In Search Of Excellence - Howie Mandel: The Power of Yes and Embracing Opportunity | E127

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Howie Mandel is a celebrated comedian, television host, and actor, renowned for his unique blend of humor and versatility across various entertainment platforms. Rising to fame as Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the acclaimed medical drama St. Elsewhere, Mandel later became a household name through his iconic role as the host of the hit game show Deal or No Deal. His sharp wit and engaging presence also made him a fan favorite as a long-time judge on America’s Got Talent. Beyond his on-screen success, Mandel is known for his candid discussions about his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, making him a vocal advocate for mental health awareness. His career, marked by resilience and a relentless pursuit of excellence, continues to inspire audiences both through his entertainment endeavors and his advocacy work.0:00 - Howie discusses his initial skepticism about hosting Deal or No Deal.0:39 - Facing show cancellations and contemplating leaving the entertainment industry.0:58 - Howie explains his initial hesitation about game shows and the stigma attached.4:00 - Howie recalls the unconventional pitch meeting that changed his mind.6:30 - Howie’s wife encourages him to take the game show offer during a tough career moment.8:45 - Howie discusses the human element of Deal or No Deal and how it shifted his approach.10:16 - Howie reflects on the emotional impact of hosting his first episode.11:33 - Howie describes the overwhelming success and unexpected audience reception.12:00 - Howie talks about joining AGT and the challenges of being a judge.14:00 - Howie shares the difficulty of critiquing performers in person.17:45 - Reflecting on memorable performances and the emotional resonance of the show.18:34 - Howie emphasizes the diversity and uniqueness of each act on AGT.19:55 - Howie recounts his public struggle with OCD and the importance of speaking out.24:34 - Howie’s perspective on success in comedy and his advice to aspiring comedians.25:00 - Howie stresses the importance of persistence and taking action in any career.29:23 - Howie discusses his philosophy of saying yes to opportunities and its impact.30:00 - Howie views life as a game to be played, embracing challenges and opportunities.34:01 - Howie explains the close relationship between comedy and tragedy.37:26 - Howie’s belief in instinct over preparation in his career decisions.43:04 - Howie discusses the role of luck and making your own opportunities.44:35 - Howie emphasizes the importance of focusing on the current moment.45:06 - Reflecting on the influence of Richard Pryor and authenticity in comedy.49:18 - Howie on the importance of consistency and persistence in his personal and professional life.52:32 - Howie compares life to a flowing river, advocating for staying engaged and curious.53:09 - Howie’s involvement with Proto and his interest in new technologies.1:01:44 - Howie shares what he would have done with a million dollars at 21.1:03:42 - Howie answers rapid-fire questions on life lessons, regrets, and goals.Sponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

How do you make an hour of television of just going, open that one, open that one, open that one, open that one? There's no trivia, there's no skill, there's nothing. This is a joke, this is not a game. He says, look at this. He gave me a tape. It was the Italian version of it. I just remember that the guy took the offer.

He took the offer on the phone, and then he turned, and a teardrop came down his eye before he told him what the offer was. And there was so much tension and emotion. And I showed it to my wife and she said, take the deal. You're doing really well. Then you get free of your own shows. And like everybody, we all have disappointments in our career. three are canceled you're thinking about quitting the business and then michael roberts calls you up one day wants you to do a game show and you basically told them fuck no first time i've said no then then what happened well you have to realize and put it into perspective so this is 2005 um i went from all these stories that

I just told you of doing the Tonight Show, selling 10,000 seats. In 2005, I was playing comedy clubs again, not selling them out. There's sessions, auditioning for Five Lines and Under. It was a decade since I had done really well, and it was waning. And I'm financially set. I'm just doing it because I I love doing it I'm I'm okay I've done really good investments and I said you know what I'm gonna leave show business I don't need this anymore I don't need this isn't fun and I could still drop in two three times a week to a comedy club I don't need to try to sell tickets I'll drop in I'll do that I don't need to try to sell tickets. I'll drop in. I'll do that. I don't want to kind of do shows and have other people edit me and write for me. And I don't like it anymore.

I don't going to do it. And Michael calls me and says, there's a game show they want you to do. And before he even finished the sentence, I go, no. At that time in 2005, the game show, you know, there was not hierarchies, but, you know, people who were movie stars didn't do commercials, you know, people who were soap stars didn't, I mean, people who did prime time didn't do soap operas, people who were in, you know, in comedy didn't do game shows, game, the game show host was, you know, when your, when your currency is irony, game show host was the, the punchline, you know, not that I'm not, I like game, but I didn't want to be a game show host. That seemed

like the lowest rung. I'd rather just continue in what I was doing in real life. I'd rather just deal in real estate and, and have fun and do my standup. I don't have to be a game show. And being a game show host and standing there with a card and reading trivia questions I'm going to be the laughing stock of you know the world in show business so I don't want to do it so I said no and he calls me back and he goes no this is big this is a show that's playing all over the world it's a very big show and NBC is going to take a big swing at it they're going to they're going to put it on primeetime and it'll be on five nights a week. So I go, fuck no, no way. Now I'm going to be humiliated nationally five times a week. I'm not

going to do a game show. I just don't want to do that. That's going to put a nail into the coffin of my career. If I ever want to do standup again, I'm going to be a joke. And think about it. No other comedian that you could think of before 2005 is on TV doing, not since in the fifties, you know, people like Groucho Marx, did you bet your life, but not, they weren't doing, you didn't see comedians. I mean, the closest thing to that was a Regis Philbin doing who wants to be a millionaire, but he's not a comedian. He's a host. So that was, you know, and that's why NBC wanted to take a stab at a big primetime game show because of who wants to be a millionaire. Michael calls me back again and says, you know what? Well, you just hear them out. They say they can't do it without you. I go, okay. I'm at Jerry's deli in the Valley. If you send the guy

out, he can come pitch me at my table. I'm not going to go to a meeting. And I showed you the card in there. This guy shows up. Rob Smith. Rob Smith from Endemol. He shows up and he's got that card, which I have framed in this office. He's got a card. It doesn't even, he didn't even go to Kinko's. It's not even cut straight. He did it. And he's got these 26 little square pieces of paper with amounts of money on them. And he goes, pick one. And I pick one and he goes, you're trying to pick the million, don't look at it.

