Howie Mandel has always been a figure that has brought joy to audience members, whether
it’s on the small screen, the stage, or in cinemas.
Despite this, it seems that the man’s life hasn’t been all that joyous, and it keeps
getting worse!
The popular comedian and game-show host suffer from numerous mental and physical health problems
that make it hard for him to have a good time, but he still tries his best.
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at how the tragedy of Howie Mandel just keeps getting
worse.
Howie Mandel Has an Insane Fear of Germs Television viewers familiar with the program
America’s Got Talent will likely be aware that Howie Mandel is a man who suffers from
a significant phobia of germs.
Whenever it comes time for him to shake someone’s hand on the program, the best he can manage
is a fist bump.
This is because Howie wants to keep skin contact with others to a minimum.
As one might imagine, this can be difficult for someone in the comedian’s position,
and it’s getting worse!
While most viewers will likely at least have a cursory familiarity with Howie Mandel’s
strange phobia, fewer know about the alleged incident that inspired the phobia.
Howie’s fear of germs goes by the name of “mysophobia”, and it isn’t all that
uncommon of a condition out in the real world.
The only thing is that the majority of people who are suffering from this extreme fear of
germs aren’t big-name celebrities!
Those looking to find the origin of Howie’s extreme mysophobia will need to go back to
the comedian’s childhood.
Howie’s mother had a similarly strong fear of germs, to the point where she wouldn’t
let family members touch young Howie’s crib without disinfecting it afterward.
This attitude from the future comedian’s mother may have set the stage for his own
mysophobia to form later on, but it was actually a more specific incident that Howie has come
to credit for causing his strange condition.
The Origin of Howie Mandel’s Mysophobia When Howie was still young, his family went
on a trip to Florida.
During this trip, things went terribly awry for the young boy.
He ended up getting eggs laid inside of him by a sandfly.
The boy could see the sandfly larva visibly growing under his skin, and it understandably
freaked him out a great deal!
The experience of having these larvae removed became equally traumatic, as doctors did their
best to remove the pests with a painful application of liquid nitrogen.
Even so, this application wasn’t enough to get rid of all of the sandfly larvae that
had been laid under Howie’s skin, so the future star’s mother had to continue attempting
to scrub them out for several days at home until they were finally all gone.
Despite the fact that being afraid of germs apparently ran in his family, Howie Mandel
credits this sandfly-larvae incident with causing him to develop mysophobia in his later
years.
It seems that Howie has never stopped feeling those bugs crawling under his skin, and this
is what he thinks about whenever it comes time for him to have contact with people.
Besides this traumatic incident with the sandfly larvae, Howie Mandel also had a fairly hard
time in school growing up.
Howie Was a Troublemaker in School Howie Mandel’s trouble in school didn’t
come as a result of the young boy’s latent mysophobia but instead came as a result of
his ADHD.
Howie always had a crazy sense of humor, and he exhibited this during his school years
to the point where he was always getting in trouble.
Howie hated paying attention in class and instead dedicated all of his time in the classroom
to make his peers laugh.
The future star’s antics led to him being kicked out of three separate high schools
over the course of his educational career.
According to Howie, the kind of things that he would get kicked out of school for would
be the same kind of things that he would get paid good money for upon his entrance into
the entertainment industry, including jokes and pranks.
Howie Mandel has recalled several pranks that he pulled during his childhood that ended
up catching the ire of the staff of whatever school he was attending at the time.
In one instance, Howie claims that he hired some contractors to put an additional wing
on his school’s library.
Another time, the comedian claims that he was in a swim class when he decided to throw
a candy bar into the pool.
Similar to the iconic scene from the classic comedy Caddyshack, Howie’s classmates then
freaked out thinking that someone had pooped in the pool!
However, Howie says that he came up with the prank before Caddyshack was even in theaters.
During his prank-filled high-school days, Howie Mandel had no tangible dreams of becoming
a star.
It wouldn’t be until many years later, after trying to make a living as a colorblind carpet
salesman, that Howie would finally find his calling as a stand-up comedian.
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Howie Was a Colorblind Carpet Salesman As a result of Howie Mandel not doing too
well in school, the best profession that the future star could find upon his high-school
graduation was that of a door-to-door carpet salesman.
