It may sound silly until it starts making sense. Howie Mandel doesn’t take a vacation unless it includes work. Most relevant for Honolulu, the 64-year-old stand-up comic/actor/author wouldn’t be here to celebrate New Year’s Eve if he weren’t doing at least one show here.

Mandel plays the Hawaii Theatre on Sunday.

“My two loves in life — place and thing — Number One I love stand-up comedy, and Number Two, a place I love is Hawaii,” Mandel said during a quick lunchtime phone call last week.

“Out of all the things I do, stand-up comedy is my one true real primal scream at the end of the day. It’s one place where I can just have fun. I’m not at the mercy of reciting lines, doing commercials (or) editing myself. I look at it as a giant party and I’m just trying to be the center of attention — and if I can do that in Hawaii. Are you kidding me? It’s amazing!”

COMEDY HAS been Mandel’s “primal scream” almost his entire life. He famously got kicked out of high school for calling a local construction company and placing what sounded like an official work order; the school administration didn’t think it was funny. By the time Mandel was in his early twenties he found his niche doing stand up in Toronto. A visit to Los Angeles got him a spot as a regular performer at the Comedy Store. His early break-through bit was putting a latex glove over his face, then breathing through his mouth and inflating it through his nose so that the fingers stood up like a rooster’s comb. It was crazy, and audiences loved it.

Mandel went from the stand up stage to straight acting in 1982 when he was cast as Dr. Wayne Fiscus in the NBC medical drama, “St. Elsewhere.” After that, in roughly chronological order, he recorded a comedy album (“Fits Like A Glove”) based on his latex glove stunt, starred opposite Amy Steel as a boy raised by wolves in “Walk Like A Man,” created the Emmy-nominated children’s series “Bobby’s World,” hosted the original American version of “Deal or No Deal,” presided as a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” and eventually become such an iconic figure that he made cameo appearances as himself on other people’s programs.

He published an autobiography, “Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me,” in 2009.

FOR ALL of Mandel’s demonstrated successes as an actor, writer, game show host and producer, nothing beats the thrill he gets doing stand-up.

“My shows are very interactive (and) the audience is a major part of it,” Mandel explained. “They’re not ‘just an audience,’ They interact act with me, and things happen with those interactions that have never happened before and will never happen again and I love that.“

“My analogy has always been thrill rides. I love thrill rides too. The higher they are, the faster they are, the scarier they are, the better it is. By the same token, after 40 years of being in this business I have a plethora of material to fall back on but the more I’m taken off the beaten path, the more unique and original the evening is. Because of a technical glitch, or somebody doing something in the audience, something happens that day that has never happened before and will never happen again, and I love that.”

There is, as long-time Mandel fans know, one thing that he does not love. In fact he absolutely will not do it. No joke.

Shaking hands.

Mandel describes it as “my hand-to-hand issue.”

“I’ll hug, and I’ll bump knuckles,” he elaborated. “You can hug me, you can hold me, just don’t shake my hand.”

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HOWIE MANDEL

>> Where: Hawaii Theatre

>> When: 8 p.m. Sunday

>> Cost: $75-$95

>> Info: hawaiitheatre.com or 528-0506