Howie Mandel. Courtesy of NBC

Last week SI writer Richard Deitsch interviewed Howie Mandel [http://www.howiemandel.com/] for the magazine's Q&A. The 51-year-old actor and stand-up comic is the host of NBC's Deal or No Deal. Here are additional excerpts from their conversation:

SI: On the Canadian entertainment Web site BreakEh!'s list of the Top 100 Canadians, Don Cherry is ranked first, Wayne Gretzky is third, and Bobby Orr finished No. 12. You were No. 91. Too high or too low?

Mandel: Since what I do is not done on ice, I'm just happy to be in the Top 600.

SI: You can play anyone from sports in a film or a television movie. Whom do you choose, and why?

Mandel: I'm kind of a general sports fan rather than a fanatic. I don't know if there is a great story behind Wayne Gretzky or anyone who has dominated their sport. Someone like Gretzky, the fascination that I had with him was that you could be so dominant, you could own a sport. Not just be good or great at it, but no one has ever been better than you.

SI: I'd love to be in a pitch meeting where someone was pitching Howie Mandel as Wayne Gretzky.

Mandel: It will never happen. I don't think I will be asked to do any sport film (laughs).

SI: Did you enjoy lending your voice to the NHL's Stanley Cup ad campaign last year?

Mandel: One of the perks was that the Stanley Cup came to my house. What are the chances of a goofy, suburban Canadian boy holding the Stanley Cup in his home? That was the thrill of a lifetime.

SI: Did you take the Cup around the house?

Mandel: I held it, I hoisted it, I carried it around my house, and the gentleman who accompanied the Cup regaled me with some of the stories of the Cup. I then let go of the Cup, gave him back the Cup and washed my hands.

SI: You washed your hands?

Mandel: If you heard some of the Cup stories, you would have, too.

SI: Did you show the Cup to any family members?

Mandel: I walked into my daughter's room and said, 'Look, look, you are not going to believe this'. She said, What's that? A little girl who grew up in L.A, she knows nothing of our Canadian heritage.