Mocktails Or Messy

#43: From Breakdancing to Beekeeping: How a Event Entertainer Became a Global Success & Lives His Dream

Ryan Frankowski & Kelly Mizgorski Episode 43

Join Howard Mincone as he shares his incredible transformation from growing up in Pittsburgh’s steel city to making it in Hollywood. In this lively conversation, Howard reveals how he navigated his thick Pittsburgh accent, his unexpected path to beekeeping, and how these buzzing creatures became a source of healing—especially for veterans with PTSD. Along the way, he shares hilarious stories from his journey, including skateboarding, breakdancing, and performing on stage.

Tune in for a mix of Pittsburgh history, personal growth, and a lot of laughs. You won’t want to miss this inspiring and heartfelt episode!

#HowardMincone #PittsburghStories #Beekeeping #ComedyAndInspiration #HollywoodJourney #LifeLessons






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Speaker 1:

You were like running out and we thought you were leaving us. What were you doing?

Speaker 2:

You little funny honeybee.

Speaker 3:

How did you meet her? She was slumming. God gives everybody a gift. This is the gift I'm pretty confident that he gave me. Fuck yeah. One way I cheated, he did cheat.

Speaker 2:

I cheated Not on his wife, exactly Kind of like charming.

Speaker 3:

These can be moody and they can change that mood because they're females, oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

I understand that.

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

I understand that she's never been like that. Right, I'm four foot eleven.

Speaker 3:

You know you had Jonas Salk. He has saved billions of lives. Wait, who is he now? That guy ought to be famous, jonas Salk, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Wait, who is he now? So?

Speaker 3:

many jokes, jonas Salk. Yeah, I'm myself sitting in my apartment at one point going I have $23 to my name, there's nothing I can sell in my apartment that is going to get me money. Not at all Nothing. Okay, lord, how's this going to happen? So here's my 30 second miracle story.

Speaker 1:

How do you know all this Do?

Speaker 2:

you see these gray hairs?

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the studio.

Speaker 1:

We have today.

Speaker 2:

Howard.

Speaker 1:

Minkone, welcome to Mocktails. Are Messy, not Howie? Don't get it confused, right.

Speaker 2:

Because I said that to you on set the other day of the Golf Galaxy commercial.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I don't get bent about it. Some people call me Howie, it's fine, I just it doesn't fit.

Speaker 2:

No, and not that there's anything wrong with Howie, but you are a Howard Kind of sort of.

Speaker 3:

See, now, if you're from Pittsburgh or I grew up in the South Hills they pronounce it. They spell it as H-I-R-E-D.

Speaker 1:

H-I-R-E-D Hard. Oh, that would be how they would pronounce it Bill. Carr, that's the Pittsburgh accent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Kind of sort of.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, okay, so we live in Pittsburgh. I mean, for God's sakes, you know you had Jonas Salk. That guy ought to be famous. But you ask anybody on the street who Jonas Salk is and they're like I got nothing. And you're like wait, do you understand? He has saved millions of lives. Wait, who is he though, jonas Salk?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she's young.

Speaker 3:

The polio vaccine here in Pittsburgh, oh, okay. And prior to like the 1960s, polio was taking people's lives. It was crippling children by the millions. I didn't know that happened in Pittsburgh. He invented the polio vaccine See we're learning. He didn't get a patent intentionally, oh my gosh, because he tested it out on his own on he and his own family he did that confident he should be famous. Yes, look what he's done. Yes, he should be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, transplants were invented here in pittsburgh you're kidding pittsburgh yeah, you don't have like as strong of a yinzer accent is that because? You went to university somewhere else.

Speaker 3:

I grew up in Clareton. Yeah, and Clareton does not have that Pittsburgh ease.

Speaker 1:

Is that in the?

Speaker 3:

country Clare-yon. Clare-yon is.

Speaker 2:

Northern. Oh, I got confused when you told me that. First time I thought you said Clareton. Well, Clareton, Clareton.

Speaker 3:

South Clareton, clareton, south Hills, south Hills.

