NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Lester Holt talks with comedian Sebastian Maniscalco

Episode Date: January 13, 2019

Sebastian Maniscalco has sold out shows at Madison Square Garden, written a best-selling memoir and performed specials on cable and Netflix. He talks to Lester Holt about his major influences – especially his dad

He's comedy's newest king. I like to do things that people are doing on a day to day. And almost nothing is off limits. From his family. I come from middle class upbringing. They never bought us a damn thing. They told us who had what we wanted in the neighborhood. I started talking about my father about six or seven years ago on stage,

and I noticed that people were really, really enjoying those stories. To the rigmarole of everyday life. Uber X, what is it? What is it? It's like hitchhiking with your phone. He's selling out arenas across the country, has a best-selling memoir, and specials queued up on cable and Netflix. So if you haven't heard the name Sebastian Maniscalco, get ready. Whether he's riffing on airport security or poking fun at his Italian-American roots. I didn't grow up with delivery people. I was the delivery person.

My father would order a pizza in January, right? 38 below outside. And he would tell me, go get the pizza. It's going to be ready in 30 minutes. I just ordered the pizza. I go, they got delivery. Why don't you just... I'm going to pay delivery when I got you. Go get the pizza.

Sebastian Maniscalco is the new king of comedy. I mean, what is the next level in comedy? You play rooms like this. I mean, what's the goal? What's the brass ring? The goal when I first moved out to L.A. was to do stand-up comedy for a living. I just wanted to go up, do what I love doing, and get paid for it. So when I came out here and I got passed at the

comedy store, I thought, wow, that's one step. That's a step closer to where I want to be. But I don't even know where this is going. I don't have a vision board where I'm writing stuff out. Next, I want to do a TV show. It just kind of happens. I never wanted to do Madison Square Garden. It just kind of happened. I never wanted to write a book. It just happened. So I don't have goals. I have a hard work ethic, and I have fear of failure. So that's how I operate. I operate on a fear-based mentality rather than, I come from a negative family. So when I got the garden, my father was like, well, four shows, you're going to be exhausted. So it's not like, you know, good job. It's always like the negative in everything.

So that's- I'm just picturing you sitting there with your kids saying, don't have goals. You don't need them. Well, I did. Yeah, for me, goals wasn't a big thing. Yeah. So, I mean, you are now. I mean, you're looking at the garden right now. I know it wasn't part of your long-term outlook. But, I mean, that says a lot about what you've done to this business and, you know, that you're one of the big names.

Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. My fan base is very family-oriented. I talk about my family a lot, observational humor, and it's all basically been stand-up. I don't really have a TV or film career to speak of where I was gaining a lot of fans through those mediums. It's been all stand-up comedy. It's doing a show and then going out and taking pictures with people,

meeting them, thanking them for coming to the show. That's how I treated it. When I was doing comedy clubs, I'm like, wow, these people actually spent money to come see me, maybe got a babysitter, bought the drinks. Least I could do is go out and thank them for coming to, I treated it like my home, like thanks for coming. I appreciate you coming.

You want a picture? Let's take a picture. And then, you know, come back a year later, those people would bring four other people. And it kind of just snowballed. So it was like word of mouth. And there's no slowing down. This month, the stand-up comic will take on Madison Square Garden for the first time with sold-out shows. On the heels of a best-selling

memoir, specials on cable and Netflix, and a top comedian award from Billboard. Uber X, what is that? What is it? It's like hitchhiking with your phone. god knows what's gonna pull up tonight to pick you up some guy in a ford festiva groceries in the back baby seat next to you with a baby. When people meet you on the street and they know who you are, do they expect you to be funny? I don't know. They think they should be funny for some reason. They always want to either tell a joke or try and be funny around me, which I never understood. It's like, you know, to your point, I'm not going to go up to Bono and start singing. So yeah, they want to be funny. But

they think that the comedian is always going to be kind of the center of attention at a party. Like people would invite me, oh, come on, let's go to the bar. I'd be hysterical. And to be honest with you, I'm more of a, I'm a shy guy. I'm not like a life at a party guy. I'm more of a laid back observation and I don't talk. I learned long ago that you really never learn anything about anybody if you keep talking. So I just shut up and listen. Well, I mean, that's part of the root of your act, this observational comedy, as you call it. Some people would say, you know, your act is really about your pet peeves. Is that a fair...

