Sebastian Maniscalco is What America Needs Right Now

US Weekly

Transcript

00:00People think that comedian's always gonna be

00:02the center of attention and what have you.

00:04Oh, you must be a great at parties.

00:07I'm really not.

00:08I mean, I'm really kind of itching to get out of the party.

00:13You know, I don't want to go to the parties

00:15because I don't want to do the chit chat.

00:22What's up everybody, this is Sebastian Maniscalco

00:25here for my Us Weekly cover story

00:28at the Four Seasons Hotel,

00:30where it all started for me in 1998.

00:33Little known fact, 2002 I was voted

00:38Los Angeles hottest server

00:41and I still got the trophy at home on my mantle.

00:46Also, one of the most dynamic servers in Los Angeles

00:51in the fact that I could also use my left hand serving

00:55and then transition to the right hand, ambidextrous, here we go.

01:03Yeah, I left here 2005 and for the viewers, we just had a issue with some sound, right?

01:15So the lights were making a humming sound and you guys were like,

01:21oh, we shut the lights off.

01:22Now, I knew that there is no switches around here, that you'd have to get a manager involved.

01:27And then by the time they find the manager, you know, it's going to be noon.

01:32So it brought me back to when I was working here and we had an issue with either lighting or air conditioning.

01:41You had to get like a manager involved to like adjust that.

01:44There's no switches in here to lower anything because they don't want the employees touching anything.

01:49So I remember waiting on Al Pacino.

01:54He was, I remember the table numbers for some odd reason.

01:58He was on table 138 by himself, having tea, talking to himself.

02:02I don't know if he was like going over his lines or what have you.

02:05And then, you know, fast forward, I think 2019, I was in a movie with Al Pacino and Irishman.

02:11I waited on Robert De Niro outside on table 141.

02:15I remember that he constantly was eating almonds and wanting refresh on the almonds.

02:20And then 2022, he plays my father in a movie.

02:24So, yeah, it was kind of a lot of celebrities came through here.

02:30I remember Shaq was one of the best tippers that I ever waited on.

02:34He used to come in, leave $100 under a fruit plate and a cappuccino.

02:39Just used to, no bill, no nothing, just left $100.

02:42So, yeah, I had a great, great time here.

02:45A lot of stories came out of here.

02:46I have a problem with like enjoying any success just because of the way I grew up.

02:55I'm not Mr. Positivity.

02:57I know that seems to be very fashionable nowadays on Instagram.

03:02I'm like, oh, positive.

03:04I get up and I do my affirmations and I have a vision board and I write down what I want to do

03:12and all this stuff.

03:13That's not really my style.

03:14I mean, I don't know.

03:15I just feel like my fear is like failing.

03:22It's not, I don't know.

03:23When I succeed, I always feel like it's going to go away.

03:29So it makes me hard, it makes me work harder to kind of keep that level of success.

03:34Because if I kind of rest on the fact that I've done what I've done, I feel like I might lose my

03:41edge.

03:41So I feel like it's extremely hard to keep and sustain the success.

03:47I think it's easier maybe to get there.

03:49It's harder to like sustain it because now there's an expectation.

03:53You put a Hulu special out.

03:56This better be equal to or better than the last one I did.

04:00So it's, it's a lot of pressure, but it's kind of who I am.

04:05So it's, it's not like it's just kind of who I am in life.

04:09And I'm always kind of thinking of the worst.

04:13I, the problem is I don't live in the moment.

04:15I'm always thinking of what's next week.

04:17What's next year?

04:18What's two years from now?

04:20When am I going to die?

04:21You know, it's like that whole mentality.

04:24Well, I know I'm 52, right?

04:26And I got a six year old kid.

04:27So I always do the math of like, all right, where am I going to be when this kid gets married?

04:33Right.

04:33A wheelchair.

04:37Yeah, but I've, I've learned, I think within the last year or two,

04:41to kind of slow down, smell the roses a little bit more.

04:45Thank God for my wife.