Speaker 2:

On the Monongahela River. Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 1:

On the.

Speaker 3:

Monongahela River. So here's one of the things it's known for. Did you ever see the movie the Deer Hunter?

Speaker 2:

I've definitely heard of it.

Speaker 3:

So the Deer Hunter was about guys working in the Clareton Coke Works. Robert De Niro and all those guys came to Clareton and actually went bar to bar to bar to bar learning what it's like to be a mill guy in Clareton fitting for Pittsburgh. Yeah, and I know people that actually like worked in the mills and showed up at work, because a lot of the guys would either go to the bar before or after, yeah, and they were like there's these guys and they're buying everybody drinks and they were like oh yeah, right, and there's some kind of these famous guys and they're like, oh yeah, right, no no, that's who it was, they were in town, so that's where I grew up oh, my god, and you know a little bit about the south hills versus the north hills.

Speaker 2:

You explained to me like the south park was like a hot spot to pick up ladies. No, it was a place to cruise. Uh well, cruise means checking out the kitty. Oh, you were checking out women, or maybe not kitty, guys and girls. So many jokes too much, it's a little hard to follow but so back up real quick.

Speaker 3:

So I learned, I got rid of and worked really hard not to have a strong pittsburgh accent. Oh, because I found that getting in the entertainment business or having that desire to be in the business, um, if I had a strong pittsburgh, pittsburgh it would. It would create a problem. But if I could yeah, if I could develop a a very generic dialect, then people would sit there and go. I'm not exactly sure where he's from.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, good, the pittsburgh accent is a little offsetting to people that aren't from here, I think and it's definitely, it's not. Like you know, southern accents are kind of like charming oh, oh yeah, but the Pittsburgh accent it's a little rough, it's rough.

Speaker 2:

It's a little like.

Speaker 3:

My wife is from Youngstown. You go to Youngstown and speak Pittsburghese, man, They'll look at you like go back across the board. We don't like you. We don't fucks with that you know, no no.

Speaker 2:

No, not a idea.

Speaker 1:

So you two met on set.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you were doing a, it's 5 o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 3:

Oh my god, 5 o'clock in the morning at Akron, ohio.

Speaker 2:

We both had to travel what? Two hours One way, well, I cheated.

Speaker 3:

He did cheat. I cheated, not on his wife. No, absolutely not. My mother-in-law and her husband live in Ohio. Yes, so when I got to call time at 5 am I was like oh why? So I messaged them and they were like absolutely, Come, crash here. So I crashed at their house, so I only had a one hour drive to work.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and you notice a lot of people like if they get those like really early call times that are like a couple hours away, they'll get a hotel. But I'm sure for you I'm just kind of like I'm at that point where I'm like just trying to be like strategic with it, like I'm not gonna be getting a hotel unless it's, like you know, a couple thousand dollar commercial you are living. Our dream is to be an entertainer in pittsburgh or locally to be, like you know, an entertainer music um.

Speaker 2:

We kept saying musician magician rightician.

Speaker 1:

Right, You're a magician.

Speaker 3:

You have many titles, so I started out when I was in my teens, riding skateboard.

Speaker 1:

Very physical.

Speaker 3:

He was a skater boy, big time, big time oh shit, hardcore skateboarder, you're getting Kelly excited. What's your boyfriend's husband's name?

Speaker 1:

Ryan.

Speaker 3:

Congratulations, ryan, he he's gonna get lucky tonight so from that, a couple of guys I used to skateboard with got into break dancing. When break dancing first hit and I'm like, oh, this is really cool. Well, what is break dancing? Gymnastics, martial arts, formal dance like ballet and and tap and all this other stuff mime movement, boxing, fencing there's all these disciplines that keep coming in and out of break dancing. Got into doing that, started doing that, ended up with an eight-man um dance crew out of clareton and we started doing. We had eight, we had four guys under 21, four guys over, so the four guys over would go to different nightclubs and we would actually go walk in and they were like, oh, you guys are here, can you guys do a set? Well, let's see what we got here.

