Howie Mandel became famous via pulling a latex glove over his head and inflating it by exhaling through his nose. Now he makes headlines for using his head to hit the Golden Buzzer on NBC’s America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League. At every stage of his career along the way, one of the stand-up industry’s most revered comedians has maintained a steady diet of club appearances that are more under the radar than his upcoming one-night-only date at the 1,600-seat International Theater.
“I’m always out and doing stand-up,” Mandel said in an interview with Las Vegas Magazine. “My dance card is pretty full right now with AGT: Fantasy League. I just produced Deal or No Deal Island, which is coming out after that. I’m doing Canada’s Got Talent. So I don’t have time to put dates together, but I do a lot of dates.”
Larger one-off shows like his Las Vegas appearance with opener Preacher Lawson are posted to his website, howiemandel.com, but it’s no surprise to his peers when Mandel takes the stage at The Ice House in Pasadena. It’s becoming less of a surprise as well to listeners of his Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast, which has managed to rise to the top in a crowded field of streaming comedians.
Does Stuff is where Mandel and daughter Jackelyn Shultz host funny folk, from red-hot comics Mark Normand and Tony Hinchcliffe to veterans such as Kathy Griffin and Andrew Dice Clay. Clay credited Mandel for inspiring his iconic set-closing naughty nursery rhymes during a recent appearance, and Hinchcliffe had Mandel on as a panelist for his open-mic roasting podcast Kill Tony.
Mandel fit right in, as viewers of his 2019 special Howie Mandel at the Howie Mandel Comedy Club would have presumed. Spontaneity is a cornerstone of his comedy, and a story about the search for athlete’s foot medication can become an epic bit with Mandel creating an atmosphere in which audience members feel comfortable participating. Then he lays into them, and they love it.
“Whenever I get a free day, that’s when I will do an out-of-town gig. When I’m in town, I’ll drop in on all the clubs and do stand-up. Stand-up is my staple,” said Mandel.
It’s been his staple practically since he accepted a dare to get on a stand-up stage in Toronto, where his germophobic habit of carrying gloves with him led to a comic trademark. He was a featured comedian on late-’70s game show Make Me Laugh along with Gallagher and Bob Saget, got his own special on HBO, then wore surgical gloves for a dramatic turn on critically acclaimed ’80s hospital drama St. Elsewhere.
Mandel projected his inner-child outwardly for Saturday-morning animated series Bobby’s World. His inability to say no led to a talk show, Deal or No Deal and AGT in 2010. He’s at a level of success he never anticipated, but he can handle it as long as he gets time to make live audiences, and himself, laugh.
Westgate Las Vegas, 8 p.m. Feb. 3, starting at $40 plus tax and fee, 12+. ticketmaster.com
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