HOWIE MANDEL

'Howie Michael Mandel II' (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian and actor, primarily for his roles on sitcoms and television. He is best known as Ed Flanders's young intern, 'Dr. Wayne Fiscus' on ''St. Elsewhere'', and is currently the host of the US game show ''Deal or No Deal'', airing on NBC, and the Canadian version, ''Deal or No Deal Canada'', airing on Global.

Contents

Early life

TV and film career

Later work

Personal life

References

External links

Early life

Howie Mandel was born into a Jewish family and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. After dropping out of high school (William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute), Mandel became a carpet salesman who would later open a carpet sales business of his own. He became a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto and by September 1978 had a week-long booking as the featured act, billed as "a wild and crazy borderline psychotic."^[1] On a trip to Los Angeles, Mandel performed a set at The Comedy Store, which led to him becoming a regular performer there. A producer for the comedic game show ''Make Me Laugh'' saw him and booked Mandel for several appearances during the show's run in 1979. He was booked to open for David Letterman at shows in the summer of 1979.^[2] CBC-TV's head of variety programming saw a Mandel performance in October 1979 and immediately signed him for a TV special. In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie ''Gas'', co-starring Susan Anspach and Donald Sutherland.
Mandel was the first "VeeJay" to appear on Nickelodeon's music video series, ''Pop Clips''. That 1981 series would go on to provide the genesis of MTV.

TV and film career

Mandel came to national attention in the US during a six-year run on ''St. Elsewhere'', starting in 1982. While continuing to work as a comedian, he also did movies, including his role as the voice of Gizmo in the 1984 hit ''Gremlins'' and its 1990 sequel '', in ''Muppet Babies'', he voiced Bunsen Honeydew, Animal and Skeeter but for an unknown reason left the series after Season 1, and the role of "Maurice" in the 1989 movie ''Little Monsters''. He was also the creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated children's animated series ''Bobby's World'', to which he supplied the voices of the title character and his father (using Howie's "normal" voice for Bobby's dad). ''Bobby's World'' ran for eight seasons on Fox Broadcasting Company and was later syndicated. Mandel also plays his alter-ego, Bobby, in most of his comedy shows and these are a fan favorite. Bobby also made a cameo appearance in a February 2007 episode of ''Deal or No Deal'' at the contestant's request.
Mandel had a long run on Showtime with a series titled ''Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies'' in 1995, going on to host his own syndicated talk show in 1998 called ''The Howie Mandel Show''.
He also played the lead role of the professor in the short-lived TV series ''The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys'', and guest-starred on a 1996 episode of the ABC TV series '' as DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk. He also hosted his own syndicated talk show, ''The Howie Mandel Show'', which was cancelled after one season on the air. Mandel appeared in the 1995 Clint Black country music video ''Summer's Coming''. In 2006, he appeared as himself as a guest host in a parody of ''Deal or No Deal'' in the show-within-a-show of the TV series ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip''. In 2007, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of ''NBC's Medium, making a dream cameo of himself on ''Deal or No Deal''. In that episode, he booted off the nighttime drama's protagonist for "cheating", since in the show she is a psychic medium working for the Los Angeles DA office.
Mandel's signature stunt as a stand-up comedian (besides his Bobby alter-ego) was stretching a latex glove over his head and inflating it with his nostrils, filling it until it suddenly propelled itself off of his head. He eventually gave up the routine after a mishap that resulted in a burst sinus.

Later work

More recently, he is known for his frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian and for his hidden camera segments on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''. Also, he has appeared in many television commercials for Boston Pizza as its hired spokesperson. In April 2004, he was selected as number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. In October 2005, he was named to be the host of the U.S. version of ''Deal or No Deal'', which debuted on December 19, 2005, on NBC and became a popular program in early 2006. Mandel also hosts ''Deal or No Deal Canada'', a version of ''Deal or No Deal'' for Canadian viewers; originating from Toronto, ''Deal or No Deal Canada'' debuted in January 2007 on Global,^[3] which made him one of the few game show hosts (''Weakest Link'''s Anne Robinson and ''Pyramid'''s Donny Osmond being others) to host both a domestic and an international version of the same game show.
In 2007, Mandel made an appearance in an episode of ''Sesame Street''’s 38th season. That same year, he was parodied on the show as , the Muppet host of ''Sesame''’s game show segment "Meal or No Meal."
Mandel is a notable alumnus of Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am's Hebrew School located in Toronto, as well as three other Toronto high schools.^[4] Mandel is currently performing a variety/comedy act at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Personal life

Mandel tours on the road over 200 days a year, and spends much of the rest of his time taping ''Deal or No Deal''. He is one of a relatively small number of celebrity stars to have maintained a long-term marriage; he met his wife Terry in high school, and they were married in 1980.
Mandel has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)^[5] and mysophobia (fear of germs) to the point that he does not shake hands with anyone, including enthusiastic contestants on ''Deal or No Deal,'' unless he is wearing latex gloves. Instead of shaking contestants' hands when they offer them, he will give the contestants congratulatory gestures such as tapping another's fist with his own fist, or putting his hands on their shoulders. Mandel now takes medicine to control his condition and even pokes fun at himself for it. He revealed on ''The Howard Stern Show'' on March 24, 2006 that his shaved head is not related to natural hair loss, but to his mysophobia. He stated that the lack of hair makes him feel cleaner.
During his appearance on ''Mad TV'', Mandel and cast member Bobby Lee made fun of the former's OCD.

References

1. Toronto Star, September 12, 1978, p. D1.
2. Toronto Star, July 19, 1979, p. C6.
3. "Deal or No Deal, eh?"
4. "Howie Mandel to headline ICRF gala"
5. "The TV Squad Interview: Howie Mandel"

External links

★

★ Biography at NBC.com