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on the comedian. Mandel says he's legal-
ly forbidden from mentioning their
names, but admits there's a zoo — "I
won't mention the city" — where he is
permanently banned. And his wife had
to take their children there without him.
The show is loosely based on the
comedian's life and his mishegas, includ-
ing his obsessive-compulsive disorder,
germ phobia and inability to shake
hands with strangers. This is a particular
problem on the road, where Mandel
performs 200 to 300 dates a year. He
carries a black light to check his hotel
room for germs, and going "to the bath-
room is a scene from the Cirque de
Soleil."
Mandel is obviously Jewish in the
program, and, in the premiere episode,
does a Holocaust benefit for a local
Jewish organization — just like one he
did in real life.
And just like in the real world, a rabbi
gives a long speech about the Holocaust
and death before introducing the come-
dian. Needless to say, that became "a
tough room, because there's no segue
from the Holocaust to comedy."
What didn't make the show is some-
thing else that happened that evening.
Mandel's assistant, Ritchie, a non-Jew,
runs into the room where Mandel is
waiting to go on to announce that
apparently there is an opening act.
That's kind of a show biz no-no. The
headliner is supposed to know who will
be on before him.
Worse, still, according to Ritchie, "It's
not a good act. There's just an old man
singing and cutting bread."
As Mandel explains it, in his assistant's
mind, "it was a very old Jewish
Gallagher."

Accident Of Fate

That Mandel, 49, is in show business at
all is an accident of fate. He didn't step
on a stage until he was in his early 20s.
"Growing up in a middle-class Jewish
family in Toronto, I was so far from
show business, so far from comedy."
He attended and was asked to leave
three different high schools, never grad-
uating. But with help from his family,
he got into the retail carpet business. He
was actually successful and was about to
pick up a line of novelty items from a
Los Angeles-based company. So he corn-
bined business and pleasure and visited
Tinseltown.
He stayed in a hotel near the Comedy
Store and went there on a Monday
evening. That's amateur night, when
anyone can sign up for some mic time.
He thought, "What a great opportunity
to make a fool of myself 3,000 miles

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from home." In Lana Turner fashion, he
was spotted by a talent scout who got
him an audition for a TV show called

Make Me Laugh.
From there, came appearances on the
Mery Griffin and Mike Douglas shows
and a call from Diana Ross, who wanted
Mandel to open for her.
"I was engaged to be married at the
time, and I said to my fiancee, 'This is
an opportunity. If things don't work out,
I can always sell.' And one thing led to
another, and now I have an article in a
Jewish publication. This is a dream
come true."

No Joke

Mandel was raised in a family that
"went to temple on the High Holidays.
When we didn't go to temple, there was
a deep feeling of guilt."
While he kids about it, Mandel takes
his faith seriously, even when on the
road. "When my father passed away and
I said Kaddish, it was in my contract
that they couldn't start the show before
sundown; and they had to find me a
minyan. That doesn't sound like much
except if you're doing a show in Iowa,
where it was six strangers and four
trees."
In Oklahoma, he claims he found his
minyan at a funeral. That wasn't the
worst of it. "In Oklahoma, they don't
know what herring is. They say, 'Take it,
you'll like it,' but that's not necessarily
true."
He's passed his beliefs on to his chil-
dren. "What I love about being a Jew is
the belief in a power greater than us and
that there is only one." He talks, also,
about the responsibility of Jews "to
make a difference in the world — not
just to get a plaque — and give
tzedakah without telling anyone."
He told his kids their bar and bat
mitzvahs "were not about getting
envelopes and were not about theme
parties. Now, if you go out in the world
and do something bad, I can't say, 'Oh,

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he's just a kid.'
'And if you do something great, well,
that's what you're supposed to do. And
that's also what I love about Judaism,
responsibility.
"I think our religion is about being
good and for all the right reasons. You're
not good because you don't want to go
to hell or you want to go to St. Peter's
gate, but for its own sake." ❑

Hidden Howie: Public Life of a
Private Nuisance debuts 11 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 18, on Bravo.

RESTAURANT

4222 Second St., Detroit

313-832-6464

1477 John R at Maple, Troy

Since 1948

248-588-6000

IN

8/18

2005

10 1 2390

39

