Digital Social Hour - The Story of Howie Mandel | Digital Social Hour #12

Episode Date: May 14, 2023

Hey there, listeners! It's time for another exciting episode of “Digital Social Hour”! This week's guest is a multi-talented comedian, actor, and television personality, the one and only Howie Mandel. You heard it right - Howie appears as the host and guest of this podcast episode. At the beginning of the podcast, the hosts discuss Howie's decision to shave his head and his experience with creating fun hair designs. Howie also shares his concern for not taking good care of himself and his use of an IV drip. He reveals how his OCD and mysophobia have affected his life and the role it played in his decision to shave his head. The conversation shifts to Howie's role in the little monsters movie, where he spent 4-6 hours in makeup with rubber on his face in 100-degree weather. He also talks about being a game show host and the success of “Deal or No Deal”. However, Howie believes that success is waking up and doing something enjoyable, and money has no role in his success. Howie shares his thoughts on NFTs, UFOs, and school experiences during the podcast. He talks about his experience with mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and OCD. Howie believes that we should talk about mental health and that seeking help is the first step towards recovery. He also talks about social media's impact on mental health, causing people to compare themselves to others and feel inadequate. The podcast covers a wide range of topics, including pop culture, the impact of social media, and the importance of finding something that excites and inspires you. Howie's sense of humor and life experiences make for an engaging and insightful conversation. So, what are you waiting for? Tune in and listen to this week's exciting “Digital Social Hour” episode with the legendary Howie Mandel now! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/digitalsocialhour/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, welcome to the Digital Social Hour. I'm your host, Sean Kelly. I'm here with my co-host, Charlie Cavalier, and our guest today, Howie Mandel. How are we doing? When you say, how are we doing? You want me to speak for everyone? I'm doing good. For you. Yes. So I am doing well. And I would assume you guys are doing well. So we are doing fantastic. Perfect. You're doing well, Charlie? I'm doing very well. You can speak for all of us. Okay. I didn't want to leave you out of it. I feel like I'm a spokesmodel for you guys now now you might be um so i don't think we need an intro on you normally we do that i think it's too late yeah didn't you just say i'm here with howie mandel

is that not considered the intro i would say that's sufficient yes it's enough all right enough less is more less is more it's the bare minimum not in nfts though more is more more is more is more for sure in that situation okay all right so i want to start off with a topic that is interesting because i used to have an afro and when i was researching you i saw you had an afro i don't know i have curly hair and it was big i don't know if i had an afro i don't know. I have curly hair and it was big. I don't know if I had an afro. I don't think I had an afro. Okay. I don't know if you could tell from here, but I'm white.

So it wasn't an afro. Fair enough. It was a jufro. And is it true you decided to shave your hair voluntarily? Yeah. Do people shave against their will? I know Mansca uh is one of the sponsors here on your program and uh i would imagine that they wouldn't even condone people

being shaved involuntarily but uh yes so i got a part in a in a movie and um so i shaved my head for it and then when uh when it was shaved i felt clean and i've been very open about my mental health and i have ocd and one of one of the many issues that i deal with is mysophobia which is a fear of germs and uh though i'm i'm okay right now i'm medicated but uh when i'm not medicated it's really tough but it feels clean i would imagine and if anybody's listening if you have hair um the first thing that kind of feels like maybe you should go take a shower so your hair gets a little greasy or you know that's so without that i feel clean so i decided to and my wife said i looked very sexy whoa she never yeah yeah that's and i she never said that i spent you know three and a half decades four decades with hair she never said that and then in my 40s i shaved and then i was sexy

interesting i feel like not a lot of guys can pull off the bald look do you think you could pull it no way could i pull that off i don't know that anybody can't why like what do you think why would you think you can't pull it off because what if your head's uneven and you got some dents and it just doesn't look appealing to woman? First of all, I think that we'll let the women decide. You shouldn't decide. Right. And do you know that you have dents?

I don't. My dad said he dropped me a few times when I was a baby, so I'm not positive. Okay. But even there's nothing wrong with dents. I don't think there's something right it makes you look uh like i i think it's good to have some um imperfections right it makes you unique and original and and um what was fun about shaving my head is i think everybody should do it at least once. You don't have to keep it. But I had so much fun with the art. Like I created like different shapes.

I sometimes do it with my face too. But I created like first I just went down the middle and then I was Princess Leia for a couple of minutes. And then I made like little horns. And then I made, I horns and then I made, I just kept a mullet and nothing else. And then I did, I do that with my face too.

I have a, you can probably look it up online and your editor could put it in. But when I was in my 20s, I wanted a mustache. But again, being a germaphobe, I didn't want to, well the here i am with a beard now but i i was afraid of getting food in it and stuff in it so i said like who who made the rule that it's got to be under your nose and above your mouth so i grew a mustache on the side of my face

perfectly coiffed and had it for about a year i have an eight by ten of me like that wow it's on it's online if you go howie mandel's mustache google that you could see me with that and what was kind of interesting about it is i at the time i was in show business i would go and do appearances on talk shows and more than not people wouldn't even ask me what that was so it was just this weird mole they thought interesting yeah yeah we'd have to see a photo that your hair grows pretty fast i think you could give it a go sean the baldness yeah i think you could try it you know what for howie i'll do it i'll i'll send you a photo and i will do it why wouldn't you do it i'm down to try it's a scary thing to jump off

the you know jump off the bridge and do i feel like well first of all stay on the ground do not jump off a bridge and shave at the same time that's dangerous and number two it's hair it grows back i'm not saying let's see what it's like to cut off your leg it's uh it's you know it's just your hair right and hair comes back so even if you don't like the way you look it's like it takes like five days to at least, I don't know if that's a good haircut, but it's to just return. Right. How often do you shave? Say once every week or two.

Oh, just once a week? Yeah, is that not enough? For me it is. Well, I would imagine you look clean shaven. Are you not clean shaven? I'm pretty clean. I think about a week ago is that not enough uh for me it is uh well i would imagine you look clean shaven are you not clean shaven i'm pretty clean i think about a week ago yeah you're still clean shaven after a week yeah i haven't shaved for four days four days yeah you guys are not uh we'll have to shave every i mean if i unless it'll look like a beard i have to shave every day wow wow i guess i got a lot more testosterone

i can actually say that might not be true because we did the 10x thing recently my testosterone was off the charts which i was very happy about we did just get ours tested yeah you got your testosterone where did you test that uh we did a blood test 10x 10x health systems yeah and and they told you our testosterone our, our vitamin levels, everything. Grant Cardone's company. Right. Yeah. Pretty interesting.

It was much more in-depth than a normal blood test at your doctor, actually. Yeah. But you have information that you don't really need. Like, what do you do with that information? From there, you see what you're deficient in, what you're lacking in, and then get the supplements. What are you lacking in? I had some vitamin deficiencies.

That's about it. Nothing crazy. I always do those. I'm concerned because I don't think I take good care of myself, so I always get an IV drip. We haven't tried those yet. You've never had an IV drip?

No. I get them because I travel and I'm old and I don't think I drink enough. I want to hydrate and get my vitamins and i don't want to eat like a good food do you feel an instant difference when you take iv therapy no no like you mean in the minute like right after you unplug it do you feel better no not like if you drink like a red bull and then you you know or celsius whatever i'm drinking that i feel like right after coffee i feel like oh my

gosh i'm ready to go this must be every time i drink like a triple espresso i go oh i gotta go this is a lot of energy and then so i i imagine that means that triple espresso is very healthy for you because it gives me such get-up-and-go and energy. So it must be really, really good for me. I'd have to agree there. I love my morning espressos. You love your coffee, but you had to cut back. I did.