Speaker 3:

It's really cool and we would start doing we would walk into places that were velvet, roped waiting lines and all this other stuff. They were like oh, oh, you guys are here, can you guys? Yep. And we would go in and do like a three-minute presentation and end up getting a couple rounds of drinks bought for us and stuff like that. And if we did high schools or festivals or whatever, then we bring the whole eight-man crew, because then we had the guys under 21 from that. Somebody came to me and said you want to learn mime and movement? You need to talk to this guy. Well, here's where it gets really fun. Out in Monroeville used to be a place called the Holiday House. The Holiday House was the top shelf entertainment place between New York and Chicago.

Speaker 2:

Woo Damn. Can we go to a Holiday House? Is it still?

Speaker 3:

there. Long gone, oh shit, long gone, see. So you heard about the guy that took a tumble the other night in Greensburg yes, I did not.

Speaker 3:

Jay Leno slipped and fell got bruised up and yet still did the gig. Jay Leno used to perform at the Holiday House. When Jay Leno was at the Holiday House, he'd get a phone call you need to go to Vegas. You need to open for somebody. And he said I can't. I got to do the rest of the week at the holiday house. I said no, you're not Get a cab. Get to Pittsburgh's airport, you're going to Vegas. He says why, who am I working for? He said you're opening for Sinatra.

Speaker 2:

Damn that sinatra. Damn right, that's fucking sick like that.

Speaker 3:

Just gave me the chills a little bit harry anderson who was judge harold t stone on the tv show night court the temptations the jerry vale, all these people? Performed at the holiday house right right, right, right exactly, so I get a gig working in the comedy club downstairs as a mind. Okay, so wait, downstairs, upstairs. There was a nightclub. Upstairs. Okay, there was a huge showroom that was like a Las Vegas-looking showroom.

Speaker 2:

That is so crazy. In Monroeville it was a hotel. I bet you Jackie knows about this. Oh it was.

Speaker 3:

It was a hotel, uh-huh, with a indoor outdoor pool, a dry cleaners, a shoeshine man, a dry cleaner in the building, because if you were staying there for several days, true you didn't have to take your stuff to the dry cleaner out the road.

Speaker 1:

You called room service and they took your stuff downstairs to the dry cleaner that's the place and did the thing but that's where I started.

Speaker 3:

That was like my first major gig. Now, the whole time I'm doing this, I'm working at a as a bag bagger, stock boy in a grocery store giant niggle can you show us some mime move, wait, mime mime, mime can you show us like a couple moves. Here's the easiest one.

Speaker 1:

Is that called a worm?

Speaker 3:

It's kind of like a wave.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, okay. Yeah, I can't do that. Can you take it that way?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, or you take it that way, that's pretty Whoa Ooh. That is kind of wild to watch on the.

Speaker 2:

TV and see it in person so it goes that way yeah, okay, that was good thank you thank you for giving a little taste. Oh no worries, so real quick so real quick.

Speaker 3:

So I go from that. I'm working at a grocery store. I get a job. No, a little private grocery store chain in Clareton there was three stores, little tiny stores.

Speaker 3:

From that I end up as a sales guy at Nestle Foods. I'm a sales guy at Nestle Foods. I'm a sales guy company cards driving all around central Pennsylvania selling chocolate Okay, fancy. The company consolidates. After I'm there four years and I'm out of a job the whole time, though I'm getting a gig, maybe once a month, once every two months, to perform here, to perform there. I get laid off and the next thing, you know, my phone starts stirring. Hey, we hear you do this, mind movement, juggling stuff. Can you come here, can you come there? Sure, so now I have been trained to sell a product by the number one food producing company in the world. Highly trained to sell a product, and I'm to believe it. What am I selling me? What am I selling me? And the next thing, you know, it took off and it was all you.

