Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, we're back for DP Seth, then producer.
Brett. I'm Graham.
We are back. We spent a couple days with
Howie Mandel. What were you stressing about on
this one, Brett? Oh, on this one, I think it was
the AGT access and getting enough, since you know how he's
known as being one of the judgeson AGT.
(00:20):
America's Got Talent, and we knew that we wanted to be there
for everything. And I was giving you a hard time
about it from like months out. Yeah, a couple months out.
I knew that there was some pressure with this one.
Luckily we dealt how he has a good team and a good manager and
we pushed about as hard as we could push ahead of AGT and I
(00:40):
think we we got good access. Did we get everything we wanted?
No, but I think that you walked away pretty, pretty happy.
I think we were trying for Simon.
He got Simon to peek his head out.
Say hello. Is Simon there?
Can he just yell out that it's wonderful to work with me?
I'm doing an interview. Just say it's wonderful to work
(01:05):
with Howie. Howie what?
It's amazing. To work.
With Howie. Oh, you didn't have to say that.
There you go. I positioned myself in the wrong
place at the end of AGT otherwise I would have been able
(01:25):
to have direct interaction with Simon.
But they told us to kindly F offbasically and we did not Not
Howie. Howie was game for whatever and
would gladly have made anything happen that we want and that he
was able to pull off but did notget Simon for AGT.
(01:47):
What are you gonna do? Was it, was it cool going out
there with him? Yeah.
It was really cool. There's been a handful of
moments like that on the show, but yeah, I, we, that was one of
the conversations. Was we're.
Going to be with Howie right before he walks out.
And then, you know, obviously we'll have to cut before the
show. So I asked Howie, like, how far
can I follow you? And he was like, just come till
they tell you to stop. And then we followed him all the
(02:09):
way to the desk, which I did notthink we'd get.
We'd get that shot. But that was really cool.
I was, I let you guys, I, I mean, I when you guys are going
out, I'm like, oh, I probably shouldn't go out here.
And then I happened to see how he's guy.
I'm like, I don't think I shouldgo.
He's like, yeah. So I, I walk out there too.
(02:30):
And then the AGT publicist, you can just tell is like to the Max
stressed because she knows we know we aren't supposed to be
out there and we know she's not supposed to let us out there.
But we also know that she reallykind of wants us out there too
to get the the shot. And we got out right before they
(02:53):
went live. It was it was a moment.
And I'm glad we got the I got the fish pump, which I was.
Funny, I was cutting together the Super tease and I was using
sound UPS from that moment and the part I wanted to use you to
hear grandma in the background going, are we going to the desk?
Are we going to the desk? It was like none of us know
where we're going. We're just all following Howie.
Are we going to the? Desk I was actually kind of
(03:13):
trailing y'all, I didn't walk out, but I I was watching and I
then quickly realized that I needed to like meet you at the
back or whatever. And so I turned around and as I
quickly turned around, I almost wiped out Simon like right,
because Simon was not out there with the rest, you know, and I
thought it was I had to Juke outof the way.
It was one of those like quick turns and try to go and Can you
(03:37):
imagine if I wiped out Simon like right, right as because he
was late, he should have been walking out with you guys.
It's funny, he even in commercial breaks, the very last
second would sit back down. I think he would have been cool
about it. Yeah.
He seems pretty chill. You would have gone to like
(04:00):
entertainment Chill. Probably.
I probably just would have kept running.
So this filming happened becausewe spent the afternoon with Jay
Leno taping 1, and after that came out, Howie reached out
unsolicited saying he loved it. And you know, it's the coolest
(04:20):
thing ever because Howie's obviously an icon.
It's selfishly kind of satisfying when somebody who you
respect complements our work. And so I used that as an
opportunity to be like, hey, youknow, if you're ever interested,
we'd love to do something with you too.
(04:42):
And he, to his credit, was just like, whatever you need, I'm
there. And it worked out.
Did you guys have a favorite part of the couple days outside
of a GT? I don't have AI have a part that
stands out the most for me. We don't have to get into it.
I. Don't know what?
I know what you're going to say first.
(05:03):
This is not. A topic.
You know how he's grandson has leukemia and they had not talked
about it before and I wasn't going to blind side how he and
his podcast Co host who's his daughter, whose son it is.
