Howie Mandel quotes: Canadian TV host talks about growing up an outcast, coping with OCD, how he got into comedy, and more.
“It’s all about risk, it’s all about guts… and a great sense of timing.”
“I think that you can’t knock change and change is good. And nothing in any realm of life stays the same, you know?”
“People who annoy people are the luckiest people in the world.”
“I think the solution to making this world better is if we would just be healthy, mentally.”
“The biggest void that people can have in their lives is a sense of humor. Spending your life with someone who doesn’t have that wouldn’t be palatable.”
“I think being a dad is scary. I mean, I’m not that grown-up myself.”
“I don’t know if I’m teaching my kids right, but you have to go with your own instincts. You can’t be so sure that other people are going to do right by you.”
“It’s really not that hard. If I do a Tonight Show, it’s six or seven minutes. If I do a concert, it’s 90 minutes. If I do an interview, that’s 15 minutes. So by the end of the day I’ve done three hours worth of work.”
“The success of any stand-up act comes out of life experience.”
“I needed time to stand back and go through a lot more experience in life. Then I have something to write about, joke about, or to animate.”
“You release these things, and if they fly then you have more.”
“I’m fascinated by mankind. I grew up watching Candid Camera and thought it was funnier than any stand-up, any joke, anything that could possibly be written because you’re dealing with humanity. And people can relate to that. It touches everybody who sees it. It hits a nerve.”
“I can go to a lot of games, but I’m not a player. I’m kind of an observer. That’s why I think I do what I do in life. I just observe. That’s what I find fascinating.”
“There’s no skill. You can be a rock and move into another tax bracket.”
“You can go home with a lot of money with absolutely no skill.”
“My perspective on my mother has changed immensely. She was a lot taller when I was younger.”
“After I impulsively revealed that I have OCD on a talk show, I was devastated. But when I eventually emerged into public that day, I was approached by all kinds of people saying, ‘Me too.’ Those were two of the most comforting words I’ve ever heard. Whatever you deal with in life, you’re overwhelmed with feelings of being alone. Well, you’re not, and I wasn’t from that day forward.”
“Every human being has issues. You don’t have to be diagnosed with something that has an acronym or has letters in front of it. You just have to be a human being. I suffer from anxiety and depression, and I made jokes because laughing was just a lot easier than crying, but I battled, and it is a battle that I am involved in every day.”
“Just like dental health, we have to take care of our mental health.”
“Everybody in life needs coping skills.”
“I’m coping. And I’m – and I’m out there. I’m not cured, but I can… have a great career and I have a great, loving family and I’m out in public.”
“I was kind of a misfit, actually. When you’re young, you want to be like everybody else, and I was like nobody else. I couldn’t sit still. I was impulsive. I still am. What is now called a ‘talent’ did not serve me well as a child. I didn’t have friends. I was really an outcast.”
“I was never brave before. I always tried to make it work. Now I have nothing to lose except some cash, and it’s just not that important to me. I’ve never been allowed up until now to remain who I am, or true to what my life is like.”
“I may be more passionate about my comedy because that’s the one place where I feel comfortable – because I’m in the now. Performing is the only time of the day when I have to really force every ounce of concentration into whatever’s happening in that moment.”
“I don’t rehearse. I’m more comfortable in my discomfort.”
“Stand-up keeps me grounded and keeps me in touch. I get to go from small towns to big cities, across Canada and the U.S., and you’re out there and talking to people.”
“I’ve been chased. I’ve been pushed. I’ve been screamed at. I’ve been verbally abused. I’ve been afraid for my safety. But I did it all in the name of entertainment.”
“Contentment is not a feeling that I’ve ever felt, whether it’s my career or my life, but that’s not a bad thing. Contentment breeds lethargy. I want to be excited about trying to do something. If I was content then I would just take all the same old same old material and do the same old same old show every night. I like to get myself into kind of a scary, fun predicament as far as not knowing where I’m going to go next. I like that excitement.”
“The opportunity to produce and write and host and act and be an author… nobody is more amazed and pleased and in awe than I am. The fact that this is a job and that I’m going to be showing up at the Hard Rock, that I would gladly pay to go in and see a show, it’s amazing that I can be the show.”
“Every moment of the day… this is 180 degrees from where I dreamed I would be. I got into comedy on a dare, and every opportunity that came my way was something I didn’t even know existed.”
“I love to work and I work whenever I can.”
“As long as I’m employed, I’m happy and staying healthy.”
“I am beloved by millions.”
“I’m a huge fan of mine. I go to just about every show I do.”
“My point of reference is life, in everything that I do.”
“I just lived by Nike’s rule: ‘Just do it.’ I’m always at peace with what I’m doing.”
“The stage is my home. That’s the one place where there are no rules, no boundaries, no marks to hit, no lines to recite, no commercials to throw to, no editing to be done. It’s freeing – just the purest form of whatever it is that I do. The stage is where I started, it’s where I live, and it’s where I’ll end.”
“It’s the few privileged people that get an opportunity to do what it is that they want to do… and I feel very blessed.”
Next up? Jerry Seinfeld quotes.
