![]() ![]() So I knew of it, and I never been asked to do it. It was a year before I did the daytime talk show. I was a decade out of having done four or five movies, and I had done St. “I had already done maybe about ten cable specials by that time. He was, after all, “at that time fairly established as a comedian” (in what might win the award for the most self-deprecating description of all interviews in this series). After I mentioned to him that as a Child of the Eighties I’ve always admired that a stand-up comedian could be the voice behind Gizmo the Mogwai in 1984’s Gremlins, Howie put the rest of his decades of the eighties and nineties in context when the Florida Blue Key producers came calling. When Howie Mandel arrived in Gainesville in 1997 at age forty-two to be the headliner of “The World’s Largest Student-Run College Pep Rally,” he required no introduction. ![]() On the other end of the spectrum, Gator Growl featured comedians who were undisputed legends when they took the stage: Bob Hope, George Burns, Rodney Dangerfield, Dana Carvey and the now-disgraced Bill Cosby. Gator Growl’s bread-and-butter became inviting comedians when they were on the cusp of national stardom: look at Jerry Seinfeld in 1988, Dave Chappelle in 1998, Jim Gaffigan in 2006. One of my biggest aims of this Gator Growl comedian project is to give context about where each of these comedians was at in their careers the year when they took the stage. Author’s Introduction: ‘That’s Rock Star Stuff’ “Mandel, one of the busiest comedians today, is currently performing his ‘One Woman Show’ in 200 dates around the country.” Gator Growl producer Greier Pressly said the billboards were ordered to encourage excitement for Gator alumni and fans to attend the show. ![]() “What I like about 70,000 is that it’s so much more intimate than my regular 90,000.” - Howie Mandel A page 3 news story in the August 25, 1997, edition of The Independent Florida Alligator student newspaper announces that for the first time Gator Growl is being promoted with billboards along Interstate 75. Want to know what it was like to perform stand-up comedy in a packed college football stadium? Check out the Gator Growl Comedians Oral History Series. The Gator Growl pep rally at the University of Florida became a history of stand-up comedy unlike any other. ![]()
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