And now we're gonna see what's in yours by opening up all the others. And then we're just sitting at the table and I'm going, okay, number six, number nine, number 10. Which now I think I'm being punked because how do you make an hour of television of just going, open that one, open that one, open that one, open that one. There's no trivia. There's no skill.

There's nothing. This is a joke. This is not a game. This is not really. And I, I, he says, look at this. And I, he gave me a tape and it was the Italian version. It was all over the world. It was the Italian version of it. And I didn't understand the game, but I knew that if you had opened up the big numbers and there was less of a chance of you having the million that the offers would go down. Okay. So, so I just remember that the guy took the offer. He took the offer on the phone and then, and then he turned and a teardrop came down the, the, the host, a teardrop came down his eye before he told him what the offer was. And there was so much tension and emotion. And I showed it to my wife and she said, take the deal. She said, Howie, you're miserable. I was in a depression. I wasn't really being asked to work anywhere

and I wasn't busy enough. And my life was, financially, I was okay. You know, I'm making investments, but that's not, that doesn't really take up your day. It doesn't keep you in the now. It doesn't, you know, she goes, just take the deal. So I thought, okay, I called them and I said, I'll do it. When does it start?

And they said, Monday. I said, well, don't you have to build a set? They said, it's built. I said, well, don't you need to cast all the models? They go, they're here. How far down the fucking list was I that they'd cast everybody? How many people had said no? And the truth is everybody had said no.

Ellen said no. Ellen said no, yes. I know a lot of people that said no. So anyway, I took the deal. And then I thought, I said, can I hire one of my friends to write comedy? I think if I'm going to be on primetime, at least I could be funny.

There's nothing to do. All I have to do, there's no trivia questions. There's nothing to do. I can, I'm all I have to do. There's no trivia questions. There's nothing to read. All I have to do is say, pick a case and then open the case and then listen on the phone to the banker. Like I don't have anything to do. So maybe I can write some funny comedy and they go, go ahead. And they let me hire writers. And I, I came, you know, loaded with material for Monday morning, and I walked out the first contestant. I have her picture here.

It was Karen Vann. I'll never forget. I did over 500 episodes, but it was Karen Vann, and I said, what's your name? She says, Karen Vann. I have three kids. She's a single mother. She doesn't have health insurance.

She's never owned a home, and then it became real. I'm sitting here like I'm sitting with you. I looked in her eyes, and first and foremost, yes, I'm a sitting here like I'm sitting with you. I looked in her eyes and, you know, first and foremost, I, yes, I'm a comedian and, but I'm a human being and I'm a father and I'm a husband. And I got so scared. She was looking, I saw this blank look on her face and she hadn't been in this world before. She's in Hollywood and there's 300 people in the audience and all these lights pointed at her and all these cameras. She was, I was so afraid that I would distract her because the first time,

I remember the first offer was something like $15,000. She goes, no deal. And she's having so much fun. And I thought, you just said no deal to $15,000. You're not from LA or New York. $15,000 will buy you health insurance, more than health insurance. $15,000 is probably enough to start a down payment

on a condo. You can own a home. $15,000 is probably five times more than what you have in the bank. $15,000 is for nothing, for nothing. You are taking a chance. There's no strategy to get that million. That is 100% luck.

I just said to you, will you take $15,000? And you just threw it away. So I started talking to her. I threw away all the comedy. And all I wanted to do is I talked to her. I wanted her and every other contestant to leave better off than how they had come there. And I would look them in the eye and I would talk to them like I would talk to my five-year-old kid. And I would say, you know, Karen Venn, you have to open up another four cases if you say no deal. But right now the offer is $25,000. Listen to me, Karen, $25,000. Listen to me, Karen. $25,000. 10 times what you made last year. Enough to buy a home. Those three children are sitting1 million, a guarantee of $25,000. Deal or no deal? You know, Saturday Night Live started making fun of me

because I would talk so slow and I just wanted to make the point. I wanted them to, it was so, the biggest skill set that I had there was not to throttle somebody who was making ridiculous, you know, I'm not a gambler. I don't gamble. Who was making, anyway, I finished the show. I did five episodes and I was so embarrassed because I hadn't done any comedy. I hadn't played it. Well, go back because she didn't

take it and got zero. No, that's not true. She got five. She ended up getting $5,000. And when we returned to her years later, we went back to find out what people had done with their money and how their life had changed. She had got her breasts done. So she made a mountain out of a molehill. But the point was that I, I, after I had shot all five episodes, I was so embarrassed because it was the first time in my life, in my career where I wasn't playing a character. I wasn't doing stand-up. I wasn't doing anything funny. I was just being Howie.

And it was going to air over the Christmas week. I packed my bags, took my family. We went out to the Caribbean. I was on Tortola, which is an island out in the Caribbean. And I didn't have TV and I didn't have internet. And I just thought this is going to be disastrous. I just don't want to be on the continent. And Rob called me that Monday, that Tuesday morning after the first one aired. And I thought, Oh, this is it. He goes,

you're not going to believe it. I go, I figured it out already thinking he was going to give me the bad news. It went through the roof. People loved it. And then he called me the next day. It was even bigger the next day. And then at the end of the week, a hundred million people had watched deal or no deal. And it's probably one of the biggest game show phenomenons in the history of television to this day. I love that show. It's the human condition. It's greed. It's risk. It was heart-wrenching to watch days. Um, the American Dream was your next talk show, America's Got Talent, which is all these people going up.

It's a talent show. In January 2005, you took over from David Hasselhoff. And tell us about that show, because I- That was a hard one. So that one, my buddy, Jeff Gaspin, who was the president of NBC, I'd finished on a deal or no deal. And he said, would you like to be a judge?

And I went, okay, you know, I'll do it. Yes. I was back to my yeses again, not knowing what that was and knowing the show. I watched the show from incessantly. I watch everything. I live, I have a fear of missing out. We talked about this before we went on the air. I'm on social media every minute, every platform all day long and all night. I sleep very little. I'd watched every episode of America's Got Talent because I think I'm fascinated by anybody who will get up in front of other people and do whatever they do. I watch TV even when it's not in English. I don't understand what they're doing, but I'm just fascinated by humanity.

