The Viall Files - E247 Finding Life’s Laughs with Howie Mandel

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Today on The Viall Files we are joined by comedian, host, and actor Howie Mandel. A surprising Bachelor fan, we talk to Howie about his fear of rejection, mental health, how he “accidentally” became a comedian and has sustained a career that so many admire.  Howie has a new podcast coming out with his daughter Jackelyn Shultz called Howie Mandel Does Stuff where they talk about, well stuff! If the stories he shares on his new podcast come anything close to the things he shared with Nick today, we are excited.  “My perspective comes from being as old as I am.” Please make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and as always send in your relationship questions to [e-mail] to be a part of our Monday episodes.  THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Imperfect Foods: http://www.imperfectfoods.com Imperfect Foods is offering our listeners 20% off PLUS free shipping on your first order when you use code VIALLFILES Proper: http://www.getproper.com/VIALL  go right now to order your Discovery Pack today!And for a limited time, our listeners can get 10% off your first order.  Episode Socials: @viallfiles@nickviall@howiemandel See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is going on everybody? It's Wednesday. We got a great episode for you. Welcome. I'm Nick. I'm your host. It's the Vile Files. Chrissy, Amanda, Allie, all are with me in some sort of fashion.

Internet in person. It's fun. We have a really fun episode for you. This podcast has allowed me to talk with and meet some really fascinating people, people I've followed my whole life. And today is one of those days where we had the great pleasure of talking with Howie Mandel, who many of you know from Deal or No Deal or know from his standup career. I know him from Little Bobby, but it's a lot of fun. Howie is great. We laughed the whole time um and if you've ever uh struggled with a

mental health or you need a good laugh or you just want to feel good for an hour i think this episode is for you and coming up in you know a future episode just to get ahead of things and because we are if you've ever watched the vow or have ever been fascinated or interested in cults, not because you want to necessarily sign up, but, well, maybe you do, but also maybe you just find them fascinating. We have Sarah and Nippy from The Vow talk about sex cults, talk about Nixxiom,

and they were very honest and open and happy and willing to discuss their experiences inside a cult, inside a sex cult, inside Nixxiom and what that was like. And we just have a kind of a general discussion about cults. Be sure to tune in to that as well as our Ask Nix on Monday and our Bachelor recaps whenever that fucking show is on. Howie Mandel, everybody. Well, we just talk and then we talk about talking.

Hours a week. Yeah. Can you believe? Oh my gosh. You have a great laugh. Thank you. Most people say it's really annoying. It is.

No, no, no. But I love annoying. Annoying to me is an affectionate term. It's quite popular in the comment section, my laugh. Oh, good. Howie, thanks so much for joining us. I'm really excited. Is that goodbye? You know, The Bachelor scares me a little bit. And I'll tell you why. And even coming on here,

because it's all about rejection. And that's my biggest fear in the world. So even when you say hello, I feel like I'm being sent home if I talk to anybody from The Bachelor. Because you just assume we're all really good at rejection? I don't know how you do it, to be honest with you. I don't know how. It kills me. You know, I as somebody who's a stand up comic and has the need to get in front of strangers and hopefully make them laugh or make them like me. But, you know, and I don't even know your name and you make me. Yeah, I'm talking about somebody in the audience.

And it's so important that you like me and smile and laugh at me and have a great time. And then I go turn on The Bachelor and you're being not only are you being rejected by whoever you're you're going after at the moment or whatever season you happen to be on. Like you're being rejected in front of, you know, 10, 20 million people. And that like hits me so in the gut, so hard. But when you put it like that, I'm going to totally reflect on my entire experience.

Well, I watched a lot of your experience. And, you know, I go, oh, my. You know, and everybody puts themselves in the position that you're in when you're there. And, you know, it was really hard. It's been many, many, many years since I've dated. My wife frowns upon dating. but it was really even hard for me to ask someone to dance in a club for fear that you know I would get rejected let alone meeting somebody and saying do you want to be my partner for life yeah well that's that's so fascinating to hear because you know so much of your you know you you're like your story,

and I didn't even know this until doing some research, is that it all kind of started for you back when you were dared to do a comedy set on a random trip to L.A. Well, actually, it started before that. So it's a dare. And I'm from Toronto, Canada. And we went in the mid-70s, way before you were born. Disco was all the rage, and I was not into disco. I'm not much, unlike you, I'm not a dancer. I don't move well.

So I didn't go to discos. And then in the mid-70s, comedy clubs started popping up, so a friend said, let's go to this comedy club, and I went to this comedy club called Yuck Yucks in Toronto, and I watched it. It's the first time I ever watched stand-up comedy live. I'd seen it on Tonight Show or on TV, but watching people who were my age and getting up there and regaling people with funny stories was hysterical. And then lo and behold, the host gets up and says, you know, we also at midnight, if you're interested in doing this, you know, we will take amateurs on, on midnight and people in my, uh, at my table said, you should, you should sign up. You should sign up. And I went, okay.

And this is my issue. You know, I have, and maybe we'll talk about it later, but I've been very open. I have a lot of mental health issues and some of them kind of rear their ugly heads by, I don't think of ramifications. I just do anything. Anything you dare me to do, I usually just do it. Now I have a wife that kind of stops me. But when I was a kid, I did anything. And I don't even have a GED. I was asked to leave school. I was asked to leave. You know, I wasn't allowed in malls. I wasn't allowed in restaurants. I really acted up. And we can get into that a little later. So when somebody said, you should go on stage, I went, OK, with no thought and no preparation and for me i i didn't even

think about it nor do i think about you know even what we were going to talk about today i just kind of just turn it on and go and whatever happens happens and sometimes it doesn't turn out so well but for the most part i've done okay in life and uh i went on stage and i thought the joke was going to be i didn't think but the joke was going to be, I didn't think, but the joke was going to be, ladies and gentlemen, Howie Mandel. And then I was going to show up. And that was funny because I'm not a comedian and they introduced me and there I am on stage. But what happened is seconds after he introduced me, I'm standing there and I can see I'm standing there at the mic and the light, the spotlight is in my eyes and I'm blinded. mic and the light the the spotlight is in my eyes and i'm blinded but i look down in front and you can see the the couple the the few rows in front and people stopped applauding and after the introduction and now they're looking at me and i have all these strangers looking up at me going

yeah okay okay so make us laugh funny boy and then and then the terror took over my body that terror of rejection that i talked about i went holy fuck jeez i i got oh and then i thought i got a pet i started panicking and i wanted to think of something and i go okay okay all right all right okay okay and if you look at old youtube videos of my act, that was my act. My act was just terrified. And I was trying to come up with something and I'm going, OK, OK, OK. All right. OK. OK. All right. OK. And then people start giggling at me trying to panicking and trying to think of something.