Speaker 1:

Well, no, you had your hand in it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so this is what I told you the other morning. God gives everybody a gift. This is the gift I'm pretty confident that he gave me. Yeah, fuck, yeah. But it has taken me places. I have never, ever imagined getting to go. I've gotten to do stuff I've never, never imagined getting to do so we're talking like asia so I've done.

Speaker 3:

I've been to china twice. I was there once in 2007 for a week. I was there again in 2017 for two months. Oh my god, I toured 30 cities in china for two months I'm sure your kids missed you yeah yeah, my kids missed my kids miss me, my wife and I.

Speaker 3:

That was, that was rough that was rough because it hit me Um, rachel and I got married in 2014. So this is only a couple of years after we get married and I get this call and they're like can you do two months? And I went well, you're going to have to give me some time. We have to talk about my wife and I have to talk about this. We talked about it, we prayed about it and she said you have to do this. You have to do this Supportive woman. How did you meet her? She was slumming. No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2:

I was like what, Wait, what is slumming? Because I love that word. I feel like, is it like a slumlord?

Speaker 3:

Or is that like a hobo, Like what is a slumlord?

Speaker 2:

You can't even say hobo anymore.

Speaker 3:

That's politically incorrect oh please, what is slumming? Oh please, there's a clown. There's a type of clown known as a hobo clown.

Speaker 2:

Get out of here, man, wait, wait. You got to tell us what's slumming.

Speaker 3:

So I tease my wife about this all the time so as you and I talked briefly the other morning.

Speaker 2:

I was Thank God we did. Oh my gosh, this is so cool Because you are bringing me all the right vibes. Seriously, thank you.

Speaker 3:

So I was married twice before. I was married twice before Highly highly dysfunctional marriages.

Speaker 2:

Really bad the beginnings.

Speaker 3:

Two of them no.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so you're on round three. Yes, oh great. This is my third marriage, third time's the charm, you better believe it.

Speaker 3:

And to quote an old NFL friend of mine, he said I far outkicked my coverage.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

Good thing, good thing. Oh yeah, good thing, good thing yeah.

Speaker 2:

So um, and your kids, like the the third, oh they, I wouldn't have married her I wouldn't have dated her if they didn't.

Speaker 3:

Oh good, because I that's a good dad for several months before I said, hey, I've been dating this girl and they were like, oh, thank god, we didn't think you were dating and I'm like, well, I'm not gonna tell you, I'm dating somebody because I don't want you to get attached they.

Speaker 1:

They love you, they wanted you to be happy. That's special. That's what happened the second time.

Speaker 3:

My children are to my first marriage and, um, I got married after that and it was extremely bad. I was only married for a year and it really put them through a lot because they were like, okay, we got to know her kids, we got to know, you know, this was a new life and all of a sudden, within a year, it blows apart. Not healthy, not good at all. So when I met Rachel and went out with her and really really saw that this was going to go that direction, I sat down with my daughters, who at this point were significantly older, and I said, okay, look, we need to talk about this, and were like you're dating somebody. I said, yeah, they were like, oh, thank god, dad, we didn't think you were dating anybody.

Speaker 2:

I said yeah, they do they're, they're amazing.

Speaker 3:

After everything they've gone through, they both have done phenomenal they both have married, which?

Speaker 2:

I love it. Yeah, I have two daughters.

Speaker 3:

Yes, um 27 and 30. One lives here in the Pittsburgh area, the other one lives in Florida. They both have married. Phenomenal, phenomenal guys.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing, and they both have dated idiots in the past.

Speaker 3:

And then they marry these guys and you go whoa that's cool.

Speaker 1:

You've got a good place to go vacation to in Florida when you visit your daughter, yeah.

Speaker 2:

My job as a father is to teach my kids how to fly I like it her husband's a pilot not in that sense it's a metaphor but it is, it is okay. I didn't know, I was no, but if you look, if you look at an eagle, an eagle's job is to raise the young to teach them how to fly.

Speaker 1:

They can spread their wings now and they can go.