Why? They told me when we did the blood test I had to quit eating sugar so much. Why? My blood glucose was off the charts. Are you diabetic? Borderline diabetic? Borderline diabetic. They said I'm luckily also making enough insulin that it's counteracting,

but at some point that's not going to be the case anymore, and then I needed to quit eating sugar. I think you need to shave your head. I'm down. Let's do it. If I do it, will you do it? Yes. Do it on this episode.

It'll go viral. No. I have manscapes here. Ariel would be pissed. Should we do it? Why would you keep your hair just for a silly disney character all right we'll consider it can we can we can we compromise with a buzz cut is that possible i'm not the boss of you i feel like we're making i feel like we're we're playing let's make a deal

that was monty hall i was on deal or no deal that's why we're saving that for later but i feel like right now we're let's make a deal yeah i think it's more like family feud so you had mentioned that you went bald for a role what is the most extreme thing you've done to your body for any role i i did i don't know that i did any movies that were of any note, but I did do a movie called Little Monsters with Fred Savage. And I didn't know what, in fact, that's the movie that eventually helped me make the decision not to do any more movies. I didn't do any more movies after that.

And I got offered movies, but I don't like doing movies now. Why? Because the process, you know, my favorite thing to do is stand up because in the moment I can get a reaction. I'm in control or even if I'm out of control, it's up to me to get back that control. I control the narrative. I control the reaction. the reaction is there if they go do a

movie you're lucky if um they do a few pages a day in no particular order and you're at the mercy of somebody else uh you know you go do a hi will you come in here cut go into your trailer we're going to get that from another angle and i wait for six hours and then i come out and it's the exact same scene from a different angle they got a camera on the other side of the room and i go hey can you come out here cut go into the trailer and wait but the i the what i to answer your question i did a movie called Little Monsters. And I sat every day in, I think it was like six or four to six hours a day in makeup where they put this, I'm sure special effects have advanced because this was like 86, 1986.

But they put, what's it called? Rubber all over my face. I was a monster. I was a little monster. And I shot it in North Carolina in August, and it was 100 degrees. I would pass out a lot. I'd go to the hospital.

And then every night they would just rip it off. My skin was seething and burning and ruined and uh it was just the most uncomfortable unhealthy existence you know four months away from home away from my kids away from my wife in north carolina wrapped in rubber i guess that's what a penis feels like oh man so i was a i was i felt like such a dick you know what i'm saying i see what you did there yeah um so i i and then i just said i don't know you. The movie didn't turn out that great. I think there are people who like it, but I just didn't want to do it anymore.

I don't know why I got offered movies that were just really hard to do. And then it's just so much easier just to do TV, podcasts, stand-up comedy, ask somebody to open a case, do voiceovers for Saturday morning, sit at a table with a bunch of friends and go i didn't like that song that's what i do now i feel that did you ever turn down a movie role and then the movie blew up yeah yeah can you reveal the name of the movie yeah

which one no um i think i got offered um there was a couple i don't want to say because then other people i don't i feel bad you know i'll tell you why i feel bad and i'll give you some little tidbit one of my first acting things is a show called saint elsewhere which is a dramatic series that aired in the 80s on NBC. And that's where Denzel Washington came out of and a lot of other people that we know. And apparently, I wasn't looking to do a drama. I was looking to do comedy. And I went in and met with the company, the production company,

which was Mary Tyler Moore, the MTM, to go try to get myself on a sitcom because I had kind of had some success as a stand-up comic. I did a young comedian special on HBO with me and Jerry Seinfeld and Richard Lewis and Harry Anderson. And I was selling tickets like crazy. And the natural progression was to do a sitcom. And when I went into the office, she goes, do you act? And I said, I don't know. I don't know. I haven't, I don't, but I don't know if I have that skillset. And she had me read this script, the sides, you know, one page, which was this, all this jargon that i didn't really understand what i said what it was science and and medical terminology which i thought this isn't funny at all but anyway she said that you do very

good come down the hall and i went down the hall and i went and read it again for who turned out to be you know bruce paltrow gwyneth's dad and a guy by the name of mark tinker who was uh the the boss's son who owned MTM. And they stopped me halfway through, and I figured I blew it. And this was on a Friday. And then they called me, and they said, come down and read that same thing for the network I did on the Friday. And they said, we'll see you Monday.

And I thought I was going to do another audition for this bad sitcom about science and medical jargon. And I got a job. And that turned out to be St. Elsewhere. And I started on that Monday. And I realized they had been shooting for seven days. They didn't like what they were seeing. So they recast.

Wow. And I'm a recast on that. I would talk about him because he actually ended up doing good. His name is David Pamer. I think he got nominated for an Academy Award for a movie he did with Billy Crystal called Mr. Saturday Night. Wow. But I also don't want to take anything away from anybody else.

Makes sense. Yeah. But yes, I have been offered movies that went on and did well, but I don't feel bad about it because it's not about, I don't know what that success means. To me, success is just waking up in the morning and doing something I enjoy. And even if you're in the biggest movie in the world

or the biggest, that goes away. So that's so fleeting and means nothing and has no currency. It has nothing. but if three months of my life is shit because i'm on an island somewhere you know away from my family listening you know walking into a room because they tell me to and stepping on a piece of tape and then doing the same thing over and over 10 times and then somebody edits it edits it together and a year later somebody tells you you're brilliant i don't understand why you're brilliant it doesn't mean anything to me it really doesn't so interesting so money has no role in

oh money for you money yeah yes oh it does yeah but that doesn't mean, you know, I do well. Yeah. And I love business and I like entrepreneur. My entrepreneurial spirit outweighs my creative spirit. But what I was saying was just because I'm in a hit movie doesn't mean I could, I find ways to make money in other ways, you know, that kind of game that's a game and i like to play that game like you guys i like to invest i like to find things i like you know and create things that make money that doesn't mean being a movie star is i, you can make a lot of money being a movie star,

but you can also make a lot of money being a comedian, being the host of a podcast. Can't you? I think so. Kevin Hart's doing well. Yeah, I think there's a lot of future and a lot of stuff like that. Yeah.

But speaking of money, let's talk deal or no deal, because that show's about money. Right. What's the most someone's won on deal or no deal? A million. Oh, someone actually won the million yeah it was really hard to give it away but uh it took about three years to give away the first million wow because people's um greed and uh hope and fantasy, that's not the entrepreneurial spirit, outweighs reality. So the truth of the matter is you had one out of 26 cases had a million dollars in it.

And we would have people all the time who would come on, you know, I'd interview them at the beginning and they'd go, listen, I'm a single single mother i have three kids um i've never owned a home we have no health insurance you know they pick a case that they think the million dollars is in and they open the first six cases and it's still not revealed what is the million and the first offer comes in and the banker gives you $50,000. And without any thought, any hesitation, they go, no deal. And that always killed me because I would say, so where you live, assuming most of them didn't live in LA, for $50,000 is much more than a down payment on a house at that time, 2005, 2006.

