Good deal for guy with neuroses: Stand-up

By Jerry Fink

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Some of us don’t appreciate the simplicity of “Deal or No Deal.”

Contestants choose a suitcase. Either it has a million dollars in it or it doesn’t.

Rock, paper, scissors is complicated compared with “Deal.”

Yet it is one of the most popular shows on TV, with new episodes returning at 8 p.m. Monday on NBC (KVBC Channel 3).

Host Howie Mandel says the explanation is as simple as the show.

“It’s the relate-ability and the simplicity of it,” he said from Los Angeles. “I don’t care if you’re 4 or 84, you can play that game. We all know what we would do and how we would play, and we can relate to the players, whether negatively or positively. You may think what they’re doing is 100 percent wrong and want to scream at the television, or you may share in their joy and exhilaration, or be totally killed by their decisions as you watch them go down in flames.

“It has very easy entertainment values.”

The hyper Mandel talks fast. He has ADHD (attention deficit disorder) and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).

“I have almost the entire alphabet,” he says.

He has overcome the alphabet blocks to become one of the most recognizable personalities in show business, appearing in such TV series as “St. Elsewhere” and movies such as “Gremlins.”

He’s put his hyperactivity to good use, cramming lots into the day — taping “Deal or No Deal” (the hourlong prime-time version, a half-hour daily version and, until recently, the Canadian version). He’s been finishing up his 24-episode series, “Howie Do It,” which may or may not return next season.

He just started his autobiography, “Here’s the Deal, Don’t Touch Me,” and hopes to have it finished by December.

“I let you get inside my head, which is not always the most fun place to be,” he says. “It’s very real and very hard to write at times about the things that have happened in my life and in my head — sometimes pretty serious things. It runs the gamut from serious and revealing to funny and entertaining.

“I find it is somewhat cathartic. I’ve found out people share the same demons. Hopefully, the book will be entertaining and funny and revealing and inspire somebody. I talk about my issues and how I cope with them, what I have to deal with each and every day.”

When Mandel isn’t dealing with his issues and working on his various projects, he turns to his first love — stand-up comedy. As busy as he is, he still manages to perform about 200 comedy engagements a year.

He will be at the MGM Grand Thursday through May 6 and again July 9 to 15.

“Stand-up is my most comfortable place to be,” Mandel says. “It’s the only place I don’t have to hit a mark and I don’t have to memorize a script. I go wherever I want to go. It’s like a primal scream at the end of the day, and I love it. It’s one of the constants in my career. I started with it, and when it comes time for me to go out, I will go out with it.”

Over the past 30 years, he says, his comedy has changed a little.

“The constant is the honesty,” he says. “When I first started I was very kinetic. Whatever I’m going through in life is what I present on stage, beginning when I was just a kid, scared to death, very frenetic, and I would buy toys and hold them up and put gloves over my head.

“Today it’s a little bit different. I’m a little bit older. I’ve experienced a lot more. I have different and more things to draw from than just the toys I found throughout my day. But I’m not beyond that. If I found something I thought was worthy, I would bring it up, pull it out and show you.”