And so I said yes. And then it was really interesting to me because that didn't seem like a job. It didn't seem like I was there to do anything. I was there, I jokingly say to people, you know, it's like the only difference between having the job and not having the job, I'm doing what everybody's doing at home in their underpants in front of their TV. You know, they're watching the show and then commenting on what they thought. And I didn't think that's a

job. You know, it doesn't seem like a job. It seems like I'm just a viewer. But obviously I came to realize that, listen, at that point, I come with a point of view and a point of experience where I've been in this job in different facets of show business, whether it be acting or performing standup or producing, or so I have something to offer. What was really hard is looking in, in the way that I was empathetic toward Karen van, I'm empathetic toward anybody I see in person. And it's really hard in person to look at somebody and be brutally honest in, it was hard on, on so many levels as somebody who is on stage and on TV,

you know, when I first joined the show, they would, we would travel the show. So it'd be everybody in Dallas. So it was, it was their own, whether it was good or bad,

they loved the little girl from Dallas. So if I, it was their own, whether it was good or bad, they loved the little girl from Dallas. So if I said I didn't get it, I would be booed tremendously because they wanted their Dallas kid to be the winner. It was really hard to be paid to say things where that live audience there wanted to hate you, you know, even if they agreed with you, they wanted to hate you. That was really hard. And then it was more importantly hard to be, I want to be constructive. I want to give you, I want to tell you what I legitimately think and how I feel. And I want you to know that what I legitimately think and how I feel. And I want you to know that what I legitimately think and how I feel doesn't necessarily make or break you. You don't have

to cater to my needs. And I may have a totally different opinion than the other three people here. And not only that, I may have a totally different opinion than the millions who are watching and are going to vote. But what I'm paid to do is be honest and authentic. And anytime I've been honest and authentic in my career, whether it's my standup going, okay, okay, I'm terrified and I don't know what to do, or, you know, I'll be honest, your song didn't resonate with me. But that doesn't mean that millions and millions of other people aren't going to like you. Today, especially today, you know, there are people, we're in LA, there are people playing at the Forum, which is one of our big arenas and venues, whose name I don't even know.

You know, entertainment is very siloed now even more than ever because it's digital. There was a time when I was growing up where if they were playing the Forum or the Coliseum, even if I didn't like them and I didn't buy your albums and I don't like, I know your name. Today, I don't have to know your name for you to garner a huge audience. So by the same token, and that's what I preface, but it's really hard, especially if somebody's young or they're a kid, to be critical. But I don't think I'm critical as much as I'm honest. For me, sometimes I didn't get it, or it didn't move me, or I don't tap my foot to that, or I don't get that kind of music.

But I'm being honest with you. But that doesn't mean that Simon doesn't like it, or Heidi doesn't't like it or this whole audience didn't give you a standing ovation. That was the hardest part. That's still the hardest part of that show. But I find that for the most part, if I'm honest and authentic, I think the majority of people appreciate that. In fact, the majority of people don't even watch or know the show exists. The majority of people appreciate that. In fact, the majority of people don't even watch or know the show exists. The majority of people, even when I sell out two shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and that's 10,000 people, there's 9,890,000 people in that city that don't give a shit and didn't come and probably don't even know I'm there. So the majority of people don't know me, don't like me, don't agree with me.

And when you understand that and you're okay with that, you can only be true to yourself. You have to be responsible for yourself. And that's how I run everything now. My own business, my show business, my performances, everything I do, I control and I serve myself. 19 years on that show, What's your favorite moment? There's still the one to come. My favorite moment is not knowing what's going to happen.

It's, I don't have a favorite moment. I have a favorite. I have a lot of favorite moments. You know, I loved seeing V Unbeatable, Courtney Hadwin, which is a 13 year old little girl who came out of nowhere. She was like the second coming of Janice Joplin. You know, there's so many moments. There are so many great moments. Also, it's just this feel, this patina of another human being 25 feet in front of me who has a hope and a dream does something, spends two minutes and you can feel it. I know it comes off on TV, but even more in the room, you could feel that their life is not going to be the same ever again. And I'm there witnessing that. Who's your favorite performer of all time on the show? I don't have one. I don't have a favorite performer. I love everything. I don't have, there's no one thing. And that's the

beauty of, you know, our show, as opposed to like something like American Idol, you can go, who's your favorite singer? But how do you compare a singer with a group of 30 people from India who have been working in the streets and doing death defying tosses and flips and dances and choreography? How do you say, I like that better than that? It's not, you know, what's your favorite food when you go to Ralph's or Whole Foods? What's your favorite thing in the store? I love that. And I love that about the world.

I love there is so much. There is so much. And if you look at how I run my life and my business, there is so much. You're sitting here in my warehouse today. And, you know, I love sitting at this table doing my podcast with my daughter. I love doing stand-up comedy. I love that I have connections with people on social media and then they end up under the same roof as me. There's no one thing. I love that we are this veritable cornucopia of, you know, life, you know, I just love life. I love the moment that I'm in.

You've become a great spokesperson for mental health, a great role model. Tell us about the Howard Stern show and Robin looking at this red band on your arm. And then tell us about the stranger on the street and what that person said to you. I don't remember what the red, I don't know that reference to the red band, but I do know that I was on Howard Stern after I was diagnosed and I was doing the show. In my book, I wrote about the fact that I, uh, um, I was in the, I was in the studio talking to him and there was another guy in the studio who left before me and he went to open the door. And then like my mother did on the crib, I noticed the door didn't want to touch the

door because he had been, his hands were filthy. And, uh, so when I got up and finished my part of the interview, I asked somebody to open the door for me and I was open. I said, I don't want to touch it because it's dirty. They got to open it. And I said, no. And then I went to grab a tissue. They knocked the tissue out of the way. As it turned out, I started to have an anxiety attack and I said, you got to let me out. I couldn't breathe. And I thought I was going to die. And then I said to Howard, who is a friend, I said, Howard, I have something called obsessive compulsive disorder. I've been diagnosed. I'm on medication. If you don't open the door for me, you're going to have to call 911. And they got up and they

opened the door for me. And when I walked out through the other side of the door in the hall, I could hear that they were still on the air, and I thought I was in a commercial break, so I didn't think I was sharing this with the world, and I was devastated because now I had told the world that I have a mental health problem that I had been diagnosed with, and I was medicated, and I thought first and foremost, my family, this is a national show,

