THE ED MYLETT SHOW - STAY HUNGRY- with Sebastian Maniscalco

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

From SERVER to SELLING OUT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN 4 nights in a row! I consider Sebastian the funniest person on earth. But you will see a serious side of him in this interview as well. And even Though he’s very humble about it… You are going to witness One of the most remarkable stories About staying true to your dreams, and believing in your vision and goals you will EVER hear. Ever feel like you’re in a place where your dreams are too far away? Like you’re stuck somewhere you don’t like and time is running out? Well, this man NEVER gave up and chose to CONQUER HIS DREAMS! (He would probably Make fun of that statement, but it’s 100% true!) He is an actor, best selling author, and my FAVORITE comedian! I proudly introduce to you, Sebastian Maniscalco! You Probably recognize him from his many successful @netflix specials or his role in the Academy Award Winner for BEST PICTURE “Green Book” In this episode, we really get pretty deep into exactly how Sebastian used his FOCUS (really his OBSESSION) to unlock his true potential to make his lifelong dream a reality! We discuss the incredible hustle, that was required for him to achieve this level. SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES. And we uncover several of those clues in this interview I think Sebastian’s fans will see a side of him, perhaps they have not seen or heard before. And for those of you who are not familiar with him, I believe you’re going to become a raving fan of this remarkable and immensely talented man Now I ask YOU, have you put a time limit on your dreams? I’ll tell you now, the only way to achieve at an ELITE level is to CONTINUE to STRIVE for SUCCESS and DO WHATEVER IT TAKES ACHIEVE IT! You are going to learn a ton and be incredibly entertained the entire program!  

Welcome back to Max out everybody I'm Ed Mylett and this guest today I chased down just so you all know and I happen to think he's one of the most talented and the funniest person in the world today. And we're getting him in the midst of him kind of maxing out his career. His career is on fire right now. He just did four nights at Madison Square Garden. There was the largest grossing comedy show

in comedy history. He's got a movie that just won the Best Picture Award as an Oscar. He's got a tour that sold out all over the country. He's got a movie that just won the Best Picture Award as an Oscar. He's got a tour that's sold out all over the country. He's got a best-selling book. He's got a Netflix special that's blowing up right now, so he's doing pretty good right now. And if you don't recognize this face, you're going to know him going forward. You're going to be following all this stuff. So this is Sebastian Manescalco, the hardest name I've ever had to interrupt. So thank you for being here, bro. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. We got a lot to talk about today.

Good. Did you paltek a couple weeks ago? Love Chipolta. They make a really nice burrito over there. It's so terrific that the employees can't stop eating it. The employees are never working. They're always in the dining room, eating. They've been walking down here like, where are the workers? The only guy behind there is the guy cutting chicken, just looking at you.

I mean, there's a sneeze glass there, right? Right, he's not trained on burrito building. And I'm watching the people order. I mean, there's a sneeze glass there, right? But people always hook the arm over the glass. I'll have corn. I'll have more corn. Just say corn. It's not soundproof.

It goes right over the glass. Get your claw out of the salsa. This is something that I was looking forward to doing just because you're... You seem like a very intense guy and a very positive guy and I like being around people like that. Thank you, brother. And I know my audience is going to be fascinated by you because your story is compelling. Like, there's this, the thing I love about what you do, first of all, in my mind, and I hope you don't take this as an offense either. I think you're the funniest person I've ever seen, but then having met you one on one, you're also a very serious guy.

So there's this kind of duality of your personality, but from a comedy perspective, you guys, it's almost a little sign felt as because you do observational humor, but there's like a, I don't know, there's like a Chris Farley, John Ritter, Ralph Furley, like physical comedy thing you do too, right? Yeah, there is, well, thank you by the way. My comedy is a lot influenced by three-s company and John Ritter.

Really? One of my favorite actors, comedically, to watch, I used to watch three-s company, like it was Game Taitter. Really? One of my favorite actors, comedically, to watch. I used to watch three-company, like it was game tape. Really? Just the way John Ritter would just kind of pop up with the facial expressions. There's an episode where you're just getting on a hammock

and he was trying to sit in the hammock and he would flip over. And just kind of those sudden physical movements, I found extremely funny. And kind of incorporated into my act just because it's fun to do number one and number two the audience seems to be engaged in it in a way where I'm not only telling the joke I'm kind of acting it out so I found over of course a time and it wasn't like this in the beginning

I wasn't doing like really big movements on stage it was kind of toned down and now it's, you know, I don't wanna be like a clown up there, but every once in a while, I'll go into a very exaggerated moment. Were you, were you always like this? Like in your family, because your comedy is based sort of in your family.

A lot of it is observational stuff from your family. And, but so your dad, I think it's interesting background, correct me if I'm wrong, your dad's self, oh, he was a hairdresser, right? Just worked his ass off, roses your mom. Yes. And what did she do? Something in teaching.

Secretary. Secretary of the school. Mentor school. So in your house, were you like a little comedian, or is that not like how it was going up? In the house, yes. At the dinner table was kind of my time to shine. I would explain stories.

So what happened at school and what happened in the neighborhood. And my family was very tight in that sense where we really kind of treasureed the family experience over dinner. Being Italian dinners kind of what brought out the conversation. And but like, you know, I'm not a class clown type of guy. I'm not gonna sit here and like, we're gonna have like, you know, you said, oh, I was the funniest guy in the planet. You're not probably gonna see that sitting here. It's not like I'm gonna make people laugh all the time.

I'm actually, you know, you kind of hit it head on. I'm very serious type of guy. When I'm around people, I don't know. I kind of get like a little like, not nervous, but like, oh, can I really be myself? Can I really show people I don't know, I kind of get like a little, like, not nervous, but like, oh, can I really be myself? Can I really show who I am? I gotta like, size up the situation in order for me to really start being comfortable.

