Atlanta-born comedian and writer Mandal, better known as The Mandal Man, is taking a decidedly unconventional approach to his debut comedy special.
Titled $$$$$$ (pronounced “dollar sign”), the half-hour release premieres October 25 on YouTube and blends his charmingly offbeat storytelling with the look and feel of late-’70s and early-’80s television, drawing inspiration from comedy legends like Redd Foxx and Nipsey Russell, as well as musical icons James Brown and George Clinton. Co-produced by Donald Glover’s media company Gilga and Bay Area comedy powerhouse Blonde Medicine, the special is a VHS-shot throwback to an era when stand-up could feel like an entire television event.
But Mandal isn’t stopping with the special. On October 25, he’ll host The “$$$$$$” Call-A-Thon, a 12-hour livestream leading up to the 9 p.m. EST premiere, with the ambitious goal of securing one million pledged views. Featuring an increasingly chaotic mix of entertainment, including a Monopoly game with Atlanta legends Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, a live game show, and a Yeek dance tournament, the event turns a comedy release into a retro-TV spectacle of its own.
A comedian who prefers to follow his instincts rather than force his ideas into a straight line, Mandal embraces the unpredictable nature of his creative process. The former Atlanta resident, now based in Los Angeles, has appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central, Don’t Tell Comedy and Netflix Is a Joke, and was named one of Vulture’s Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2024. He’s also toured with John Mulaney and Josh Johnson.
In our conversation, Mandal opens up about the inspiration behind $$$$$$, his fascination with old-school television, the financial struggles that shaped the special’s title, and why the best creative strategy is sometimes to ride the dragon and see where it takes you.
You’ve described $$$$$$ as, “your beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy of yourself in another universe”. What does that version of Mandal look like, and how does this special bring him to life?
That’s hilarious. That’s funny, because I forgot why I said that, but I did say that somewhere. But yeah, I’ve always been inspired by James Brown and George Clinton and stuff like that. Like Redd Foxx and Nipsey Russell and the old-time shows. I feel like the era on this was a little bit more early ’80s, late ’70s, but I just kind of like that older aesthetic when you’re watching old specials, so I just tried to do my own version of that,
Your storytelling is very conversational, almost like you’re hanging out with your friends. How important is that sense of intimacy to your comedy and how do you create it on stage?
I think I’m just trying to conduct every set like I’m trying to just to have a good time. I wish I was a person who thought deeper about things and I was more in control of the whirlwind. But I’m really just at the mercy of whatever’s happening and I think if the crowd is responding to me being a maniac in that way, I perform that way.
The special explores different themes like friendship and getting older. How has your perspective on those subjects changed as you’ve gotten older, and how has that evolution found its way into your material?
I think that, you know, because I’m obese, I age faster the average man, so I’m already in my midlife crisis right now. And so, I think that as I get older, you start to get a little bit more rational and that brain gets developed and I start to realize, oh, I’m kind of doing some stuff incorrectly and doing some stuff correctly. I think I lost the question there, but yeah.
What made this the right time to release the special? Was there something you wanted to capture at this stage of your career that you wanted to immortalize?
That’s a good question. If I’m being honest, I finally had the money to do it, so I guess that could be a signifier based on the career led me up to the income. I so happened to have meet Gilga and Donald Glover at the same time and I think maybe those things came together. I’m probably releasing it around this time now because I open for a couple people. I open for Josh Johnson and John Mulaney and I think this was the time, and then next year I’m about to start building my own show, so I was like why not put something out right now?
Speaking of money, the title of the special is $$$$$$. What’s the story behind that title? Is it because you got the money to do this, or was there a different reason behind it?
Well, originally the whole set was supposed to be about the financial struggles I was having trying to pursue comedy, but I realized I wasn’t that great of a writer to write linear about one thing, so that idea fell apart, but I just kept the name.
You say you’re not a linear writer, so what is your comic writing process like?
I’m very ambiguous, man. I’m not the captain of…what’s the poem? I think it’s Invictus. But I’m not the master of my fate. I’m kind of going with the flow of whatever comes to me. I’m just riding the dragon. Sometimes the dragon steers me in the way I want to go, sometimes it steers me in the other way, but I just try to ride the dragon and be at the mercy of what comes from him.
Another thing that’s really unusual about this special is that the premiere has a Call-a-Thon. Where did that idea come from, and why did you want to make it part of this experience?
