Sebastian Maniscalco Full Interview

Sebastian Maniscalco is coming to Asheville on July 13, 2024! Listen to Josh & Ariel interview Sebastian asking questions about his tour, his experience working with Robert Dinero, and what he should do around Asheville while he is in town! 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, star family, wehave such a treat for you. This
morning. We have Sebastian Menuscalco onthe phone with us. Good morning,
Sebastian, how are you. I'mgreat. Let me just start by saying,
it is refreshing that there's people workingthis week, because what I'm getting
on these emails, I don't knowif you're getting this I'm getting. We

(00:23):
are out of the office all weekin observance of the fourth of July.
When did we start taking the entireweek off for the fourth of July.
It's like women in their birthday months. Whoa now, whoa? I'm a
big birthday month celebratory person, andI'm a big fan of the four day
work week. Sebastian, that's notyour thing. I listen. I need

(00:47):
to get stuff done. And whenthe businesses are closed it's Independence Day.
It's that Independence week. So itused to be a four day weekend.
Now apparently they're taken off the wholemonth of you'll, so it's just refreshing
that there's still a work ethic herein America. Over in Nashville. Well,

(01:07):
we try, we try our verybest, and of course we can't
be off the whole month of July, because you are going to be visiting
us here in Ashville at the HarrisCherokee Event Center downtown Ashville next Saturday,
July thirteenth. Yeah, looking forwardto coming there. Kicking off the tour
at July eleventh in Virginia. Sofor me, you know, I've been

(01:29):
on the sideline, it's not reallytouring much, doing TV and film projects,
and really excited to get back outon the road, traveling with two
of my favorite comedians and Pat McGahnand Pete Corey Elly. They're going to
open up the show. I'm goingto have my family on the road with
me in some of these cities,so it's nice. You know, my
kids are five and seven and theykind of know what daddy does, but
now for them to kind of seeit live and in person is going to

(01:53):
be a treat for me. That'sawesome. That's very awesome, Sebastian.
It's the Eating Rate Touring. It'sgonna be on the thirteenth here in Harris
Cherokee Center, Ashville, beginning ofa brand new tour. But man,
you've been busy. I watched thefirst season of Bookie you had about My
Father, which is a great moviewith Robert de Niro. How's that Let's

(02:14):
go Let's go to the bookie first. How's that doing. So we just
wrapped our second season A Bookie.Hopefully that will come out later in the
fall. So that was that wasjust a blast of film and Chuck Lourie
working with him. I mean,the guy's done Two and a half Men
and Big Bang Theory, the Kaminskimessage, just a wonderful resume of shows,

(02:34):
and for me to be able towork with him was just a treat,
you know. I mean, hereally knows what he wants. He
knows comedy and it's great. Iplay a bookie in Los Angeles navigating the
waters of a pending legalization of gambling, and it takes me into a world
of I mean, it's funny,like people go, oh bookies, and
people even use them. And inmy research talking to bookies, and bookies

(02:57):
are flourishing. Although there's these bigcorporations out there now with all these online
betting apps and what have you,something about the book he having a personal
relationship with him or her or whoever'staking the bets. People still like and
you know, a lot of thetimes those bets are kind of off the
books. If you bet through oneof these apps, it's kind of a

(03:19):
paper trail. So it's a funnyshow in eight episodes on Max coming out
in the fall, and could behappier with it. Well before that,
you had About My Father with Robertde Niro, and you know, Robert
Deanio, it's Robert de Niro.But you man, I'm telling you what
you killed it in that movie.Absolutely loved everything about that. Well,

(03:40):
thanks, it was. It wasa movie I co wrote with my writing
partner, Austin Earl, and whenwe wrote it, we didn't really have
you know, we didn't think,you know, Robert de Niro would would
play my father. But sure enoughhe got the script, loved it.
We write it out loud around thetable, a bunch of actors to read
it out loud, and once hekind of heard it off the page,

(04:02):
he was like, yeah, wellI love it. Let's do it.
So next thing you know, I'min Alabama for ten weeks filming about my
Father, and you know my dad. De Niro wanted to talk to my
father over the phone to get somepointers on how to play him. So,
I mean, if you would havetold me twenty five years ago we