(05:23):
I wasn't going to blind side them by asking them about it
without their permission becausethat's private family matter.
And I only wanted to do it if they were comfortable with it.
And to their credit, they were willing to talk about the worst
moment in probably each of theirlives.
And I, I think there's positivity that comes out of
(05:46):
that because you raise awarenessand you know, people can't
identify with the Super rich celebrity, but they can't
identify with going through a tough time And daughter breaks
down during the interview, everybody.
Really. Yeah, I mean, it was brutal, but
(06:08):
then I'm like, I got to figure out how to end this on kind of a
positive note. That room was heavy.
It was a heavy, heavy moment. But then you know, Graham never
ends. Even in regular it, like the
main interviews, if there is sensitive stuff, it's never the
end of the interview. It always ends on something kind
of light hearted. So I knew that Graham was going
to try to get something light total to something light
(06:29):
hearted. I didn't know that he didn't
have anything planned to get to the light hearted point.
So it was just like a long time of Graham talking.
Which I can't even talk to beginwith.
That's why I would say I. Don't know why I'd say talking
Graham making noise, trying, hoping that the words would just
fall out of his mouth to like the transition and it was just
(06:52):
this like 10 second. I think it was longer than that.
It was. It felt like an hour.
It did because. I knew what he was doing, but it
was just like he was trying to get to like, OK, how do I get
out of this? How do I get out?
How do I get out of this? And when you, the way you
described it to me in the airport, you said I 5 seconds
goes by, 10 seconds go by. I'm still talking.
(07:13):
I don't know what I'm saying. Yeah, it was, it was bad.
I, you know, you just always want people to come away having
a positive experience with you, so you never want it to end on
like a. It would have been weird of you
to like thinking of other thingswhile they're talking to you
about what they're talking about.
It's so sensitive. But it was just.
(07:36):
And again, that's not if The funny thing was just the like,
oh, I think. It's really quick, Yeah, because
I realized when we were done talking about it, all of the
other topics I had planned I'd already asked about.
And then I'm like, oh, whatever.Like I I will come up with
something. So I just start talking.
(07:58):
And to Seth's point, after 5 seconds and then 10 seconds, I'm
hearing these words come out of my mouth.
I know I'm not making any sense.I see how he and his daughter
looking at me and then I know the crew is watching me.
And then I know how he's wife's in the room one over listening
(08:19):
to me and I just been talking grasping for something, anything
and I have nothing. And then I think I just stop
with something that literally made no sense.
You asked about his what he's built.
Do you? Like what you do?
You like what you built? Here, Yeah.
How he, I think, knew what I wastrying to do and it was bad.
(08:42):
No, it was bad. It was.
It makes me uncomfortable just thinking.
About yeah, I thought him and his wife that they're like
chemistry still after all these years.
Almost 50 years. They were like teenagers,
giggling teenagers. It was unbelievable.
So I think it was a June bug or something, and it's not even
June. This is a.
Good interview, but anyway this.Is what coming out of like?
(09:05):
2 cases. Anyway, we like to, we like to
watch. You guys still crack each other
up after 46 years of Yes we do. We laugh a lot.
Yeah, yeah, he's a great storyteller.
I wish we had more time for the episode because it's so hard
when you have somebody like Howie who tells you all these
(09:25):
intricate details of the story and he's just adds so much, you
know, flavor and color to everything.
But then we have to condense it,you know, it's it's so the clips
will be stronger, I think in that in that aspect, but.
Like he said, a ton of business success independent of his media
career. He bought up real estate around
the Vegas airport. He owned gas stations where
gambling companies were paying him 30 grand a month to put a
(09:48):
slot machine in. Like, I didn't know any of that.
Yeah. Yeah, he's great.
I think my favorite part was we got to do a studio tour with how
we and a part of that studio tour, we got to see a lot of
cool stuff. It was like, you know, the
hologram setup was awesome, thatproto hologram.
And but the thing that I liked most about the tour is when we
(10:10):
went into his podcast area, likehis studio in there where he
rents it out to Billy Bush as well.