Yeah, it's my disdain and disgust for human behavior. No, you're not that mean. Well, it's impatience, you know. It's commentary on just little things in life. I don't know. I could go to the zoo and I'll have a problem with something at the zoo. Go to a party and somebody asked me to take my shoes off. I got upset in my head.

You know, like just little things like that where you might not think of it as a big deal. I make it such a big deal. And that's why I think people relate to it because it's so like taking something like that and making it a huge problem. And it hits our funny bone because watching your material, I'm thinking, yeah, that's happened. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, take away the laughter. It's like, yeah, that is kind of irritating. Yeah, it's a shared experience. You see it and you go, oh, man, I've done that or I've seen that. And then, you know, I've taken it and put my spin on it. And hopefully it comes out being funny.

Yeah. I mean, you've had the gift of some talented people around you. Mitzi Shore was, I mean, was a big part of your coming up. She was. She's the one who, you know, passed me here in 1999 and, you know, put me on this stage at 10 o'clock at night, which was the best spot you could possibly get. And then the next week, she put me up there at 1.30 when there was four people half passed out in the booth here. So you were learning to perform in front of a large

audience, and then you were also getting the skill sets to deal with an audience that maybe is not all there. Maybe they're drunk. Maybe they're not paying attention. And then you really, really kind of earn your keep on those late night sets where you've got to really, really work to get a laugh. Born and raised in Chicago, Maniscalco headed to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy in the 90s. He got his first big break here at the legendary Comedy Store. This, to me, is kind of like the mecca of stand-up comedy. It's where I started in 1998, and coming back here every night, it's wild.

I love it. It's like my gymnasium is where I try out all my new material. Are you still coming here? Oh, yeah. I'm coming tonight. And that's your name? My name, ironically enough, is on the bar where they take the thing off every night, so no one gets to see it during the night. You have to come during the day to see my name.

We'll get it for television. But, I mean, some of these names, Gabriel Kaplan, oh, my God, Richard Pryor, Freddie Prince, Red Fox, it's a who's who. Well, they all came through here, you know, all the guys back in the 70s and 80s, guys I grew up watching, you know, came through the comedy store. And when I came out here in 1998, I'm like, this is where I have to be. This is where I have to start.

By the way, this is my first walk and talk interview. I've never had a mobile interview before. You're doing it well. Now, what we try to do is gum at this point. So you'll walk, you'll talk, and you'll chew gum. It's a television news staple, the walk and talk. Do you remember what it was like the first time you walked in here? I mean, you're in the comic world, you're a nobody, right? At that point? Nobody. 1998, I actually took a comedy class here. Mitzi Shore's daughter, Sandy Shore, held a comedy class in the Belly Room, and that was my first kind of introduction to stand-up comedy here at the store. And at the end of the class, she did a main room

show where you could invite all your friends and family to come see you. So, yeah, this was my first time ever doing stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. Were you funny? This is the main room. This is the main room. This is the stage that I did my first set here at the Comedy Store. And it was so bad. I had staged somebody in the audience to have their phone ring during my set.

So then I walked off stage and I picked up the guy's phone and I brought it on stage. Trying to make it be spontaneous. Yeah, but I have the videotape of it. I watch it every now and then. It is so bad. I was like, what was I thinking? But as a young comedian, you're just trying to find your legs. You're trying to figure out what's your point of view. And that night that I did that, I was like, wow, it was like embarrassing to watch it. Did they laugh though? They didn't laugh. No. I mean, see right there, I would have quit. Well, you were telling me before that you had done some standup comedy

and you were really good with the material twice. And on the third time it died. You do this now all the time. So this must be nothing. But I'm trying to picture a brand-new comedian in the main room at the comedy store. You have the lights in your face, and all you want to do is make these people laugh. And what kind of pressure is that? Well, with the comedy store in particular,

the seats are so close to the stage. Yeah, I mean, literally you you could go up to the, to put your foot in somebody's lap, you know? So the intimacy of it all is frightening, in a sense, when you're a young comedian. But as you become more seasoned, this is kind of what you want. You want people close to you. You want them to feel what's going on.

