Mario Cantone -

By: Grant Hatchimonji

Actor and comedian Mario Cantone hosted a live promotional game show for eBay, "Let's Make a Daily Deal," in Times Square from June 22-24.

Contestants came in and attempted to guess the average eBay selling price of various items in order to win. Mario spoke with TheCelebrityCafe.com's Grant Hatchimonji about the new show and saving money by looking for bargains.

GH: What are your responsibilities as host?

MC: I'm hosting "Let's Make a Daily Deal" live in Times Square, and I did five sessions yesterday, five today and I'll do five tomorrow. The show is a bit of an homage to "Let's Make a Deal" as well as a hybrid of a few other game shows. So, 50 people come in and we give away great gifts!

Today I was joined by Monty Hall, the original host and creator of "Let's Make a Deal," for a few rounds. We had fun, we had a great time. People come in and wait, pick a number, and win. Also, the people at eBay have been really nice to work for and it's in my city; it's in New York, so it's in my back yard. So basically, yeah, I host this and have fun with the audience.

The whole thing has been really positive. The people from eBay treat you well, they're good people. They're savvy people, smart. I've had a great time. I would definitely work for eBay again. They used to have these eBay commercials that were like these big musical productions and I've been trying to convince them to bring them back. I'm like, "I want to do one!"

GH: What was it like working with Monty Hall?

MC: That was awesome. He's classic and so old school and smart. He knows his stuff. It was great talking to him in between shows about how he came to New York and how he was pounding the pavement trying to find a show. And this whole thing with "Let's Make a Deal," and how he created and owns it … that's a life-fulfilling dream. It's very lucrative, too. Always own something. "It's always important to own something," he told me that. I learned a lot from him.

Also, his daughter is Joanna Gleason and I know her very well and I adore her. He lives in L.A. and she's here, so this was the first time I ever met her father and we talked about [Joanna]. The audience loved him. They all wanted to give him a hug … nobody wanted to give me a hug. They all wanted to hug Monty, but that was expected. It's too bad he won't be here tomorrow. But tomorrow we're giving away a car, so that will be fun.

GH: What about this event intrigued you?

MC: It's in New York; it's dealing with audiences five times a day, which I'm used to doing coming from the world of stand-up. And I like eBay … it's so solid, and it's one of the oldest websites around. It's been around for years and it's a stable, great website. I've used it a few times, so [when I heard about this] I thought why not? Let's do it. And the way the folks from eBay approached me and asked me to do it has been very classy, so that's what attracted me to it.

GH: Is this event supposed to tap into peoples' concerns about saving money in today's economy?

MC: That's what eBay is all about. You can get anything on eBay from 20 to 90 percent off when you buy it online. Part of the game show is guessing the average eBay selling price [of certain items] and it could be hard because of the range. That's what we're making them aware of.

Online, there are three ways to do it: the daily deal, "Buy It Now," or auctioning. Auctioning is so thrilling, but it can make you nuts at the same time. When you're betting and bidding, that last minute is so filled with tension, and then finally you win and you're like "I kicked that guy's ass and I won!"

A while back there was this kid's show called "H.R. Pufnstuf," and they released 17 episodes of it on DVD, and I wanted to buy it for a friend. But it's been out of print and I couldn't find it. Eventually I found it online but it was like 200 bucks. In the end, I saved 50 bucks on it because I got it on eBay. I won … it's horrifying, but I won and I did it! People do it every day. Everyone's so familiar with the website cause it's been around for so long. They've all used it.

GH: So far, have any odd things happened at the show, any quirky stuff?

MC: Not really, it's all been pretty smooth. There's this thing called "Guess It and Get It" that we do before we start "Daily Deal" and today we called out four numbers and five people came up. So it took a few minutes and eventually they figured it out and kicked the person out. Well, not kicked him out, but he didn't compete in that round; it was just a misunderstanding. That's about it, really. With Monty here it was a lot of fun. The crowd just loved him.

GH: Did you ever do anything like this to save money before you got big?

MC: Well, I'll tell you: I may be … kind of well known, but I'm certainly not rich. So I love to save money, too. I still do. I did eBay just the other day. I always try to find the best prices on things. But if I want something—that's why I like "Buy It Now"—if I want something, I'll pay for it. I think everyone wants the best price, but if I can't, I can't. But I always looked for a good price, even before I made my way into this business. You've got to.

GH: Do you have any plans to do events like this in the future?

MC: Right now, no. But I'm doing the new "Sex and the City" movie and that starts in August. I'm also working on two Lifetime movies that are coming up, "Killer Hair" and "Hostile Makeover."

So, it's much more acting stuff than hosting stuff. But when I'm called to do stuff like this and it's in New York … I'm there. Even if it were in LA I'd do it if they flew me out there. I like it, it's fun. But I don't think I'd want to do a game show on television. I like acting and stand up comedy, that's always been my thing.

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