- published: 28 Nov 2009
- views: 1269357
Howard Michael "Howie" Mandel (born November 29, 1955) is a Canadian comedian, actor, television host and voice actor. He is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. Before his career as a game show host, Howie Mandel was best known for his role as rowdy ER intern Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere. He is also well known for being the creator and star of the children's cartoon Bobby's World. On June 6, 2009, he hosted the 2009 Game Show Awards on GSN. Mandel became a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent, replacing David Hasselhoff, in the fifth season of the reality talent contest. Mandel has mysophobia (an irrational fear of germs) to the point that he does not shake hands with anyone, including contestants on Deal or No Deal, unless he is wearing latex gloves.
Mandel was born and lived in the Willowdale area of Toronto, Ontario. Mandel is Jewish (his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland) and a distant cousin to violinist Itzhak Perlman. His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate agent. After getting expelled from his high school (William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute) for impersonating a member of the school board and signing a construction contract to make an addition to his school, Mandel became a carpet salesman who would later open a carpet sales business of his own. He was a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto and by September 1978 had a week-long booking as featured act, billed as "a wild and crazy borderline psychotic." His repertoire included placing a latex glove over his head and inflating it by blowing through his nose, the fingers of the glove extending above his head like a cockscomb. When the audience reacted uproariously to that and similar antics, his trademark response was to extend his arms palms up, look incredulous, and ask "What? What?"
Actors: Melinda Labita (miscellaneous crew), Anup Sugunan (miscellaneous crew), Bill Lippincott (actor), Darren Dupree Washington (actor), Amy Paffrath (actress), Jim Nieb (actor), Robert Covarrubias (actor), Tom Katsis (actor), Tom Sean Foley (actor), Alma Magaña (costume designer), Melinda Augustina (miscellaneous crew), Kevin Collins (actor), Todd Colby Pliss (miscellaneous crew), Patrick Bautista (actor), Ali Afshar (actor),
Genres: Comedy, History, Short,Actors: Neal Israel (producer), Howie Mandel (actor), Neal Israel (director), Scout Taylor-Compton (actress), Estelle Harris (actress), Michael Rotenberg (producer), Julie Warner (actress), Mitchel Musso (actor), Richard Candib (editor), Madeline Carroll (actress), John Mendoza (actor), Nancy Cavallaro (costume designer), Alan Freedland (producer), Peter Tilden (producer), Carter Reedy (editor),
Plot: Improv Comedy Show starring Howie Mandel as himself -- a family man who crafts a hidden-camera segments for a talkshow. The story line will interweave real-life "Candid Camera"-style bits, with real pranks played on real people, into the narrative. "Hidden Howie" spins off the hidden-camera segments Mandel does for "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."
Keywords: candid-camera, character-name-in-title, comedian, hidden-camera, improv, improvisation, improvisational-comedy, joke, practical-joke, prank