So you can live in a home. You can definitely buy health insurance. And you can invest and buy something that will make more money. But you, without any thought, are going no deal for a chance. You know, I think they, you know, and then people would ride it all the way down. You know how many people left with a penny, with five cents, with a dollar,

just because, listen, you guys live in Vegas. You know, those buildings are not built because people are winning. Yeah, facts. What is the most frustrated you ever became with a contestant on deal or no deal that would have to be the thing that i just explained and i will tell you it's the very first because i didn't know what so i got offered deal or no deal and um i didn't want to do it at that time uh being a game show host was uh not considered an asset to a comedian you know when you're when you're when your currency is irony

the the the game show host was the the punch line really nobody if you think about it before 2005 nobody no comedians years before that the last comedian to host a game show was Groucho Marx who did you bet your life but no comedians did it and my wife told me to take the deal and I didn't even understand what the show was I mean I got the game but I didn't understand I can show you in the other room that they they the presentation to me is just silly and And remember, there's no skill. There's no questions. There's no nothing. It's just, I said, how are they going to do an hour of me going, open the case? So when they told me that they wanted to do it,

I thought, I'm going to be funny. This is a great place for me to showcase who I am as a comedian, and I will try to be funny. The very first show, when I walked out, I'll never forget her. Her name is Karen Van. I've done 500 episodes. Karen Van, that's the lady that was single, a single mother with three kids with no health insurance and no place to go.

And I talked to her, and I realized that there was this glaze that came over her because the average person doesn't do television, isn't surrounded by 12 cameras and all these lights and 300 people. And I think the first offer was something like $20,000, which in my, I'm not a gambler. I would have said, okay, bye. I'm here for five minutes. I got 20 grand. And let me figure out what I can do with that 20 grand how can I turn that 20 grand into whatever it is whatever I can so when she went no deal I felt like I was by being funny and being there like this whole place was a distraction and I could see her kids in the in the audience and then I felt responsible I had this empathy where I felt responsible for this

person and it also which ended up informing my cadence and how I threw all the comedy by the wayside and Deal or No Deal was the first place where I was just my I didn't play character I didn't do stand-up and I would say things like Karen Van the offer is and i would talk to her like you talk to a child because i wanted her to really hear the next offer is thirty thousand dollars do you hear me thirty thousand dollars before you answer and i would tell her you know if you say no deal you have to open another four cases there's probably you know i don't know i'd have to look at the at the board right now but there's a you possibly could open up a million dollar case or 700 if you open up something that is 700 and thousand or more the next offer is definitely going to go down so for whatever this is right now think about this this is a guarantee or do you go for a chance

deal or no deal and you know it was always like i just want to and it was so frustrating karen van walked out with five grand. You know, and she'd been offered, I don't know what the top offer was, but she'd been offered. And then we did this reunion years later to past winners to see what they have done and what they did.

And I think Karen got her breasts done. Oh, yeah? Yeah, so there's an investment i think she made a mountain out of a mohill wow yeah i figured that would cost more than five g's but i'm not sure i don't know 2005 okay but then you know it was a very successful show and uh now a comedian hosting a game show is like a norm you're welcome welcome, Steve Harvey. You paved the way. I did. Was performing on the masked singer the most nervous you have ever been? No. Performing on the masked singer was not nerve-wracking as much as it was

debilitating. I could not breathe. I could not see see and I went into it knowing I could not sing so it was a big could not night um so I didn't realize how cumbersome you know I thought it would be funny I thought it would be funny I didn thought it would be funny. I didn't, I have no aspirations to win. I'm not a singer. I could, I've been a judge for many years and I've heard myself. And if I was on America's Got Talent as a singer, I don't think I would get, you know, one, three notes into whatever song I was singing without pushing a red button for myself. I can't stand myself in the shower. And so I, so I had no, but I thought it was fun. They asked me, and then it sounds fun that you wear a costume. You don't realize until you are,

and a lot of people don't have this opportunity and the word opportunity I'm using very loosely to be trapped inside a giant lobster. It's really not. It's tough. It's tough. I can relate a little bit. I was the high school mascot and I had to wear a panther costume and it was really hot in there. You jump up and down two times and you're sweating. Okay.

So I had to sing a whole song. I jumped up and down more times and i don't know if a panther is hotter than a lobster because a panther you have a skin and fur i had a shell okay i'm getting calls you want to see who it is i forgot to turn off my phone let's see who it is it's my my son. Oh. Alex Mandel. I'm going to tell him. Alex, I'm on a podcast right now. And so are you.

What? Okay, I'll talk to you later. But now you're on the podcast. Oh, okay. Hello. Is this the NFT son? No, my son-in-law's into NFTs. But have you bought NFTs, Alex?

I have in the past, yes. Okay. Very cool. Nice. That's all? You got anything? Does he want to buy more? What did you say?

I might have bad service. I'm in Topanga. He might have bad service because he's in... Remember the girl from Boy Meets World? Boy Meets World. He's in the girl from Boy Meets World right now? I don't know. That's how I took it.

Bye. Say hi to her for me. Bye. Bye. All right. He's doing well. Moving on. Okay.

I saw an interesting clip of you on the Joe Rogan podcast where you said you saw a UFO. Yes. Do you believe in aliens? Yes. I was one myself. Explain. The first time I came over the border from Canada,

I didn't have the right paperwork, or I wasn't really allowed to be here. What about aliens from other planets? Oh, yes. Absolutely. No doubt. Have you been one of those also? I kind of look with this head, with this shaved head, with this big shaved head.

I don't know what they look like. I have seen a UFO and I think it would be incredibly small-minded to think that in this universe and beyond what the naked eye can see that we are the only living organisms i think those people are crazy if they do not believe that i don't think just like people point fingers at people who see aliens as being crazy i think the crazier people are the ones who don't believe they exist would you go to space

yes what chances of your safety would have to be guaranteed for you to be willing to go to space like if there's a if there's a 10 chance that you're gonna die would you still go to space no okay no i don't think that when they when you can uh when you're given a seat on one of these Jeff Bezos or Elon. I prefer a SpaceX ride, but yeah. Well, you know what? That's what I was going to say, except the other day, did you watch the launch of the SpaceX? So I watched it, and then I was watching for less than two minutes when it exploded, and they said they considered that a success and i went

well okay then i don't want to seat on that if that was a successful flight interesting did you not see that i didn't see it did you see that i did did you see it blow up yeah i don't want to ride on that successful flight i'd like but wasn't that the precursor to the manned flights to the moon. Yes. And it blew up in still my sight in my, like it wasn't far enough away where I couldn't tell, or they could have made up a beautiful story. I saw it blow up and I heard,

I saw that with my own eyes and I heard with my own ears that the SpaceX people said, this is a success so if if i was lucky enough to get a seat on a spacex rocket ship to the moon and they said don't worry howie it'll be a success they just have different criteria for success than i do i wonder why they call it a success did Did it reach a certain point? Is that why it was successful? When I watched the news, they said all they were hoping for was to clear the launch pad. Okay. Interesting. I got some work to do. They have a lot of work to do. And I think probably cleared the launch pad success. There you go. I want to

talk about what you were like in school. Okay. Because I saw an article where you got expelled. I want to hear about that story. There's many stories about getting expelled. I got expelled from many schools. Ooh, let's dive into this. So you weren't a good kid in school. I think I was a good kid. I think I have issues and biological issues that don't allow me to concentrate and uh that's why i'm medicated

right now and focus and then um i didn't have social skills uh to make friends and i didn't really understand what i was doing these these these stories right now are, are funny, but they were just, uh, you know, one of the things, see, I gotta give you a little bit of backstory. The first time I didn't have a lot of friends, but the first time I, uh, I I'm aware of joining into, uh, laughter and a really fun was, my parents used to watch Candid Camera. Do you know it? It's like Punk'd.