This profession proved quite difficult for the young man, as Howie has actually always
been colorblind!
Of course, this made it so that Howie was essentially unable to keep track of which
carpet was which, but he claims that this wasn’t that big of a deal due to the predominantly
drab nature of house décor around the area in which he lived.
Howie is a rare Canadian comedian, having grown up in the area of Toronto.
According to Howie, most of the houses in Toronto were ugly, and it wouldn’t have
made much of a difference what color of carpet their residents had chosen.
The future star understandably didn’t see many prospects in the world of selling carpets,
so he was always keeping his eyes open for greater opportunities.
When numerous comedy clubs started opening up around Toronto, Howie got the idea to try
his hand at the art of stand-up comedy.
How Howie Got Into Stand-Up Comedy Howie had never thought about performing stand-up
comedy before, but, once he got the idea, he realized that he’d be a perfect fit for
it!
He had always had a great sense of humor and had always filled up rooms with laughter,
and he also always hated working with his hands.
The young man tried his luck during the amateur night and claims that the sparks flew immediately.
Howie was nervous, and he incorporated his nervousness into his act.
Those who only know the comedian from his more recent years on America’s Got Talent
will likely not be aware of just how strange and cutting-edge his stand-up comedy act was.
Howie came onto the comedy scene with a manic style, similar to Bobcat Goldthwait, which
utilized weird voices and movements.
Howie Moved from the Stage to the Screen Of course, Howie Mandel ended up finding quite
a bit of success as a comedian, and his success as a comedian gradually allowed him to work
his way into Hollywood.
In 1982, Howie began playing the character of Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the medical drama St.
Elsewhere, which also notably provided an early starring role for Denzel Washington.
Both Howie and Denzel stayed on the series for its entire run, which totaled 6 seasons
and 137 episodes.
Howie’s turn on St. Elsewhere proved that he had dramatic chops, but, in 1984, the comedian’s
propensity for making strange voices landed him a gig voicing the character of Gizmo in
the classic family-horror film Gremlins.
Howie would go on to use a very similar voice when voicing the titular character on the
hit animated kids’ show Bobby’s World.
In 1989, he received what is arguably his most iconic live-action role via the cult
classic film Little Monsters, though that role features the comedian buried under lots
of makeup.
In the 2000s, Howie Mandel became bigger than ever as the host of the popular game show
Deal or No Deal.
It was on this show that fans first got a taste of the mysophobia that had come to afflict
the star more strongly than ever since his stand-up comedy days.
This is where Howie’s iconic fist bump originated, as he refused to shake hands with any of the
show’s contestants even if they won a million dollars!
Howie Has Been Having a Tough Time Lately Howie moved from Deal or No Deal to America’s
Got Talent, on which program the comedian is still a host to this day.
This might change soon, however, as it seems that Howie’s numerous mental problems are
only getting worse as he gets older.
In addition, he’s also become afflicted with a few physical problems, including high
blood pressure.
Howie claims that he was diagnosed with high blood pressure in his 40s, and he takes prescription
statin drugs in order to keep his blood pressure under control.
In late 2021, the comedian had a scare where he passed out at a Starbucks, which he later
attributed to a mix of blood-pressure problems and excessive heat.
Howie thankfully recovered, but he went on to contract COVID-19 in April of 2022 while
attending the 2022 Kids’ Choice Awards.
On top of this, Howie has had to live through the death of several close friends over the
past year, including fellow comedians Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried, and Louie Anderson.
Losing these close friends has taught Howie the fragility of life, and it seems that we
may be seeing less of the comedian in coming years as he may be wanting to spend more time
in safe, close quarters.
Howie recovered from COVID-19, though the episode has made it so that the star isn’t
incredibly anxious to leave the house.
An incident that occurred in early May only added to Howie’s growing fear of public
life, as fellow comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked during a performance on stage by
a man with a knife.
Howie Mandel now claims that he’s afraid to get up on stage, which might greatly affect
his future.
Given all of the numerous problems that Howie Mandel suffers from, it’s a wonder that
the man has been able to find so much success in such a public field.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Howie Mandel tried to make a living
as a colorblind carpet salesman before being inspired to try out stand-up comedy and that
one of his first gigs in the entertainment industry saw him starring alongside Denzel
Washington in a medical drama?
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