04:46My wife is kind of more of the positive one in the relationship.

04:51Very, you know, like, Hey, let's enjoy this.

04:53Proudest moments for me actually is having my family around,

04:59sharing in a lot of these different moments.

05:01Like, for example, doing a movie that I co-wrote starring Robert De Niro as my father,

05:09and having my father on set teaching De Niro how to do blowouts and dye jobs.

05:17Because in the movie, my father's a hairstylist and that's what he is in real life.

05:22And De Niro wanted to know how to do those things.

05:25Uh, so he called my father to the set for five days and here I am with my dad on set,

05:33watching him teach De Niro how to be a hairdresser.

05:36And I mean, I never would have thought having the casino poster on my wall

05:44as a kid and having that guy play my dad was pretty surreal.

05:50And where I felt proud is having my dad alive to even see that.

05:56So yeah, I don't have like an, I don't, yeah, I don't have like a, I made it moment because a lot

06:02of it is just, you know, I never, I never really thought about, oh, I, I made it.

06:07I thought I made it when I was selling out comedy clubs, you know, to me that was like, okay,

06:13I made it.

06:14I'm, I'm, I'm making a living doing what I love to do.

06:17And everything kind of after that could be a, I made it moment because, uh, you know,

06:23a lot of the things are special to me.

06:25I mean, starring in a movie, selling out these arenas, um, doing a TV show.

06:32I did a TV show, uh, with Tony Danza who was playing my father, never got picked up.

06:37But here I am going, this is Tony Banta from taxi.

06:42And, uh, who's the boss and he's playing my dad.

06:46So yeah, I can, I could not pinpoint an, I made it moment because there's a lot of moments

06:52in my career where I say, wow, this is pretty getting shot in the back by De Niro and an Irishman

06:58in a, in a gangster movie getting directed by Martin Scorsese could be like, yeah,

07:03I'm just thinking about it now.

07:04Sometimes I don't even think about it.

07:05Cause I, I don't generally look back.

07:08So I'm always looking forward, but yeah.

07:10Yeah.

07:10So I've always stayed away from like current events, politics, what have you,

07:15just because I have always thought whatever my father is doing is a hell of a lot funnier

07:20than what the president is doing at the current moment.

07:23So, uh, and you're getting hit over the head

07:26with all this bad news and politics on a day to day from the iPhone to the TV, to the iPad.

07:33It's just so overwhelming that when you go out for a night of entertainment,

07:38I believe the people want to escape that.

07:41They don't want to like dive back into it and hear a spin a certain way.

07:47So I just never thought it was particularly funny to talk about.

07:52I like talking about things that people do on a day to day basis.

07:55I like talking about my life, my experiences, my kids, what I'm going through as a parent,

08:03how I'm dealing with the parenting of today, opposed to how I grew up,

08:08uh, just at my kid's soccer game.

08:10And, you know, at the end of the game, they're handing out blow pops, popcorn,

08:16uh, fruit roll ups.

08:17And I'm like, you know, we just played soccer and now we're giving the kids junk food.

08:23Yeah.

08:24It's just like, I remember getting like a orange slice growing up.

08:28Um, and now they're giving out like candy and, uh, and no one's saying anything.

08:35And, and, you know, like that to me is like a start of a bit that I'm going to, to develop.

08:40Uh, and it's relatable to not only parents, but even people who don't have kids who remember

08:48having the orange slice in the eighties.

08:51Um, so yeah, I, I just rather talk about that than what's happening with the current administration.

08:59It just doesn't even sound like fun.

09:01Um, it ain't right to wear Invisalign retainers in public.

09:06I got a huge problem with people, uh, it's like two o'clock in the afternoon.

09:13It's a meeting and they have their Invisalign retainers.

09:16And this is for nighttime.

09:20Cause I can't, I cannot not look at the, the retainers.

09:24I feel like you gotta, you gotta keep that in private.

09:28It's not so much the career that they think is funny.