And you know, Billy, I guess from the past and we walk in, he
sees you and he is live on his show and immediately tries to
kind of like incorporate what we're doing with Howie and to
his show, which led to a really cool moment that we used off the
(10:32):
top in the show open. But yeah, kind of talk about
that. First, I was floored Billy
recognized me. Now, Rachel, we have to take a
little acknowledgement. Steve, can you open up in the
control room and explain to me my landlord Howie Mandel is
walking around with an old face from my ask Graham Bensinger,
who we love in depth with GrahamBensinger is doing an episode on
(10:55):
Howie Mandel and it's happening right now and we're all filming
each other. This is correct.
We are. You did a great job with Jerry
Seinfeld, Graham. I love that interview.
Yeah. Follow everything you doing.
You're doing great. I love.
You thank you Sir. Glad we could be here.
Second, it was super cool that he was willing to everything.
When I was in high school hosting a radio show and Billy
(11:19):
was this Access Hollywood star host, he used to, just to be
nice, make the time to call intothe radio show.
And then one time I was going tobe in LA and he invited me as a
kid to just spend the day with him on set.
So it was awesome seeing him. Not only did he recognize you,
(11:39):
he was like, he named off the show and started ripping off
like your recent interviews thathe had seen.
So thought that was pretty cool,yeah.
And really neat what Billy's doing now, post extra in
building his own media company and I think he's going to have a
ton of success with that. My favorite part though of the
shoot and maybe we end here was Mario.
(12:02):
I think that is probably the highlight of all highlights.
A big shout out to Southwest Airlines, which is not our
sponsor, but they did, they did us.
They did us a really big solid. Yeah.
And you should maybe add some context how he is known for his
pranks that he does on people. I don't know if that was in your
(12:23):
mind when you did. OK, no.
Also no, Graham's prank was pretty weak.
The stewardesses are what like made it.
Funny. Funny.
Yeah. I just, I, I always go get back
and talk to the flight attendants during the flights
because I don't like sitting forthat long, like standing and
kind of shooting the, and I saidto them, I'm like, you know,
what would be funny is if we screw with one of our team
(12:47):
members, Mario, like, what should we say?
I'm like, well, why don't you just tell them the baggage
wasn't able to make the flight for, for whatever reason.
And so they do that, and then Mario asks to talk to them about
it at the front of the plane because he was having trouble
(13:08):
hearing them. And so the flight attendant
subsequently told me. That was when we realized, oh,
let's just really get him. So they escort him to the front
of the plane. Mario, I'm watching this go on,
is clearly like, weirded out. And then what happens?
Yeah, they got on the. The intercom and.
(13:29):
It turned on the lights for the late night flight.
To me, it was kind of annoying because I was like asleep.
And then I wake up and then I hear the flight attendant saying
like, this is Mario. He's the employee of the month.
And, and in my head I'm like sleeping.
And I'm like, there's two Marioson this flight.
What are the odds of that? That's like my first thought.
(13:50):
And then I look up and I see Mario.
And I was like, oh, Gram's Mario, Yeah.
It it was, it was typically I don't laugh that hard at your
pranks, but I was, I was laughing hard because also there
was a lady in the back that started a Mario, Mario.
It was also like they had one point it said like, would you
(14:12):
like to talk to the captain about it and Mario?
So, like, there's a whole notherlayer of comedy here where Mario
thought A, that the flight attendants would know what
luggage did and did not make it on the checked.
Like what checked luggage didn'tdidn't make it, and B, that the
pilot would get involved with itand be like, yeah, bring Mario
the cockpit. We need to talk to him about his
baggage. Well, and it became such a funny
(14:33):
prank that we were talking aboutit over the three days or the
couple days we had with Howie and he loved it.
Like he saw the video and started giving Mario kind of
crap and. Nobody likes being the center of
attention less than Mario, and they put the crown on him at the
front of the plane after turningall the lights on, announcing it
(14:54):
to a packed plane. And then has him walk down the
aisle to a round of applause forbeing employee of the month
while wearing dying. While wearing his Mario.
Super Mario Mario. Fanny pack that we gave him for.
And they gave him the little sticker, the little like captain
sticker, and he didn't realize he had it on until we got to the
(15:16):
hotel that night. For producer Brett and DP Seth,
I am Graham. We will see you next time.