Okay. The precursor to Punk'd. Got it. Hidden camera prank show. And this was the first time that, you know, I didn't understand. My parents liked comedy and would listen to albums,

but I had no point of reference to know what the stand-up even meant or what, you know, if they would tell a joke about their mother-in-law. I didn't even know what a mother-in-law was. I was too young and too uninformed to know what. But then on Sunday nights, they used to watch this prank show, you know?

And it was this, you know alan funt was the the guy who created pranks and he started on radio apparently even before my time and then it became a television show which is and then i used to watch this show with them and it was kind of like this surprise party where he would explain to me what he was going to do. And it got exciting. Like he said, he was going to hire a receptionist to answer the phone. And he was going to tie a rope to the desk that had the phone. And the rope was going to go through the wall. And he would tell the receptionist, you cannot miss one phone call.

And then he would leave the office. And every time the phone would ring and she would go to grab it he would pull the rope from the other room and the whole desk would fly across the room and it would make me and my parents laugh and that was a really good feeling i like that that was funny i understood what was happening and it was my my perception of what was happening was it's funny and entertaining and comfortable if you put somebody in an awkward position and you control that awkward position. I never understood that this was a television show, that you needed an audience. So I didn't have any friends so I would do things all the time at school to kind of replicate this

kind of action and with no show so one example was I phoned in the yellow page I didn't change my voice or anything I was just a kid I phoned and said I would like to add 10 feet onto the west side of the library um can you show up and give me an estimate at three o'clock and i said that because i knew that at three o'clock i would be in the math class and i could look down on the field and i thought it was funny for me to watch this guy measuring when i'm the guy that called there's's no reason. Nobody wants an addition onto the library. That was my humor, which was kind of ignorant. It probably would have been funny if I told five other people, I said, guess what?

At three o'clock, you're going to see this guy in the field. He's going to be measuring. And I sent the guy in. But I never did that. And I didn't have anybody to tell. So I would sit in class. And I would give my name to the guy who was measuring. So I would sit in class and I would give my name to the guy who was measuring. And I would sit in class

and I'd see this guy out there with his clipboard and his measuring tapes. And then, which I thought was funny and I wasn't really focusing on math. And then I'd see the principal or the vice principal walk out and talk to him. And then I saw the guy walk away and then I saw the vice principal walk into the school.

And before you knew it, there was an announcement. will Howard Mandel please come down to the office and I would go down to the office and he would say did you hire um a construction company put an addition out the library and very seriously I would go no I actually was getting bids. I have not confirmed with anybody yet. And it was just that awkward discomfort was, I don't know, like it was a drug to me. And he said, just wait right here. I'm going to call your parents. And I go, okay, great.

And I sat there and they would call my parents. My parents would come in and he would explain to them that Howard had employed a construction company to give a bid on an addition to the library. And it was also funny for me just to watch my parents bite their lip. I don't know what they were supposed to say. We told them never,

ever put an addition onto the library. I don't know what they expected my parents to say. It's hard to defend that. Yeah, I can defend. I love that as a parent. Oh, well,

it's a great story right now you have to realize in the 60s you know and and uh no kid it became a rumor in school that i did it so the the thought of me was more of a just uh insane and out of my mind nobody really wanted to hang with me you know that, in another school, this is before the movie Caddyshack, but I threw a chocolate bar into the swimming pool so that it would look like feces at the bottom of the pool, which I thought was kind of funny. I didn't tell anybody that

because it was funny watching. I threw it in or i put it in to wait to see if people noticed you know and people go oh my god somebody shit in the pool somebody shit in the pool and then i i would sit back and watch it spread throughout the school and then there was an announcement if anybody has any you know information about who did that and at the end of the day like there was like 200 kids looking at the pool and pointing at this this floater in the bottom of the pool and just it was just a knee-jerk reaction but i dived in and i came up with it in my mouth

and everybody just screamed and were disgusted with me. And I didn't have a friend for the rest of the year. And I was asked to leave that school. Wow. But I was always doing, these are funny stories now. But in context, you have to remember, this is high school. I'm 4'10", 4'11". I look like a little girl.

My voice hadn't changed. I don't have any friends and i'm doing these bizarre things like in in retrospect i look now i go oh those are really funny why wouldn't i why the fuck wouldn't i tell 10 other kids watch this i'm gonna throw a chocolate bar in the pool and it's fine but just the fact that i did it on my own just for my own and it's now that I've been in therapy you know the thing was that most of us feel very uncomfortable and discomfort and I felt I like to make other people feel awkward and uncomfortable and control that so that it made me feel good about my discomfort and awkwardness. Interesting.

More than entertaining. But as it turns out, everything I was ever punished for, expelled for, gotten in trouble for is what I get paid for today. Wow. The tables have turned. I could definitely defend the addition on the library as a parent. The chocolate bar in the pool would be a little harder. Because with the library, you say, you you know i'm glad someone's taking the library

seriously using school funds for a good purpose with the chocolate bar you might have been you might have lost me at coming up with it in your mouth right like that'd be a little hard to defend i didn't get a date yeah a long time were you bullied in high school um Um, no, I don't think I was bullied. Well, if I was, it was my own, it was because I deserved it. Like, it was not like anybody found me and decided to bully me, but I almost got, I was a fast runner and I was, people wanted to stay away because i was weird like i i would do things like um um if i walked into the the men's room and there were two people at the uh urinals i would probably go in between them he was that guy oh i hated that guy in high school

yeah and then they'd run after me i'm going i didn't but i would make it like i didn't understand what was what was wrong so back then you weren't prescribed any of the medication no nobody talked about mental health i'm i'm you know and i wouldn't talk about it until i was in my 40s wow i'm old you know and there's a stigma attached to mental health awareness and i didn't want to be part of that and i still feel that except i know now it is really and it's actually comforting to talk about because i know that i'm not the only one yeah so uh but you know in my era I'm probably much older than even your parents. Uh, in my era, that was just, the thought was if I was diagnosed with anything, I'd probably be

locked away. Yeah. I have a severe anxiety and I was so ashamed to even, uh, talk about it or tell anyone to be honest. And it got to the point where I was collapsing on the floor. And that's when I knew I had to speak up. This is the real deal. Well, I have anxiety and I have collapsed. And I've been in the emergency room many times. And I have anxiety. I have depression.

I have OCD. I think I'm winning. Wow. Over you. Yeah, you got me beat. Actually, what about you? I suffer from anxiety and depression at times. It's something that needs to be talked about more often.

I wish it was a more acceptable topic for men to openly speak about mental health, move forward together, and be able to feel comfortable in their environment, on social media, whatever it might be, to be able to have these discussions without fear. Not just men, everybody. without fear not just men everybody everyone for sure humans everyone for sure you know and uh you

know i always say we need to take care of our mental health the way we take care of our dental health right nobody has a problem going in and getting a checkup you know when it comes to teeth but not your head and i i think that's the answer to everything. I think if we were a mentally healthy society, a lot of the problems would be solved and we'd be probably more productive. More people would be more productive and happy. Right. Do you think taking medication like Xanax and antidepressants is the best way to fight mental health problems? No. I think that getting help is the best way and talking about it is the best way. I don't know.

You're naming medications. I wouldn't name any particular. Everybody has a different makeup. And what's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. And I just say that the first step is to talk about it and to talk to friends, loved ones, caregivers or whatever. And, you know, your medication may just be yoga. It may be working out. It may be meditation.

