyler Moore. They were the epitome of a studio for sitcoms, they had The Mary Tyler Moore Show, they had Bob Newhart, Rhoda, every sitcom that you knew and loved and that was number one.

When I was sitting there in the office and [casting director Molly Lopata] goes, "Can you act?' and I go, 'I don't know,' and she give me these sides and I read the sides, and she goes, 'That's very good, come down the hall,' and I went down the hall, and now I know who they are are, but I didn't know then. I go in this room with Mark Tinker, Bruce Paltrow, and a bunch of other producers.

I read this script, and it was all this jargon that didn't make sense to me, and big words. "I'm going to have to get a D-5 lactic suppressor." I didn't know what I was saying. Halfway through they said, 'Thank you,' and I left. This was on a Friday. I go home, and my wife goes, 'How'd it go?' and I go, 'I think it went shitty, but I don't feel bad because, to be honest, I read a page and not the whole sitcom, but it's not funny.'

But then I get a call back. 'They wanna meet you at the network.' So I went back and I met with Brandon Tartikoff, who was the president of NBC at the time, with those same people in the room, and I read the same thing again and they said, 'OK, we'll see you Monday.' And when I got home, my agent called me and said, 'Oh, you got it!' and I said, 'Got what?'

Apparently St. Elsewhere had been shooting for a week, they didn't like the dailies, and they recast three or four parts, including Fiscus, and I replaced David Paymer, who was in Mr. Saturday Night and got an Academy Award nomination for playing Billy Crystal's brother. So he redeemed himself.

When St. Elsewhere blew up, I would fly over there and do The Des O'Connor Show, I would do Friday Night Live, I would do Max Headroom before it moved here. So I knew there was a lot of people in the UK watching.

Ultimately, my whole career has been that. People knew me from standup, but all through St. Elsewhere I would get people coming up and saying, 'I have a bet with my husband that Fiscus is not the same guy that blows up the rubber glove on his head.' And then I started doing Saturday morning and Bobby's World, and that was a different audience. So I have these fractured audiences, and not until I did Deal or No Deal that people went, 'Wait a minute.'

And that's another thing that fell into line. I didn't want to be a game show host, but I became a game show host, and I didn't know I was going to be a judge on a talent show. Everything I've done, I've fallen into, but they've all stemmed from standup comedy.

AC: Why do you think that keeps happening?

HM: I don't know. I didn't even know I was a standup. I fell into that on a dare. And I have to be cognizant now that people only know me as a host or a judge or whatever. Don't bring the kids to my shows!

I don't know what it is or what they see. I'm just me. It's authentic. ... My performances are fear-based. I look at it like it's a party and I'm always trying to be the center of attention. It's fun but also terrifying. There's nothing more painful than being in the spotlight with people staring at you incredulously, going 'WTF?' So you hope you get laughs, and laughter's like a warm blanket that coddles you, and I want that, need that, crave that.

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Howie Mandel at Moontower Just For Laughs Austin, April 19, Paramount Theatre, 7pm. Tickets at austintheatre.org/moontower-comedy.