my family is going to be embarrassed. How are my kids going to go to school the next day when their dad just said he's, uh, he's got a mental health problem. How am I going to get another job? Why would anybody give me, you know, any production is worth millions of dollars. Why would they put me in something where they're going to be spending the money when I've just told everybody that I'm medicated and I see a psychiatrist so I thought the best case scenarios I'll probably just walk out onto the street into traffic and I don't know how to and I don't know how to cope with what I've just done and I walked out onto the street in New York the busiest street in the world and I've never felt more alone and the traffic is teeming and I'm just sitting there staring at the traffic and in my periphery a guy comes up and to my side

says are you Howie Mandel and I said yeah and he goes I just heard you and Howard and my heart just dropped in my stomach thinking I'm just gonna run out into traffic and he said me too and I went what and he goes me too I have the same issue what? And he goes, me too. I have the same issue as you. And thank you for talking about it. That was so comforting. And that was like the, the lifesaver for me because I thought, oh my God, you know, I'm not alone. And you know, this is before the internet, well, the internet probably existed, but before it was known to people and that was the first person. And then when I got home, I was every day, I was getting tons and tons of mail letters and people saying that it was really

eye-opening and helpful and wonderful that I had talked about it. And they were also, they knew somebody, they were suffering the same way they had it and that's when i realized oh my god this the answer is not keeping this to yourself you have to talk about it and the stigma is the most dangerous thing in the world and from that day on i've done nothing but talk about it and uh i went and spoke on capitol hill about uh insurance companies parroting the amount of money that they put into physical health with mental health. I partnered with a company called NoCD, which is an app where people can just be wherever you are. You can just look at your phone, download this app, and make an appointment to get diagnosed or even treated. And it's all affordable.

And wherever I can talk about mental health, I know that hopefully there's somebody out there who doesn't know where to turn. But the turn is to talk about it, even if it's with a family member, a caregiver. And they don't all have the answers. And they probably, a lot of them won't respond but to keep talking about it there is no answer it's just like let's just take care of our mental health the way we take care of our dental health and we'd be a better more productive

society i want to switch gears and talk about the business of comedy so most comedians don't make anything they get up there they get a free drink ticket. Maybe if you're a good comedian, you may make thousand dollars every two weeks, something like that. The average comedian, according to what I read online, makes under $30,000 a year and needs a second job. What's your message to everybody out there that wants to be a professional comedian and make it? I don't think it's for, I think it goes for everything. And Nike is the one that has the answer for that. And that's just do it. And I always say to the people who ask about, well, first of all, making it for me, my definition of making it or success is happiness or is to find something in life that you're excited about. If you're excited to get up, even if I was a janitor,

and there's nothing wrong with being a janitor, but if that was my job and that's how I was paying my rent, if I could go to a club two times a week and do a set, or even one time a week, I feel like I made it. I feel like too many people in this world don't have any joy, any fun. Wednesday is considered hump day because the connotation is you're halfway through a week of doing all the shit you don't want to do to get to the weekend, not to do something you want to do, just to do

nothing, just to not do the shit you don't want to do. Most people are spending time doing what they don't want to do. So success is finding something in life that you're excited about. Life is really short. I'll take anybody to a graveyard. You point out the richest guy in the graveyard. We all have the same amount. Our wallets are all worth the exact same at the beginning and at the end. So if you want to find, you've got to find joy, that's success. So I love standup comedy. I made it. And the day that I found success was April 19th, 1978. You know, the day that I got on stage and I found that swaddle. That's making it. Making money and doing something that'll ultimately pay the rent is about just doing it. I always say the difference between Elon Musk and you, and I'm talking to the listener, or Jeff Bezos and you is they did it and they kept doing it and they didn't stop doing it.

That's the only difference. Not that they're, I believe that we all have it within us. If we want it, if we need it to lock ourselves in a garage and find something that you're passionate about with all the nose and all the, the obstacles and all the toughness and everything that's against you. If you can get past that and just do it because you believe in it and you want to do it, it'll work for you. It will always work for you. And if you look at all the people that were on stage, when I showed up at Yuck Yucks or showed up at the comedy store, there are so

many people that are funnier than me, that are more talented than me, that have more to offer than me. And you know why you don't know them? Because they don't do it anymore. Because they've been said no to so many times. And I can't tell you how many times even this week I am said no to, because I just keep, you know, curiosity is my fuel and I'm always interested and I always want to try things and I always want to do things. But all the things that I try, you can't believe how many people say no to me all the time, every day. But no is not if you wanna be a boxer. That's like saying, I wanna be a boxer,

but I never wanna get hit. Well, you're always gonna get hit. And life is like a boxing match. And if you can't get hit and you can't fall down and you decide you don't wanna keep getting up, you just wanna walk out of the ring, most people walk out of the ring of whatever it is they've decided to put themselves up against.

And I continue to be in the ring. And nobody is more surprised and thrilled and excited to be doing what I'm doing each and every day than I am. And being invited to the party and having somebody like you saying, hey, can we talk to you? And what I can say from my perspective now is that works for me. I don't know another way, but I realize I'm

cognizant enough to understand that the fact that I said yes to whatever I said yes to works its way into my life, into my business, into whatever. Maybe because I said yes to you, maybe you will be an investor in Proto. And maybe Proto will be the biggest form of communication in e-commerce to come because you're the final investor in it and you take it over that hump. I don't know why,

but that would be because I said yes to a podcast that has nothing to do- Which by the way, just so people know, I've been a huge fan,, you know, that has nothing to do. Which, by the way, just so people know, I've been a huge fan, as you know, and I emailed you at, I don't know, seven o'clock at night. I don't know. We found your email. Matt Hickerson, my producer, found all these emails. I mean, he's incredible.

And you wrote me back an hour later and said, I'd love to do it. I'm just some dude off the street. You don't know me. I don't know you. But I always say yes, but I don't know me i don't know you and but i always say yes but i don't know incredible and what's the worst credible what's the worst case scenario what's that i do a podcast that nobody here like i don't know what the worst case scenario worst case is you walk off my show like dana white walked off your show but so dana white walks

off my show and that's one of the biggest episodes I have. You know, so like even from bat, you got to, it's, it's all a perspective. Life is a perspective. Life is a game and this game is worth playing. And we people make decisions in their time on this earth to stop playing. If you want to play and that's how you should look at it. If you want to play, it's hard. you should look at it, if you want to play, it's hard. You'll get tired. You'll get blocked. You'll get scored on. You'll get defeated.

