Howie Mandel Mobs Again

I just finished watching Howie Mandel's TV show Mobbed. I know…it was aired last night, but I recorded it, and I'll be honest, I was riveted. I couldn't pull myself away from the program. It was like watching a car skidding out of control in slow motion, and you knew it would either crash into that 150 year old oak tree in front of it, or it was going to stop unscathed in dramatic fashion.

See, the show's premise is that someone contacts Howie's production company with something they want to reveal to someone else, and Howie gets a mob to help this person reach their goal with an over-the-top musical number with a cast of hundreds.

So this guy asks Howie to help him tell this girl he wants to take it to the next level in their relationship. See, the thing is, they don't really have a relationship. They've known each other five years, but have never met: phone calls, presumedly Skype, texting, email, and the like. But, Dude is head-over-heels in love with her, and wants to move across country so he can get to know her face-to-face. She, on the other hand, is signing up for dating services and says she likes tattooed bad-boys. The guy who loves her is an un-inked, good-boy. So, this has disaster written all over it. But, Howie and his producers do something that is ingenious. There's no doubt that these two have a connection, but I'm not so sure it's romantic on her end.

Yet, Howie's staff taps into the little romance that might be lingering. This "couple" share a hankering for the film Big Fish. And, there's a scene in it with a sea of daffodils and both the guy and the gal have shared that they love this scene and that they think it's romantic. So, a part of this production will be recreating that sea of daffodils with 300 people.

Her's the deal. I doon't think this young lady has been thinking that she wants to be with this guy for the last five years, as he has been thinkning about her, but when she sees this number, this production this over the top Hollywood display of romanticism, when she conencts this sea of daffodils with the romance in one of her favorite movies, she will be forced to associate this guy with the incredible romantic feelings she has when she watches Big Fish. This will usher her out of the real world and place her in the world of that film, a world where roamnce is perfect, and no matter how she felt aboutthis guy beforehand, with the music, dancing, the mob, the camera,s and the flowers, how will se be able to resist? Suddenly she will have become a character in a scene from romantic Hollywood film, and those characters always say, "yes" when the guy springs something like his on them.

You want to see what happens? Head over to Fox's websitea nd watch for yourself. But, I do want to tell you, that no matter what you think of someone you meet online, no matter how long you've chatted with them, Skyped them, exchanged pics, if that's the level you are going to keep the relationship, fine.

But, if you ever want to go to the next level where you actually spend time together in a shared physical space, don't make a committment until you have had plenty of time together. What you miss from real-life interaction is the way they eat, their gait wihen they walk, the smell of their deodorant (or lack thereof). Those litle nuances take you from a surface level relationship to one that is deeper.

I have people asking my advise all the time with regard to proposing to someone they have met online. If they plan to be married and keep their relationship electronic, go for it. But, if they plan on having a conventional wedding and marriage where they love together, they'll need a good 12 months of a connection away from technology before tehy even think about tying the knot, or even asking Howie Mandel to make a field of flowers out of people.