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	<title>Sebastian Maniscalco</title>
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		<title>Classy Clown</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/classy-clown/</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:20:24 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Magazine]]></category>

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		<title>Just for Laughs 2011</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/just-for-laughs-2011-russell-peters-gala-best-night-ever-pretty-good-at-least/</link>
		<comments>http://sebastianlive.com/just-for-laughs-2011-russell-peters-gala-best-night-ever-pretty-good-at-least/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:46:24 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Just for Laughs 2011: Russell Peters gala &#8220;Best Night Ever&#8221;? Pretty good at least: Bill Brownstein: The Gazette columnist has been covering the comedy fest since Mr. Methane cleared the room all those eons ago. Overall: It was billed as the Best Night Ever. Tall order for a night without the usual stimulants. But it [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>Just for Laughs 2011: Russell Peters gala &#8220;Best Night Ever&#8221;? Pretty good at least:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Bill Brownstein: </strong><em>The Gazette columnist has been covering the comedy fest since Mr. Methane cleared the room all those eons ago.</em></p>
<p><strong>Overall:</strong> It was billed as the Best Night Ever. Tall order for a night without the usual stimulants. But it was a pretty good night. No one stiffed. And some really shone: frenetic Sebastian Maniscalco, deadpan Nick Thune, quipster Jimmy Carr and sad-sack Canuck Jeremy Hotz.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Russell Peters can make much ado about nothing (which he did) and still have the crowd in the palm of his hand (which he had). True to form, he said his newborn baby was “cool &#8230; but she’s not a car.” And Peters will likely continue to thrill crowds at Thursday’s sold-out galas.</p>
<p><strong>Highlights: </strong>Thune. Think a punk Steven Wright on guitar: “Enough is enough &#8230; it is &#8230; it is the exact same word.” And the ever-droll Hotz: “Great to be in Montreal – a city that doesn’t know how to finish a street. Je me souviens – what? When the whole road used to be there?”</p>
<p><strong>Lowlights: </strong>Hard to find. People actually didn’t walk in late. So we’ll have to settle for the T-shirt-tossing disco boy who tried to pump it up at the beginning. At least they didn’t use the Bell Centre’s bazooka-firing T-shirt bozos. And I could have done without the seemingly bogus kid-in-a-wheelchair stunt</p>
<p><strong>Denise Duguay:</strong> <em>She’s a digital editor and TV blogger at The Gazette who’s hoping to meet Garry Shandling. Please.</em></p>
<p><strong>Overall:</strong> Let’s talk about the new set at the new venue, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts. The cluster of screens looked suspect at first, but became a dynamic backdrop under performance lighting. Too much so in some cases. The eye-level video screens at either edge of the stage, featuring close-ups of the comics, gave me motion sickness.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Russell Peters looked sharp in a steel grey suit with white T and sneakers, and sailed just as smoothly through a solid series of bits. But the bombshell mother and make-a-wish-child routine? Nope.</p>
<p><strong>Highlights:</strong> I could watch Sebastian Maniscalco talk about nothing but food all night long. Starbucks with its muffin eaters and Subway with its ditherers will never be the same. Jeremy Hotz was as great as ever. And Jimmy Carr? As brilliant as when I saw him last week in his excellent one-man show at the Gesù. Go see it. It’s called Laughter Therapy.</p>
<p><strong>Lowlights:</strong> Nick Thune was very good, with his cardiganed troubadour wordplay, but he lost all momentum with a joke about his fake ID and its former owner: an organ donor. And festival stalwart Dom Irrera seemed a little overshadowed by the younger comics.</p>
<p><strong>Max Harrold: </strong><em>He is a Gazette city news reporter with a habit – he calls it a skill – for spotting the absurd in the banal.</em></p>
<p><strong>Overall:</strong> In a night of “just trying stuff out,” as Nick Thune said, there was much hilarity and some total misses. But variety is good, and if the jokes weren’t always clever, the comics’ glares, eyebrows and even the elaborate disabled-child-exploitation bit got A’s for effort, although that last one was a lot of work.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Russell Peters smooth-talked his way into our hearts. With his Indian heritage and “stay brown” motto, he was the best source for the night’s many race-fuelled jokes. And he left nothing off-limits. On being the dad of a 7-month-old girl, he said it took him a while to fall in love: “She’s 50 per cent her mom. She could be a psycho bitch.”</p>