You think that's why you're funny? Like you just notice things other people don't notice because you're always sizing things up. Like your observation, the observation part of you is more heightened than a normal person maybe. Yeah, I'm very, very observational and very, very keen on what people are doing or what kind of annoys me. There's a disease, then a disease.

I think it's called misophonia, where let's say I'm on an airplane and somebody's eating a bag of chips, I will hone in on that person eating the bag. And I don't hear anything else. Plank could be on fire. I mean, yeah. Hone again on the guy eating friedos.

So yeah, I'm very, very sensitive to things around me. So I'm on the way to easy. Yeah, in the beginning, I was really, and when I first moved out here in 1998, everything bothered me. I'd walk around very angry, very like, you know, look at this guy doing, what's this person doing?

And I would try and convey that on stage, but it came off as being just bitching. Yeah. But as you kind of do comedy over time, you start to really see, okay, let's say these same jokes, but let's, it's like a wink and a nod to the audience. Like, I know this is ridiculous what I'm saying and it's it's said more in a friendlier manner than more than angry I when I was when I first started I had smile I didn't do

nothing I used to come out there I go out I'm pissed off and people like he's just got a comedian and there is just a therapy so yeah over time it's it's a comedian or is this a therapy? Yeah. So, yeah, over time, it's developed into what it is now. So, you have tons of funny stuff, but one of the funniest things I think is when you talk about your dad, just to me, and having now seen your dad, I kind of get it, because I've watched some stuff with the two of you together. But, did you, were you observing dad thinking,

or did you think all dads were like your dad? Because you grew up in a suburb of Chicago, right? Kinda like, almost to me, it seemed like an old world family in like the new world, almost. Is that reasonable to say? I make it sound older than it is. A lot of that's exaggerated.

I do a joke about my father murdering raccoons with Annie Freeze and Bologna. That's actually not him. It's a friend of mine's dad, but I put that situation on my father and it kind of goes with the narrative of old school immigrant upbringing. He was raised on a farm and this seems to fit this piece of the puzzle, so I'm gonna put,

that's what I do. I take a lot of people and I put other stories on those people. It's just like writing a movie. You got a character and there's a personality of the character. What kind of fits that character? And it could come from a lot of different things.

It could come from something that happens here where something that you might do, I might give a trait to a friend of mine who's in my act. So your grandmother wasn't cranking out lasagna's in the basement? She was. That was true. That was true.

I mean, I'm not saying it happens a lot. The truth is always funny. I don't write. I don't sit in my house and go, okay, what's funny? It's more like I went to a toddler group with my wife and my child, and now I'm interacting with parents. It's a new thing that is in my life. I'm not really a social guy.

And what comes out of those, for me, is tends to be funny and good fodder for standup comedy, because it's almost like a fish out of water. Yeah. I'm constantly that guy on the perimeter. I was never popular in high school. I was never a jack. I was never in the music club.

Smart guy. I played soccer and soccer was considered kind of outside the realm of real sports in that time. Yep. Right. I'm like a little football player. Yeah. And yeah, and it's kind of been my career path as well.

Never in the popular group in Hollywood, never in like a one-to-watch or a new face. It's just been all stand-up comedy on the road, doing what I love to do. I think sometimes success will be I wanna say something to you, brother. I interviewed Sean White yesterday and obviously probably the most successful

Olympic winner athlete ever. And I think really successful people, A, don't give themselves credit for the things they're great at, and B, maybe they just do a lot of things really well unconsciously. Like, I know it's not by mistake that you're, I mean, just everybody, I mean, this guy's incomes exploded in the last few years, if you, one of the top paid, top 10 paid comedians

in the world right now, you sell out Madison Square Garden for Knights in a row. And if you wanted to go back, you could do it for more Knights in a row. That doesn't happen by sitting in the hotel room in Louisiana, it happened because you went to Louisiana. But I want people to hear this part of your story because I was struck by how when we've

met and other people have told me that our mutual friends of ours that they thought you and I were similar in this sense that we're sort of on, but like privately we're really sort of serious reflective, don't need a lot of people around us dudes, right? And so one of the things that struck me about your story and I want everybody to hear this part of it was not very far from here, you were a server at the four seasons, yeah, right? For years. I mean, I just want you to picture this. All you list this, you're driving in your car, you're working out right now, and you're like, I'm not after my dream. I'm at this destination in between. But here's real hustle. Tell them this. You would literally,

on your break, go do a set somewhere. Did you tell them about that? So, at the first seasons, I was the waiter in the windows lounge, and what I came out to LA to do was do stand-up comedy. I told myself nothing is gonna get in the way of doing that, because there was a comedian that I saw at the comedy store, who I really loved to have since passed away. His name's Freddie Soto, and he was up one night in Mark Anthony, the singer, had walked in, saw Freddie Soto and he was up one night in Mark Anthony, the singer had walked in,

saw Freddie Soto and then said, hey, you want to open up for me on the road. So I saw that and I go, man, if Freddie Soto was waiting tables somewhere and he missed that opportunity, that would have never happened. So I'm like, every night I'm going to do stand-up comedy and I'm gonna try and work it out in a way

where it's not going to interfere with my job or I'm going to try to try to make it work. And the only way I could make it work was to take my break that I got for half an hour and I would then get my, you know, I would call the comedy store and I'd say, okay, I'm working. What's going on? Okay, so and so is up. It's got 10 minutes and then we got Eddie Griffin who popped in.