And when they started laughing, then I started asking them because I didn't understand what was going on. I started saying, what, what, what? OK. All right. What? And that became my act. And I also have obsessive compulsive disorder. So I've always been a germaphobe. I put my hands in my pocket. And the first thing that was in my pocket was gloves. I always carried latex gloves. I know it sounds ridiculous, but welcome to Howie. And I carried the gloves and I took a rubber glove and I just pulled it over my head and over my nose and as I started breathing the fingers were going up and down the audience started roaring I started inflating it with my nose and I popped it off my head and they roared

and I said good night and I walked off the stage and the host said you got to come back tomorrow and I said well what am I going to do he goes goes, do that. And then that became my act. You know, we're putting a rubber glove on my head and just acting insane was my act and bought me my first house. I didn't care about being a comedian. I didn't care about being in show business. This was if I could just, you you know even if i was just uh uh did somebody cough sorry it's like i know coughing is like the new farting in public i get it i'm sorry no it's not how do you is the fact that you're confusing farting and coughing just bothers me in so many other but the fact that you put them in the same category is really great. Next time I'm out in public and you hear, oh, I'm sorry.

I don't know where I got this cough. No, I'm saying like coughing is a new farting. Like farting is a new coughing. Like when you go out now. He gets it, Chrissy. I get it. But I guess I'm a smoker. Yeah.

Oh, maybe that's croup. That's probably croup. I don't know. You got bronchitis. I get it. Yes, bronchitis. It's coming from so deep, so low. But where was I before you fart?

Did you fart, Chris? Yeah. Are you okay? I went where I was. I was telling a story. You're coming back to the comedy club with the glove on your head. Yeah, and the glove on your head.

To be totally honest with you, this is nothing I aspired to do. It's nothing, I was never trying to be in show business. I was never in a school play. I was, and if I had to show up at a comedy club like two, three times a week or could show up and be a waiter or any, I promise you I'd be happy. So the hardest thing about this pandemic for me is the inability to get in front of a live audience and get that immediate response. It's been fascinating for me. I've always been such a fan of your career. Even since I was a kid, I was such a huge fan of Bobby's World. Little Monsters was a movie that I

loved as a kid. The Gremlins, you do the voice of Gizmo. And so as a young kid, I was such a big fan. And then you've done other things in hosting and we'll get into all that but i you've been so successful that i didn't even realize for so long that it was comedy where you got your start you know and it's not because you weren't funny i didn't enjoy you but you've done so many things that when i went back and watched old youtube videos and actually this morning i watched uh i think it was your first appearance on johnny carson i was dying laughing it was and then you talk about kind of that kind of manic fear fear i didn't know if that was a bit but to hear that was this kind of you being yourself and embracing it was was it's it's kind of fascinating to to listen to but it was hilarious i mean you were it was on the spot

i mean it was and it was so it wasn't an innocence. It was just so like playful and fun in a way that I don't know a lot of comics could do. You know how when people on The Bachelor get sent home because, well, at least to the lead, they're imperfect. And they get thrown away, so to speak, on The Bachelor. And we wonder what happened to them. And we get to go follow them on Instagram and continue their tragic stories. Wouldn't that be great if we could do that for our fruits and vegetables?

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You got the proper sleep and calm, get better sleep and reduce everyday stress. So I take this about 30 minutes before I go to sleep, 30, 40 minutes before I go to sleep. And then I sleep through the night. I'm not tossing and turning anymore, which has been very helpful. And then I wake up refreshed. What you can do. They have immunity and sleep clarity and sleep. They've got the little packets you can try. They offer various formulations to help with specific sleep needs. If you tried a bunch of

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Richard Pryor was showing up at the comedy store each and every night putting together, cobbling together his act, which became for most people in comedy would believe that it's the seminal comedy concert of all comedy concerts. And it's live on the Sunset. And, you know, those are the kind of shows that kind of launched or inspired people like Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle and me. And when I watched them each and every night putting together his comedy, it was the first time I realized that his comedy, because I never analyzed what I did. You know, somebody said, you want to get on tonight? And I said, yeah, I'll go on. Somebody said, you want to get on tonight? And I said, yeah, I'll go on. And without any thought, it was fun.

And it was the first place that I found, you know, a group of other ne'er-do-wells who didn't, you know, who kind of were like-minded, you know, acting silly in front of strangers. And it felt good. And it was a club. I wasn't somebody who was into gambling. So I didn't show up for poker. I wasn't into, you know, athletics. So I didn't get a game together once a week, and go to clubs, so I didn't like dancing and drinking. So this was the one place to hang out. I didn't think of it as a career. I thought of it as kind of this clubhouse. And to that end,

when I first went to LA, as you alluded to at the beginning, it still wasn't a career, but some of the people that I had met at Yuck Yuck said, get on at the comedy store. I went on at the comedy store and there happened to be a producer in the audience who hired me for a show called Make Me Laugh. But I had watched Richard Pryor and I became aware that everything he was saying,

even though I was laughing hysterically, was very real and very tragic. You know, I don't know how much you know about Richard Pryor, but, you know, he was raised by his grandmother in a brothel. And he had trouble throughout his life with relationships and drug addiction. And he did freebasing. He almost killed himself freebasing. He lit himself on fire. And these were this was the content of his stand up stuff. So if you break it down and you take away the the funny kind of recalling of these, these are tragic. And what I realized was what I liked and what I adhered to

was it was authentic and it was real. And not that I worked on that, but if I had to kind of figure out why it worked for me, I think my terror on stage and my authenticity only because, and it wasn't anything I thought about, it's just because I didn't have anything else. I didn't have a character to play. It kind of worked for me because it kind of drew an audience to me. So, and I didn't know. it kind of drew an audience to me. So, and I didn't know,

and I've always said, so when I came out here and I got some success, I got on a young comedian special and then, you know, the natural transition from a, you know, I started selling out theaters and arenas was everybody got to do a sitcom, you know, Robin Williams got Mork and Mindy and Billy Crystal got Soap and all these young comedians at the time

were moving on to sitcoms. And I went and met for a casting woman for just to get, you know, they were looking at me and just to get hopefully a sitcom. And she said to me, do you act? And I was honest. I said, I don't know. And she said, read these sides.

