Sebastian Maniscalco went for a retro Rat Pack vibe for his fourth Netflix stand-up special, filming in Las Vegas at the Wynn resort and casino and sporting a tux for the occasion. Would his material for this hour follow suit, so to speak?
SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO: IS IT ME?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Peter Segal (Tommy Boy, 50 First Dates, The Longest Yard) directs Maniscalco in this more intimate Vegas showroom setting, as the comedian’s star and profile has continued to rise, taking his comedy tours to arenas, and elevating him from supporting (The Irishman, Green Book) to starring roles onscreen. He’ll soon star in a Chuck Lorre HBO Max series, How To Be A Bookie, and co-star on the big screen with Robert De Niro next year in About My Father.
Much of Maniscalco’s stand-up focuses on observational comedy, filtered through his Italian-American upbringing and punctuated with physical act-outs. This hour is no exception, even if he might not stretch himself quite so much in the tux. He jokes about how “date night” with his wife reveals how differently they pace themselves through life’s little moments, about how taking his two young kids to school has taught him how differently he sees the world now from other parents, and about how his elderly father is approaching the end of his life.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Maniscalco is one of a handful of stand-ups, mostly out of Los Angeles, who have carved out such specific personas and points-of-view (Iliza Shlesinger is another). Both of them have toured for a time under only their first names. They’ve also both become comedy influencers (onstage, if not also online).
Memorable Jokes: Maniscalco’s experience in the restaurant business serves him well as he explains just how misplaced his wife’s habits are when they go out to eat for their weekly date night on Tuesdays (because the comedian works weekends, obviously). So of course, watching her attempt to ask the busboy for help will be fruitless. “He don’t know actuallys!” Sebastian says. “The only Tito he knows is washing dishes in the back of the restaurant.”
As a middle-aged man with two young kids, he also finds plenty of fun in finding himself out of place both in the classroom as well as on the soccer field. He has some unique advice for his three-year-old son to maintain his kid’s confidence while also mollifying his teacher, but out on the pitch, he gets sidetracked by a Greyhound dog that whips through his kid’s practice.
It’s at this moment where the Maniscalco who became famous transforms himself into the Greyhound, ears pinned back, racing through the wind. Only, now at 49, and wearing a tux, his impersonation of the canine may have led to unintended consequences. “I think I split my pants on that one,” he confesses to us.
Our Take: At one point, Maniscalco also demonstrates a game called Gagootz that his family insisted upon during birthday parties when he was young, where the kid places a zucchini between his knees, then attempts to walk it over and pass to another child without using their hands.
But right before that, he’s lamenting on the state of life today. People think it’s better? he wonders. “Look around. It sucks.”
So why does it suck now? To hear him tell it, what sucks is having to watch what you say around other adults. Because if a classmate of his 5-year-old daughter wants to identify as a lion, he has to bite his tongue. Or that he feels the room pucker up when he describes another of the elementary school parents as Asian, because “you can’t even mention someone’s background in describing them.” He claims it’s very relevant at the end of the story, but is it, really? That “Indian-style” sitting for small children is now called “criss-cross-applesauce” apparently is too much for him to handle. “You don’t know what’s off-limits until you say it,” he says. Well, yeah. Some things should be obviously offensive to you before saying them, while others aren’t so obvious, and if you don’t learn by watching someone else’s mistake, then invariably you’ll be the one making that mistake. It feels a bit reflexive and defensive at this point watching my demographic peers trip over themselves, putting up proactive fights against imaginary enemies.
Maniscalco is a bit more sure of himself when he’s talking about a very real, very divisive issue, such as pandemic and people’s attitudes toward masks and vaccines. Just when you think he’s going to mock an audience member for wearing a mask, he pivots to go after the loudmouths who refuse to cover theirs. And his attitude and reasoning for getting the vaccine himself? Feels completely at home with who he is as a comedian.
Our Call: STREAM IT. I don’t think this is his best hour, per se, but for someone trying to turn back the clock, it’s another solidly reliable hour of entertaining comedy.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