(04:24):
moved out to Los Angeles that mydad would be talking to de Niro on
the phone weekly. I would havetold, you're crazy, And then subsequently
went down on set to help deNiro. You know, my dad's a
hairdresser, and then the movie there'ssome hair dressing scenes and de Niro wanted

(04:45):
to know how to you know,do a die job. So my father's
on set, you know, withtinfoil, showing de Niro how to wrap
ahead. So I was like,oh my god, it was it was
crazy to see, and it wasit was a learning experience from to work
with de Niro, just because he'skind of a master of his craft,
arguably one of the best actors we'veseen in the last you know, fifty

(05:06):
years, So to work with himwas like a great acting class for me.
Well, the tour again, it'scalled the Innate Right Tour, and
you're gonna be kicking that off herein a few days. Do you enjoy
the tour life? Like you said, you mentioned your family's going to be
out there with you this time,but in yours, I mean, are
you all about the city to cityevery night? Do you enjoy that it's

(05:28):
different. You know, it's niceto get out and it's a change of
pace for me. I like goingto these cities. Generally speaking, what
I've done in the past is Igo to a city and performing and leave.
But now that I'm traveling with likea group of people, I wouldn't
call it an authorized I would callit a group of people that I really
enjoy hanging out with. I wantto explore some of these cities more than
I have in the past. I'vetaken up golf in the last I don't

(05:51):
know, two years, so I'dlike to check out some of these golf
courses. I'm a huge I loveto eat. I love to check out
local cuisine and whatever. What's what'swhat's the what's the food in Nashville.
I mean, if it's Pisa inChicago, what is it in Nashville.
Oh my god. And we've gota we've got a foodie scene here,
a big time here. First off, for golf, I would suggest you

(06:14):
golf at the Groove Parking And thenfor food, Gosh, Buchan is one
of our more famous restaurants. Isone of our famous restaurants here. Pax
Tavern Downtown is a local favorite.Here in Nashville, you can't go wrong.
We are really known for our foodscene. So we believe you're gonna
love it. You're gonna love it. Food, food, and beer.
That's what we have. It haslots of beer. If you're a beer

(06:36):
fan, you'll love it. Youknow. It's funny. In college,
I was a big beer guy,and then when I left college, I
became more of like into tequila andnow wine. But I haven't kind of
worked my way back to beer.But apparently beer over the last twenty five
years has been you know, it'stotally changed with these I pas and it's

(06:57):
almost like it's almost like wine asfar as it's like the flavor profiles and
what have you. So maybe I'llgrab a beer and yeah, I don't
know. You have barbecue over there. Barbecue? We got barbecue. We
do what Twelve Bones? Twelve Bonesis a very famous Barku barbecue spot we
got here. President Obama actually landedAir Force one here twice just to get

(07:20):
our barbecue. Okay, So allright, I'm a little unfamiliar with the
ash little food scene, but Ido. I do stay in Boone,
North Carolina over the summer, andthat's where my in laws have a place.
So I'm up in Boone for theFourth of July. Sometimes not this
year, I'll be later on thisyear. But yeah, I just I

(07:41):
love North Carolina, the vibe thatpeople are very comedy savvy. Every time
I perform in North Carolina, theyseem to really kind of gravitate towards the
humor. And I'm talking about youknow, everyday life, observational humor,
family so well, real quick,you know, speaking of the comedy scene,
we have kind of an up andcoming comedy scene here in Ashville.
Is there any advice you could giveto young comics who are trying to make

(08:03):
their way through their career. Yeah, it's funny. The comedy landscape has
really changed. When I started,it was like get up on stage every
night, work on your craft,you know, like encounter hacklers, encounter
a room. You know. WhenI was performing at the Comedy Store in
nineteen ninety eight, they put meon at one o'clock in the morning in
front of four people, two ofwhich were sleeping and the other two were

(08:26):
blits drunk. So it's like yougot in front of these crowds and really
kind of, you know, developedthe foundation for your comedy. And now,
you know, with the advent ofthe Internet, social media, all
that stuff. You know, there'sa lot of comedians out there that you
know, might have a viral videoand next thing you know, they're headlining

(08:46):
a room and selling it out.But maybe they don't have the amount of
material to entertain that crowd for anhour and fifteen minutes. So I could
only speak from my own experience.It was just getting up on stage every
night, multiple times a night,and just working out material and just becoming
familiar with the microphone, the stageand all that. And then and then

