Mandel to get key to city
Deadmau5 has one. So does “Survivor” winner Erika Casupanan. Just last month, Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret received his.
All are part of a rapidly growing list of recipients of the Niagara Falls key to the city.
The list adds another name Monday: iconic Canadian Howie Mandel, who will be in town for the “Canada’s Got Talent” live finale at Fallsview Casino Resort on Tuesday night. Mandel will accept the key from Mayor Jim Diodati at 4 p.m. during a private ceremony at an undisclosed location.
It continues a glut of key presentations made by Diodati in recent months.
In February, former resident Erika Casupanan was given the key after winning the 41st season of “Survivor.” The Saint Paul high school grad was the first Canadian to win the show in its 22-year history.
This was followed by retiring Buffalo Sabres announcer Rick Jeanneret receiving the key during the April 12 city council meeting. Jeanneret, born in St. Catharines but now living in Niagara Falls, was wrapping up a 51-year career.
Last Tuesday he handed out another key to the city, to retired Niagara Falls physician and medical journalist Dr. Ken Walker. The 98-year-old author assumed the name Dr. W. Gifford-jones for his writing career.
The Willowdale-born Mandel’s ties to the city are more sentimental. The prolific actor and game show host frequently performs at local theatres and casinos, at one point making annual Canada Day appearances at Fallsview Casino Resort’s Avalon Theatre.
In a 2006 interview with The Review, he said Niagara Falls was a popular hangout for him as a teenager.
“I would come to Niagara Falls any weekend that I could,” he said. “My girlfriend — who’s now my wife — and I would come down and just hang out. It’s a great area, it’s part of my childhood and it feels like home when I come there.”
Diodati said all the recent key presentations “are not by design, just by circumstance.” The city has a number of individually painted keys by local artists created five years ago, but the pandemic prevented any ceremonies the past two years. He said the city reached out to “Canada’s Got Talent” producers about giving a key to Mandel, “and I was thrilled he was open to it.”
“Everybody likes Howie,” Diodati said. “It was just a great excuse to match up the city everyone likes with the entertainer everybody likes.”