He's gonna do a 30 minutes. So I would kind of time it out, getting my car, go over there, do the stand-up and then get back in the car and then, and then hit the tables. It's just kind of all I, it's nothing like I thought was, oh, this is something. Yeah, it was just like, I gotta do stand-up comedy. That's it. I gotta make this work. This is my watch my section for a half hour. Told my boss, I was really cool. My boss, he was really cool with me. I mean, this is something that the Four Seasons Hotel

is not really a custom to do. I mean, we're not working on McDonald's. Right. We're working at a place where you have to be at the table and see what's going on and refill the nut caddies and make sure they have a fresh napkin. It's not something that, you know, four seasons is known to do it, but I mean, they're accommodated you.

Yeah. But I mean, for real, like, I mean, you can just so you know, that's not normal, right? Like, it's not normal. I mean, you're part of it's not normal. Like, your obsessions become your possessions, right? Like, you're obsessed. I'm going to do stand-up comedy. I'm going to do it. You eventually possess this career you are obsessed with having, right?

You have to understand something about the way I grew up. I grew up in a house that was food everywhere Every two feet you just bump in That's a grandmother who lived in the basement, just cranking a lasagna factory. In the basement, food just kept coming up the stairs for no reason. It was meat hanging from the ceiling. It was a sauce room with a bunch of dates I'm asking tape. But I'm curious, was there ever a night? You went and did a set, didn't go real well, and you're driving back to go back to be the server

and on your break and you're like, you know what, forget it. Like I just, this ain't happening. Did you have nights like that, or did it just never? No, it was, that set sucked. I can't wait till tomorrow, too. It's almost like at the 24 hours after the set is the worst because you're just chomping at the bit

to redeem yourself the next night. So I never said, this is not for me. I knew this is, it was comedy or bust for me. When I came out here, it was no like five-year plan. If I'm not doing this after five years, I'm going home and I'm working at Motorola. That was none of that. It was undoing comedy and that's it.

And it wasn't because of the money, it wasn't because of that. It was undue and comedy and that's it. And it wasn't because of the money, it wasn't because of fame. It had nothing to do with that. I love doing comedy. I've always loved getting in front of people, strangers and making them laugh. And it's the best feeling in the world. And wherever that was going to take me, fine.

But it was never about anything else other than the pure passion. I love that. So, I love that point, everybody, this listen to this too, because it's like, you found something you love, it's like, there's no deadline on it. I love when people sort of, they put a deadline

on their dream or something, you know, like if it doesn't happen by January 13th, 2022, then it expires and I can never have it. It's like a ridiculous way to live your life, right? Like if you really want something, you get it, you find it until you get it. At least in my opinion, you do. So I love that you made that point.

When you wrote Stay Hungry, did that have anything to do with this, by the way, you guys should get this book and the tour is also called Stay Hungry also, right? Why'd you write that book? Cause it's a bestseller. Why'd you write it? And is that have any relationship between all those years at the four seasons and stay staying hungry for your career?

It does, yes. And I never thought I would write a book. I always thought books were for like ex-presidents and people, you know, who had something extraordinary happen to them. You come across like this in this very serious guy, kind of like everybody else. But not everybody, I just think this is the funny story and I want you to tell it if you don't mind, because I laughed so hard when I heard it, but I think it goes to prove that you're not exactly

like everybody else in normal. Can you tell them how you did the air freshener in your car? Tell me that that's true. Tell me that's one of that's true. I just want them to hear this so they know you are a little bit off. I'm so.

Yeah, I mean, I never said I was normal by a moment. Although this I feel like is something that people should do. Yeah, I think so. So I didn't like the air fresheners that you would go and get at the gas station, the vanilla, the apple, the pine. I like Cologne. So what I did was I took a bottle of my favorite Cologne and I cracked it in a bowl. And I took like a little dish rag, thin, and I cut it into like little squares and I rolled up the squares and I banded the rolls up and I let them marinate overnight in the colone.

Now, in the morning, I would put in the vents, the little regs, right? This is when I was like 15, 16 years old. That's just 16, I was driving. So I would go pick up a girl on a date, and then just casually put on the air condition, and she'd be like, man, the car smells like you. And I know, it's beautiful, isn't it? So I would kind of match the cologne scent of the car to what I was wearing that particular evening.

Now, is that abnormal? Probably, but I'm sure after telling that story. I'm not gonna do it, right? I mean, what's amazing to me is you're in your mid 40s and you just preceded that story by saying you think more people should do it. Hahaha. This is like a technique.

Yeah, that's wonderful, man. That's so awesome. So I'm curious, oh gosh. There's like a million of those, but I had to at least have one. I live in fear that like what's happening for me could go away. Oh yeah.

So you've had this stuff happen, right? So take us in the mindset of someone who's in the midst of, I don't want to call it your prime, but it kind of is, right? Like you've hit this stride now, which we'll talk about in a minute in multiple areas, from the book, from the tour, acting, you know, a lot of different areas in your family life. What are you thinking right now? Are you thinking like, I could lose this? I got to, what are you gonna do? What is this gonna end? When am I gonna go and look at the ticket counts

and they're not what they were the last time I was there? So that is what's driving me to succeed. It's not, again, I don't think in the positive realm, like, oh man, I sold four Madison Square Garden shows. The next time I'm gonna sell eight, my goal is to just, yeah, it's more fear-based than positive-based, I guess. I don't want to let these people down. They pay good money.

They don't want to see the same jokes. This, coming to a show that they saw 12 or 16 months prior. Yeah. So it's that challenge of keeping it on a level. That's what the staying hungry means, kind of like never resting on your success. Always kind of wanting more. And that is a big fear. It's just like, you can't, you can't, I believe,

you can't, you're hot. And then you pull off. Yeah, so my thing is, when is the cooling off that I happen? Not that I want it to, but I'm aware, I have enough awareness that we have a spike in our career and then there's always kind of like a drop off. Do I want to drop off? No, but it's hard to plan too. It's just like, I don't have a job where the salary is guaranteed. So if I want to buy a house, what could I buy? Can I buy a house that, if I sustain this type of lifestyle? I mean, like, you need nothing.