Speaker 3:

Yes, okay, that makes sense, and I've taught my kids the whole time it is a really, really big world. Yeah, yeah, go do, go see what you love, go see, go explore the whole world, because there's people that live in a community and they look at that community and they say, well, there's a bank and there's a post office and there's a grocery store and we have no reason to leave. We've talked about this before.

Speaker 2:

Like we were gone for 10 years and we're so happy to reconnect with family and like we love that we experienced outside of the Berg. But I will say there was a part of me in like a one point in New York. I was like I don't want to leave Manhattan, like I have everything in here, like you know, within this, like five mile radius.

Speaker 3:

Right, and the pandemic made this worse.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this word wrong, so I apologize to anybody who listens who is of Japanese descent. I think it is referred to. The word is called Hikimoro and it is a um. It's a disorder where people don't leave their apartments. Oh, for months. So they will. When I was in china, my translator, um, spoke english, chinese, obviously chinese, but three or four different dialects in chinese. And then um English, obviously Chinese, but three or four different dialects in Chinese. And then she spoke English, so she was my translator. I was the only English-speaking person on the tour. Everybody else was from Spain, so it was a crew from Spain and myself. He is a hugely famous European magician and I was the comedy act on the tour. She said I don't need to leave my apartment. I order groceries. They come here. I want to go on vacation turn the tv on.

Speaker 2:

There it is, oh gosh oh my god, that's not if I want to go to the grand canyon.

Speaker 3:

There it is.

Speaker 1:

There's the grand canyon I see their point, but that's not living. That's insane, yeah that's crazy.

Speaker 3:

she said no, you don't understand. My friends have to come get me out of my apartment every couple months because I have no reason to leave. But you understand this. Because of the pandemic and the paranoia that set in, there are people that are terrified to death to step outside because they believe what they hear, which is everything is a catastrophe, everything's bad, everything's disease ridden, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah outside, so they never leave.

Speaker 1:

I love that the Japanese have labeled this, because I don't know if we're aware of it in America. I know that it exists here.

Speaker 2:

Oh, sorry, I was trying to pronounce Hikimora.

Speaker 1:

It's okay.

Speaker 2:

We'll be focusing on a new word that you might find challenging or intriguing.

Speaker 3:

Oh, there we go.

Speaker 2:

So, without further ado, let's dive into today's word Hikikomori, which means Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you were really off, but you did good to describe reclusive individuals. Yep, reclusive individuals.

Speaker 2:

Hikikomori. Good enough, that was right.

Speaker 1:

You were better at that, and I've got to say, when we pulled up you were running out and we thought you were leaving us and come to find out what were you doing.

Speaker 2:

You little funny honeybee.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, man, so I brought you guys.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my God what.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so your shirt is your, that's your brand.

Speaker 3:

That's what I do. That's one of the other things that I do.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I thought it was just a. I love that.

Speaker 3:

So we were. We had friends over for dinner one night and we're sitting in the dining room eating dinner and one of my wife's friends- sweet as he is, Hold on.

Speaker 1:

why is it so dark?

Speaker 3:

it's really dark so that's fall honey that is. That is about as fresh as it's going to get. That's only been. I mean, the only way it's getting fresher literally is, if I took it out of the um, a hive box right now drink it right now.

Speaker 2:

Taste it. That looks so good, yeah, or?

Speaker 3:

stick your finger in there because it cleans it. Oh, it cleans itself, okay.

Speaker 2:

So honey is self-cleaning okay it's self-cleaning, that's no fucking joke no, I'm not just saying that how I'm a honey fan.

Speaker 1:

This is gonna cure all of our cool. We need to hear this story, though.

Speaker 3:

We had friends over for dinner one night and this was several years ago and they said you know you're doing this, you're starting with honeybees and all that. And they said what are you going to call your honey? And I said I don't know. And the wife looked over at me and she looks at my wife and she goes well, it's got to be funny, honey, you're a comic. And we all looked at each other and went yeah, that's it, that's what it's going to be. So my wife's best friend designed the logo for us.

Speaker 2:

That is so cool.

Speaker 3:

That's cute, do they have?

