#1971 - Howie Mandel

SPEAKER_2 (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Howie Mandel (0:12)

Can you hear me?

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Hello, Howie Mandel.

Howie Mandel (0:16)

Hi, Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Good to see you, my friend.

Howie Mandel (0:17)

I know.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

Very good to see you.

Howie Mandel (0:19)

I know. And amazing to see you. Before you start anything, I've got to tell you how excited...

Did we start?

Joe Rogan (0:26)

No, yeah, we're starting.

Howie Mandel (0:27)

Okay, I got to tell you how excited I am to see you. I am the biggest fan... If there is one thing that I'm a fan of, it's innovation.

And I think that you have become the comedy innovator. And I'm blowing smoke up your ass right at the beginning of this. And I got to say what I've seen from the outside, you know?

In 1978, I came down to the comedy store and I got up on a Lark mic binder and got me up there on a Lark. I wasn't not pursuing it. I had gone on at Yuck Yucks in Toronto and I fell in love with this. Mitzi gave me my biggest break.

And there was a guy by the name of George Foster who was in the audience that night that said, Hey, do you want to do TV? And I said, Yeah. And he hired me to do Make Me Laugh, which I did with binder and a bunch of other people. And with no intent of making this a career, you know? I didn't pursue comedy, I knew nothing about comedy. I was a fan of comedy, I watched stand-up. Even when I went to Yuck Yucks, I had never, you know, I don't know, let me get back to you, and then I'll talk about me. But the thing is that I'm aware of the history of comedy. And when I was a kid, it was in New York. Everybody went to New York, that's where Lenny Bruce was working, you just show me a picture of Lenny Bruce. And then when Carson made his way out to California, there was a shift where everybody had to come to California, you know, and you had to get on at the comedy store or maybe the improv with the intent of maybe, if you were lucky, getting a spot on The Tonight Show. Right? And I don't know, how old are you?

Joe Rogan (2:13)

55

Howie Mandel (2:14)

55, you're a kid.

Joe Rogan (2:15)

How old are you?

Howie Mandel (2:16)

I'll be 68 this year.

Joe Rogan (2:17)

You look fucking great.

Howie Mandel (2:18)

Thank you.

Joe Rogan (2:19)

Maybe all this knuckle touching is the way to go.

Howie Mandel (2:21)

I don't know what the fuck it is. I don't know that I... But anyway, the point is that there was only one place to go and make it in comedy, and that was California. And that was, you needed a spot at the comedy store. And anybody who was anybody either got a spot at the improv or the comedy store. And then even if somebody didn't know you and they came up to you and they said, are you a comic? And, oh, what do you do? You'd say, I'm a standup comic. They go, were you ever on Johnny? And if you weren't on Johnny, then they kind of dismissed you.

But that was the truth.

And I believe now, and this is the smoke that I'm blowing up your ass, there was a shift. You don't have to go to California anymore.

You don't have to be in New York. You don't have to be anywhere, but you gotta be in Austin. You gotta come to Texas, or you gotta be part of whatever it is, this movement that you have moved out here. And if you look at the people that are getting huge clicks online for their specials, Ari Shaffir and Shane Gillis and all these other guys, what do they have in common? They came and they touched you. And I think that that is where comedy's going. And these people with podcasts are now selling huge amounts of tickets without going on one, they don't have a Tonight Show to go to. They don't have a club to hit. And now you opened up The Mothership, which is, I think, properly named, because I believe that this is, if there is a geographical epicenter for comedy, it is here, you know, now. And I think you did that.

I've never met somebody that, you know, Mitzi was the last person that kind of, Mitzi, sure, I'm talking about. But accidentally did it, you know, because that was just something she won in a divorce.