Howie Mandel getting back to his standup roots at Riverside Casino Event Center show

Turns out fun guy Howie Mandel also is a fun grandpa.

He took his first two grandchildren to see The Silhouettes, the brainchild of Cedar Rapids native Lynne Waggoner-Patton, and the troupe used the kids in a shadow dance.

Mandel snapped a photo.

“And in my house on a wall, I have a giant image of The Silhouettes with my grandkids. So they are gracing the walls of my house each and every day,” he told The Gazette by phone from his Los Angeles office, where he was waiting to welcome Dennis Quaid to his podcast.

When Patton found out The Gazette would be speaking to Mandel, she sent her greetings and thanks to Mandel “for being very kind to us on the AGT set every single year we appeared.” He’s a judge on NBC-TV’s popular “America’s Got Talent” competition, where The Silhouettes, formed in March 2009, became the first runner-up in 2011. The troupe continued to make guest appearances on the show, and now performs at home and abroad.

Mandel has done it all — husband, father of three, grandfather of three, comedian, television and film actor, cameo appearances, game show host, celebrity judge, producer, author, and podcast host with his daughter, Jackelyn Shultz. He also writes and speaks about his battles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, from which he gets his aversion to germs.

The latter led to his career, which is leading him to the Riverside Casino Event Center on Friday night, May 17, 2024.

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His big break didn’t come with his featured role in “St. Elsewhere” or appearances on the late-night talk show circuit. It came in his native Canada.

“My big break in life … was April 19, 1977, on a dare in Toronto, Canada, to get up on stage at Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club,” he said. “I did it without any thought and without any aspiration to be in this business, and I’ve been chasing that moment every day of my life professionally ever since. It’s such a rush and so exciting, and I found my calling.

“That night I went out — it’s in my book — but I went out for Chinese food and my fortune cookie said, ‘Tonight you will find a new path in life.’

“I wasn’t trying to be a comedian. I wasn’t trying to be in show business. And that night, we went to a comedy club just to be entertained. I’d never seen live stand up. The host said after the show, if anybody wants to get up, and amateurs if you think you can do this, do it. And somebody said I should try it. And I went OK, like I always do. And I just did it, thinking the lark would be just having somebody say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen — Howie Mandel.’

“No idea, and I had nothing to do. And if you look at those old YouTube videos, it was me going, ‘OK, OK, OK,’ just trying to come up with stuff to do. I ended up having my hand in my pocket and I had a handful of rubber gloves because I have OCD, and when I’m out in public, I didn’t want to touch anything in a public restroom. Having nothing else planned, I ended up pulling (a glove) over my head and breathing and blowing it up. That act ended up buying me my first house.”

“When you find something in life that you’re excited about that you want to do that makes you feel comfortable that makes you feel happy — that’s making it. Making it isn’t other people knowing you or (fame) or money or anything. Making it is just being excited about doing something.”

Comedy cheer

With all the fame and fortune he’s found through various gigs -- hosting shows like his Emmy-nominated turns on “Deal or No Deal” and producing “No Deal Island,” where he was revealed as The Banker on Monday’s finale; or being an AGT judge; or writing a bestselling autobiography -- standup comedy is his professional bliss. His blow-up glove bit was even written into his character of Dr. Wayne Fiscus in “St. Elsewhere,” which ran from 1982-88.

Jeff Johnson from Penguins Comedy Club brought him to Cedar Rapids several times early in Mandel’s career. In a 1998 Gazette article about Penguins’ first 10 years, Johnson cited Mandel as one of his favorite comedians he’s presented, because Mandel is a “real” person offstage. Johnson’s still a big fan.

And Mandel still loves coming to the Heartland, and hearing greetings from folks who wanted The Gazette to share their touchstone moments from seeing him on TV or onstage.

“The fact that somebody in Iowa makes an arrangement for me to show up and be goofy for a little while and just have fun — nobody’s having more fun than me. And if somebody in that evening makes a memory or laughs or is relieved for a minute from whatever is going on in their life, that’s amazing to me,” he said.

His standup show isn’t scripted. He just steps into the spotlight, gets a feel for the audience and riffs from that.

His starting point is “a blank slate.”

“Not thinking about (it), no preparation, I just show up,” he said. “Obviously, after 40 years, I have a plethora of things to pull from and material to recite if I wanted to. But there’s so much just to be open. And I think that’s a message in life — just to be open and kind of receive whatever from life, the room, your environment, and react. So I’m a reactor more than an actor.”

Living in the ‘now’

When asked what kinds of things are on his mind these days, he replied that he just lives moment to moment.

“I live in the now. Every show that I do is somewhat unique, in the sense that whatever’s happening in the room, what it looks like, my trip there, my family in the moment — those are the things that I look for and kind of springboard off of. That’s gonna be that night, that moment, and it’s great when somebody comes up to me, like five years from that night and goes, ‘You know, I was there the night in Iowa when the lady with the red hat showed up late.’ That makes it special.”

Comedy also plays into his personal life, giving him not only a platform to talk about OCD, but also as a way to deal with life’s challenges and difficulties.

What’s something he wishes people knew about OCD?

“What it is,” he replied. “I don’t think people know what it is. It’s obsessive compulsive disorder. I think people just think that it’s being persnickety, organized, clean, neat. It is a mental health disorder. That is a huge issue.”

His treatment involves medication and therapy. Now 68, he wasn’t diagnosed until his mid-40s. Getting through life before that was “difficult.”

“Life is difficult, you know. It really is. Distraction is my panacea. Standup comedy is a good distraction, and that’s why I love it best.”

From his OCD springs a phobia about germs. Viewers of “The Voice” may have seen him give someone a great big hug. He’s surprisingly comfortable with that.

“I just don’t shake hands,” he said. “I can hug — I have children. Don’t be surprised.”

What surprises him is that he’s still working and still in demand. Before his Riverside appearance, he will have wrapped being a judge on “Canada’s Got Talent,” then flying from a standup gig in Kentucky. When he’s shooting AGT, he’ll sometimes drop in to perform at a comedy club.

“I love doing stand up, and that’s my primal scream at the end of the day,” he said.

“It sounds like I’m really busy. Nobody’s more blessed, excited and thrilled. I am amazed by the fact that I still work and work which seems like so much. But a show in Iowa is a couple of hours, so what do I do all day. You know what I mean? I just have fun and get to see the town and the people, and then go to a party where I’m just trying to be the center of attention.

“Even AGT — I sit there and watch amazing thing after amazing thing, and do what you do at home. Except I have to wear pants and be dressed, and say, ‘Oh, that was really good,’ or ‘I didn’t like that.’

“Nothing I do seems like a job.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com