Nothing is really, I'm not bitching about finances. Don't get me wrong, but it's hard to kind of gauge your future based on a career that you could pitter out at any moment. Time for me to check in, right? Now, the check- in process at the airport They don't want to look at you head down, right? No smile nothing. I feel like I'm working Right, I feel like I work at United. Hi, how you doing? The only time they get happy is when the bag goes over the wait allowance. They love telling you

You're gonna owe extra on this bag. And you know what's heavy. When you're packing it at home, you tell your wife, we're never gonna make it with the ... Get some tap, I'll pack it. So heavy, right? You put it up there. And you know what's heavy.

So you kind of try and release it. You do that like kind of soft release like that's gonna take, take weight off the back. And her mood changes. She's like, woo! I'm sorry. Your bag is two pounds over you're gonna have to take two pounds out of your bag Now like an idiot I got to open up my bag in front of 187 people I don't know what two pounds is I'm taking out a boot, a sock, toothpaste. Is this two pounds?

Does anybody know what two pounds is? They're gonna charge me an extra $8,000. You think the boots are half a pound? I don't worry who I'm going to put this. Just like put that in your carrier. I said it's still going on the plane. What is it matter? If it's on top or underneath, the guy behind me is 500 pounds.

That doesn't matter. That's 50 successful people in their prime that maybe 10% answer that honestly. Because I know what it's like when things are going well. And there is this party that's like, when's this going to end? What am I going to do? What would it be like if it did slow down? So would it be like that? Not so much anymore, but yeah, I think I'm still after. I think part of my inspiration now is, I have this audio I did called blissful dissatisfaction.

And what it means is not to go too deep on it, but I had this formula forever like I better not enjoy this because if I enjoy this, I'm going to lose my hunger. So I literally linked in my head, don't enjoy it. Just keep grinding because of this enjoyment, you'll lose all this drive. that's what most athletes most successful people do that's sort of their mindset It's almost like a superstition right because for so long you didn't enjoy it And you finally got something I finally figured out after a while that there's a difference between happiness and satisfaction You could actually be blissful and happy and still dissatisfied in fact There's a correlation between the two the more your brain gets this little dopamine hit, like, that was cool. I love this. I'm enjoying

my success. The more you actually want to go take the steps to do it again. And so, it's like biting into a great stake. You break that first bite, and it's like, oh, it doesn't make you not want another bite. There's no connection between it. So for me, the formula now is more like, how can I be blissfully dissatisfied, happily dissatisfied, but I still operate out of fear. There's two motivators, right? Game pleasure, avoid pain. Avoid pain has been like my mechanism forever.

I think it was Michael Jordan's, it was tight, but I do watch a guy like Tiger Woods, I don't know if you watch any golf, but like he kind of enjoys the game now for the first time, whereas before he was laser vision, tunnel focused all the time. So I work on that with the different people that I work with. So that's my, mine is both. I'm still super afraid it's gonna go away. And I think your identity starts to get tied up in it too a little bit.

So it does. So what do you do? Are you enjoying this? I could be enjoying it more. You were really speaking to actually how I'm feeling. A lot of people, even on my team, whether it be my manager, or, you know, I think other people, like my family's more excited

when I tell them about something that happened to me than I'm actually excited for, about myself, just for that reason, it's like, man, I don't wanna get too happy here. Because this might not, you know, I might not, I might get relaxed. I don't know, like, happiness to me would be like being relaxed and content.

If I'm never like satisfied, then I feel like I'm always going to strive to hit the next goal. The thing is though, what happens is now we're doing therapy together here, the thing happens is you do hit the next goal and then you don't enjoy that one. And then you do hit the next goal and you don't enjoy that one. And then you do hit the next goal and you don't enjoy that one. And then so what was the point of hitting those goals

if you never enjoy any of them, right? And so there's this part, especially with you having a young family, there's gotta be this time where, I also think you want your kids to see dad loving and enjoying his life too. You know what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I mean don't get me wrong. I didn't get the call and go,

you sold out four Madison Square. I'm like, what? I don't get me wrong. I didn't get the call and go, you sold out four Madison SquareGuard. They're like, what? I gotta get happy about that. I hear you. Yeah, but it's just, you know, I'm not like, you know, I'm not like, yeah, that guy. I might like internalize the happiness. I might not show it as much as somebody else might show it.

And people think, what's wrong with him? Is this guy's not like, I'm happy about all his success. I'm happy, but it's more managed happiness than, yeah, walking around with a huge smile on my face. You've gotten such success acting now. Like, and it's interesting because you don't, I haven't seen you do a lot of comedic acting, right?

Like, it's usually Kevin Hart's funny on stage and then he does funny roles, right? And so, I mean, you guys just understand this. You're in the green book. You're one of the best picture, right? So, but I want to just kind of go through your acting a little bit with you here for a minute. Do you have training in acting? So I didn't go to a formal acting school.

I take acting classes here in town with a teacher who has been with me for 20 years. And every time that I have an audition or a F.I. book apart, I work with her. Her name is Leslie Conn. She's really, really good. And she's kind of been my teacher. And for me, the acting has been something that I've always wanted to get into, but I never really had time just because,

like you said, I picked one thing, stand-up comedy. I didn't pick 17 different things to get into. The book came out of the success for standup and the acting came out of standup. I mean, I was going on auditions 15 years ago and no one knew who I was. I would go to a casting call. I would always sit in the casting call

and the guy before me would go in and the door would open. They'd be like, John, how are you doing? Come on in. I don't know what's up. I don't want to. I don't got a chance to scream for coffee with the casting director.