And I read these sides because it made no sense to me. She goes, you know, that's very good. Could you come down the hall and meet some producers? And I went, great, I'm going to get the sitcom. And I went down the hall and there's this group of men in a room and I started reading it. And halfway through they went, thank you. and I figured I didn't get it. And I went home, and I told my wife, I said, you know, I didn't get it,

and they stopped me halfway through, but I'll be honest with you, it wasn't that funny. Whatever they were giving me to read was not funny. And then I got a call an hour later saying, well, you come down to NBC and meet with Brandon Tartikoff, who was running the network at the time. And I figured, what? OK. So this is on a Friday.

So I went down on Friday, and they gave me that same side to read. And I read it. And they said, could you step outside? And I went outside the room room and I heard them talking. And then the guy now that I know who I didn't know who it was when I was in the room reading, but it was a guy by the name of Bruce Paltrow. And Bruce came out and Bruce said, we'll see you Monday. And I go, OK, so maybe I got a call back. But what it turned out to be was it was a show called Saint Elsewhere.

And Saint Elsewhere was was a drama a hospital drama that started in 1982 it launched denzel washington it was uh tim robbins first job kathy bates a lot of actors and directors that you see today and producers were on that show bruce paltrow is gwyneth paltrow's dad he was the the executive producer of it. And the other guy in the room was Mark Tinker, you know, and he was our producer and everything. And Tom Fontana, who went on to work with Barry Levinson and create a lot of great things. Anyway, starting that Monday, I got a job on a drama. It wasn't something I was going toward. So there were people that knew me from the Young Comedians special that knew me as the guy that blows the rubber glove on his up on his head and goes, OK, OK, OK, and has these weird hand gestures. Then there were the people that were watching St. Elsewhere,

who I got at that time there was no Internet. So I used to get mail all the time saying I have a bet with my husband that the guy who plays Dr. Fiscus on St. Elsewhere is the same guy that blow the goofball who blows the rubber glove up on his head. And I would tell them, you know, depending on what side they were betting on that, I'd split the money with them if I could just say on it too. But, but that was a totally separate audience. I've always gone in, in these weird directions, even like you said, game, game said, Saturday morning when I got approached to do Bobby's World. You know, that was a funny voice I did in class and on my stand-up act. It had nothing to do with Saturday morning and kids.

And my friends got a deal, a development deal, Jim Stahl and Jim Fisher, who were from Chicago, from Second City. And they called me to say, hey, let's do the Saturday morning to do that funny voice. And I went, but I don't know anything. You know, I'm inappropriate. You know, Bobby up at the time was doing like filthy, filthy stuff. And they said, let's write it. We wrote just real stories that happened to us, that happened to our own children. And that became like an Emmy Award winning Saturday morning cartoon that ended up in 60 countries and a happy nothing I've ever done

is anything that I was ever heading for I didn't want to be a game show host you know that's nothing I aspired to do but when Deal or No Deal came along and I and I did that that's the biggest success I've ever had and that brought all those audiences together like the people who watched St. Elsewhere aren't people who watch Saturday morning, weren't people who watched, you know, stand up comedy on HBO. So they were all separate audiences. When I did Deal or No Deal, that's what brought all the audiences together. And that was my biggest success to date. Yeah, that's crazy. I was listening to a friend of show, Justin Long's podcast that you did, and you were telling a story about

deal or no deal and how you, you know, didn't want to do it. And you, you're, you kind of joked how your wife told you to do it. It's not a joke. He really told me to do it. Yeah. But it was all centered around you talking about you feeling like your career was over. And I thought that was, you know, just kind of fascinating just for someone who's had all the success in all the different spaces. And yet, you know, like there's always like this pressure of continuing a career going. And even now, like, you know, I feel a lot of pressure trying to, you know, do what I'm doing or have friends out in Hollywood. What was that like for you? Did you learn, like, did you, did you learn anything from that in terms of feeling like your career is over? And

then like you said, then of all the success you had up until that point, it was deal or no deal that ended up being, you said, even the biggest success that you've had in terms of having perspective on. My perspective comes from being as old as I am and you learn. And the truth of the matter is, and that goes back to the beginning of this conversation in The Bachelor. You know, the hardest thing in life for me and I think for a lot of people is rejection. And, you know, life has whether it's your career, whether it's your life has ebbs and flows, you know, whether it's relationships or whether you're in and out of relationships, no matter what you're doing, you're in and out of work, your bank account is up and down, whatever it is. At that point, right before Deal or No Deal, you know, I had really quick and I wasn't shooting. I had really quick success in comedy, like right away. I wasn't chasing it, but I came out here and I did a young

comedian special. And you may have heard on the on the other podcast on my young comedian special. It was we were the kids. It was me and Jerry Seinfeld, this young kid, Jerry Seinfeld. I don't know what happened to him. Richard Lewis and Ari Anderson went on to do Night Court. And it just maybe because comedy was new, it just exploded. And I was playing theaters and people I was selling out everywhere, you know, 10,000 theaters and bigger. And, you know, I got seen elsewhere and I was on, we were, that was a huge TV show. And I started doing movies and I was getting Saturday morning, around 2005, which is when Deal or No Deal started. Well, around 2004, which is when Deal or No Deal started, well, around 2004, you know, things slowed down.

And I wasn't getting offered series and I wasn't getting offered parts. I was sitting in casting offices on folding chairs with, you know, me and three other people who are not known, you know, auditioning for five lines and under in a sitcom. Hard ticket sales in clubs and theaters had gone down. I was not selling out anymore. And I felt like this huge rejection. And I had, you know, done OK. I was not that young anymore. And I figured, you know what? I have other interests and I love real estate. I'm involved in real estate and I just don't need to be rejected anymore. It just hurts. You know, how many times you get kicked in the nuts, you know, and I just said, I'm leaving. And when I said I'm leaving at that moment, that same week, if not day, I got a call from my manager saying they want you to host a game show. And that which was it turned out to be Deal or No Deal, which to me at the time.

And I talked about on Justin's podcast was like also a kick in the nuts. In 2005, nobody would know outside of people who were inside. No comedians were hosting game shows. And in fact, when you reading, you know, trivia off a card, it didn't, you weren't trying to elicit laughs. You weren't writing anything. You weren't. So I didn't want, it's the first time I've said, I actually gave some thought to something and said no. And they kept persisting and calling back. And eventually my wife forced me to do it. And it was the best decision ever. And it's the one thing I said no to in my whole career. And it's the, and my wife didn't let me say no. And it turned out to be the biggest

thing ever. So, you know, I've garnered a philosophy in life and that is, I don't say no. I don't because no can only lead to, you know, it's the first two letters of nothing. It can lead to nothing. And I'm always afraid to, I don't like thinking. I think that's our downfall. We just got to go do it. Just got to do it like Nike. I don't think. So that kind of moves me ahead.