And a lot of comedy is all about kind of real small movements uh although some of my movements could be large you could um you know in a comedy club this size you could you know it could be just a flick of the the hand or a or just lowering your voice and bringing the audience in uh so yeah there's there's a lot that goes into it, and you learn it as you do it. It was an education in comedy. This parking in L.A., by the time I get out of my car and read all the signs, I'm getting a ticket. While working as a waiter at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel, Maniscalco would race here on his breaks to do stand-up. So I love the story. You're a waiter over the four seasons.

About a five or 10 minute drive from here? Yeah, about. It took me about seven and a half minutes to get up here. So you would wait tables? I used to work in the Windows Lounge, waiting tables. And then I also had scheduled a set here at the Comedy Store during my shift because the outlook I took on it was I'm never going to miss a set.

I don't know who's in the audience. I don't know if I don't get up there, if I'm going to not work out a bit that's going to be good. I just always wanted to do comedy. So what I would do is I would leave my shift for my half-hour break. I would have another waiter go watch my section. One waiter was new at the time. He goes, we didn't watch your section. I said, well, I'm going to go on my break, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the comedy store and do a set. He goes, you could do that here? I go, no, I've kind of worked out with the management that they let me

leave, which is unheard of at the Four Seasons. It's a beautiful hotel. And to have their server going to do comedy in the midst of a full-blown dinner and then coming back and picking up the table like nothing happened was pretty a unique situation. You'd run in here and do a, how long, 20 minutes? 15 minutes set. So I had a time where, you know, it took me about 33 minutes. So it was about three minutes over my break time, but it took me 33 minutes. If I could time it out just right, I would be on the phone with the person behind the desk and I'd be like, what's going on? They're like, well, Eddie Griffin just got on on stage. And then I would call back, how long has he been on? Eight and a half minutes. You've got another seven and a half to get here. So I would time it just right. So I'd pull in, literally get out. They would be calling my name to the stage, get on stage, do my set, and go back and wait.

You really wanted this. Yeah, it was one of these things where I just thought that's what had to be done to get to the next level. And now that I look back at it, it's kind of nuts that I was leaving my job to do it, but I'm grateful for the four seasons for allowing me to do it. Matt Escalco uses every inch of the stage, delivering punchline after punchline, riffing about pet peeves and everyday life. Look around you. Everybody's just walking around. taking a photo of yourself they call it a selfie i can't even say the word without sweating i can't stand the word

i call it taking a lonely who do you like to to listen to i like uh brian regan's always been one of my favorite comedians I call it taking a lonely. Who do you like to listen to? I like Brian Regan's always been one of my favorite comedians. Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin growing up, Eddie Murphy, Don Rickles, Johnny Carson. We were talking about the silence. Johnny Carson always used to watch him do his monologue and you know just a just yeah just a little facial expression and you know what he was thinking and uh love to kind of relish in that silence so that's John Ritter who's not a stand-up comedian but he's a physical um physical comedic

actor really watched I watched Three's Company like it was game tape you know like every every episode I was like wow look, look at how he flipped off the hammock or whatever he was doing. But that's part of what you do. I mean, you work that stage. You work every inch of that stage, always in movement. And I look at some of your earlier stuff, you weren't that way. What made you adopt that? So at first, when you start doing stand-up, I don't think you are your true self up there. You're kind of peeling back the layers. And in daily life, I'm always kind of moving around, whether it be with my hands or a facial expression or what have you.

But maybe when you first start doing stand-up, you're not comfortable showing that side of you. You need to build to that place of just being you on stage. You know, you always hear, just be yourself. Every time I go on these interviews, my mother, be yourself. You know, I don't know how many times I've ever heard my mother say, be yourself. Because she'll watch these. She's going to watch this interview. It's a beautiful, beautiful interview.