I feel like every time, I always watch those old call-a-thons or, like, you know, when you’re watching TV late at night, and then it’ll go from whatever TV show you were watching, like if you’re watching Nick at Nite, it goes from a TV show to a two-hour commercial. The ShamWow commercial would be on for three, four hours and I was just always entertained by that. I would sit up late at night and just watch those commercials and I always wanted to do that.
The goal for this is to reach one million pledged views for the premiere. How did you land on that target, and what does building an audience in such an unconventional way mean to you?
I think I just picked one million because, you know, that’s the mark that everybody puts desire on entertainment. Even though so much more numbers are, so much more numbers less than that are real numbers. But that’s what we put it on, so I had to put it on that. And then I think, like, trying to build in a unique way, I think I don’t have the I don’t have the commitment and the ability to be like, I’m going to post every day – and the realistic means towards for mobility. So, I have to rely on my creativity to create my own opportunity. So yeah, I would say that as well.
You mentioned Donald Glover, Gilga and Blind Medicine. What did they bring to the project and how did they help you realize your vision for the special?
Yeah, shout out Blind Medicine. They were cool. I spoke to Dominic from Blind Medicine, and he was super cool. I was telling him I was trying to do an old school thing, and they got the old school microphones and edited it to make it sound older. I thought that was fly. And then and then Gilga came in on the project, they do a lot of cool experimental projects, and they were on board to do this, which was cool, because we shot it on VHS cameras, so we couldn’t even really even sell it to anybody. It was just cool for them to be like super supportive of that.
How involved were you in shaping the visual language? Did you approach it like as a stand-up, or did you think it was like more like a television program with its own world and atmosphere?
I feel like, so me and the director, Khari Johnson, I brought him the idea of what I wanted to do, and I just kind of had the same idea. I kind of visualized it as almost as a legit television program from like maybe like the ’70s or something, where people had specials where they would do like sketches and stuff in it and I was really inspired by that. So, I was trying to build that within a little 30-minute timeframe. It’s almost like a block of something, you know?
Did you have any interest in doing sketch comedy? Is that something that you would ever want to do?
I wrote sketches and I’ve been in some. I think obviously that’s something I would want to venture in, but I really just be trying to maximize on the stand-up while I can, trying to get to the top of one thing then move to the next.
You are Atlanta born and you’re now based in LA. How did growing up in Atlanta shape your comedic voice, and what parts of that experience still show up in your work?
I think we have a unique sense of characters. I think Atlanta has a specific thing where it’s Southern, but it’s still a big metropolis city. We kind of have this unique thing where we have both of those cultures in one place, which is pretty rare, where I think in New York and LA, they are super metropolitan, super urban areas. My people are from LaGrange, Georgia, we’re not super country either. And so, I think it kind of give us a unique perspective where we can look at both sides. Like all of America can kind of be found in Atlanta. I think that kind of shaped my voice a little bit. I didn’t move to LA until like two years ago, so I was in Atlanta the whole time. I think Atlanta comedy shaped my voice a little bit. I think our crowds have more desire for entertainment than art, so you gotta slip your art in around giving them the thing that they paid for, and I think that makes all of us good.
As your career expands into bigger projects, how do you protect the creative freedom that allows you to embrace your own voice follow your instincts?
That’s a good question. I have no idea how a person does that. I think that when you’re in somebody else’s project, you are in their thing and you are a vessel for their vision, and so there are always going to be some compromise there. I think you’ve got to have good boundaries and hope for the best. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out the answer to that one.
What are you hoping that audiences take away from your special?
I actually hope people have a good time, really. I don’t really have a big message or nothing yet. I haven’t dug that deep into my psyche. But I hope people just go, “That was a good time.” I hope they enjoy it. I think folks worked really hard on it, folks spent a lot of money on it, and I think it returns with people having a good time watching it.
What is next for you after the special?
I have a pilot that I’m working on with Adult Swim, hopefully it gets picked up, called Lil Daddy. I’m still on tour with Josh Johnson, still on tour with John Mulaney. Starting my tour next year and that’s pretty much it right there.
$$$$$$ debuts on the Big Fun Network YouTube channel on October 25. You can pre-order the VHS release through Gilga. Mandal’s comedy album drops on November 20 and you can pre-order the vinyl here. Follow Mandal on Instagram and TikTok.