09:31I mean, daddy definitely is funny, but daddy is also the disciplinarian.

09:35So that, um, that kind of, uh, equals out me being funny.

09:41Um, they think I'm funny, but I'm also, I set the, the, the, the rules in the home.

09:47Uh, they're beginning to realize that, uh, daddy, you know, is in the public eye.

09:51I mean, we went down Sunset Boulevard, uh, and there was a large, uh, billboard on the

09:57side of a building with myself and, uh, Omar Dorsey when bookie was out and they're like,

10:03you know, daddy, that's, that's you.

10:05But it's, it's not how I grew up looking at entertainment because I was looking at it

10:10from afar going, oh my God, that's where is Hollywood do like, could people even go there

10:17and they're growing up in it.

10:18So this is kind of their norm.

10:20It's not like it's something that they're, they're, they're, they're seeing it as it's

10:25happening.

10:26Uh, so yes, they, they, they are understanding it.

10:30And, uh, for me, I'm very cautious about telling my kids, uh, about, listen, they're

10:38growing up in a different life than I grew up in.

10:40I grew up in a working middle class.

10:42There was struggle.

10:43There was, you know, uh, we went to McDonald's and I was aware that my father might not be able

10:49to swing that's not that he'd be able to afford it, but I never want to put him in a position

10:55where he would have to like, get me the big Mac.

11:00But he really wanted to pay for a double, double cheeseburger or whatever.

11:04Uh, so I tell my kids that this is not normal that, you know, I, I give them chores.

11:14Uh, they have to make their bed.

11:16The, the, the, the sense of entitlement is not there with them because I'm so conscious of

11:22keeping them grounded because I know where this could go.

11:26I've seen it.

11:27I've seen a lot of families that the kid is, you know, 30 years old in the basement playing video

11:32games, soaking off his parents.

11:34I don't want that for my kids.

11:36I want them to be happy.

11:38Number one.

11:38And number two, I want them to be as, uh, I just want them to pay their own bills.

11:45I always like to put myself in the shoes of the people and I find like self-deprecation humor

11:52really works with me.

11:54I went to the Oscars, right?

11:56But my Oscars story is not one of fame and fortune.

11:59It's one of me sitting up in the third balcony while everybody from the green book is accepting

12:06the Oscar because I, it's a whole story, but I didn't get to sit with the group.

12:13I got this, I was, I was basically up with the feet, the seat fillers.

12:18Uh, I ended up falling down the stairs at the Oscars.

12:23Um, it was, it was a nightmare going on the red carpet at the Oscars.

12:27And Nicole, you know this, uh, it was at the point in my career where like Denzel Washington

12:34went out and it was like lightning.

12:36It's like, you couldn't even see him.

12:38He was engulfed in light.

12:39And then, you know, uh, Kevin Costner went out.

12:42This is on the, uh, red carpet.

12:45And then it was my turn to go out and the publicist had to come out and announce me.

12:50They're like, everybody, this is Sebastian Maniscalco.

12:53And when you're announced, you, it was like, I went out there and it was like a piss break

12:59for the photographers.

13:01They were like cleaning their lenses.

13:02They're like, who?

13:04And I'm like, I'm in the green book, you know, nothing.

13:07Uh, and then there's a press line at the Oscars.

13:10So I noticed that Ryan Seacrest was, you know, he had a camera guy.

13:15He was on a pedestal.

13:17He was lights.

13:18And there was a, there was an audio guy.

13:21There was all these people around him, which I didn't get to talk to him where they, they

13:25took me down all the way at the, as you go down press row at the end, you could tell at the end,

13:32it's like the guy is a one man shop.

13:34He's got the iPhone in his mouth recording you.

13:38He gives you a little, uh, a furry microphone.

13:42He's got a light coming off his back.

13:44He's like, he's like, he's from the Ecuador times.

13:47It's like, he's like, that's the guy I was talking to at the Oscars.

13:52I didn't get to talk to like Mario Lopez.

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