Speaker 2:

equity partnership.

Speaker 3:

No, Well they actually own the property where one of my apiaries is down in Bentleyville. They own a 20-acre farm Wow.

Speaker 1:

And in.

Speaker 3:

Bentleyville. They own a 20 acre farm Wow, and I have one of my yards is there and then my other one is up at Trax Farms.

Speaker 1:

Did you hear that beekeepers actually live longer? What do you think the reason for that is?

Speaker 2:

Happiness.

Speaker 3:

That's one, but there's also a lot of benefits to being around the bees. I've heard that there is a vibration that is extremely calming, one of the things they do right now is they are putting together veterans who suffer PTSD and they are giving them beehives and training them how to take care of beehives, because when they start getting really, really, really cranked up, go out in the bee yard.

Speaker 1:

Calms their soul. That's amazing, and it calms them down from the inside.

Speaker 3:

Wow, then all the benefits of honey. Yeah, now when you go to Costco or Walmart or whatever and you see these like gallon jugs of honey for like nothing, that's corn syrup. That's what I've heard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that's the real deal, and I heard it's better to drink to or to eat the honey that's local to you within 50 miles correct yeah what's that?

Speaker 3:

about, so it has all the local pollen from allergies normally affect you.

Speaker 1:

You know, if you get an over overwhelming amount of pollen, then your histamine system kicks in, your eyes water, your nose runs your cough and sneeze but if you're taking hits of this, now do you have like a suit suit, so I wear I wear a veil that kind of looks like a hoodie yeah so it's not a full bee suit.

Speaker 3:

I'm. I'm not that. The guys who mentored me, the guys who taught me beekeeping um, taught me and, and you just get to where you're like, I don't need all that stuff, so I'll go in a pair of, like long pants, um last year.

Speaker 1:

These are not aggressive by nature, right? Are they more docile? Okay, so if you upset them, they can.

Speaker 3:

So kelly, don't take this wrong. I have a beautiful wife and two daughters. These can be moody and they can change their mood because they're females.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, I understand that 98% of the hive.

Speaker 2:

She's never been like that. She's done tradition Right and I'm 4'11". How did?

Speaker 1:

you know, how did you know, how did you?

Speaker 3:

know you're going to get these gray hairs from all. You're not. So during the year, during the, the, the spring, spring, summer season, like 95 to 98 percent of the hive is female. The male's only job is to breed. That's it. The male does not breed with the queen from that hive.

Speaker 3:

Interesting she flies five miles away to breed and then comes back, and then all she does the rest of her life is lay eggs. Now what's really bizarre is from mid-March to mid-September, a bee will live four to six weeks. From mid-September to mid-March, a bee will live four to six months.

Speaker 3:

So interesting she lays a physiologically different bee now than she does in the summer. But yet a queen will live four to six I'm sorry, will live three to five years. Yeah, that's a long time. So going back to your question about benefits of beekeeping and longevity, the other thing is we get stung. We get stung all the time. What happens for a lot of beekeepers is your body builds up a tolerance to that sting to where it no longer responds yes. So when I get stung it's kind of like a carpenter getting a splinter or a florist getting a thorn. You just kind of pull the thing out and just do you think it helps your body's tolerance to other?

Speaker 2:

things.

Speaker 3:

Oh God, yes, I can imagine oh yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you just don't get sick like you used to.

Speaker 1:

I say that this is the first guest that we had, that we did not follow a script, we did not follow the questions. It was You're the first guest. All off the cuff it was all off the cuff.

Speaker 2:

Roll with it, man. I knew when I first met you. I said he's a goodie, thank you. You know and you know I want to share, you know, what is your like mantra with the audience. Can you give us some like insight on like you said this about, like having a passion and finding it and then really just double downing on it until you?

Speaker 3:

No. So my mantra, my thing, is this Like I said to you earlier, god gives everybody a gift. My walk of faith has gotten me through two really bad divorces. Yeah, it's gotten me through a lot of messy stuff in my life. That's what got me where I am. That's what got me two amazing daughters. That's what got me two amazing daughters. That's what got me an amazing wife.