It may be another kind of medication. And even if you do take a medication and you're prescribed a medication, you know, your body biology is a continuous changing flow. So that I've been, as my age, and I was diagnosed in my 40s, whatever medication and levels of those medications that I have taken are not the same as when I started. You know, so it's constantly changing. You can't say this pill or this is the answer to somebody else. But I will say there are always going to be answers. And there are and it's a it's a constant puzzle, that answer, you don't, you're not going to go to somebody and get the answer you're going to go to somebody and start that journey toward your answer I love that do you

think social media has helped or hurt people with mental health issues talk about mental health or really just in general be good or bad for people's mental health i think it's good and bad i think more bad than good i think that the people's um image of what normal or what they need to be in life is really um curbed by what they see on social media and how what other people have what how other people look and um and how people are responding to whatever they're putting up is has a bigger impact than it needs to have so you're probably healthier not being on social media that being said social media is probably what somebody's listening to right now and this is a great little you know life preserver in allowing you to know you're not alone you know so it is a great tool of communication and information and you know, commerce, but it is also a very scary, you know, it's like, it's electricity is really good.

But if you wet your finger and you put it in the socket, it can be really dangerous. Yeah. Back to the germophobia stuff. Is that something you also had as a child or did that develop later? Always. Always. I cannot remember a time when i didn't have a a crazy fear of dirt germs craziness craziness and so much so that uh you know

i wouldn't tie my shoe if my shoe uh came undone as a kid wow kid and the laces touched the ground, then I would rather walk like a person with special needs just to keep my shoe on than actually tie my shoe. And I would rather tell people that other kids were making fun of me because I didn't know how to tie my shoe. I'd rather say, I don't know how to tie it because I didn't want to touch the laces. Wow. So can you even give your loved ones a hug or handshake or anything? Um, now, now, but it was really tough. I, I, uh, when I had the, the, the wherewithal to, uh, afford, you you know whatever it took to make myself comfortable i

actually built a guest house which wasn't really a guest house it was a place for me to go when somebody coughed so when my kids were sick i would go live in the other part of the house or the other house you know so you must have been terrified during covid, COVID really screwed me up horribly and it screwed a lot of people up. But listen, way before COVID, I've gotten help and medicated. COVID just sent my therapist and my therapist into a whole new tax bracket and my medication doubled. You know, there is some comfort in, you know, my issues rearing their ugly head and then everybody around me saying, don't worry, you're not going to get sick or I'm not sick or I'm not, which is my whole life.

But after 2020, there was nobody saying that anymore so that kind of like you know you can wake up out of a nightmare you know the nightmare that i had given myself you know but during covid you couldn't wake up out of a nightmare everybody was living in the nightmare and you know so that was really hard it still is really hard. But, you know, life is hard. It is. I was fascinated with the games that you got set up for your charity, Howie's Games, to help N95 masks get delivered. How did that come into fruition?

Because it's very out of the box. And, you know, we both do a lot of, you know, game building and stuff like that. It was right in our wheelhouse. And I, you know, downloaded the app, kind of became infatuated with it. How did you come up with that idea, and how did that kind of get built out? Well, I'm fascinated by technology. I have, you know, my main fuel is curiosity. I'm still as curious as I was when I was five years old. And I always want

to know what the next thing is. So I'm reaching out to game builders. I'm reaching out to technology people. I'm reaching out. That's what the, what you're in my, in my office. Now we have, uh, holograms. These are just, I slide into people's, uh, DMS and go, what is this? How do I do that? And that's how the game technology you know there was a guy that was building games and i said well if people are going to come on let's just you know instead of putting money in my pocket right now let's give it to the world you know maybe that was uh ppe right that's what the that was that partnership was. The holograms are, I slid into the DMs from Proto Hologram. And I said, I just want to be part of this.

I just want to be able to be in nine places without going anywhere. As a germaphobe, a hologram company is key. I said, I'll do content. You don't even have to give me money. And then it turned out I ended up investing in the company. I sit on the board and now their head office is in my real estate. So, and they're all over the world, but that's everything that I do is just based on curiosity. Speaking of money. So you've made tons of money, obviously. I'm curious how you view money now that you've made a ton of it versus how you used to view it when you were broke.

Do you still view it the same way? The same. It doesn't change. You sold a company. Do you think of money differently now than you did? Not yet. But I think there's a certain point where it's... Where it's what?

I think once you make a certain amount of money, what else are you going to buy at that point? It's not about buying. It's the value of the dollar, you know? And one of my favorite philosophies on money, I read this book, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad? I know you follow Gary Vee. But Rich Dad, Poor Dad said something to me which I always thought of.

And he said, even if you're making minimum wage or, you know, the average person in North America figures they got to go to school, graduate, and get a good job. And I don't know what they consider a good job is but if you if you have a um a diploma and you're able to get a job where you can make a hundred thousand dollars a year then the average person will go the first thing they'll do is they'll go buy a house for probably three times the value of whatever the paycheck is they'll buy a house for three hundred thousand dollars which means they're buying a debt of two hundred thousand dollars and if they're buying a debt of two200,000. And if they're buying a debt of $200,000, why are you doing that? Where every, think of every dollar you make as an employee. And how can I make, even if I can make another penny on that dollar, if it's making, instead of giving it away. And that's what the game, that's the game I like to play. The game I like to play is no matter how much you make just means you have that many more employees.

And how can each of those dollars, and I don't care if they're a hundred dollars, a hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars, $10 million, or a hundred million dollars will mean you have 100 million employees. And how can each of those employees make you at least a penny more than their value each and every day? And that's what the fun for me is. Interesting. What do you think of that? I agree. I mean, I see money as a lot more of a time, you know, purchaser than anything, right?

What do you mean? So, I mean, I don't see really a lot of value in money other than money frees up time right it gives you more of your time back it's the only finite thing we have so the ability to do more stuff have more time with your family do more things that you enjoy while still not suffering financially to me that is the ultimate goal when any sort of money thing comes into perspective so it's kind of a different it's it's how you look at it so if the dollar dollar is your employee, then you don't have, before you have an employee, you have you. So if your dollar can work for you in an investment, and even if that's real estate, like if you move into, instead of buying that house for $300,000,

why don't you buy a duplex for $300,000 in a place that is a little less than you'd want to do so that you can charge rent to somebody in that duplex and then you don't have any mortgage because that rent is paying that mortgage that's that's the first thing or you can make an investment in something and whether that something is an NFT or whatever it is so that that can sell for more and it sits on a market or that's growing or it's a stock or it's whatever it is everything is an investment and the more employees you have working for you if you have a hundred million employees or a million employees working for you it doesn't matter that each of those employees is only making two cents a week, but they're all, you have a hundred million people making a hundred million employees making two cents a week. That's pretty valuable. So how can I make sure I'm not

wasting any dollar I make? And that's what I like to do. Do you remember what your first investment was? Yeah. So my first investment was I had, uh, the first time I accumulated $10,000, I had $10,000 or no $5,000. I had $5,600 in the bank and I bought, my wife was mad at me at the time, but I, but I didn't't i didn't trust