But when you want to stop playing, you stop playing. And there's nothing wrong with that. Everybody decides at a certain point they want to stop playing. I'm having fun playing, and I'm enjoying the game. And I don't think I'm better than anybody. I don't think I have more than anybody else to offer. I just think that whatever it is, is this need to play this need, this insatiable need to play, to know, to engage, you know, I, I'm doing a lot in the digital space now. And as far as, you know, a lot of it is media. But the thing was, you know, my son who built this studio that we're sitting in, my son showed me YouTube about 20 some odd years ago. And I saw something that had 100 million clicks on it.

And I was reading the comments and everybody was saying, this is hysterical. This is the funniest thing I ever saw. And I'm a comedian. And I didn't, being honest with you, I didn't get it. I didn't think it was funny. I didn't know why it was funny. I didn't get why 100 million people were on this and sharing it and whatever. But that drove me to say, okay, so now what it is, it's like I flew to Italy.

I don't speak this language, but I want to learn this language. And I like this. How do I engage these people? How are they able, how can I make this hundred million people laugh? How can I do that? And that's what I spend my time doing, just figuring out how do I unlock it? That's the game. How do I unlock it? What do I land on so that they land on me? So I'm on every fucking platform I'm saying yes to everything I'm just out there playing and I appreciate you coming and engaging me in a game of whatever this is I don't know what it is I don't know what it leads to I don't know who hears this I don't know what this is but I don't analyze it I just kind of of play it. It's kind of fun. It is fun. You know,

you're talking to the kid that was never invited anywhere. You're talking to the kid who, if you, if I wanted to talk to somebody, I had to stand in a girl's bathroom and brush my hair. Nobody wanted to talk to me. You're talking to the guy who everybody wanted to run away from because they thought I ate shit. You're talking to the guy who, you know, and now you're asking me questions about my life. I, you know, you're talking to the guy who was, after they said, ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel was absolutely terrified and people started laughing at my terror, but I'm okay with that. You know? So then I figured out how do I use my terror was my card. It was my currency in this game, you know,

and then I understand authenticity and I understand reality and I understand that we're all human and we're all different and nobody is like me and nobody's like you and nobody's like anybody who's listening. And if you could create that, if you can, you know, I'm, I'm working with a company now, Skechers. One of the most fascinating people I ever met is a guy by the name of Robert Greenberg who started Skechers in 1992. It's now the number three shoe apparel company in the world. They've gone like this as well. Well, they just, you should see him. He is taking off. I was just talking to him the other day. He's one of the most fascinating people that I love to hang with and talk to just as a human

being. He's going to take over the fucking world if he has long enough. He's 84 years the most fascinating people that I love to hang with and talk to, just as a human being. He's going to take over the fucking world if he has long enough. He's 84 years old. He shows up every day. He's involved in every aspect of it. I want to be Robert Greenberg. Let's talk about the dichotomy

between comedy and tragedy. There isn't much of a difference. You know, for me, comedy is tragedy. You know, comedy is, laughter for me is the panacea, so I'm not crying. And if you look at the two masks, you know, it's laughter and tragedy. But if you look at what a joke is, a joke and what you're laughing at is the misfortune of something else. Whether you're a little kid and you're at the circus and you're laughing at the clown falling down, you're laughing at their misfortune of something else. Whether you're a little kid and you're at the circus and you're laughing at the clown falling down, you're laughing at their misfortune.

If you're listening to a joke, a joke is really about something bad, embarrassing or awkward happening. If two people walk into a bar, if they just walk into a bar and have a drink, it's not a joke. If they walk into a bar and something horrible happens to one of them,

then it's a joke. Jokes are always based in tragedy. Always. There's no such thing as too soon. I think our system right now, people are really sensitive. I don't think there's too soon. I don't think people should be canceled for comedy. I think you're taking away an art form and freedom of speech, but it's always based in, there's a story I tell in my book that's not my story. It was told to me by the director, Blake Edwards, where a guy who's suffering incredible depression, who is virtually suicidal, is going to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist can't help him. The psychiatrist gives him drugs. It doesn't work. Gives him therapy, verbal therapy. It doesn't work. Tries hypnosis. It doesn't work. And he goes for the last time to the psychiatrist and he can't even sit in the chair. He's in the fetal position in tears in the corner of the office. And he's

crying and he goes, I just wanted to say thank you to the psychiatrist. I just want to say thank you. And I know you've done all you could possibly do, but I can't live another day. And I just wanted to say thank you. And the psychiatrist says, wait, wait, wait, wait, before you end it all, just one more thing. I just want you to try one more thing. They say laughter is the best medicine. Today, Bafo the Clown is in town with the circus. If you'll just give me one more shot, if you will just let me take you to see Bafo.

Bafo has got a world-renowned reputation for being able to make anybody laugh. Everybody laughs at the toughest times. He will make people, people have died laughing. People have died. But you know, when you laugh, it creates an endorphin. There's something that is released that can remedy depression and anxiety and all this. If you'll just let me take you to see the clown, the clown that makes men, women, and children, English speaking, every culture laugh. If you'll just allow me one more chance before you end it, will you do that? And the guy in the fetal position, through his tears, he sits up and

he looks at the psychiatrist and he says, I am Bafo. I want to switch gears again and talk about what it takes to be successful. One of the things that has made me successful is something I call extreme preparation. I'm writing a book by the same title, and I always want to be the most prepared person in the room. Has extreme preparation been important in your career? I read at the beginning you didn't prepare, and now I hear you going out at midnight to run a new skit by five people. So, you know, we have very different philosophies, but for me, it isn't preparation. For me, and I'm not knocking preparation. I'm just saying that I believe as a species, humanity,

instinct is our gold and we know we know what is good we know instinctually what'll work we know what we want and we know what we need i think the biggest issue that people have and this may not apply to you, but I think it applies to a lot of people, is overthinking. And I think that thinking is the problem. I think that thinking, when you start thinking about it, you can give yourself a million reasons not to do things. And I'll give you my personal examples. If somebody said you should get up on stage, if why should I, I don't want to be a comedian. There's no future. There's nobody, I have no connections in show business. What are the chances? It's ridiculous. I'm already making money and have a very comfortable life in

sales, in retail. I'm engaged to be married. You know, I'm about to take on the responsibility of a wife and a family. Why would I give up everything and do that? I mean, if you think about it, it's not what, if I want to be prepared for my life, I should not do that. By the same token, when I did think about preparing, I should not, when I did think about what it meant to be a game show host, that's when I said no. When I didn't think and my wife said, just do it, that was the most success I had in my life. I think just do it. If you think about Steve Jobs, was he prepared?

