Comedy Scene
Howie goes Hawaiian, for vacation and laughs

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Howie Mandel says he is cutting back on the number of performances he will do to spend more time with his children at home. Howie Mandel 7 p.m. today Monarch Room, Royal Hawaiian Hotel $35, $45 526-4400 Also: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Kauai Marriott. $27. 526-4400

You know the crazy out-of-town uncle you bust a gut laughing with as he recounts another year of stories, but who after a week you're glad to see go home so you can have your bathroom back? That's Howie.

And as with family, formalities are immediately dismissed in favor of really important subjects. For this writer, that's whether Mandel still gets mucho residuals for giving voice to cute and fuzzy lead mogwai Gizmo in the 1984 film "Gremlins" and its 1990 sequel.

"Yes ... absolutely," Mandel says. "Gizmo is near and dear to me. A lot of people don't know I did it because that suit and the makeup took hours to put on."

Had to lose some weight to get that part, huh?

"Well (I) did," says Mandel, kidding (actually, Gizmo was an animatronic puppet). "The sweat alone would just drain me. I was eight inches in that film. That impresses women, but nobody else."

Mandel wouldn't dish specifics about how good the mogwai has been to him financially compared with, say, playing Dr. Wayne Fiscus on NBC's "St. Elsewhere" or the animated series he created for FOX, "Bobby's World."

"They're all good," confirms Mandel. "But that's the beauty of television. Comedy doesn't really pay residuals, but you do television and film and there's always a reminder in the mailbox for years and years to come."

Mandel's main joy these days comes from being a near full-time dad to his three children, ages 9 to 17.

"I was doing up to 250 to 300 (dates) a year, but I'm not doing that much anymore," Mandel said. "I like to think of myself as needed at home, even though my wife told me to get out just 10 minutes ago. I was being annoying. But I do spend more time at home raising children."

And taking the entire Mandel brood to Hawai'i at least a couple of times a year.

"I'm pretty comfortable there and it's like coming home to me," Mandel said. "I do absolutely nothing. I'm sure there are a million things to do, but I love to do nothing."

Gee, get out of the hotel much?

"Sometimes," he says. "But wherever I go, I'll go there and do nothing."

Mandel asks about the continued popularity of Spam, which he sampled only once after having it described to him by a local waiter as the delicacy that it wasn't. A question is returned about how his meal of the multi-purpose meat was prepared. "I couldn't tell you how mine was prepared," says Mandel, sounding surprised that his inquisitor might be lining up on the side of the pink loaf.

"You don't bite into Spam and go, 'What'd you do, saute this?' Mandel laughs. "Do you eat poi?"

Um, Spam is pretty tasty.

"So that's a 'no,' right?" asks Mandel.