You were so relaxed. And others, you know, what were beautiful interview. You were so relaxed and others, you know, what were you doing? You were sweating. You know, like my family will call me out on all the things I do. And my friends too, we like to kind of bust chops. It's the way we kind of- It's honesty. Yeah. I mean, that's how- Yeah. I mean, it's helpful because, you know, not everything you do is great. And it's good to hear the constructive criticism. Although my family is not so constructive.

It's pretty blatant and rude. What's been the highlight so far of your career? Every time I think I hit a highlight, there's another one that kind of follows it. I mean, when I did the comedies and cars with Jerry Seinfeld, I mean, there's a guy I, you know, watched growing up. You never imagined you'd be sitting in a car with Jerry Seinfeld. I mean, I never even knew that was a possibility. And here I am whipping around LA with a 1969 Camaro, talking to a guy that I first saw, I think, on a Jerry Lewis telethon in 1981. And here he is a fan of yours.

And yeah, and now he went to a show of mine and he's really enjoying what I'm doing. So, I mean, you know, things like that will happen. Or Madison Square Garden, I did a movie with Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci that's coming out next year called The Irishman. And I'm acting with, you know, Pesci and De Niro in the first scene, and I'm sweating inside thinking, God, I hope I don't get fired. So all these things, all these great things that are happening, they just, I'm fortunate that there's a lot of things going on. His richest material, though, comes from his family, especially his dad. My dad, can we get a dog? Dog, houses now you want to pet an animal you walk two houses down you pet their dog and then you come back here

and cut my lawn what so it sounds like your family can be your harshest critic, but are they also a source of your material? Yeah, I found, I started talking about my father about six or seven years ago on stage, and I noticed that people were really, really enjoying those stories. And these are stories I never even touched before because I just thought, I don't know, I'm going to talk about my dad or my family.

It's personal. But the more personal I would get on stage about those stories, the more and more people really enjoyed them. So he has become like, uh, a mountain of, of, of material. I mean, my father moved to the United States when he was 15 from Sicily and brought like Sicily here, like the way he grew up, the morals and the and the way his father raised him. And it's so like different, you know, like so different than a lot of people and how they were raised. But it's also very similar. I mean, you don't have to be Italian to get it. You can be Greek, Spanish, Asian, whatever your nationality is. You could have you could relate to a father-like figure, and my father is just that.

I mean, I describe this guy, because people are always surprised when they meet him, because of the way I describe him and how manly he is. They think that he's going to walk in the room, and he's going to be 6'4", 250, barrel-chested, and he's 5'1", and a beautician. So it's- He's a beautician? Yes. He owned hair salons growing up. My father was bald with a ponytail. So I mean, it's like, it's totally the antithesis of what I'm describing up there. So when they see him, they're like, that's your father? I thought he was going to be some big guy. I go, no, he's son.

But I take it he's laughing with you. Oh, yes, yes. I mean, he loves it. He loves it. My mom is like, where am I in this act? People think I passed away. You don't even talk about me. So I go, I got to get through dad before I get to you.

So yeah, I think he really relishes in the fact that he's in the act. He comes to my shows. People recognize him. So yeah, I think he really relishes in the fact that he's in the act. He comes to my shows. People recognize him. So he's really having fun with it. My whole family is my sister, my mother. My wife is such a huge, huge part of what I do. I talk about not only our relationship, but her family has given me license. I don't know if they've given me it,

but I've just kind of taken it and talk about her family. And it's all in good fun. I'm not out here to be malicious or hurtful. It's just, there's so many things I find funny, not only with my family, but hers. And then just the differences, you know, I come from Chicago, middle class. She comes from deep south, from money. It's so good to talk about because you've got so many different people in the audience that can relate to that. But there's a, I mean, relatability is key, right? I think so. You want people to laugh but go, yeah, that sounds familiar. Yeah, I think it works. I think people laugh at that stuff.

I'm not saying that you could go up there and talk about something that no one's experienced. It's not going to be funny. But I just noticed that people really, I love when people go, did you live in my house or on our block? You kind of know how I grew up. And your father's just like my father. So to that, I was like, oh, oh wow I really had a nerve with this person. A shy guy off stage whose relatability on stage is keeping us all laughing.