But now when I go in, they're like, I ain't there, you know, it gives you a sense of confidence. It's all about confidence. I didn't have the confidence 15 years ago when I was going into those casting rooms, just because I was nervous, am I doing this right? This is something that I don't do a day in and day out. But now I feel like the confidence is half of the battle.

I go in there and they're like, man, we're a huge fan of your stand-up comedy. Right away, I'm like, I'm puffing my chest out. I'm like, okay, this is mine to lose. They like me already. Yes. So, I believe that too. I think success is 80% psychology, 20% mechanics. And that psychology is all that confidence that you start to stack up. The other thing you have that I wanna point out there,

everybody, first a huge lesson you just said, there's one everyone to hear backwards, especially you entrepreneur, you see guys like Cuban or myself, I'm not equating myself with Mark Cuban, but the kind of the vogue thing that I was like, people have 10 different businesses therein, right? Which you have to understand is someone like myself or someone more successful like Mark

Cuban, we won it one business first. Then once we got wealthy, we're able to dabble into all these other business. You got to pick one thing and dominate at it. That's a huge thing, I think, for everybody to point out. Well, let me piggyback on that. Now that you had the one thing, or if people are out there have one thing maybe other things are Presented to you you got it. You don't always have to do that like people go What are you gonna get a TV show?

Maybe I wouldn't be able to put the passion needed into a TV show that it would need to success and to be a success Just because I'm in this position to get some of these things a lot of things I turned, just because I'm in this position to get some of these things. A lot of things I turn down just because, I don't have the, I don't wanna do that. It's easy to say yes to things you should be doing because maybe you're successful. But I don't wanna give my energy to that because I'm not gonna be able to give my energy to that

because I'm not gonna be able to give 110%. If I do a movie, I wanna be there, I wanna be present and I wanna give it my all. I just don't wanna take things just to take it. That was your gift to me today, because I've been struggling with that. More opportunities obviously have been come of my way and I've had a really difficult time saying no to any of them

because I should do them. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's really good. You just said that because I actually driving out here, something came my way and I don't want to do it, but I should and I agreed to do it. And that's a mistake. I'm spreading myself so freaking thin

that I'm not really being great at anything right now because my energy's depleted in all these different places. You're supposed to say that for me. For real. No, I'm serious. That was really, really good. Oh, good. The other thing you have going, I want to point out to say that for me. For real. No, I'm serious. That was really, really good, man. Good.

The other thing you have going, I want to point out to everybody that is such a factor, and you're appreciating it right now. You have momentum. And life moment, you can get momentum in everything. Like in sports, I say all the time. It's not always the best team that actually wins a world series every year. It's the pitching staff with momentum or the hot bats, right? The NFL is not always the best team, but a team like the Patriots sort of find a way

to play best at the end of the year. Your life can get momentum, and so can your career. And that momentum can actually help you be better almost than you really are. And I think you're not doing better than you really are, but you've got this kind of momentum going. Don't you feel like you have that in your career right now, and hard work, you have to fuel that fire.

Don't you feel like that right now? Well, yeah, it's like, I was even talking to my management about, hey, maybe we take some time off, not touring, because here's the thing, it's like if the audience knows they could always have you, then what's like the bit like if you're always having steak every night or filet every night, like what's like the bit, like if you're always having steak every night or filet every night, like what's the look forward to? So if you keep saturating the market and keep going back and back and back, I don't see

them this time, they'll be back, you know? But then if you do take time off, you're losing the momentum. Yeah. So it's trying to find that like happy media where you kind of capitalize on the momentum, but you don't oversaturate yourself in the market. Yeah, you don't want to lose your momentum, you don't want to lose your relevance. It's more of an art than a science. Like I watched that with someone like Beyoncé or J.Lo. You know, like Beyoncé's done it differently.

Beyoncé sort of takes these large windows off whereas Jen is just always grinding. She's always relevant. She's doing a show. She's doing, she was doing American Idol. Now she's a judge on a dance show. Then she's got a tour. Then she's got a movie.

Like she's just in the consciousness. And I look at Jen and I think here she is almost 50 years old. She's been relevant, famous, and had momentum now for, since the fly girls, you know, for flipping 25 or 28 years. So there is different art forms of doing it. We never wanted a grocery store. We grew it. Right in the backyard, beautiful tomato, string bean.

All right, little zucchini, you want some fruit? You picked it off the tree! But at night, we found out something was going on in our garden. There was a little raccoon, something was nibbling on my father's tomatoes. Okay? It's a big deal. We had a family meeting about it. Most American families, they'll call up Orkin.

We'll just call Orkin. They'll come set up some traps. Then they release the animal back into the wild so it could reunite with its family. My father's like, listen, we're gonna murder this motherfucker. We're gonna put any free zombie lonely. Why? Why, papa? Why?

Because it eats the intestines. Why? Why, Papa? Why? Because it eats the intestines. That's why. Now go get the antifreeze in the garage. We're gonna make a sandwich for our friends tonight. I want to talk about acting just real quick because this is just the coolest thing in the world to me. Here's this guy, four seasons server, grind and grind and grind and it starts to hit it in comedy. He starts to really hit it in comedy, starts to act, gets in the best damn motion picture of the year, wins the Academy Award and the movie that he's in, wins the Academy Award. Now you're in the Irishman, which is coming out, right? I want everybody to go see this movie when you're out, but dude, you're acting with freaking Danero and Pacino and Pesci. What the?