But if they asked me to be on The Bachelor, I'd probably say no, because that would be, well, number one, my wife would probably say no. Well, what if you were the bachelor? You were the one doing the rejecting instead of being rejected. Does that make a difference? No, because I couldn't, I have, as much as I realize how painful it is to be rejected, I don't want to ever in life be in a position to do that to somebody else.

Because I feel the pain so So, uh, you know, I could not, that's the hardest thing for me. I'm always concerned that I'm hurting somebody's feelings or I said something or how they took it. And that is the, the, the mental, you know, kind of torture that I go through each and every night when it's quiet and I don't have to do this, you know, what did I say? Who did I hurt? What did I, you know, do you think this is taken right? Do you think that they know that my tweet is a joke? Is the irony, you know, and especially in this day and age,

it's just, it makes it doubly hard for somebody like me who doesn't want to be rejected or reject. Well, also, it's a common misconception with, with the bachelor or being the bachelorette is the fear of rejection is the gray is much greater than even being one of many because their assumption is everyone wants you and you're, whether you're thinking it top of mind or not, you're wondering, well, everyone's supposed to like me. What happens if they don't, you know, because you know, the show tells you you're the prize to be won, so to speak. I get why you would feel that. And, you know, I every waking moment and I'm not a bachelor and

I'm not. That's my fear anyway. You know, my fear is as soon as I hang up from this podcast, I'll go, what the fuck did I say? So, well, my audience now is like, I'm... Big headline. Can't the girl fart without being accused of coughing? Is there a lot of farting on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette? I'm sure there is. Yeah. No one talks about it.

Yeah. No one talks about it. Yeah. You know, we're seeing a post-production cut story at home. I'm always wondering, like like in these intimate moments, that's where my head goes. You have so much time not with the person that all the farting and coughing and stuff, you kind of get out of the way because you wait all day for 10 minutes, right? So you really try to literally get it all out before you sit down and have a conversation

about love. You know, but I remember somebody showed me a clip which got edited out, not of The Bachelor, but there was some sort of dating show on VH1. I can't remember what it was, but did you ever see that one where the young lady crapped herself on the stairs? No. Girl, you pooed on my floor, but I still want some more. Come get your clock. Chrissy does. Flavor Flav. Flavor Flav. Yes, I did see some episodes of Flavor Flav. That is one of my favorite television moments of all time. Me too. Because you can't write that.

No. That's what he said. It was like something like, girl, you pooed on my floor, but I still want some more. Come get your clock. It was brilliant. It was ridiculous. But I thought, oh, my God, because these people, like on The Bachelor and on your show, it seems like they're spending so much time intimately. There's no, you know, in life, we kind of try to time things. and it doesn't seem like it's set up for you to be as comfortable as possible because in your angst and nervousness, that's where the best television comes out of when things are uncomfortable.

So I would imagine if somebody said, listen, can I just go to the ladies' room? You know what? Not now. We're just going to shoot this scene now. They'll fuck with you, but they're not that bad. They'll let you go to the bathroom. But I always think that, you know, the bachelor and the bachelorette, besides verbal, you know, shitting, and it's not about shitting and farting. It's just that these uncomfortable moments are

what draw me in. Totally. When you say you always say yes, you try not to say no, and your key is to not thinking, is that like, but you must, it sounds like you do have a propensity to overthink if you let yourself, and that's why you just try to avoid it altogether. We all do. By virtue of whatever my mental health issues are, I do that, but I feel that, I say this ad nauseum, but I think that the human, we instinctually are above the, you know, in the hierarchy of species. I think our instincts are amazing. And I think that what happens is instinctually, we've learned wrongly to think. So what happens is you have, if somebody asks you to do something or there's something put in front of you,

So what happens is you have, if somebody asks you to do something or there's something put in front of you, your instinct, whatever your instinct is to back off or to grab it or to do it is usually right. But what we do is if somebody offers you something, oh, I want to do it. And but you don't say yes yet. Give me a minute. And then you start thinking, well, this could happen. Oh, I remember what happened last time I did something similar to this. Or what if I do this and this happens? And we have a tendency to talk ourselves out of things, overthink things instead of just acting on our, and then we, we, and most of our life is shoulda, coulda, woulda, you know? And I think that if we just do it, like Nike says, you know, we're going to make mistakes and I make mistakes each and every day and concerned about those. But there's more wins and the win in even losing is figuring out, well, this presented itself last time, so I'm not going to go down that path again. So the loss is that it is the gain of an education.

education. So I just, you know, and it's really hard to do and it's hard to live in the now without thinking about what happened because just because something happened last time doesn't mean it's going to happen that way again. Or we can't read the future just because you think it might go this way. It might not go this way. Listen, the the advent of becoming a game show host could have ruined my career. Not only did it not ruin my career and give me the biggest, it kind of changed the way game shows, you know, as soon as Deal or No Deal had any success, they hired Jeff Boxworthy to do Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? They hired Bob Saget to do One Versus 100.

They hired Louis Anderson first to do Family Feud. And now, like, every game show is hosted by a comic. Yeah. And Steve Harvey owes me a thanks, I think. Yeah. And it's funny that you pointed all that out, because as you were talking, as someone who can overthink, overanalyze and ruminate over and over, it was the moments where I said, fuck it, I'll just say yes to it, like The Bachelor and Going Back. And it was those things that allowed me to like, sit where I'm sitting now, right? I mean, it was kind of saying yes to things and not,

because I could have talked myself out of doing all those things, and I tried many times, but I said, you know what, screw it. Like, I'll just, I'm gonna do this thing, I'm gonna take a risk, and it led to a lot of positive things. Those are the things that move life and everybody ahead. Those leaps of faith, you know? I mean, people call it cancel culture or things like

that. We're definitely in a state of heightened awareness, sensitivity. I loved your joke. I don't know if it was in your recent one I saw this morning, how you have to be careful and now you can no longer tickle men, you know, on their belly buttons with your mouth. I thought that was hysterical. Context, as you bring that up and people are listening to this, that just sounds like wrong anyway. Either way, it made me laugh. Yeah. I mean, what are your thoughts on stuff and how much do you try to think about it or not think about it and just go with it but at the same time you know be sensitive to the things that we're all learning as we progress through life well you know when i and i may be too old but when i came into comedy you

