Howie Mandel On Being the Villain of America's Got Talent

Is it hard for you to be the villain up there on? I'm not the villain. I'm the when when you fall into that, that, you know, people say that. But the truth is that was the hardest thing for me in judging AGT is I came. I got the job after Deal or No Deal finished on NBC. And they asked me, would you like to do one of our other shows? We have America's Got Talent. And I said, yeah. And at that time, we used to travel the show. You know, we would tonight. Everybody who's auditioning is from Seattle, Washington, Washington State, you know, or wherever we were, Texas or wherever we were. And so it was the hometown crowd watching hometown people. Yes. So they would say, you know, so you'd see everybody, everybody from Washington, this little girl from Washington is singing a song and to her that she wrote about her grandmother who had just passed a week ago. And then you found that if you said, you know, you're you're really wonderful. But I didn't really get the song that the audience would just just boo and rip you a new asshole from behind. And the hardest thing for me to be in front of people I have spent, you know, 40 years and up at that time, maybe 30, 30 something years in the business just to be a stand up comic, just to be liked, applauded and cheered by cheered at by strangers was my whole whole thing, my whole goal. So to say something just even honestly and be booed, it was really hard. But then what I learned when I used to watch back the show, because if you watch at the beginning, you know, I was much softer, but not. I don't think people were really reacting to me because you look like I was just trying to be liked by the audience by being. I look like I was just trying to be light. Yeah. And when you're sitting at home and that's what I realized when you're sitting at home and there's millions more at home than are in that room. When you're sitting at home watching you go, oh my God, that's off key. Or, oh my God. And then if you listen to somebody going, oh my God, that's off key. And then you go, you are such a joy. You, that was amazing. Then I just look like more of an idiot, right? So if I'm honest without being mean to go, listen, it was off key. I'm going to be honest with you. So maybe, I don't know if it was the pressure. I don't know. And you do that. Yeah. Then I think that more people appreciate honesty and authenticity than they do about, um, lying to try to get people to like you. Yeah. Well, that's quite the matrix there that you're kind of going through. Not anymore. So now I don't, you know, I, I can, I remove myself from the people sitting behind me and I remove myself from the comics, the comments online and I just sit there and I go, listen, ultimately America is going to vote and ultimately, you know, um, all talent is subjective, you know, and there's always more people that don't like something or aren't interested in something than are interested in something, you know, I've told the story so many times, but when I sell out in any city, there's always millions more that haven't bought tickets than the few thousand that have decided to, you know, put a couple of bucks out to come see me. So that being said, I'm just there, you know, with my experience to go, I, I don't, I don't get it. I don't know what you did or that was wonderful. Or sometimes I'll just be, you know, you know, just honest to go. I just don't get it. Do you ever look at the other judges that say this is great and go like, what the ****? Yeah. And we do. And that's the beauty. You know, Simon, uh, Sophia, Heidi and myself are legitimately friends and do talk to each other off the show and hang out off the show. And, uh, they, uh, it's kind of fun if you're going to go watch something on TV and you're all sitting in your living room and you're watching it and she goes, isn't this great? And if I was sitting on the couch, I go, what do you mean? That's great. That's terrible. I don't like that. And the fact that we come from very different backgrounds, we're very, all very different people. We don't agree, but we respect each other, but I will go, well, really, you think that was amazing. You know? And, and, uh, we, we disagree. And I think that's what makes us probably one of the strongest panels on these talent shows is the fact that we don't agree and we're all honest and not trying to get one more person to like us because we're supposedly being nice. Are you, are you judging ultimately as to who could hold a room in Vegas? Is that what you're judging or you're just judging talent? Yes. I'm just judging of, of, and we all are of how it moves us. I find that people who comment, they go, well, why would you even vote that? That would be, that would never be an hour show in, in Vegas. The truth is that is a compliment to somebody. If I see something, you know, that there is a, this season has been spectacular. Season 17 has gotten the most amazing talents. And I think because of COVID, you know, people weren't allowed to travel for the last two years. So they've been pent up practicing. Um, we do have a lot of draw from people from all over the world and they weren't allowed to travel because of COVID restrictions and now they're all here. So there are so many acts on the show that you can see, Oh my God, this is a Vegas show. So that's a compliment. That's not that you don't need it to be a Vegas show. There's not, but it is amazing. You know, I saw a guy doing yo-yo, like I've never seen yo-yo before. I don't know if that's a Vegas show. Right. The guy is absolutely one of the most spectacular when he said he was a yo-yo. My dad was a yo-yo champion. I would, I was ready to be bored. By then you're, you're biased. What you're biased at a little bit. No, no. I was ready to be a yo-yo champion. Yeah. But that's not what I loved most about him. Right. But this kid was just amazing. He was like an acrobat and he was doing flips and he was dancing and he was kind of making it kind of cool and fun. But I