I mean, he didn't, even the thought of what he was doing is ridiculous. IBM already existed. When you put yourself in that perspective, what is the value in creating what already existed, a computer that is a little more expensive? And it's something that, why does, this is hard to kind of articulate after the fact, but what does everybody need a computer for? Like who's gonna, at that time, I didn't need a computer in my life. I was doing good without a computer.

I didn't need a computer. So when you think about it, it's just that these people, I think for most people, I see how preparation helps, but I think that people are their own worst enemies. And I think that hearkening back to, I like Skechers better than I like Nikes, but Nikes just do it phrase is how I think has worked for me. And I think that so many people are at a point in their life

when they go, shoulda, coulda, woulda. And that's because they thought about it, because they were preparing. You know, even this, I'm doing really good right now in this environment. When Deal or No Deal took off, they offered me a production deal. So they were paying my overhead. I had a staff and I was on a lot at Universal, but I felt like I was throwing a party at my parents' house. It wasn't good. I ended up buying my own buildings and inviting my own people. I don't want to

call a desk or, you know, to let somebody through the gate or have to, if I have an idea, I don't want to, I don't want to have to say, Hey, we got, there's a union and I got to rent out a soundstage. And then I got to go get a camera and hire a whole crew. I just want a place. I have all the equipment I want here that I can have. If I have an idea, I can go to the next room and shoot it right now. And we do that. And we've had people in this place.

They launched, Logan Paul was in here and launched the Prime Energy drink with KSI in here. We shot that. This is where he does his podcast when he's not in Puerto Rico. Everything from, you know, whether it's technology, music, drinks, whatever, it's just this hodgepodge of just fun. But that doesn't mean that we don't need people like you who are brilliantly

maybe myopic in their preparation to just maybe the answer there is I'm going to do it. I'm not going to find the, maybe in the preparation, this, this may not work. This won't work. This might work. This won't work. This is what I need. This is what I need. This is what I need. I think my mind is a little too frail to think. So if I just say yes without thought and work and do my best in the moment, for me, it's about now. I can't think about what happened because I can't change anything that happened. And I can't think about what might happen because that doesn't exist. Nothing might happen.

I don't know what tomorrow is. I don't know what tomorrow is. I don't know what tomorrow brings. I'm not, there's too many other factors that could change what tomorrow is. I can only think of what I am doing and how I'm doing it right now. So I try to make this moment the most productive, fruitful moment

I can make in my life. You've talked about luck as part of success. Luck is not a good thing to put into a business plan when you're hoping to create a business, but- Isn't it? Is it? I mean, by virtue, is it? Like, it's kind of like if you're betting,

I'm not a gambler. Neither am I. Okay. But taking that as an analogy for business is if there is a way to cover red and black at the same time so that you're running a safer stream, is that not, like, how do you, I don't know what the word luck means but i think we make our luck 100 and i think that we make our you know so so then you know it's semantics and maybe i'm just talking about semantics and maybe i do prepare you know like i mean i'm i showed up today so that's preparation you know all this All this stuff that is being, the way you're recording this, that's preparation.

The way we're lit is preparation, so maybe I'm not aware of what I'm doing, but it's part of like, I'll just do it, and I'll just do it and have it, and I did this and had it without knowing that I'd ever meet you. So how does that work? Is that luck?

Is that preparation? What is that? I don't know what it is, but it's just a stream of existence. It's the greatest moment of your life. This is. Yeah. Right now it is. Yeah.

It is. It's the only one that's real because the other ones are just my perception of what happened. It may seem better than it was. And I don't know what tomorrow brings. So right now is the greatest moment of my life. I'm honored by that. You've also said that pushing the envelope is very important in our success. How important is it for a comic? And then how important is it to create a business and a life itself? I think without being that cognizant of pushing, just doing, you know, I've talked about this before, but my inspiration for comedy and the way I run my life

was Richard Pryor. And when I came out here, Richard Pryor was putting together Life on the Sunset Strip, which is probably one of the most seminal comedy concerts in existence. And you wouldn't have a Chappelle or me or anybody without that. And what was interesting about him

is he was on a path, if you know anything about Richard Pryor, he was on a path to If you know anything about Richard Pryor, he was on a path to be the next Bill Cosby. And I don't mean having sex with women who are pre-built copies. One point off. Yeah. And then he realized I can't do this. And when he was putting together live on the sunset strip, he had a, uh, still had a bandage on his neck cause he almost died freebasing. He was a burn victim and it was big news. And this is the late 70s, early 80s. And I went to watch him every night at the comedy store.

And what was interesting, my recollection of what stand-up comedy was, was people like George Carlin and Rodney Dangerfield. And they, for all intents and purposes, put together an act. And they had, it's like writing a song. They had an act, you know, they had a joke that they wrote. And when you listen to Richard Pryor,

he was talking about real things. He was talking about, like, he talked about his burn and he made the jokes about drug use. And was talking about like, he talked about his burn and he made the jokes about drug use. And I don't know if you know his background, but he was raised in a brothel, you know, and, and by his grandmother and he's had really tumultuous relationships and drug use and all this. And he turned this stuff, which he had referenced through, they weren't jokes. He did characters and stories. And I thought, and if you listen to me or watch me, you wouldn't see an inkling of what Richard Pryor was, but you will see it made me comfortable

with authenticity. It made me comfortable to when I was scared, I was going to go, okay, okay, okay, I can't think of anything. And that was my thing. I can't think of anything. And that was real. And I wasn't making it up. And I don't know what you want to do next. And by the same token, when I show up at a comedy club in the middle of, you know, and four people are sitting there in the rain, and I can act like this is a, you know, I can call it for what it is. Here I am at this point in my career in front of four people who don't give a shit about me. This is like a really bad Netflix special.