show business you know what i mean you get a lot of for what you do to show up someplace on a talk show even getting scale i was getting two hundred dollars to show up and talk for five minutes so i had fifty six hundred dollars i bought a5,000 term deposit at the time, which was paying something like 12%. And it was a 10 year term deposit. Wow. So, and then we had $600 in the bank. I remember my wife was mad at me. I said, but I'm guaranteed. I always have that $5,000 and I'm guaranteed. I'm going to make $750 a year guaranteed. So now I have $600. I'm gonna make seven hundred and fifty dollars a year guaranteed so now I have six hundred dollars I'm gonna go out and try to you know cover our rent every month I can do that I can go do spots at the comedy star I was getting like thirty five

dollars a spot you know and I can go do that but that's put away and that's and I just want to keep accumulating things that will make me money without me showing up i just want that so that was the first investment i made was a term deposit interesting you've been with your wife for over 40 years that's a really long time maybe that's the first investment i made in your wife yes so she's been with you through everything yeah which is awesome what do you think about the current dating culture where people are just hooking up left and right with whoever and uh they're not really looking for a long-term relationship i respect that you know i i don't know that a long-term relationship is is for everyone i don't think having kids is for everyone i think that you need to do what you need to do

and you should do and you shouldn't judge. And that's how I make a living. But I think that as I get older, I realize how vast our world is in points of view. And I think the problem is that when you don't realize that, when a big portion of people, because of social media, try to be like others, try to look like others, try to be like others, try to earn like others, try to, um, and I think if you are content in who you are and what you need and what you want, I think that that's success. Success is contentment. People ask me, how do you make it? You know, and they're usually asking me, how do you make it in

show business or in comedy? And for me, April 19th, 1977 is the day I made it. I got dared to go on stage and, and, um, in Toronto, Canada. And I found this acceptance. I found this laughter. I found this place that I wanted to show up a couple of times a week. I found something that was exciting that when I woke up in the morning, it's something I wanted to do. I think most people are going through life kind of, um, you know, unhappily, you know, they talk about Wednesdays being hump day. They're going halfway through the, the, the get over the humps of showing up every day, doing whatever it is they do because they have to pay the rent. And then they get to the weekend.

And it's not that anything great is going to happen. They just don't have to do the shit that they're doing all week. And I think that if you can find something in life that makes you happy, that you look forward to, that just that one thing. And it's not even about making money. That's making it. And even if you think you're going to do something that, especially in social media, that is going to make you famous,

I don't know what fame is. You know, fame is a bunch of people kind of know your name. Remember, all those people, including you, that know your name are going to die. We're all going to die. So it really doesn't mean anything. I could tell my grandchildren,

they were the most famous people in the 20s, in the 30s. You couldn't be any bigger than the Beatles. I don't know if you even understand how big the Beatles were because you're only 26. Do you? I've heard of them. But you know who they are. Yeah. But nobody moved the needle more than the Beatles. When the Beatles came out, just because everybody

watched the Ed Sullivan show at that time, like the world, 100 million people tuned in to like Elvis or the Beatles when they were on. Everybody in the world started wearing their hair like them, dressing like them. And that's all that was on the radio. That's all the music we heard. This is before streaming.

You know, now with streaming, you know, you don't really have top 40 anymore because all of us are kind of siloed into whatever we want to download and whatever we want to, and whatever we want to we create our own worlds now our world is not as we have access to the entire world but we're very siloed i can talk about comedy i have so many friends that can play arenas now all over the world that the average person on the street could not even know their name there wasn't a time when i was coming up in comedy where you could have somebody that would play an arena and not everybody knew their name everybody knew their name that's how you were able to sell but now

you can have you can garner enough of an audience where you could sell out or be the number one streaming song and there's a huge swath of the world that doesn't even know who you are yeah with the tiktokers everybody tiktok is one of them so you can have i have a almost 11 million followers on tiktok 99 of the people who know who I am are not on TikTok. They're older. That TikTok audience is a specific audience. The NFT audience is a specific audience. And we're really much more siloed than we ever were.

I forget what the question was. So siloed. Yeah, I don't remember the question. We'll pivot. I'm surprised to hear you take such a strong stance on the Beatles because I read that you're a huge stones fan. I am. So if you could go back in time to, let's say, you know, 17 year old Howie, you can go to either a Beatles concert or a stones concert.

Where are you going? Well, I'd like the stones personally. I would have gone to a store. I will go to a stones concert and I you going well i'd like the stones personally i would have gone to a stone i will go to a stones concert and i go to every stones all i'm saying is that what unlike the the stones did not change the world the way the beatles did the beatles had an amazing effect as somebody who was alive when they made their first appearance on the i remember my grandfather going what do you go get a haircut you look like a beetle you know the stones were just great music something went there it goes their background went off do you are you did you hire kenny uh i don't know okay the thing is that the Beatles had a much

bigger change on on pop culture than the Stones were just hugely famous and great and I love them the Beatles had a big change on pop culture much bigger there's not

even a comparison the longevity the stones had was unparalleled though i remember my parents going to a stones concert in sacramento in like the 90s well the fact that the the stones are still together and the beatles broke up you know there's no more but nobody had that it's kind of like i i can't imagine i can't think of in my lifetime or even before a pop icon changing the way, I think the last time that something else changed like that, I mean, it's going to sound silly. And it is silly now. But I think Madonna kind of changed the way young girls were dressing and presenting themselves.

You know, she was, right right she was kind of that i mean you guys are i've heard of her too young i wasn't alive for it but yes i've heard of the movement and that actually brings up another question did madonna or michael jackson have more of an impact in the 80s on pop culture i think madonna probably had more of an impact on pop culture. I think that Michael Jackson was a bigger star, a bigger international star, because his style and what he did could not be replicated by others, whereas Madonna was, style and what he did could not be replicated by others whereas madonna was the i remember it

sounds silly now but you know she she came out in her it was shocking that she was wearing a would look like lingerie on stage and then that became the fashion model for young girls everywhere i don't remember everybody dressing like Michael Jackson. I don't know that you wanted to, but you wanted to listen to his music and you wanted to go to his concerts. But there are people that make this, that show up on the scene and change the way, you know, now it's the kardashians i i think that a lot of people not only watch and worship the kardashians they want to be a kardashian and if you look online a lot of young girls you go oh that's kind of like she kind of looks like kim you know and they're getting surgically changed to look like that so not since the Beatles, not since Madonna,

and now the Kardashians are creating what is an accepted look for females today on Instagram. 100%, I see that. Yeah, it makes sense. And it makes me wonder, because you've enjoyed success, not at the SpaceX level, across a multitude of generations. You don't know, I could explode right now.

Well, if that's your definition of, please don't, can we leave before you? Okay. Is there a guiding principle that you think has applied to, you know, you in the 60s, in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 10s, and now, you know, in 2023 with 11 million followers on TikTok, is there just like a single fact that you find true across all of these generations a fact for me personally it's always been curiosity i think that when people are young and that's what becomes of pop culture people People are curious. And that's probably how you found NFTs. You know, you're online and you see, oh, I got into this game and I get into this art and I get into that.

Oh, that's amazing. I want to create something like that. I want to do something like that. I want to get involved. And you know what's going on in your world and you're curious. And this is the music I like. And these are the concerts I you're curious. And this is the music I like and these are the concerts I like to attend and this is the music I like to download.

This is also, oh, these are the kicks that I like. This is the way I like to dress. This is the way I like to look. I find that most people, having surpassed that age, that most people get to an age where that can become tiresome where they don't give a shit about what people are wearing, what people are listening to, what people are playing.