don't know that it's a whole Vegas show, but wow. He deserved to move on. Yeah. All right. Let's look at another video. Here we go. Here's somebody else. And another one of my friends and their talents. This is Mariah. She's a dancer. Here we go. Do we have audio in this guys? Wow. She's dancing acapella without music. I love that. You have to tell her to come on. Yeah. Really? Oh my God. Mariah, you're getting an invite. Amazing. Okay. She is really good. Is she a studied? Yeah. She teaches my daughter. She's teaches like a, she's like a, not only a dancers or she's like an acrobat or a gymnast, it looks like the floor exercises that you see in the, uh, in the Olympics. Yeah. She's, she's super talented and her dream is to be a dancer, but I think she makes way more money doing social media. So it's one of those making money doing, yeah, she's on a really big podcast unfiltered and yeah, she's, she's really great. Close friend of mine. Yeah. But why don't you give her the full plug? Uh, I did. She's on unfiltered. Mariah. Oh, Mariah. Uh, moto. Yeah. Mariah moto. She's a, a Heath's girlfriend. Zayn and Heath. Do you know Zayn and Heath? Yes. Yeah. And she's on there. Yeah. She's a talented editor. Okay. Next. Go ahead. Let's move through. This is Scotty Sire. Here we go. The singer. This in the park. We'll get dinner at the dark and I'll be with you every second in between. Right on inside of heart. We will never fall apart. Let's spend forever together. Just you and me. That's, that's a word where I say he's probably good. He'll probably have a big career. It's just that. For you personally. Was that a, uh, an original? Yeah. I always get jealous of people who write original music. And I'll tell you why, because as somebody who writes, uh, comedy, like he was doing, play it from where it was, where it just was stop. So we saw 30 seconds and he's already going la da, da, da, la, da, da, la, da, da, don't you wish you can do that in comedy? Like if you're going to write a song, you gotta, you gotta come up with words. You know, it's like two guys walk into a bar and then la da, da, da, la, da, da, do, do, do that do like, you can't, I just, did you ever try to put out an album, like after you had success as a comedian, did you ever try to do like I had an album. You did, but not a comedy album. Oh, a song album song. Yeah. I had one song. What was it? Um, it's horrible, but you can play it. I mean, I do the wat to see. No way. Howie Mandel. I do the wat to see. You can play it. It's a video too. And it got, it got, it got introduced on MTV. Somebody's ass right there. Holy ----. Oh, it's a long time on your ass. Not my ass. Oh, it's a girl. Oh my God. You asked. Okay. It's enough. That was like, what would you give me? Judge? Go ahead. Um, yeah, I, I, I would. And if I didn't know you, I'd be like, Oh my God, what is this? But you should, you know, me, you should still say the same thing. That's a ---- you put out. Yeah. That was when like the Bobcat Goldthwait style of comedy was really big. Right. Is that, or you before him? I'm before him. You're before him. So he stole from you. Maybe, maybe. Did you, did you ever know prior? Yes. That was my favorite part of my career. So in the seventies, when I moved out here, I would go to the comedy store and you can, you can find a picture of me in prior, but Howie Mandel and Richard prior. Please. Um, I would go to the comedy store every night and I would watch prior put together his live on the sunset strip. Oh, wow. Yeah. There's a picture of him and me together. There we are. First picture. Wow. So I got to hang out that, that, that picture right there. You're quite young there. Um, well, you find that like yesterday I was younger. So any, anytime you go back, I love that you're surprised by the fact of an old picture. I happen to be younger. He looks old. He was already in his wheelchair and that was at the end of his life. But every night I watched him show up at the comedy store and, and write material and put together live at the sunset strip. So I got to meet and work with all these, uh, great comedians. I'll show you, uh, uh, that picture that I have here, which you should take a picture of and put up. I'm going to take off my, look at this. I know I'm off mic now and I'm probably leaning right out of the picture, but I'm going to go get something for you. Keep talking. He's tangled guys. This is Howie Mandel. He's making a mess of the studio, but he's going to get a picture and he's tied up. Oh no, I took a fall. Oh guys call the paramedic. How he went down. Are you okay? Okay. Oh, he really committed. He really committed. Just so you guys know how he has fallen. Now he's actually in really good shape. So he's got up quickly, which is, uh, impressive. Yeah. It's unreal. Yeah. You're really, you're really good shape. This will be for those at home with the audio. What is this? Comic relief. I see weird Al. Who else do I see? Look at this. So that's me. Wow. Beside weird Al up above me is George Carlin. Oh wow. Carl Reiner. Oh gosh. Willie Tyler and Lester. Michael Keaton. Richard Dreyfuss. Michael Keaton was a hell of a standup. He really was. Um, Steve Allen, Sid Caesar, Robin Williams. Whoopi Goldberg. Wow. Billy Crystal. Dennis Miller. And you never got involved in drugs at the comedy store. I didn't. Penny Marshall. Nothing. Never more interested. No. I was thinking I was driving over today and I thought, Oh, how he has the OCD thing. Maybe probably that was why, like, you're not going to put a, I smoked a lot of pot. Oh, you do did. Oh, dead. Yeah. What did you find during COVID you did? Yeah. First I used it to go to sleep. Then I used it to stay asleep. So I smoked a lot of pot, but I don't anymore. I don't anymore. You know, you told this story on Richard Dreyfuss. I mean, uh, Gary Shandling, Pee Wee Herman. Shandling was my favorite. Really? Yeah. Marty Short. Uh, Joe Piscopo. Oh my God. Penny Youngman. I'm just going to be naming. You can ask any questions and I'm just going to continue naming people.