Speaker 3:

Is I put my faith not in me, not in my skills, not in my talents, not in my brains. I have a faith in God. I really do and I have no reservations about that. That said, god gives everybody a gift and I'm not telling everybody, everybody. My job is not to sit here and convert somebody to believe in God. No, but you asked me the question of what's mine right? That's it. My job is is to you know, be honest and transparent about that.

Speaker 3:

And my, my experience has said to me God gives everybody a gift, follow it. It ain't about being famous, it ain't about being famous, it ain't about being rich. It is about following the gift that he gives you and saying, okay, I submit to something I don't quite understand, but I trust, and as soon as I started doing that, it's not a Damascus Road moment. It wasn't like I got hit by lightning and I'm on the ground going. I can't see. No, I stopped arguing. I just stopped arguing. I went all right, look, I can't see. No, I stopped arguing. I just stopped arguing. I went all right, look, I can't do this right, guide me, guide me, you direct me, I'll go.

Speaker 2:

And you just let it go.

Speaker 3:

Look, I get a phone call and somebody says hey, Howard, how would you like to go to China for two months? Really, Yep, really Yep. I meet a woman who for, if you put my resume next to her resume, absolutely no reason whatsoever Should she have ever gone out with me.

Speaker 2:

Well, I was going to say, like, how does it kind of like the last thing is like financially? How is it like to kind of be an entertainer and raise two daughters? I mean, do you have to have that supportive partner that's going to be able to hold down the floor? I didn't.

Speaker 3:

Right, I didn't at all. I found myself sitting in my apartment at one point, going I have $23 to my name. There's nothing I can sell in my apartment that is going to get me money. Not at all, nothing, zero. Okay, lord, how's this going to happen? So here's my, here's my, my 32nd miracle story.

Speaker 3:

Client calls me. This is in April of one year. In April, two clients call me. One is in Dubois, one is in a little village called Brookville which is on Interstate 80 just west. Okay, they want me to work in June. Their gigs are a week apart. Okay, I sent them a contract. It means nothing. They both sent payment in full in April and I went oh my gosh, what am I supposed to do with this? And I called my accountant and I said this gig isn't until June. He said, howard, this isn't about you. You have to cash the check. If you don't cash the check, you're going to mess their books up. This ain't about you. I have $23 into my name. I couldn't even go to church. I couldn't even go to church. I couldn't even drive to church because I couldn't afford to put gas in the car, because I was like I got to save my money because I got nothing. They sent me checks which landed on the same day. Paid in full for a gig in June.

Speaker 1:

Paid- in full for a gig in June. I've heard God works his gifts, his miracles in threes. Was there anything else that happened in that time?

Speaker 3:

I'm still here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Hey, hey, hey. But again, this isn't rubbing the vase or rubbing the lamp and getting your wishes. Yeah, because I've been through a lot of really bad stuff and people have said to me you've been through all this rough stuff, where's God in that? It took a while down the road to look back and went oh, there he was. It wasn't Again, you're not getting Robin Williams in a genie, I didn't worry about it.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you, howard, you are the best. We really appreciate you coming on Mocktails or Messy. This is awesome. This is wonderful.

Speaker 2:

I'm very blessed, thank you guys, the magician entertainer the mime. What else can we add to the long list of talents?

Speaker 3:

Howard.

Speaker 2:

It just has fun, thank you.

Speaker 3:

So this is Howard Minkow, and I've gotten to spend the wonderful afternoon with Mocktails or Messy with Kelly and Ryan. Tell your friends to listen, pass it on, man. This is cool stuff.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, Howard.

Speaker 3:

Thanks guys.

Speaker 2:

This is Ryan Frankofsky, and.

Speaker 1:

Kelly Mazgorski. Thank you for listening to Mocktails or Messy.

Speaker 2:

Ciao, Howard, Thank you guys, we'll see you soon on the Honey Farm.

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