And that could be your parents and, and, and, you know, and then you get to an age where you go, that's not music. You know, when I was a kid, that was music. Or you want to play a good game or that, that's not art the mona lisa's art go to the louvre what are you looking at this nft for why what is a gorilla why is anybody paying that kind of money but if you're curious you stay with it and you'll find that your parents or older people will find a style that they're comfortable with, a haircut that they're comfortable with, music that they're comfortable with,

and you just stop. People just stop because it gets tiresome. And even artists just stop. The Rolling Stones don't really write new music anymore. And they don't, there was a time when they were incredibly prolific and I couldn't wait for the new Rolling Stones song or I couldn't wait for the new Beatles song

or I couldn't wait for the, everybody you love today is going to stop. Whether that's Post Malone or whatever, you'll stop. And then that will become just because they're not interested anymore. We lose curiosity. And for me personally, I'm crazy curious. I sit with my kids all day online. I have FOMO. It's probably part of my neurosis and probably part of my anxiety of fearing that I'm missing

out or missing something. So I'll go online and see there's a hundred million clicks on something. And then I read the comments and they go, this is hysterical. And I'll say to my son who called, you know, everybody's saying this is really funny. And there's a hundred million people who are enjoying it. And I'll be honest with you, Alex, I don't get it. Tell me why this is funny. What are they enjoying? What is the, how is that funny? What is that? And I'm fascinated by why is that drawing an audience. I come from before I was in show business, retail. I want to be able to,

we were talking before this about the Fyre Festival. I'm amazed at somebody who can garner, there isn't a person alive that doesn't want to garner a ton of interest for whatever thing they're doing, right? Whether you open up a deli you know you want everybody to talk about your deli you want everybody to show up at your deli like why are people attracted to this why is everybody interested in mr beast's burgers

you know why is every like why is that over you know? More than Burger King at this point. So why? And I keep asking why and how. And as long as I ask those questions, and it's just for my own personal interest, I seem to be continued to be invited to the party. And that's okay. continued to be invited to the party. You know? And that's okay.

That's an effect, after effect, of whoever I am and whatever I do. But more importantly, I wake up and I want to know. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to know, to be content with what you know, what you have, and what you're interested in. But I want to hear the new music. I want to see the new game. I want to know the new technology.

I want to see what people are trading. I want to see the new currency. I want to know what the new art form is. I just am interested. So that's just who I am. But that's probably as a result of my mental health issues. Interesting. So you're using it more as a benefit then

because your curiosity for learning has kept you relevant in various industries. You know, it's a coping skill. It's not a benefit. You know, listen, if my mental health issues are a gift, I would like to re-gift and give them away because they cause me more. You know, I'm up all night looking at everything, everything. And I just, I'm afraid I won't know and that the world's moving on without me.

Wow. You know, and so I look at everything and I'm interested in everything and I want to know why this is working or why who you are, you know, what is, who are you and how did you get into this? And why did you, how did you sell your company? I asked you a lot of personal questions going into this uncomfortable questions. And I realized, you know, I walk away always when I'm with my family and they go, you asked that I go, is that too much? Is that, you know, but I always, i'm with my family and they go you asked that i go is that too much is that you know but i always i'm just really curious really interested and were you like that in school too when you were learning in school more interested in things that not the things that they were teaching me because it didn't a lot of the things that were in, you know, I don't have a GED, and I wanted one.

I like education, but I like being, I like learning things that I'm interested in, and kind of trying to understand how they apply to whatever my life is and what they're doing. You know, I like making people laugh. I want to know why 100 million people are clicking on this. I like art. I want to know why these nfts selling here are worth more than than this right why is that i you know i wanted to understand i ran to

paris to go to the louvre to see mona lisa that was one of the biggest conundrums of my life i just have you ever seen the mona lisa no how much is it worth? Well, it's priceless. I don't know what it's worth, but it's, it's, you look at it, you go, if this was invented today and this was an NFT and somebody wanted to sell that, that they wouldn't sell. So it's amazing. What I'm realizing is we create markets, we create value, we create, it's just, it's all bullshit. Everything is bullshit. Value is bullshit. Wow.

It is. It's a bold statement. But it is. You know, you have a cotton t-shirt, a black cotton t-shirt, and you go to Old Navy and you could buy that for a three pack for 15 bucks. If you put, if you write Versace on it or calvin klein on the same cotton t-shirt all of a sudden we've said that that logo that nft is worth 10 times the value and it's because people believe that wow right you have a sneaker and you put a swish on it it's worth more than a sneaker with an

upside down swish on it you can the upside down swish is actually worth more is it it is okay because you're right because value is all bullshit and but we create value yeah you know one day somebody's gonna dig this up whatever we're doing and they're going to dig up your sneakers and you're going to go you know this was this is how they traded you know this is what they it's what was worth something 200 years ago has no value today and what look at an nft today what somebody is paying for it it didn't even exist 20 years ago right and it's garnered all this interest now and what will garner interest tomorrow may not even be something that i can articulate right now and we create it so how do and that's what i find fascinating how do we create i want to create value i want to create do we create, I want to create value. I want to create

value in something funny. I want to create value in something entertaining. I want to create, I just want to create things that you're interested in partaking in, whether you're buying it, listening to it, watching it, just looking at it. And I find humanity incredibly curious incredibly interesting and i want to because i feel so out of control i want to see how much control i can have while i'm here in kind of navigating even what you look at interesting wow i read an article i've read articles too well this one said you have four secret talents whoa and you were unwilling to share them with the article that was being written at the time is this a thing or i don't know i don't know what i said i probably said i have four secret talents just that they would say what are they and their secret and then your answer was

yes their secret for a reason yes i don't know that i have i would imagine i have much more than that to share but i don't know what they are i'm finding them out as i go along in life i didn't know i couldn't do that look look at what you guys did look what you're doing that's a secret talent if somebody told you said you're 26 yeah yeah so when you were 15 years old what were you doing i was a high school stoner okay so if somebody told you that you were going to on the internet allow people to trade images just through your little site and you were going to be able to uh create a um a generational wealth yep from that as a stoner you probably were fuck you i would have thought they were crazy i mean i literally became a millionaire in 10 minutes when i launched my NFT and it just changed my life from there.

And did you go into that knowing to say, because that's how I feel about April 19th, 1977, walking on stage. And that was going to be a joke. That was a dare. I didn't aspire to be a comedian. I didn't think I was going to be in show business. I definitely didn't believe I'd live in California andia and be in a building you're in my building here you know to think that that day of putting a rubber glove on my head would change my life did

you when you you said in 10 minutes so you you what you created an nft so i launched an nft project prior to that i had no idea it would do well or not so it could have flopped i could have made nothing or if it sold out i would make 2.4 million dollars it ended up selling out in 10 minutes so i went from being broke i think i had like 30k to my name at the time um to becoming a millionaire in 10 minutes it was the craziest day of my life and but but and that's not you you when you did it there was no thought yeah i just this is something you want to do right yeah i wanted to build a cool community of basketball fans that's how i met charlie met some great people gary even saw the project reached out so it's just been a journey right

but it was something you're passionate about right your basketball you love basketball love basketball and your first nft was a basketball nft or something yep so that's what i'm telling people if you find something and it's not about becoming a millionaire it's like even if that day you would have put that up and made another 30 grand or not you you would be happy you really would it's about doing that's making it making it isn't the money making it isn't the result making it isn't how many people know your name or know what you look like or know who you are or listen to this podcast making it is finding something where oh today, today I'm going to put my NFT up. Today I'm going to show up on stage.

