If you’re in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, why not swing by Yuk Yuk’s for a laugh? You might just catch the next Howie Mandel.
Before he was a Judge on America’s Got Talent or even the host of Deal or No Deal, Mandel was a massively popular stand-up comedian, and it all goes back to his days playing clubs in his native Canada, starting with Yuk Yuk’s. He got a blast from the past during the ninth night of Auditions for Season 20 of AGT when an up-and-coming comedian, Matt O’Brien, reminded him of those days.
For his Audition, O’Brien performed a hilarious set about being married amid a rough time for singletons, telling the story of accidentally cutting a woman off in traffic only for her to ask him out.
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“You are really, really good. You deserve to be here,” Mandel told O’Brien, who has been pursuing comedy for almost 20 years. Like Mandel, O’Brien is from Toronto, and Mandel immediately realized they got their starts at the same club.
“Your headshot’s on the wall! And here we are, I’m talking to the headshot,” quipped O’Brien. Maybe O’Brien will have his headshot on the wall someday soon?
Yuk Yuk’s is more than a comedy club
If you’re in Canada, chances are you’ve passed one of the club chain’s locations, as the business has certainly grown since Mandel’s days, becoming a franchise with outposts all over the country and multiple concurrently running tours. What began as an ad-hoc gathering in Toronto in 1976 is now an international business with 10 permanent clubs.
Mandel’s love of gloves gave him his big break
Mandel was there from the beginning, having gone up at an open mic night with no material prepared on a dare from his friends. He carried latex gloves with him due to his well-known mysophobia and improvised a bit with one that went over well enough that the owner invited him to come back and perform again, and from there, he became a regular.
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Within a couple years, he was flying to Los Angeles to perform in a showcase, where he caught the eye of a casting director, and his career took off when he was cast on the hospital drama St. Elsewhere.
