It’s the evening of the season 10 finale of America’s Got Talent, and judge Howie Mandel is holed up in a hotel in New York City, being — in his words — “kind of a recluse.” 

Mandel, who hails from Willowdale, has been in and out of the Big Apple all summer filming the hit show, but he’s actually happier hanging out at home in Toronto with his family than strolling the streets of Manhattan.

“I was in North York last week and went to go see my mom,” says Mandel. “I fly in any chance I get. If I’m anywhere close to this side of the Mississippi, I go see my family.”

For a 40-year veteran of showbiz whose main gig has been standup comedy (not known for its wholesomeness or stability) Mandel is surprisingly family-oriented. He and his wife of 35 years have three children and a new granddaughter about whom Mandel crows. 

He’s also proud to announce that his mom will attend every one of his upcoming GTA standup shows this month. (His father was also a fixture in the audience until he passed away at age 60.) 

For Mandel, family support has been a mainstay throughout a career whose hallmark has been its unpredictability.

“From the first time I went on at Yuk Yuk’s, my family supported me wholeheartedly, which is unusual in my business,” he says. 

“I grew up in a household that had a sense of humour, so even my behaviour, which was not appreciated by authority, was appreciated at home. Though they tried to discipline me, I could see the smirk, and I loved getting a smile and a laugh from family members.” 

Authority figures certainly did not appreciate the prank that saw Mandel expelled from high school (he was also kicked out of a different school for throwing a chocolate bar in the pool): He hired a company to bid on an addition to the school library and watched with glee from his classroom window as his principal confronted contractors who were at work measuring the building.

“Getting in trouble was fun for me. I didn’t have an audience, but I remember being summoned to the office, and they asked, ‘Did you authorize somebody to put an addition on the school?’ and I went, ‘No, I’m much more responsible than that. I’m getting bids.’ ”

Mandel finally got his long-awaited audience at his aforementioned first night at Yuk Yuk’s — amateur night — and it set him on his meandering path through the TV and film landscape. 

His comedy led to acting gigs, most famously in the ’80s drama St. Elsewhere. 

He then created, produced and voiced characters for the successful animated series Bobby’s World. 

After that, it was onto game show hosting with Deal or No Deal, and now we find him in his fifth year as an AGT judge. 

Mandel himself isn’t quite sure where it’s all going (he can’t even confirm whether he’ll still be judging into season 11) or how he got here.

“I kind of take it as it comes and always have. The first time I walked onstage at Yuk Yuk’s, I had no idea it was going to be a career, and when that became a career and I moved to L.A. as a standup, I had no idea I was going to be an actor. And I got offered St. Elsewhere, but I had no idea I would end up on Sunday morning TV, and I had no idea I would be a game show host,” he says. 

“I know what I’m doing tonight. I know what I’m doing maybe a week from now and that’s about it.”

Mandel does have one plan on the horizon: to sustain his schedule of two to three hundred days of standup yearly. The skill that first got him noticed is his first love.

“Standup comedy is the one staple that I keep going,” he says. 

“Out of everything I’ve ever done in my career, that’s the one thing I never stop. It’s the only thing I do where I feel true to myself and feel true freedom. There are no marks to hit, there’s no lines to recite, there are no boundaries, there’s nothing I can’t do or say. I don’t have to throw to commercial. I don’t have to edit myself. That’s how I started, that’s what I continue to do, and that’s how I will finish.”

Today, though, Mandel is probably best known for his AGT work. Of his fellow judges (Howard Stern, Mel B. and Heidi Klum), he is the gentlest with contestants, a trait he attributes to being Canadian.

“I’m probably the last person to press an X. Maybe that’s my Canadianness,” he says. 

“I try really crazily hard even if something is terrible to put it in a really nice way. I know American Idol became as big as it was because of Simon being brutally honest, and this year we have people like Howard who can be brutally honest. I’m honest. I just can’t be brutal.”

His theory about Canadianness extends to the short-lived Canadian spinoff of AGT. 

“Canada’s very supportive of its own, and I think it was hard for any judges to be incredibly honest on CGT, in case it was construed as mean to local talent. We’re very polite and supportive in Canada, and I don’t know that our show is so polite in America. I love Canada for it … for exactly the reasons that Canada’s Got Talent didn’t work there.”

But it’s not just his Canadian niceness that makes Mandel an empathetic judge — it’s also the decades of performance he has behind him.

“We do the show at Radio City Music Hall where I’ve performed myself, and I know what it feels like to walk out onto that stage,” Mandel says. 

“I’m filled with fear from the moment someone says, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, Howie Mandel,’ but I’ve become comfortable with my discomfort.”