know uh and that's it brings me back to to um what's uh to richard prior you know comedy used to be a safe place you know because even even in life uh outside of comedy if you said something that was offensive uh a good panacea for that was you you could say to somebody well i was just kidding oh i thought you were serious and the just kidding or just joking was okay but we've, we've even gone into the joking world. How do I feel about it? I feel that we need to respect, you know, God forbid I should hurt somebody's feelings or, you know, offend a certain group of people. If I offend somebody, then I want to take responsibility for it and, and learn and know, I don't set out to offend. Uh, but in the world of being, trying to be funny, um, you're not talking about anything

good in comedy. You know, even comedy is always based in darkness and tragedy. Always like, even when you're a little kid and you watch a clown fall down and you laugh, you're laughing at the misfortune of another being. You know, even though it's a clown and they're going for the laugh, you're really laughing. I mean, that's not how our parents taught us to be. If somebody gets out of a car and they trip

and they're all making it, but that's what jokes are. When two guys walk into a bar, something, it's not a joke unless something really embarrassing or uncomfortable happens to one of them or said to one of them. So comedy, by virtue of what it is, is inappropriate behavior. So, well, yeah, it's almost like even, you know, when people are like, how do you be funny? And sometimes the easiest way is a self-deprecating humor. You know, you make fun of yourself.

And then to make fun of yourself, you have to point out something that either you're insecure or embarrassed by, like some sort of, like you say, darkness. You know, it doesn't have to be super dark. But to you, it's something that you don't want to acknowledge. You don't want to put it out there. But you owning that allows people to laugh because you can have that self-deprecating humor. But even you talk about self-deprecation, but even every comedy comic friend I have, you know, it's called a sense of humor and a sense of humor isn't somebody who hears a joke and laughs at a joke. A sense of humor is that sensibility to find humor where maybe other people

don't. And with all my comic friends in that, in the darkest moments are the moments that we need to laugh. Because if we don't laugh, we're going to cry. That's the panacea to get through it. And in talking to my friends and even in my own experiences, on the worst, most darkest days of my life are the days that I've had the biggest, most deepest The first most darkest days of my life are the days that I've had the biggest, most deepest laughs. You know, the day I buried my father is the day it was so bizarre and so many other people may not think they're funny things, but so many weird and funny things happened that I could not stop laughing. And if I was not laughing, I would be crying and not able to function. So I find that, you know, laughter for me is the best medicine and it gets me through. And you know what? The things that were happening were inappropriate, were wrong, but that's what makes it funny. And, you know, people outside will always say, you know, when you make a joke about something too soon, well, any comic will tell you there's no too soon. Now is the time.

Now, even when it's happening, but you know, if you, if you don't ever have to ask if it's too soon, then it probably ceases to be funny. Right. But no, no, nobody in the deep inside the comedy world, when comedians get together, that, that phrase doesn't work. That phrase is all annoying. You know, if you don't think it's funny, then that's fine. But it's not wrong as an art form to kind of, you know, paint with your words.

You talked, obviously, even you alluded to already, but struggling with mental health. And it's something you have been so open about and something that you've been passionate about. And you told the story about when you first acknowledged it on your interview with Howard Stern and you were immediately afraid of what you said. But since then have been so open about it, about dealing with OCD and other mental health conditions. Is that so? Obviously, it's something you're passionate about. And yeah, I mean, I guess I just want to discuss that a little bit more. You know, as we began this conversation, I talked about rejection.

You know, my mental pain is something that everybody experiences and you don't have to be, you know, diagnosed with something like OCD. I don't think there's anybody alive that doesn't need a coping skill, you know, and doesn't need to speak to somebody. And whether that's somebody as a therapist, a psychiatrist, a friend, a family member or whatever, I think that we all have trouble coping. And whether you're coping with the breakup of a relationship, whether you're coping with like rejection, whether you're coping with, you know, addiction, whether you're coping with being a new parent, nobody tells you how to do that. There's a lot of pressure, a new job. You know, it's normal in to see how to do that. That's a lot of pressure, a new job. You know, it's normal in the, in,

in life to go, Oh my God, I got my wisdom tooth. I got to go get, or I got root canal and everybody has their, their favorite dentist and they'll send you there. Or my back is out and they have a chiropractor that they all go to. But if you just said in the middle of something in the middle of a day, you know, I just can't, I just can't function right now. And I am so depressed over the breakup that I'm going through. And I just can't, I got to go see a psychiatrist. That isn't really an acceptable yet. There's still a stigma involved, you know, and I think that the ability to, and I'm a proponent of this, of continually talking about it, kind of gives people, it kind of, you know, breaks apart the stigma. It's got to become part of the norm. I always say that if we could take care of our mental health the way we take care of our dental health, we would be okay.

You know, people will go get their teeth cleaned, they'll go get x-rays, and they go, look, there's no cavities, there's nothing wrong. But people don't go sit and talk to somebody and say, is it right that I'm responding this way? Is it, you know, and when I do watch The Bachelor, when I watch The Bachelor, I'm fascinated. And so I think everybody is about the human, you know, kind of minutiae that goes on because we all, you know, in life, whether we're dating or not, we're all feeling or our biggest fear is rejection. You know, you won't you won't get the job. You won't be the favorite person. You won't get chosen. Nobody's calling you back for that second date. So we look to somebody like the bachelor and the bachelorettes to kind of say, look how

they handled it. Oh, I handle it so much better than that, or that looks ridiculous. But it's kind of like what we relate to under a microscope of constantly just not feeling good about ourselves. You know, I think you're one of the first people I've talked to about the show who articulated it that way, which is I've been trying to explain to people why I think The Bachelor has been so successful is because it's we see our own failures in it people love to kind of almost hate watch it they love to snark they love to make fun of people and like i always called it the swingers moment where you saw john favreau like break down in that in the movie swingers where he keeps leaving the same voice message to the to the girl and'm like, everyone has that moment.