(09:09):
you know, see where it takesyou. There's no shortcuts. It's like
you got to do the work.You know. It's like if you want
to be a body builder, it'snot only can lift weights for a couple
of weeks and then you go intoa show. It's a process. And
then that's how I equate comedy.Okay, yeah, so you you're talking
about that the Comedy Store, andis there really a very famous light that

(09:33):
Mitty would turn on? Was it? Was that a real thing? There's
a light in the corner of theroom. It's a blue star. They
don't have that blue star anymore.They since has changed it, But the
blue star was it's there to notifyyou when you have whatever two minutes left
in your set. I wasn't privyto any light going on. As far

(09:54):
as Mitsy trying to get the guyoff stage, I think she might have
just yelled it from the back getoff. So I don't even think that
woman needed a light. But shewas very small in stature, but very
very powerful in her just her aura, her essence was. You were kind
of your tiptoed around her because youdidn't you didn't you just she's such a

(10:20):
she's like the mother of comedy,you know, And it was great to
be around here well while she wasthere. Man Smashin big, very big
fan. Coming from an Italian family, I can really relate to a lot
of your comedy. What can weexpect on the thirteenth. What are some
of the subjects we're gonna bring?Yah, Listen, I'm a dad,
so I have a five year oldand a seven year old. A lot

(10:43):
of the comedy that I'm doing justparallels my life. You know. When
I was single, I was talkingabout being single. When I got married,
I was talking about being a newhusband and now that I'm a parent,
I'm talking about, you know,some of the trials and tribulations of
being a parent, but also talkingabout just observational humor called it ain't right.
So there's a lot of things inthe world as you step out of

(11:03):
your house that ain't right. Sothe material just kind of writes itself.
So, yeah, just more ofthe same of what you've seen in the
past. Obviously new material, butyou know, my tone has always been
just a general disgust with human behavior, so you'll definitely see some of that

(11:24):
and some of the experiences that I'vehad with my family and my kids.
And you know, I'm an olderdad. I'm meeting younger dads at school,
and my wife's always commenting, youknow, like, oh, they
got to pick up basketball league atschool. You know, with the dads,
why don't you, why don't youjoin the league? Join the league?
Because I got no testosterone level.It's like, these guys are thirty

(11:45):
five. I'm fifty. So it'syeah, it's it's a trip being an
older dad and witnessing some of thesethings that I'm seeing in the school system
and how they're teaching kids opposed tohow we were taught you know, these
kids are kind of weak today.And I kind of grew up in a
family where it's like, yeah,I was telling somebody the other day,

(12:07):
I played with myself, like foreighteen years, you know, like my
parents really didn't play with me.My son's in the basketball and my might
I say, why don't you playwith Like, oh, I played against
myself in my basement on a nervehooop. Yeah you know, so yeah,
yeah, you know, there isno like I didn't. I had

(12:28):
to make believe I had teammates.And now today it's like it's like the
kids constantly have to have interaction,which I'm a bit of an old school
parent. So yeah, I mean, there's there's a there's a bunch of
different topics I cover in the inthe set, and I can't wait to
get to Asheville. And I don'tthink I've ever had a playdate once in

(12:50):
my entire childhood. I don't evenknow what that is. A playdates.
My mom would just kick you outof the house and say, go,
yeah, we just we'd been onthe front yard and your playdate just kind
of happened, you know, likeyou saw the kid next door and you're
like, hey, you want toplay, and he said no, and
you would run around. I wasin my backyard running around. You know,
I didn't go to camp to sleepaway camp. If you're an immigrant,

(13:13):
you don't go to Immigrant families don'tsend their kids away for six weeks
to get raised by someone someone else. You know, it's you stay home
and you're just bored. I loveit. I love it, Sebastian,
Manescalco. It ain't right to ournagain. It's coming to Harris Cherokee Center
on the thirteenth. Sebastian, We'vetaken up enough of your time. Thank
you, thank you so much forcalling in. And I will definitely be

(13:35):
at the show. I've got mytickets and I can't wait. Man can't
wait. Thank you for having meon. And have a great Fourth of
July and keep working. Oh takecare.