You know, like whatever it is, the authenticity and reality and keeping it real, that's what I learned there, and that's what I continue to do, and that's what I strive for, and that's what I celebrate each and every And that's what I strive for. And that's what I celebrate each and every moment of my life, keeping it real. If you keep it real, I'm real, I'm a human. And so is everybody else. And then I find, if you call it success in people relating to it, wanting to be

part of it, they understand reality. They understand. And when you're investing in your business, if you find the people that you talk to who are the most successful, they, they invested in things that they thought were kind of cool, that they liked, that they needed, that they understand, understand it, that they wanted to be part of. The things that are most successful in business are the things that we all use. The things we all, you know, when you talk about companies like Lyft and Uber, you know, why do we have to wait for a fucking cab when everybody's driving a car, half the time their car is empty? Why don't they just give us a ride? And not only that, you get a ride and they out of business. It's kind of simple. Why didn't somebody think of that?

You know what I mean? It's not brilliant. It's real. It's authentic. It's the every man. You don't need a college education to understand what that fucking business is. You don't, you know? Let's talk about something that came up in my research that I've never heard before as

part of our success, which is stability. You've had the same manager, Michael Rotenberg, I think since you were 14 years old. You've been married to your wife now almost 50 years. She's been a part of your business. We live in LA where things are really crazy at times and people are switching and managers and who's giving you the best deal. Again, in life, it's the same thing. It has nothing to do. My theory is the same with everything. When you ask me about comedians who didn't make it or anybody that didn't make it, they stopped. They gave up. It's hard. Life is hard. Friendship is hard. Marriage is hard. Parenting is hard. If you're willing to just do it, even when it's not great, even when it's not so my, these people are my, my wife of 44 years has been my stability, has been my partner, has been my cheerleader, has been

my threat that it was going to be over if I didn't get help, has been there for the good, the bad, the hard. I think that we as humans have a tendency to go for complacency and comfort. And complacency and comfort is the opposite of success in anything, whether it's your relationships, whether it's your business, whether it's everything. We give trophies for participating. You're not a winner, you just showed up.

You're not gonna, so I think people give up on their marriages they give up on their businesses they give up on their relationships they give up on their friends they just give up they just give up on everything you know you look at the average they give up on on curiosity you know when you're young you want to and vibrant you want to know what the next hit song is and you want to listen. We want to know what everybody's listening to. You want to know what the next sneaker you should wear and you want that sneaker because everybody has this. Then you reach a certain age where you don't even want to listen to the next. You don't want to know what the next song is. You don't want to know what, you know, we we stay with our haircut we stay with our style

and then we tell young people who are coming up you don't know music you know what good music is i had good music well no you didn't have good music good music that was good for you at that time this is a flowing river life business relationships is a flowing river at a certain point we decide we're too tired to go with the flow. We hang on to a little branch on the side and we watch the world go by. And then we tell them it was good back there. No, it's good if you keep going. I'm not knocking anybody that stops, but that's the difference in relationships, in business, in life. You can go with the flow or just stop. It's easier to stop. That's why I don't understand retirement.

People stop. They're tired. You can stop. I don't feel like stopping. We're getting towards the end of this show and I want to talk about technology. This is the longest show I've ever been on. What is it? How long is this show?

Hopefully you've been having a great time. I have. I'm a huge fan of mine. I listen to everything I do. I love it. Hopefully you're going to tell me you're a huge fan of mine too. Now I am. I didn't know you before today.

I greatly appreciate that. It means a lot to me, sincerely. You're doing a lot in technology. I grew up and made money in technology. Tell us what you're doing about holograms and AI. And you can talk about your wife getting a little mad at you for something that you were doing and licensing your image. Oh, well, so there's this company called Proto,

which I sit on the board of, and you saw it on the way in. By the way, which is one of the most amazing, I've seen a lot, but when we were walking around for 20 minutes before the show, I was completely blown off my chair. I'll show you, I'll show you more after but okay so i saw this company i live online on every platform you know watching gamers watching technology watching entertainment watching fashion watching because i'm just fascinated by what engages people and i saw david nussbaum who uh created this thing called Proto. He was with the company originally that put Tupac at Coachella. But that, I don't know if you know anything about that.

That's something called Pepper's Ghost. And Pepper's Ghost is just the ability to project onto an opaque screen. So if you go to Disneyland and you go to the haunted house, you see the ghost there, and then there's a lit set behind it and your eyes kind of meld those things together. to be a nighttime concert? How can I bring information in real time anywhere to any amount of people? And he created this thing called Proto. And I said to him, I DMed him and I said, how can I be part of this? And I wasn't talking about investing. I wasn't talking about being a partner. I just thought I'm fascinated by the way things do are done. And I said to him, this reminds me of when I got my first Apple phone.

And when I got the Apple phone, I said, this is a cool phone. But then I, and I didn't know anything about it. I bought it because it was cool and everybody was buying it. And then I said, oh my God, this can hold all my music. I don't have to buy a Walkman anymore. I don't have to buy, I don't have another device. I can have all my music in here. And oh my God, I can text you. I can message you and communicate with you without even a phone call. But not only that, this is like my computer. So I can do my work. I can do, the last thing I do on my iPhone is make a phone call. I don't make phone calls anymore.

I just do my work, have my media, do my learn. That's where I found you on my iPhone. I think that you have just created the most fascinating technical canvas that remains to be explored. And if I can offer you anything, just because I have a little bit of a voice, maybe I can just be content for you. I don't want any money. I just want to be, I just want to witness this. I just want to see this. Use me as the voice inside it.

So we became friends. This became the head office. I invested in it. I sit on the board. But I believe that we are on the cusp of something incredibly amazing because you understand what a hologram is. So I can stand here. And on my end, all I need is 4K. So all I need is my phone. I could take my phone. Essentially, Pr proto is a software company so they have an app so I could take my phone record myself it'll rotoscope out everything

behind me and create the image a 3d image of me with a shadow behind me and then wherever they have these this piece of technology, which is incredibly affordable, everything from $6,000 to $60,000, depending on what size you want, what you want, and what you need. So everybody, mostly everybody can afford to have them. And that's what I think.