There's not, you know, whether it's that moment or something else, we've all felt rejected or embarrassed about something we did. And that's why we like watching The Bachelor, because we get to watch other people do the same things that we've all done. And it makes us ourselves feel better. Well, you know that when you're watching, you know that, you know, even though everybody's saying like, who will end up getting the last row? The real fuel of that show is the rejection. And that has, that's the most common feeling that each and every one of us feels each and every day, even in a small little way, you know, and that's

the, that, that, that's that secret sauce that brings people back. But I was going to say that it's ironic is that you talk about your fear of rejection and everyone who goes on that show is afraid of the rejection, afraid of going home night one or towards the end if I don't want to be the runner up. But ironically enough, I always try to explain to people who go on the show

and they ask me questions is that you don't realize it in the moment, but everyone's best moment on that show is actually when they get rejected because that's when they actually get the most sympathy from the audience who's been making fun of them the whole time. And actually the person who wins the show is robbed of that moment. They never really get that. And like there's a disconnect between the audience and the winner because they never get to see them get rejected and no one actually feels sorry for them. It's funny you should say that because I agree with you.

rejected and no one actually feels sorry for them. It's funny you should say that because I agree with you. One time I flew someplace and somebody said that you're so lucky to be on this flight, this is the best pilot. And I said, well, how do you know he's the best pilot? I'm flying all the time and it always feels the same. And if there's bad weather that feels the same, I don't go, Oh, look how good this pilot is. You don't notice how good your pilot is. And, and he said to me, you will never in this, I use this in life. You'll never know how good the pilot is. The way we know is when you're a pilot, you have to be re you have to re-up your tests every six months or once a year or whatever. And what they do is they put a pilot in a simulator. And in the simulator, they create a storm. They do a flame out of an engine.

They put you in a dive. They make the plane fall apart. And those are the tests. You have to handle it. And you have to handle it calmly, efficiently, and professionally. And he said, you don't want to know, you don't want to know that you have the best pilot because the best pilot shows his, you know,

his greatness in trouble. So you don't want to be in trouble. And that's a great analogy for life. You know, if everybody shows up and looks pretty in life, that really doesn't tell you who they are. And it doesn't tell you what you're made of. But in those moments when you're rejected, when you're embarrassed,

when you have no place to turn, that's actually when you reveal who you are. You know, it's not about getting knocked down. It's how do you get up? How fast do you get up? How many times can you get up? How persistent you are? That's what defines, you know, a really good

human being or it defines whoever you are. Your character, so to speak. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's that's really, really fascinating. How how is your OCD or how did it? We talk a lot about dating and relationships and I know you you've been married for a long time, but when you were dating your now wife or even before you met your wife what was that like oh before before you were open about your mental health struggles and and things like that how did you cope with it dating dating for me was a mess number one uh because I'm a germaphobe and everything, I had my own, you know, I, I was either totally rejected or thought of as incredibly quirky, you know, which is not a great, you know, thing to have, you know, I'd rather, I was also little, you know, even in, even in high school, I think I

didn't break five feet till after high school. Even when I married for next week will be my 41st wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary. Thank you. Well, we had our 40th in lockdown and I'm hoping I make it to next week. I said, do you want to redo our vows? And she said, yes, mine is enough enough already so maybe i'll be back in the dating scene again who knows but but what i'm what i'm saying is uh you know i never felt like i was either short i didn't want to i was a germaphobe everything was like climbing Mount Everest for me. So marriage has become, you know, a great comfort zone. Though that being said, it was my wife who threatened to leave me and could not go on unless I sought help.

And that's how I went into therapy the first time, because it's just maybe people enjoy watching me for a moment, but to live with me as hell. And especially after this pandemic, I wish there were awards given my wife deserves an award to be in the same house as me. I'm like a mess. I'm a mess. At least, you know, right? That's all we can do is be self-aware. That's what I'll tell her next time she screams because I can't take it anymore. I'll use your, I'll go, well, at least I know. Well, it's better than you being like, what? I don't know. For me, when I, nothing makes me more frustrated in relationships

when the other, it's like, you know, and they're like, what? Like, what did I do wrong? And like, you know, you know, like when you pretend there's not an, that to me is the most frustrating thing. I mean, you know, there's other things that can One years of marriage, there's no more pretending. There's no, there's, there's no pretending anymore. So, um, it's kind of interesting on this side of it, but we don't, uh, I, I would think that dating is the hardest, harder than a career, harder than making money. I can't imagine today what I would freak out today if I had. What?

There's a lot of us girls in this room that are dating, Howie. Well, that's the thing. You know, the thing today more than ever is, number one, it was really hard for me at the beginning. I'll tell you, like, it was hard for me even before I started dating my wife. Humor was my, my, but my own humor, like nobody shared it, you to ask a young lady to dance. You know, I was so afraid that it wouldn't work out well. I would ask a young lady to dance. And if she said, okay, I said to my friends, watch. And I would go on the floor and dance like horribly, horribly, just so that my friends on the side could look at the young lady's face who just wanted to escape and run.

Because I'd be like contorting and being like Jerry Lewis. And it looked more like a seizure than a dance. And just to watch the young lady. And that way she would walk away and I wouldn't feel rejected because I did comedy. Right. Because that was really for my friends and I wasn't trying and that way I couldn't get hurt. Though I really did want to meet the lady and dance with the lady. If there was any conversation after that, then I knew that I had somebody who kind of semi understood the wackiness that is Howie. I'm talking about myself in the third person.

I don't like that. No? Have you ever done that? done that i just did yeah that was your first time well you know it's fine sometimes when i'm alone i'll talk to myself as a third person just to see to feel like i'm with a group of me i do that i do that a lot i get caught having debates with myself and i don't even realize it i'll be like kind of low-key mumbling and and my girlfriend and people it's not i mean i didn't just doing this. I've been doing it my whole life. We'll be like, who are you talking to? Better to have a debate with yourself than to date with yourself.

That is true. When I was young, my mom walked in on my dates with myself. It's never happened to me, thank God. Yeah, that would have been weird. You never got caught with your parents? Never. Which, I mean, I grew up in a very Catholic, religious household, so I don't even, I couldn't even, I think that I grew up in a very Catholic religious household,

so I don't even – I couldn't even – I think that would have really damaged me because I don't know if my parents would have handled it well. I also come from a large family, Howie, so I think there was just a lot going on. There was too much – There's no masturbating in a Catholic home? Well, I remember being taught it was a sin at one point, and so – It would make it fun, right? Well, yeah, sure, at the time, once you embrace that. sure at the time once you embrace that but at the time i

i don't know i mean i don't the thought of it now as an adult if my mom catching me masturbating i don't know if i would have i don't know if i would have recovered from that i think it would have required and i'm not being facetious or joking around like i think we've evolved as a family in a big way but like sex and and it was not a very uh welcomed subject subject to talk about it was just don't do it anything in that porn sex masturbation it was it was just about making babies and that was it that was there was there was one purpose they made when i wasating. It was just, I gave myself a, it was my first standing ovation. I'm a crowd pleaser. And when I sit by myself, I was the crowd.

I was terrified the first time. But then, yeah, there's some. You were terrified about masturbating. No, it wouldn't happen. I didn't even know what I was doing. Let's analyze this. Really? You didn't know what you were doing?