I don't know, man. You couldn't even write this kind of script of how this happened. I agree. In the film world, I mean, there's actors out there have been doing acting for 20, 25 years and they'll give the opportunity to work with the people that I've worked with

in the last 12 to 18 months. So, again, here's a story about getting the role. They asked me, do you want to send a tape to New York or do you want to go to New York and audition in the room? I chose to go to New York to audition in the room because I feel like if you're in a room who knows what's going to happen, you have a personal connection, I'm here, you're here, there could, you know, a relationship could develop, who knows. So I go and I walk in, the casting director tells me looking really good for this. Martin saw you, I did a small film called Cruise, okay. So you're looking really good.

So that's all you have to tell me is I'm looking good and I go the opposite. I sabotage myself. If you told me, she, man, you gotta work for this. It's you and another guy. Then I get like, oh, I gotta do it. You tell me I got it in the bag. I unravel.

So right from the get-go go I felt unsure of myself. I didn't feel like I was putting my best foot forward. She kept working with me to kind of get it. You know, she was trying to get it out of me. Couldn't get it out of me. And then I walked out of there and I didn't feel good. I call my agent. I'm not going gonna get a good call on this, I don't think I got it. So I went back, sure enough, they liked you, but not consistent, that kind of nervous, you know, just based on your performance in the room, if you're gonna be able to kind of hold it with Robert De Niro, and,

if you wanna take the notes that we've given you and work on it and send a tape, happy to see that, which is thank God for the casting director that she gave me a second shot. Now, I went to my acting coach, we put it on tape, sent it in, she's like, this is what I'm talking about. She sent it to Mr. Sorsese, he looked at it, loved it, but didn't end up giving me that role,

gave me another role in the movie. So it was for me, I got shot down. I screwed up, I didn't do well. A lot of times in life, you don't get that second chance, but this one, they gave me it, and I took advantage of it. And the first day, I'm on set with De Niro and Pesci doing a scene, the first scene of my filming day was with those two guys.

The first freaking scenes with De Niro and Pesci. Yeah. So again, nervous, anxiety ridden, I've never done anything quite to this level. I mean, Mr. Martin Scorsese is directing. I mean, it's a whole deal. And I'm working with guys that I grew up watching and thoroughly enjoying their work. And in life, sometimes you question, should I be here?

Am I good enough? What am I, you know, I'm working with these two guys. I'm a comedian. I'm not a seasoned actor. What the hell am I doing here? But they were very gracious in the fact that they came and they made me feel at home. And once I did the first scene, it was almost like, I do belong here. This is where I should be. But there's a lot of doubt, though, going into these things. I build it up in my head. Am I gonna be good enough?

But in doing so, I think it puts a lot of pressure on me to when it's time to perform to actually do well, prepare. If I wasn't thinking, you know, when I wasn't thinking that, was, and I told this story on Jimmy Fallon, and they played a clip, I went to go to the Jimmy Fallon show. Do you mind if I tell this story here?

I do love this story. Yeah. And I had a lot of people backstage, my mom, my wife, my mother-in-law, agents, publicists, it's like a party back there. But it's only doing five minutes unfound, and I figure I've done this five minutes, time in, time out. I'm hosting kind of like a party back there.

I'm very hospitable. I like to need anything, you know, some cheese, what I mean. So I go out and I start doing the act, and admit it in, I go completely blank. I forget my act. There's cue cards there. I can't even see them because, you know,

I'm almost going blind just. Oh my gosh. Looking at the band, the band's like, bro, you don't know the act. So this lasted for about, it's felt like 15 minutes, but it was like 15 seconds and and then pulled my snap back in, and I completed the set.

Now, I was worried that they were gonna keep that in there, but then when I talked to Fallen, he goes, no, we cut that right out, and that didn't have no problem. So, when I went back on Fallen, I said, I would like for Jimmy to show the 15 minutes of complete dead silence that I screwed up. Because then it wasn't that funny,

but not looking back at it for me to lose my spot. I thought it'd be cool just to show the audience. So we just show it like that, but this was bad. This was... Here's the clip here. Sebastian Menescalco's stand-up debut on our show four years ago. This is my father, right?

Um, I've been working, I've been... I've been... ... ...uh, nobody works like me. I've been, uh... I've been... I've been... Uh, nobody works... Like me. What? It's a good... not bad! Nobody works like me! That's a great bit!

Nobody works like me! One of my best jokes! Super cool! Yeah, that's a great freaking story. Well, here, this is it. Everybody acts like everything's fantastic, right? Look at me, dude, this, look at me, dude, that. I come from more of a in life, there are these setbacks, and like why not show the setbacks

because you could also show, you know, my whole thing I found was A, and he still invited me back, you know? So everything I do tends to, like, I went to the Oscars and you would think, oh, going to the Oscars is some like really big thing. I ended up falling down 19 stairs at the Oscars and a Tuxedo and not going on stage to get the award because

I was seated in mezzanine three, you know, like it's not always what it seems to be. And I like find the comedy and the fact that I'm not always in the mix. There was everybody on stage at the Oscars and pick up the award, but I couldn't get today. I couldn't get today. I couldn't get here. My dancers are not going, the whole audience is on stage. Where are you? So, my gosh.

But those moments for me, although they might be not so fun in the moment, when you reflect back, man, the comedy that comes out of that. Also, brother, the hope it gives people, like, my eyes are watering not from laughing, it makes me emotional. Think this moment's happened for you. You get unfallen, you kind of pooped a bed a little bit. You come back, you're on the show,

and your career took off even further from there. Then you get in the best picture. You fall down the stairs, and you're watching the whole cast on the stage. Like the metaphor, even the visual of that, I think it gives people hope. Like, hey man, not everything is perfect for these people, even that you see. Cause right now people look at you, they're like, wow, like beautiful wife, baby, another one on the way. Netflix, the book, the movies, the narrow, like, on man, like man, that's the square garden.