I think they need to be ubiquitous. I think that needs to be, it's a touchscreen. So whether you're there and you want to do your banking and then you have a screen that just gives you everything you need and you interact with that screen, whether you need to talk to somebody in person, think of telehealth, teaching, informing, corporate meetings or whatever, you can be be there and this is zoom on steroids

whether you need to do e-commerce where and i'll show you that on the outside you put three together and you have a car on the screen a three-dimensional full-size car where Elon Musk was brilliant enough to market the Tesla by putting it into malls so he had that traffic. He doesn't need a dealership per se. This is a dealership so I can stand there and I could touch the screen and change the rims and the color and the interior. And right there, while I'm on screen, i could scan it and buy it i could buy it so i can do everything that you and and i see that people you know we we uh partners with we partnered with christie's who sells art and and belongings they did 1.5 billion dollars in auctions off of that imagery that just shows you how good that imagery is if

you're going to spend 40 million dollars on a sculpture they used to have to take that sculpture number one and fly it to a location so that would take you know that's your carbon footprint and just flying that and you know in an airplane you'd have to insure the hell out of it. And only so many eyes can get in front of that piece in order to auction it off. You know, you can only put so many people in front of the piece. Now Christie's has it so that piece can remain where it is and be projected all over the world. And you don't have to insure it. I mean, I'm sure it's insured for where it is, but you don't have to fly it anywhere. You save the carbon footprint.

The audience for buying that piece of art is so much bigger because it's worldwide and they could buy it. So every company finds a way to use, I'm not versed in technology, but I know that our platform is compliant to whatever your business is. So we had watch companies buy this technology.

And what I've seen them do with it, say it's a watch. So you can scan the image on the screen on your phone. You could turn it around. It's touchscreen. So you can look at every side of it. And you can customize what you're purchasing. So you go, no no you know what i want a leather strap no i want the gold strap no i want to change the face and you could change it

in real time and then buy it we partnered with people like walmart and and uh paris hilton who's does this interactive kind of you can interact with her via AI and make purchases right there in the store. So where people were paying, you know, you, you look at companies like Walmart. I don't know if Walmart does this, but I know Sephora and Ulta, their, their business is basically, you're buying real estate, you're buying shelf space. You could put this, this could be your shelf space where you can have, or the customer can have access to every, your full array of whatever your product is, which they can see and possibly be demonstrated in real time on the screen and purchased right

off that screen. And so there's so many different uses. Two, the easiest for me is I can go and do my standup comedy in a club, stand here, see the audience interact in real time with no latency. And I can do shows. That's the smallest thing that you can do with it, but you can do so many different things with it. It is going to revolutionize outdoor advertising, e-commerce, banking, medicine. You could take imagery, 3D imagery. A doctor can, I'll show you, move his finger around a heart, a beating heart. So I can't remember what the question was but i'm really sold on proto and i just think it's the future and i love that i can be if nothing else witness to watching the way things are done differently than the way they were done and that's what that company does

you've been the host of two game shows giving away a million dollars. And one of the questions you ask every week, you asked on Deal or No Deals, if you won today, what would you do with a million dollars? So put yourself back in that shoes, in their shoes when you were 21 years old, what would your answer have been? When I was 21, I wasn't as versed in what I would do as I am now, but you know, there aren't things that I would buy, but there are things that I would do. And what I would do is I realized that, and I did realize that when I made very little money, is that money makes money. And every dollar you have, and this is like that guy who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which is one of my favorite books. I don't know that it's a well-written book,

but I love his philosophy. As somebody who doesn't have a GED, is not really versed in economics. And I do realize that every dollar is like an employee. And even if you're making minimum wage, you should be able to take that in some way and make yourself self-sufficient. And I mean, that may sound kind of snobby, but I think it's done. I think we have too much of, I think people, the last thing I would do with a million dollars

is buy anything of value. What I would do is buy things that are valued to me. So I would probably, you know, rent a, if I was 21 years old, I probably would rent a four bedroom apartment, not in the best place that I could live because it would be cheaper and rent out three of the bedrooms and live in one so that I was, so I'd be living rent free and making money and then use some more money to rent out other apartments with a lot of rooms or buy a house that's not going to cost me money where the mortgage, where I can make more money coming in than the mortgage would be paying out. Last part of our show is a game I call fill in the blank to excellence.

You ready to play? Yeah. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is? Now is important. My number one personal goal is? To be good. My number one professional goal is? It's the same, just to be good. The best moment of my career was when I... April 19th, 1978, when they laughed at my fear.

My biggest regret is... Anything I ever said no to. My biggest fear is... Missing out. The biggest mistake that I've made in my life is? I don't know. I don't know what my biggest mistake is. And I want to keep it that way.

The craziest thing that happened in my career is? I have one. I find this whole thing crazy. The funniest thing that's happened in my career is? Again, it's my career. This doesn't seem like anything that I would have ever dreamed would be. Anything. This is not even close to what anything where I come from even looks like, sounds like, or feels like.

The next great up-and-coming young comedian who's going to be a superstar is? I don't know. I don't know. But, you know, because, and can I, because the ability, like in order to become something when I started, you had to get to the comedy

store. That was the place to be seen. But today with digital media, there could be some goofball in his underpants, in his room, in Romania, that starts to do something that becomes incredibly viral and it becomes the biggest thing in the world. And the fact is that we all have access to success. The funniest comedian at the Tom Brady roast was... Nikki Glaser. I'm dying to have her on my show, by the way. We're trying to get ahold of her.

She was easily my favorite. My wife and I just thought she was the best. She's done my podcast. She's great. The best, best. The early favorite to win AGT this year is? My golden buzzer, Brent Street. They were great.

The one thing I've dreamed about doing for a long time but haven't is? My dreams come true every day. I don't, I really make it a point to not hope for anything. I just, I really, it's not healthy for me because you set yourself up for disappointment. Just now, I don't think, I don't think I wish I could. I will, I don't have a plan.

I don't even, even the people that work with me here, they're not allowed to talk about what we're gonna do tomorrow. In the morning, I look at my calendar and I know what I have today. I don't know what I have the rest of the day. I don't know what, I know I'll probably have dinner if I survive, you know, but that's, I can't, I don't. If you could go back and give your 21-year-old self one piece of advice,

what would it be? Don't spend so much time on your hair. The number one lesson I tell my kids is? Be nice. If you could be one person in the world, who would it be? Me. The one question you wish I'd asked you but didn't is? That was it. That was it. I wanted you to ask me what the question was that you didn't ask me. And you asked me. My wish just came true. I love it. I love it too. I'm so grateful, truly, for you to be on my show. It's been so fun building my show and meeting amazing people like you, especially people that I've been a huge fan of forever all your shows thank you for being here and thank you for answering my email not only

did you answer it you don't know me but you answered it within an hour which is pretty amazing says a lot about you so i'm really grateful to be here i'm not that busy is what it says