Sebastian Maniscalco hates your selfie
This comedian also has an opinion on Chipotle employees.
There are a lot of things about modern society that comedian Sebastian Maniscalco just doesn’t understand, and a lot of things that downright piss him off: people who don’t know how to tip, selfies (which he prefers to call “lonelies”), and basically anyone in front of him in line at Chipotle. But while these types of jokes undoubtedly helped launch his career — getting tapped by actor Vince Vaughn to appear in his “Wild West Comedy” Show back in 2006 and a chance drop-in from in legend Jerry Seinfeld last year at Gotham Comedy Club in NYC — it’s not the type of humor Maniscalco necessarily gravitates to anymore. After nearly two decades in the industry and a new wife of two-and-a-half years (artist Lana Gomez), his act is turning less toward his anger to one that’s more about upbringing, family, and observations — while still being funny as hell.
The Chicago-born son of a hairstylist dad and secretary mom, Maniscalco says growing up in his Italian-American family of big personalities taught him he was funny from an early age — he had a knack for getting laughs around the dinner table and admired comedians like Johnny Carson, George Carlin, and Eddie Murphy. After getting his degree at Northern Illinois University, he headed for Los Angeles in 1998 to pursue comedy full-time. “I look back at old tapes from ‘98 or ‘99, and it took a while to kind of find my footing in stand-up, as far as my rhythm and point of view,” Maniscalco says. “Over the years, I’d say I definitely toned down the anger. There’s still a sense of disappointment and frustration in my stand-up, but I tend to laugh at it more now than I did when I first started.”
The time spent honing his craft seems to be paying off. This year alone, Maniscalco’s producing a potential comedy project for NBC, releasing a memoir about comedy and food dubbed Where You Wanna Eat? out this November, filming a comedy special at NYC’s Beacon Theatre in May, appearing on an episode of Seinfeld’s web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” airing Jan. 27, continuing to co-host “The Pete and Sebastian Show” podcast, and hitting the road for his Aren’t You Embarrassed? national comedy tour, which stops in Atlanta on Jan. 23 at The Tabernacle. “I think people really tend to gear towards observational humor because it’s very relatable,” Maniscalco says about the comedic style he focuses more on today — including much more physical comedy than he started out doing, which his audiences tend go nuts over. “Everybody goes grocery shopping,” he says. “Everybody pretty much has a relationship. I just cover those broad topics that everyone can kind of relate to. It’s material that’s near and dear to my heart.”
He may be an angry-comic-turned-family-funnyman, but behind it all is still Maniscalco’s signature brand of funny that’s garnered laughs since those nights around the dinner table back in Chicago.
Sebastian Maniscalco performs at The Tabernacle Sat., Jan. 23, at 8 p.m.