So for then you to be vulnerable enough or willing to go, hey man, just so you know, like there's this too, that's crazy. Did you really fold down? Yeah, I fell down about 18 steps in a tuxedo at the Oscar. Now as I'm falling down, I'm like actually talking to myself going, I can't believe, I'm at the, I'm, you know, like, and then I'm hearing, oh my God, you know,

like people going, you know, call an ambulance, you know, it was violent, it was like a ski accident. You could have gathered yourself, it was too much. No, the momentum, like normally we walking downstairs, you catch yourself, it was the whole man, thank God. This one was, and I was up and rolling, and I didn't have time to, did you get hurt?

It just bruised, but you know, it wasn't, bruised your ego, but I'm curious about the last thing, but you just think I've noticed about you, I'm like this is what I really like this do. And it's the overall approach to family that I wanna finish with today. One, I think the way that you talk about your mom and your dad honors them in a particular way, right?

And I can just sense how close you are with your family. But then I've really started to watch you and I see this on your social media. It's like, this dude loves his wife. Because you know when a guy starts to climb, you know, right, a guy starts to have the stuff happen. I watch those guys, because I coach those guys, and I know the road sometimes.

And I'm like, this guy's loves his wife, he's bold about loving his wife, and it's a real thing. And this little seraphina is like the apple of his eye, right? So just talk about the impact of Lana, and you meeting her and how it's changed your life, your career and seraphina and building the family, how it's changed your life, your career and surfing and building a family. How that's changed you. Well, my wife is 10 years younger than me and really given me another way of

looking at life completely opposite than than than me in the sense that she is very social. She wants a lot of people around a lot of the time. Very happy. Never like really a bad thing to say. Pushing me to do things, for example, with a vacation we did a zip line. I would never have done a zip line if it wasn't for my wife. And I really truly love not only my wife, but my daughter and for me to have that kind of in my corner. So when I come home after being on a four-day road trip and they come and give me a big hug and whatever we cook together, we take her to the park or she's in gymnastics now. For me, family's always been a huge part of my life. Growing up, family was family first. I had an incident, unfortunately, that happened to me last year with Sarah Fiena,

where she was admitted to the hospital three separate times, right? Now, I had a show. I was on the road while this happened. I had a show in Atlanta, and my wife was kind of holding down the Ford here, but this was like the second time it happened, and my wife was very gracious, I think. I just handled it, I got it, but then I'm like, there's no way my wife should be going through this alone

at a hospital, and then I canceled the show, which, you know, my heart of hearts always says family first, but then, you know, I also don't wanna let down 5,000 people who, because I always think of this, the show's in Atlanta, maybe some guy and wife bought tickets and are coming in from Ohio. And now I'm not performing and those, you know, but for me, it's always been about the family, not only the act, but just in life in general. I know what you're saying.

Yeah, you get some success. There's a lot of opportunities, you know, to veer from the path of monogamy. I don't, I don't even, I don't, I don't, number one, I'll never put myself in those situations. Plus, for me, I am a very loyal guy. If I make a decision to be with someone, not only personally or professionally,

I really am loyal to sometimes a fault where I maybe I have an emotion that tied to business sometimes where it gets in the way. Yeah, yeah, I'm that way too, by the way. I've made some mistakes in the loyalty thing myself, so I just noticed it, man. I'm like, this is one of the reasons this guy's got natural humility, but I think your family keeps you grounded. And it's like, it just makes me root for you more. It's like, this is a beautiful family. It's guys doing great things with his life, you know, and it makes me want to see you do even better. So really proud of you. I'm proud of everything

you're accomplishing, man. I have a feeling that we're going to become very good friends. I just have this feeling. I've felt that from a distance with you, and now I haven't met you. I really feel strongly about it. So last thing I wanna ask you about, just because people do this in their businesses, and you've said the word goal a few different times, and I've heard you in different acts go,

it wasn't on my vision board, you know. But what are you pretty goal oriented, dude, and is it just like, because I was fascinated earlier when you said, I don't really write all my jokes out like that. Do you write your goals out? Do you just see them, or do you have, I guess you really write all my jokes out like that. Do you write your goals out? Do you just see them? Or do you have, I guess you probably have a team now

that helps you with that, but how are goals and like your vision and your plan in play for you? So my one goal was to do stand-up comedy for a living. That's the only goal I said to myself when I came out here in 1998. Here's something, I don't like to show a lot of my personal life on social media. It's just something that I feel uncomfortable doing.

I don't necessarily, I notice your Instagram, you coming off a jet, you staying you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, some of the things maybe we're doing. And just because, I don't know, I'd rather keep it to myself, put it up on it. So my Instagram tends to be, I'm doing a show here, I'm doing a show there. It's not necessarily, hey guys, we're at dinner. And this is a great restaurant. You should try it out too.

It's not a, I don't know where, I don't know how people perceive that. Yeah. Well, you did one the other day with the flower shop. Yeah, it was like this thing that I go out, I'll be right back. My wife's always telling me that I'm gonna be right back and I video record her when she said,

I'm not saying I don't do it, but there's people that I follow every morning. Out of bed. Yeah, I know. It's, but those people that I follow every morning, out of bed. Yeah, I know. It's good coffee, you got to get stressed out. By the way, we're very similar. I have to force myself. People tell me it's like, hey man, literally if people tell me, show us what you do for breakfast.

I'm like, I don't care what anybody else does for breakfast, but they want to see. So I have done a little bit more of it, but I'll be honest, you like my protective of my kids and my family too, so I also get, you know, I mean, don't show your wife and your kids more often because they want to be private and I don't want to put them out there. So there's a balance on that stuff, but for most people, what is your opinion?