Not really. You're just flipping masturbate. I was in the eighth, seventh, eighth grade, but I didn't have this conscious thought of, okay, today's the day I'm going to masturbate. It was just like I started, I just started touching my dick and I was just like,

what is, this is great. What is going on? And then it happened and I was like, huh. And then for the next several weeks, I'd get off the bus from school and sprint home just to masturbate out of pure excitement. Yeah. Then I became a track star because I got all this training because I could not wait. I was running so hard. I mean, I vividly remember it.

I had the, I had this, I didn't know what to do with it too. As I had this old shoe box I kept using. But anyway, now it's just way, way, way,

way, way, way. We'll probably cut that out. Well, what do you do? I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't,

you know, like you were knocking a box. No, no, but like when you're done, i didn't know it was a shoe box it was just i just like i didn't come in a box yeah well what did you do i mean like a sock i don't want to go in a sock because like my mom did my laundry and like there was tissues tissues tissues tissues make so much sense listen i was green back then too i it's all about reusing i was recycling conscious you know like i don't you imagine if your mother found the box again i was in the seventh grade i was just you know it was a vulnerable moment in my life I didn't have time to think

I was sprinting home wow where is that box today it's it wasn't your box or was it your mother's hat box it's like he took the running shoes out of the box so he could put them on his feet it was literally like I mean

I think what happened the first time it was a moment of panic like and then I grabbed the box so he could put them on his feet. It was literally like, I mean, I think what happened the first time it was a moment of panic, like, and then I grabbed the box and then finished in the box. And then I was like, I mean, I guess that worked. That's what I'll just use. Yeah.

That worked. So say that worked. What made you take that box and put it back in the closet? Like, well, because I didn't know what to do with it. was afraid to throw it out you know why because i was the thought my parents would see it because your parents rummaged through the trash i don't i was i was very afraid of my parents and sex uh and any conversations around it so do your parents listen to this podcast

probably i have a very open relation it's very different now i've we've we've turned the corner but back in the day my parents will laugh at kind of their your parents are alive but now right yeah okay yeah yeah okay so your mother now this is the first time that she'd be hearing about you you know that going you know i've been looking for that shoebox for 20 years. This has been a lot of fun. I feel like we could keep going. But before we let you go, Howie, we like to play a game with our guests called Do You Know Me? Are you down to play just a real simple, fun game?

Yeah. Great. I don't know. I just like to ask. I mean, I don't know. Hard with the game. I was really disappointed up until now. Great.

But what a great segue into a fun game coming to box now i'm self-conscious we may have edited that out much now that's the image i'm going that's not an image that's the only thought i'm gonna have oh yeah he's gonna tell me to cut it and i'm gonna be like no no no oh no no i i honestly got to think outside the box are you gonna tell her to cut this to edit that well if i've learned anything from you howie it's just just say yes uh to just let it go just let it let it go yeah let it go i'm telling you you know what you're gonna get you're gonna're going to get millions of people who have filled boxes. Also come in a box. It's going to be a huge thing.

Can't wait. Can't wait. Especially during COVID, a lot of people are alone and they're just sitting there really down with a lot of empty boxes. And you have filled the box. Yeah. What do I do? I don't know with all these.

All these Amazon boxes. All these Amazon boxes. Well, you can come in them. Oh, talk about unboxing. Yeah. You sound evil there. If Sidely Whiplash had a daughter. Do you know me?

Do you know me with Howie Mendel? It's real simple, Howie. We're going to ask a question. Does Howie blank? You know, has Howie ever done so and so? Don't answer right away. We're going to guess whether we know the answer. If we know Howie mendel and then after we

guess you can answer feel free to to say yes or no or share an anecdotal story uh explaining the answer if if you want uh they're real simple and then we'll uh see where this goes do you know me with howie mendel question number one is howie a one, is Howie a procrastinator? Is Howie a procrastinator? I'm going to say no because we've learned that Howie tries not to think and therefore he wouldn't even think

about not doing something. If he's going to do it, he's going to do it once presented the option and just get it out of the way is my guess. I would agree. Okay.

Allie? I think he's absolutely. All right. We're two for two. We're split. Howie? Are you a procrastinator? Do I have to answer now?

Well. See what I did there? Yeah, we do right no no i i in fact if there's anything to do i'm so neurotic it's part of my i do everything do in fact when you weren't looking i filled this box is how we a morning person i'm gonna go with yes he seems sprightly like he'll get up he enjoys maybe having the extra hours in the morning to get a couple of things done to start his day maybe he likes to have a routine i i'm gonna say that how he doesn't consider himself to be a morning or a night person he can take exception or embrace both depending on his neuroses or how he feels about that particular moment I think he

became a morning person when he settled down a little bit more because to do comedy you can't be a morning person because you're late up late at the clubs and everything so I think it was only when his career changed that he became a morning person howie uh well somebody was right there i don't know who who she was but uh as a comic i was up all night and working all night but when that went away i'm not a morning person and i'm not a clean morning person i could stay in bed till uh 11 or noon and then i can't really function until I have my coffee. So everyone is wrong. Great.

All right. Question number three. Has Howie ever spent New Year's Eve in another country? Yes. You're a celebrity for a long time. I'm sure there's been a gig or you've worked on some sort of new year's Eve that, or, or I don't know.

Yeah. I'm going to say probably. I think so. Well, you're all right. No. Oh, I thought,

I thought you were finished. I'm sorry. You're all right. You know, if you, if you had done just, just a little more research, you would have found I'm from another country.

People. Oh, that's right. You're born in Toronto. Yeah. Yeah. And Canada, we're all we're all one. Canada counts. Yeah, we're all one country. Yeah, we are. We will be someday. I don't know.

