In Depth crew reflects on Howie Mandel and Graham's Southwest prank

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0:31This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. all right we're back for dp seth and 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 judges on agt 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.

1:24Yeah, a couple months out I knew that there was some pressure with this one. Luckily we dealt Howie as a good team and a good manager and we pushed about as hard as we could push ahead of AGT and I think we got good access. Did we get everything we wanted? No, but I think that you walked away 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.

1:59Just say it's wonderful to work with 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 to have direct interaction with Simon. But they told us to kindly F off, basically. 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 not get Simon. for AGT. What are you going to do? 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, that was one of the conversations was we're going to be with Howie right before he walks out, and then obviously we'll have to cut before the show.

2:59So I asked Howie, like, how far can I follow you? And he was like, just come until they tell you to stop. And then we followed him all the way to the desk, which I did not think we'd get that shot, but that was really cool. I was, I let you guys, I mean, when you guys were 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 should go. He's like, you know, so I walk out there, too. 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 really kind of wants us out there too to get the shot.

3:48And we got out right before they went live. It was a moment. And I'm glad I got the fist pump, which I was excited about. It was funny. I was cutting together the super tees and I was using sound ups from that moment. And the part I wanted to use, you just hear Graham in the background going, are we going to the desk? Are we going to the desk? And he 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 trailing y 'all. I didn't walk out, but I was watching. And I then quickly realized that I needed to meet you at the back or whatever.

4:17And 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. And I thought it was, I had to juke out of the way. It was one of those quick turns and try to go. And can you 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 yeah i think he would have been cool about it yeah he seems pretty chill yeah you would have gone to like entertainment chill probably i probably just would have kept running so this filming happened because we spent the afternoon with Jay Leno taping one and after that came out Howie reached out unsolicited saying he loved it and you know it's the coolest thing ever because Howie's obviously an icon it's selfishly kind of satisfying when somebody who you respect of course compliments our work and so I used that as an opportunity to It'd be like, hey, if you're ever interested, we'd love to do something with you too.

5:38And 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 AGT? I don't have a favorite. I have a part that stands out the most for me. We don't have to get into it. Oh, no. What? We can totally cut this. I know what you're going to say. First, this is not a funny topic. Oh, okay. you know Howie's grandson has leukemia and they had not talked about it before and I wasn't going to blindside Howie and his podcast co-host who's his daughter whose son it is I wasn't going to blindside them by asking them about it without their permission because that'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 their lives and I think there's positivity that comes out of that because you raise awareness and 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.

6:58Everybody. The whole crew kind of was. Yeah. I mean, it was brutal. But 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, like the main interviews, if there is sensitive stuff, it's never the end of the interview. It always ends on something kind of lighthearted. So I knew that Graham was going to try to get something light, to something lighthearted. I didn't know that he didn't have anything planned to get to the lighthearted point. So it was just like a long time of Graham talking.

7:37Which I can't even talk to begin with. That's why my questions are so short. I don't know if I'd say talking. Graham making noise, hoping that the words would just fall out of his mouth to like the transition. And it was just this like 10 second. I think it was longer than that. 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 okay how do I get out of this how do I get out of this but he and the way he describes it to me in the airport you said I five seconds goes by ten seconds go by I'm still talking 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 absolutely you never want it to end on like Well, and plus, it would have been weird of you to like thinking of other things while they're talking to you about what they're talking about.

8:29It's so sensitive. But it was just, and again, that's not, the funny thing was just the like, oh, s***, I think it's something 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 will come up with something. So I just start talking. And to Seth's point, after five 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 Howie and his daughter looking at me. And then I know the crew is watching me. And then I know Howie's wife's in the room one over listening to me.

9:16And I just am talking, grasping for something, anything. and I have nothing. And then I think I just stopped with something that literally made no sense. You asked about what he's built. Do you like what you built here? And you're like, yeah. And then Howie, I think, knew what I was trying to do. Oh, it was bad. No, it was bad. It makes me uncomfortable just thinking about it. 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. I think it was a June bug or something, and it's not even June.

9:55This is a good interview. But anyway, this is what comes out like two cases. Anyway, we like to watch fly. Do you guys still crack each other up after 46 years of... Yes, yes, we do. Yeah, we laugh a lot. 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 intricate details of the story, and he's just adds so much flavor and color to everything, but then we have to condense it. So the clips will be stronger, I think, in that aspect. He's had a ton of business success independent of his media career.

10:37He bought up real estate around the Vegas airport. He owned gas stations where gambling companies were paying him $30 ,000 a month to put a slot machine in. I didn't know any of that. Yeah, he's great. I think my favorite part was we got to do a studio tour with Howie, 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, the proto-hologram, but the thing that I liked most about the tour is when we went into his podcast area, like his studio in there, where he rented 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 into his show, which led to a really cool moment that we used off the top in the show open.

11:30But 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 past, Graham Bensinger, who we love. In-depth with Graham Bensinger is doing an episode on 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. You follow everything you do, and you're doing great. I love you. Thank you, sir.

12:04Glad we could be here. Second, it was super cool that he was willing to do this. When I was in high school hosting a radio show and Billy was this Access Hollywood star host, he used to, just to be nice, make the time to call into the radio show. And then one time I was going to be in L.A. 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, he was like, he named off the show and started ripping off like your recent interviews that he had seen. So I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah, and really neat what Billy's doing now post-extra in building his own media company.

12:48And 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. 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 us a really big solid. Yeah, and you should maybe add some context. Howie is known for his pranks that he does on people. I don't know if that was in your mind. No. Okay, no. Also, no, Graham's prank was pretty weak. The stewardess are what made it funny, funny. I just, I always go back and talk to the flight attendants during the flights because I don't like sitting for that long, like standing and kind of shooting the shit.

13:36And I said to them, I'm like, you know, what would be funny is if we screw with one of our team 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 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's having trouble 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 intercom it turned on the lights for the late night flight to me it was kind of annoying because I was asleep and then I wake up and then I hear the flight attendant saying this is Mario he's the employee of the month and in my head I'm sleeping and I'm like there's two Marios on this flight what are the odds of that?

14:45That's my first thought and then I look up and I see Mario and I'm like oh Graham's f***ing with Mario 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 there was also like they had one point had said like um would you like to talk to the captain about it and Mario so like there's a whole nother layer 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't didn't make it and b that the pilot would get involved with it and be like, yeah, bring Mario in the cockpit.

15:25We need to talk to him about his baggage. And it became such a funny prank that we were talking about it over the three days, or the couple days we had with Howie, and he loved it. He saw the video and started giving Mario kind of crap about it. 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 turning all the lights on, announcing it to a packed plane and then has him walk down the aisle to a round of applause for being employee of the month. While wearing his Mario Super Mario fanny pack that we gave him for BTS. 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 hotel that night.

16:14For producer Brett and DP Seth, I am Graham. We will see.

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