Can they use their social to grow their business? And, yeah, absolutely. It's just like there's, you need to find out what works for you best. And I used to do this thing on social media called Aren't You Embarrassed, where I would see someone doing something at the airport, and I would hold up the camera,

and they would be in the background. I'm chewing them back. But now I can't really do that so much, because it's changed over the last 10 years. Now that's looked as being mean. Oh, you're being mean to the person. It's funny. It's like people so sensitive nowadays

where they can't really just enjoy the comedy of it all. And it's sad. And I don't like to read comments, but also you want to kind of see what the temperature of your audience is. So sometimes I read this and I get like angry. Yes, yep. Like when I'm doing stand-up,

I'm not getting any feedback. There's no comments. Yeah, I'm having a one-sided conversation. They're laughing and that's that. When you do the social media, air, the guy that did the Super Bowl, when Justin Timberlake did the Super Bowl, some kid took a selfie. Do you remember that?

Okay, I posted, look at his kid, he can't even enjoy the moment, he's gotta find his phone and someone had read a comment saying, all the kids from make a wish so it's like you don't even know like what the back story is now like if I'm making fun of somebody they'll go oh no no that kids got some disease I know fuck it down fuck it down

so sometimes it's not always what you perceive it to be. And, well, the other thing he said earlier that we should say too, is like, the other thing about social media is you be convinced everybody's just partying and living awesome all the time. And no one ever puts the crap they've going through on social media either. So, the other thing is like, just this addiction

it creates for people's approval. Is that how many likes did I get to? They like what I said. And it's for me, the only thing downside for social media for me, I don't know for you, but like it's just the time it takes up. It's just time consuming to post, to look at it, to reply to people. That's a lot of work. So if you're going to do it, you kind of got to be in the game to do it. Yeah. And I have watchers. I think your stuff's great. I follow you. You don't follow me, but I follow you. You'll have to me, but I follow you. Well, after today is a hold of the story. Okay, hold the story. Good, I'm gonna hold you to that.

So, how do they find you? So, it's Sebastian Comedy at Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. So, you kept out the last name, why? Because it's impossible to pronounce. It's impossible to pronounce. Man, it's galco. Yes, but when I first started, comedy was just Sebastian,

because just for that reason, nobody knew how to pronounce. Man, it's galco. Yes, but when I first started, comedy was just Sebastian, because just for that reason nobody knew how to pronounce it. But yeah, for social media purposes, it's just Sebastian comedy. And I try to get back to people if they, you're listening to me, I try if it's a valid, you know, or whatever, whatever, something might strike me in the moment. Oh, yeah, let me respond. I actually learned that from Dane Cook. Dane Cook, when he first came out,

it was on my space. And this guy was communicating with his fans. And it was like a job three, four hours a day. He was popping out messages, hey man, I'm coming to your city. And I used to do that, but as time kind of goes, you rather spend your time kind of creating material rather than being like custom or service.

You can't be sitting on these movie sets for playing as social media all day, either I imagine, right? So there's plenty of time on movie sets. Oh, that's true, isn't it? That's actually true. That's actually true. It's probably where you do it. Yeah.

Well, I'm not on them like you are, so I wouldn't know. But hey, let me say something to you. I really enjoyed today. Well, good. I'm glad I did this. If it's something that, like it said to you before so I wouldn't know. But hey, let me say something to you. I really enjoyed today. Well good, I'm glad I did this, if something that like it said to you before this even started, I generally do comedy based podcasts. And when this opportunity presented itself, I looked at what you were about.

And I'm like, actually, I think you reached out to me personally, but I didn't respond. Yeah. And I wasn't gonna say early when you said that you respond to people because I was like, well, what about? No, I, I, I, I, you did, you did reach out. And it was one of those things where,

oh, this guy looks like he's got a cool thing, but sometimes whatever, like a daughter, you know, would cut, of course. And then you do, whatever. And then I go, yeah, but see what happened, what happened for those people not to get discouraged, he had reached out. I didn't respond and I should of,

but it came another way, right? And then in my head I go, I was meaning to respond. So the seed was planted. Yes, that's cool, that's good to know actually. You don't know where it's gonna, yeah, where the water's gonna come. And the cool thing is that people know I did chase you. Like I wanted you on my show

because I knew what we would do today. I kind of had a feeling, it succeeded my expectations, but I kind of knew this, this is dude's just not funny. Like this is a serious guy with real ideas and he's had a real strategy and he's, the story's compelling.

And so like it was really, really good today, brother. So thank you. So Sebastian Comedy. Sebastian Comedy. Okay. Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed today's program, man. I'm really grateful. Congratulations on everything, too.

You too. Congratulations. Thank you. Baby coming in June. June 16th, sun coming. Hey everybody, I hope you enjoyed today's show. Here's the thing. Like I always tell you, I bring in people in their lives

that are maxing out their lives. Obviously, this man's been maxing out his life now for a number of years. and I want you to follow him on social media, and if you're watching this, you probably follow me, but if you don't follow Ed Mylett, and remember this, every day on Instagram, are on the max out two-minute drill. That means this, if you go, you have your notifications turned

on when you're following me, you make a comment within the first two minutes when I make a post. Every day, there's a drawing. We pick someone every day who made a comment in the first two minutes, you can win a coaching call with me, my guest, take us to come see me speak, my book, max out gear, all kinds of stuff. So make sure you're engaging because I want to see your stuff so I know what content to

create, I know what messages you need, and I know what's going on in your life. If you miss the first two minutes, just make a comment every day and someone who comments on every post I make every day, we pick a winner at the end of the week or just comments regularly. And I post around 7.30 in the morning to 8 a.m. every day, Pacific, 10.30 to 11 Eastern, just to give you a hint. So, please engage with me on social media and share today's program with people that you love and care about.

God bless you, max out your life. Red Mileage Show.