Has how we ever totaled a vehicle. Have I what totaled a vehicle been in a car crash that or I guess a boat would attract a vehicle? mean a train have you driven a train i'm gonna say no yeah i'm gonna say no i bet he's a meticulous i think i think so in his youth yeah yes is the uh many i am the worst driver uh i have no attention span i get bored looking out the windshield and and um i've crashed a lot of things but i've bought probably four boats because and and they weren't my boat that um i would rent boats my family won't come in the boats with me i've grounded boats and smashed them into rocks and then i thought they

were damaged and they made me buy new boats so i every vehicle you don't want me behind the wheel i'm shocked by this answer why because i thought you'd be so meticulous and so like no and in two no i can't i can't uh my wife is screaming the whole time i drive it's just just, walk! That's all she says is, walk out the window! Just walk! And I'll go, look at that pretty thing and then... You know, and I don't focus. I have the

attention span of a gnat. You know, I took flying lessons to try to get a pilot's license and the instructor made me stop and said this is not for you because i mid-flight yeah it was mid-flight he goes you're not what are you doing and i go look at that he goes no look at this look at this i wasn't looking at the instruments and i wasn't he goes you don't have the mentality to do this this is not you it's

really dangerous and I don't want to give you any more lessons so I don't okay would Howie yeah ever pose nude for a magazine it depends on the context would he would he ever I mean I don't even know if he has um but I think there's a world where he would have or could have or maybe still might. So I'm going to say yes. Yeah, 100%. Unless his instincts tell him otherwise because he wants to trust his instincts. But I'm still going to say he would. I don't think I would.

I love that what I've created around my whole aura is mystery. Why are you laughing? That wasn't the response that I was going for. I don't know. I just everything you say makes me happy right now. I don't know. No, I'm very mysterious. Plus, I think like you just revealed that you grew up in a big Catholic family. If I was a nude in a magazine, everyone would know I was a Jew. And I don't know that I would do it in a magazine. And somebody said, it depends what it's for. I would do it in a pamphlet in a doctor's office. Or if like a charity asked you or if it was for a good like, I don't know.

For a charity. Well, I've seen like a lot of people. What are we raising money for, Chrissy? Like nude for vegan. Like some people do nude for vegan or something like that. Like you't know. For charity. Well, I've seen like a lot of people do it. What are we raising money for, Chrissy? A lot of people do it like nude for vegan. Like some people do nude for vegan or something like that. Like you never know. Yeah. For a cause, I'll show my nuts.

To raise money, I will show my testicles to raise money for the right cause. I mean. So if you have a cause and my testicles can help. There you go. Testicular cancer. I'm very excited about this. They get them on board. Oh my nuts to feed the hungry. That's great. Nuts for the hungry. And that's our next ad for nuts.com. You have a nuts.com? We do. Yeah. They're delicious. Howie. You should try some. On nuts.com. If I could be the poster guy for nuts.com. I used to send cards. They weren't mine.

But remember Nutscaping? No. You don't know Nutscaping? Google Nutscaping. Nutscaping is beautiful, like scenic shots. But just on the top, it's just, you could just see like almost like the moon, but it's nuts. Hang into the shot.

We just Googled it. One year I sent out my holiday card. It was nutscape. It wasn't my nuts, but I just find nutscaping great because look at the, like, what is the aperture of the lens that you can capture the scenic beauty of whatever the landscape is that you're looking at but anyway uh i don't know how i got into nutscaping but it's uh what a what an amazing it's blending two art forms yeah it really is really disgusting both both god's creations i always picture you know what i always picture i'll look at something like that or even like, you know, you always hear about I've never done it and wouldn't do it and couldn't figure out why I would do it.

But dick pics and things like that. Yeah. When you see things like that, you always imagine the actual image of the photography. Right. The behind the scenes. A man bent. I always notice the background. Like, I don't notice the pic.

I'm like, oh, they didn't make their bed behind them. Or I'm like, oh, why are they wearing white socks with black shoes in this side of the picture? Chrissy gets a lot of dick pics. We've come to find out. Duke, I've been out of the dating world, and I know that on Bachelor, you don't do that, right? It's just roses and stuff.

But all of us who don't have stems given to us in production want to share that with the lady friends is that what's happening do people send you dick pics if like i'm a dating apps yeah it comes pretty fast wow but like depending on the situation you can get a dick pic pretty quickly unsolicited

I never get dick pics on dating apps Ellie's not even on dating apps so she wouldn't know I think yeah I mean it happens I don't think it happens to everyone it happens are you saying that like flipped and took a picture of your penis and accidentally

sent it to somebody oh shit it happened again i think it is deliberate for the people doing it uh for sure um all right final question we'll stay in the the nudity world has howie ever mooned someone um whether he was trying to nutscape or otherwise yes have you ever nutscaped howie i mean could we oh could there be are any other not yeah because i'm so offended by the nutscaping it's anonymous like it makes me want to puke why wow why it's the pubic hairs coming on chris he's like it's the worst part it's the worst part of the yeah it's the pubic hairs coming off. Chrissy's like, it's the worst part. It's the worst part of the, yeah. It's the pubic hairs that are like flailing off in the light. I can't.

Chrissy wants to see the slide. You know, she wants to see the shaft. I'm fascinated by the fact that you can see the pubic hairs and like, it's not blurry yet. You can still see the ground. I think that's an amazing. Yeah. It's not like a two-pointed aperture.

It's more of a higher aperture where you can get... Yeah, it's a dual-focus situation. Dual-focus, that's what I'm saying. Without the nut hairs, you can't appreciate the skill that was put into that. And the subject has to stay relatively motionless, it would seem, to get a clear photo because you don't want any movement.

But you know that's not the person with the nuts taking the picture. Exactly. The person taking is really down in there. It's a very vulnerable... Howie, you have a new podcast coming out before we let you go. Can you let our audience know a little bit more about it and where they can find it when it's coming out? I'm thrilled to be part of the world of podcast. My daughter and I, Jacqueline Schultz, who's a huge Bachelor and Bachelorette fan and is thrilled that I'm doing this today, was very excited. We work together on this podcast and it's called Howie Mandel Does Stuff. And we do everything from, you know,

just talking to pranks, challenges my friends are on, just weirdness that we do in our everyday life. And we decided to share it with the world. So it's kind of a father-daughter, but it's sometimes inappropriate, sometimes educational, sometimes hysterically funny, sometimes serious. It's a lot of stuff. And it's available wherever you get podcasts. You can subscribe or like if you go to any of my socials. You can subscribe or like, if you go to any of my socials, you can subscribe and like on my bio. For all the people listening, there'll be a link in the episode bio where you can listen to Howie's podcast as well. Howie, this has been a ton of fun. I feel like we could talk for hours. I really appreciate you taking the time. It's been a real honor to be able to

talk to you and a dream come true yeah you made me a hero with my daughter uh this is so much fun how i really appreciate it uh thank you for being so funny so open and uh a real blessing and um thank you thank you and take care of your cough yeah talk to you later bye-bye bye thanks for listening guys I hope you enjoyed this episode of the vile files don't forget to rate five stars check out Howie's podcast Howie does stuff

and I think that's it don't forget to send your questions at asknickatcastme.com cast with a K and if there's nothing else we'll see you next time And if there is nothing else, we'll see you on Monday.