Today I'm going to do my podcast. Today I'm going to go meet my hero. Today I'm going to go to Vegas for the first time in my life. Today I'm going to, and we don't have enough of that in our life. And what I want to do, what I want to do, As soon as we take the focus off of what other people are doing and what you, how you are not like that other person or how you have less than that other person or how your thing is not as good as that other person, or you don't look like that other person.

As soon as you can find something that you are passionate about and you're just excited about doing it, whether anybody buys it sees it wants it that's making it i love that that's powerful i agree a thousand percent you just find your passion that's it and then a lot of times those passions will flip that's not why to do it that's not why to be we'll flip into changing your life like your life changed but you will not by trying to mimic no what you think your image of what somebody else's success is agreed yeah and that's the problem with social media i think a lot of people start comparing themselves and it gets kind of tricky you you know? Well, everything, social media is designed to,

like a drug to, like the success is based on likes. The success is based on views. The success is based on comments. The success is based, if you don't need any of that to feel okay, it's about feeling okay. And in life, all I want is contentment i want to have fun i want those highs you know listen i struggle without social media without money without a career i struggle just to maintain every waking moment just to feel content, not anxious, not scared, not sad, not worried.

That's my whole life is just to stay level, let alone, you know. And then I realize from the outside I've done okay. I have. And I'm still trying even with money and even with whatever perceived success somebody thinks I have, I still feel like I'm,'m you know just walking a thin line on a wall that you can fall off of it's tricky man i was so scared of being judged on social media that i didn't post a video for five years and then eventually i'm just like screw this

i'm just gonna do it started posting twice a day and it's it's cool man my friend heidi klum turned her comments off really you can't comment on heidi klum post did she do that because she was getting hate yeah yeah and she's a beautiful successful supermodel who does pretty well why was she getting hate because you just do humanity is those are the people that are awoken by anything you post nothing those are the things you'll notice those that's the fire that's the flame you you know everything else is fuel just somebody throws a match into that and you you gaslight and those are the people that's the anything you post and if you're posting because you're proud of something because you want to uh highlight something um most people are unhappy most people don't feel success you know and the only way that

they can feel better about themselves is by kicking you and if they kick you then they can go well that's stupid what you're doing or that's stupid you know if they can kick you that's it gives them it takes some of the self-doubt away from them if they can find something in you so i think that it awakens the trolls are the people that make the most noise on social media right negativity is making you know you're nice is not gonna get commented on yeah that's nice congrats isn't gonna get commented on but you idiot you stole it that's like my idea that's not even your idea you look like an idiot i'll go viral yeah yeah that well even if it doesn't go viral it's just the thing that people that's what it

awakens that's what you know there wasn't a time when unhappiness and anxiety and darkness had a voice you know it was you know aside from you know negative reviews in newspapers, which made more noise than this is a good movie. And the Inquirer and people like that and all these rags that are gossip columnists. Now we're all gossip columnists. So everybody, every kid, everybody who's alone in the room not feeling good, if you're angry, go tell somebody else.

Go tell them what you really think of the their negativity that's true man all my most viewed videos are a lot of hate you've noticed that too right yeah we were talking about how controversy gets boosted in the algorithm the most which is probably touching on what you said earlier where so always good and bad and that's a bad part of that it drives controversy and drives people apart i would love to see the algorithm start boosting a little bit of unity won't happen it won't happen that's not fuel you know you think of fuel fuel burns you know that's a good analogy but it burns if you can't light fuel then you are not going to move forward so people are moved forward by that's why it's called gaslighting. That's why you want fuel. That's why you want to burn. And that's why maybe success is blowing shit up. You know, it's just, that's, that's the voice that's going to stand out. And as somebody

who's a standup comic, I could stand in a room of thousands of people. If one person in my periphery is not laughing, that's all I notice. I can get a standing ovation. I can get a roar. But if one person up front is just hating it, and you can ask any comic, any performer, that's what they notice. And if you have a video that goes viral, but you get a couple of negatives,

I think that that's standing out to you too. You're not human if you're not. Yeah, I'll get like 100 positive comments and two negative, and I'll think about the negative. or even if you get 100 negative comments 100 negative comments but the video has 5 million views you still only have 100 people said something negative out of 5 million that's such a small right and those are the idiots who are not happy people and then go click on their follows that's somebody with probably 30 followers it's not anybody of any that can that could really affect your life right so how do you deal with your haters on social media and how do you deal

with haters when you're performing comedy i don't you just ignore them um no i don't i don't i see them but i don't know how to deal with them i don't deal with them i see them it bothers me it's hurtful it's hard but i can't say anything more i don't know what i don't answer I don't try to appease. I can't, but it hurts. Interesting. You take the opposite approach. I feel like you tackle it head on. I do. You know, I, I do not enjoy confrontation, but I know that it exists and I do kind of tackle it head on and that's had, you know, good and bad things for me as well. It's probably good. You know, the, you know, the one thing that people want on social media is engagement. So they're trying to engage.

So if you engage, but what happens is if you engage, you will gaslight it and it'll open it up. So if you engage, like I used to do that. Somebody used to say something terrible and I used to go, I can't thank you enough. And then what I used to find that did is that got that engagement blew up a little bit and made them more mad and then people who liked me would take on my fight you know people who but I don't I just I read it I'm being

honest I read I read all of it. Wow. I know. It's not good. It's not healthy. I don't have any advice. Yeah, it's tough to deal with, man. Well, Howie, it's been a pleasure. Any closing comments? Anything you want to promote?

No, I think it's been a pleasure. I think that I'm a pleasure. I really have. And even if you weren't here, I would have pleasured myself. Oh, that didn't come off well. Do you want some of my merch? Sure. I have merch.

See, I wear stuff. Howie Mandel Does Stuff is my podcast. Awesome. With my daughter, which I do. And that seems to be taking off. That's my highlight right now is doing my podcast. Howie Mandel Does Stuff. Love it.

Yeah, I do. I do love it. I don't have the same sponsors as you. No Manscaped? I think at the beginning we had Manscaped. It was hard for me to talk about. I'm doing it with my daughter. How do I talk about,

how do me and my daughter discuss Manscaped? That's tricky but maybe they should it is tricky and she did a lot of the ad reads so she was reading about manscaping her father which is not yeah see that's it's not a good thing yeah that's a bit weird that though manscape if you're listening i love the product and i'd be happy to re-engage if you want to. There we go. But in the meantime, I got some rich. You want to give them merch? Yeah, let's do it. I'll wear a shirt.

You'll wear stuff. You can wear a hoodie. You tell us what you want, your sizes, and we'll get you stuff. It's not just a t-shirt with stuff. We have stuff. You got more than that. Oh, you got more than that? Oh, there you go.

All right. Yeah, there's stuff. Do you guys have merch? Not yet. Coming got more than that. There you go. All right. Yeah, there's stuff. Do you guys have merch? Not yet. Coming soon. Coming soon. We got to get on your level. But yeah, it's been a blast, man.

Thanks for everything. I don't get like an NFT or anything. We'll give you a Chibi. We have a Chibi Dino for you. Can I have a Chibi Dino? We absolutely can. I would love one. Got you.

All right. God, I had to work hard to just get a look. Sorry. I should have offered that first. I gave them shirts. Got you. All right. God, I had to work hard to just get a look. Sorry. I should have offered that first. I gave them shirts. I gave them my presents. And I had to beg for a chibi dino. All right.

Thank you, Howie. It's been a pleasure. See you guys next week. Digital Social Hour. Thanks for tuning in.