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by Scott Juba Published: April 10, 2006
But Rob Smith from Endemol (the production company behind the show) wasn’t about to take no for an answer. He persuaded Mandel to have lunch with him so he could explain the game. On the show, contestants pick one of twenty-six cases and then gradually open the other cases to narrow down how much money they have in their case. Along the way, a banker makes them cash offers to stop playing. This simple but dramatic game has captivated TV audiences across the world, but Mandel was leery of the game’s structure when Smith first explained it to him. “I thought it was a joke,” Mandel admits. “[Rob] had this project board that looked like it had been made by an eight-year-old doing a school arts and crafts project. It made what I now know to be ‘the board.’ There were all these numbers and amounts on the board, and he cut out these little cards, which were the cases…I was looking at my buddy who I was sitting with, and I was going, ‘This is a joke. I’m waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come around any minute.’ Then [Rob] started playing the game with me, and I started getting into the game.” Next, Smith gave Mandel a tape of the Italian version of the show. “I watched it without understanding a word,” Mandel says. “I was on the end of my couch yelling at the guy playing who I thought was an idiot, because he wasn’t taking all the lira that I thought he should have taken. You understand the show without the language.” Once he was sold on the game, Mandel phoned Smith and asked Smith why he wanted him to host the show. “[Rob] said, ‘If you look at the host, there are no rules. There’s no boundary. You’re not sitting at a podium. You can wander around. You can use the audience. If you want to improvise and do your comedy like you do in front of a live concert, go ahead and do that. If you want to create tension and drama like you did on St. Elsewhere, go ahead and do that. If you want to interview them like you did on your talk show, go ahead and do that. We’ve seen these are the skills you possess. You’ve done them all professionally. We think that you bringing those tools to this venue would be good for us.’ I said, ‘I’ll give it a shot.’ Then I realized that the best part of it is the game and the tension and the drama in the game.” When Deal or No Deal first aired in December, Mandel was out of the country, but upon his return, he couldn’t escape the show’s popularity. “I landed back in Miami, and it was like a whole new beginning,” he recalls. “Every second person was coming up to me with that catchphrase, [‘Deal or No Deal’]. It really took off, and now it just keeps growing by leaps and bounds.” Part of Deal or No Deal’s popularity stems from the tension created by contestants turning down huge bank offers in the hopes of winning even more cash. Mandel says he’s surprised by contestants who say ‘No Deal’ when there’s only one high amount left on the board. “That’s the hardest part of the show for me,” he says. “I cannot say to them – as a parent and as a husband and, first and foremost, as a human being – [what to do]. When you say you’re in debt and you don’t know where your future is, how do you turn down a quarter of a million dollars?” Mandel adds, “Nobody’s more surprised than the creator of the show, who created it in Holland. He comes in to watch the Americans, because he says the Americans, more than any other country, are the biggest gamblers.” Contestants often learn the dangers of risk taking the hard way when their bank offers take a nosedive. For Mandel, Deal or No Deal has also taught him a lesson. “I will not say no to anything any more,” he tells me. “I learned that the good way. I would have hated to have passed and then see them go on and hire somebody else. I could not watch somebody else have this kind of success knowing that it was offered to me.” Although Deal or No Deal has put Mandel in the national spotlight, it is not the only source of his popularity. He also performs many live stand-up comedy dates every year and is famous for his “Hidden Howie” hidden-camera bits. “I like that I’m doing all the different venues,” Mandel says. “It keeps me busy. I never spend two days doing one thing. There’s always something different.” As for the future, Mandel says, “Hopefully ten years from now I’ll be as busy as I am today doing many different things.” |
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