‘Sebastian Maniscalco: Stay Hungry’ On Netflix Takes Bigger Bites Out of the Big Apple

Sebastian Maniscalco joked that his father had other plans for the two to tackle in the Big Apple on the day he taped Sebastian Maniscalco: Stay Hungry before a live audience at Radio City Music Hall.

When the comedian attempted to course-correct his father, he was met with this reply: “You a big shot?” “A biggie biggie shot?!”

As a matter of fact, the 45-year-old stand-up keeps getting bigger and bigger. After recording his first Netflix special at the Beacon Theatre with Jerry Seinfeld sitting in the “cheap” seats, Maniscalco has moved past Radio City now, preparing four at least three sold-out performances this weekend at Madison Square Garden. Yeah, he’s a big shot. Even if he’s no longer trying to go by just his first name.

After a brief period billing himself as just Sebastian, Maniscalco has leaned into his Italian surname and heritage. As the bit above illustrates, the guy next to him on the treadmill still smarts the comedian in such a way that proves why his production company in the end credits is called “What’s Wrong With People?” It’s a great bit, as my colleague testifies.

Maniscalco cartoonishly lampoons the guy trying too hard at the gym.

He has the thousands in attendance in the palm of his own hand as he jumps up and down, bouncing across the stage, arching his eyebrows, cocking his face this way and that. Sebastian Maniscalco is the current king of the act-out. Even more so because his physicality springs into full effect on a moment’s notice, breaking out from the lower registers of his regular monologue voice.

Where he has achieved such great heights in recent years, he has done so by pivoting his frustrations away from others and into a more personal paranoia about himself and his attitudes.

Perhaps he is simply taking his wife’s advice. In Stay Hungry, he reveals that his wife has implored of him: “Why look at everybody? Just do you!”

Looking at everyone around him does allow Maniscalco to literally and figuratively peacock down the aisle of an airplane, or waddle across the floor as if he’s wearing whatever special shoes everyone else has worn to SoulCycle in Los Angeles.

But looking inward allows himself and his family to become the butt of his jokes.

So he simultaneously can poke fun at his in-laws for their rich, relaxed lifestyle, while also mocking his own upbringing with overbearing parents and immigrant grandparents who spoke only Italian.

Or he can have us picture him covered in his wife’s placenta after giving birth to their newborn daughter, or sheepishly taking their car to the body shop, or clueless at the hardware store, or scared out of his mind to stop at a mini mart at midnight.

It’s one thing to hear Maniscalco relate the foibles of his life to us. It’s quite another to watch him do it. Seeing is believing in the power of his 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.

Watch Sebastian Maniscalco: Stay Hungry on Netflix