<p><strong>Highlights:</strong> Sebastian Maniscalco’s take on new consumer habits was funny and true: “It’s all changin’, man. Craigslist. You put an ad on there to sell an area rug, inviting strangers to your house. It’s an invitation to murder.” Nick Thune was delightful: he quipped Caesarean sections are “the Delissio of pregnancy, because it’s not delivery.”</p>
<p><strong>Lowlights:</strong> Nick Thune took some chances that flopped. His quip about having a 42-year-old’s ID card landed with a thud when he added the man was an organ donor. For a groaner, Jimmy Carr offered: “Osama bin Laden, jihad it coming.” As for Dom Irrera, one of his lines describes his low energy: He didn’t want to be woken from his Xanax-induced nap.</p>
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		<title>Comic Sebastian Maniscalco dresses down people with bad manners</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/comic-sebastian-maniscalco-dresses-down-people-with-bad-manners/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:45:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Just about everybody, at one time or another, gets honking mad about society&#8217;s disintegrating standards of civility and decorum. Take your pick: movie talkers, tailgating or texting drivers, loud neighbors. Sebastian Maniscalco feels your pain and shares your outrage. His new DVD spells it out: &#8220;What&#8217;s Wrong With People?&#8221; &#8220;I talk about that mainly in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just about everybody, at one time or another, gets honking mad about society&#8217;s disintegrating standards of civility and decorum. Take your pick: movie talkers, tailgating or texting drivers, loud neighbors.</p>
<p>Sebastian Maniscalco feels your pain and shares your outrage. His new DVD spells it out: &#8220;What&#8217;s Wrong With People?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I talk about that mainly in my act,&#8221; says the comedian, who opens at the Pittsburgh Improv on Thursday. &#8220;What&#8217;s wrong with people? What&#8217;s wrong with their behavior? Nobody seems to have any manners anymore. They&#8217;re all out for themselves.&#8221;</p>
<p>As style correspondent for &#8220;The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,&#8221; the well-dressed Mr. M. fulminates on the slob-ification of America, where people wear camouflage pants to church and flip flops on an airplane.</p>
<p>He&#8217;s old school. He often performs in suits, in the tradition of Johnny Carson and Don Rickles. The only drawback to dressing up, he says, is that it limits his movements on stage.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do a lot of physical stuff onstage, a lot of act-outs,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>He began his comedy career not long after graduating from Northern Illinois University with a major in communications. During one of his performances, the predominantly black audience began chanting &#8220;Sandman!&#8221; It was a reference to Howard Sims, who acted as a sort of bouncer at talent shows at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Whenever an act began stinking up the joint, Sims would usher them off with a shepherd&#8217;s crook.</p>
<p>&#8220;I died,&#8221; Maniscalco says. &#8220;Let&#8217;s put it that way. I always knew that I had the ability to make people laugh. I was never the class clown. I was kind of shy, but when I got on stage, I felt comfortable there. Comedy is a lot of trial and error. It takes a while to find your voice. It&#8217;s a long road, but if you stick with hit you start to reap the benefits of all the hard work you put in.&#8221;</p>
<p>He moved to Los Angeles when he was 24. For the next eight years, he worked as a waiter at the Four Seasons while he improved his comedy craft at open-mic nights. In 2005, actor Vince Vaughn recruited him to tour as one of a quartet of comic&#8217;s in his Wild West Comedy Tour. The tour and movie didn&#8217;t make anybody rich, but Maniscalco says he finally was able to quit his job waiting tables.</p>
<p>He also was featured in the 2010 documentary &#8220;Just Like Us,&#8221; where he joined comics Ahmed Ahmed, Whitney Cummings and others on a tour of the Middle East. Their usual onstage material &#8212; sex, dating, relationships &#8212; was heavily censored in strict Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s unbelievable how well they speak English and how well they get the Western lifestyle,&#8221; he says. &#8220;There&#8217;s a young generation that&#8217;s Westernized. They get the American way of living. They don&#8217;t know what &#8230; TJ Maxx is, but you can talk about text messaging and flying.&#8221;</p>
<p>After the Pittsburgh shows, Maniscalco will head to Montreal to perform at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.</p>
<div>Read more: <a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/more/s_746566.html#ixzz1g3a2BY41">Comic Sebastian Maniscalco dresses down people with bad manners &#8211; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review</a> <a href="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/more/s_746566.html#ixzz1g3a2BY41">http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/more/s_746566.html#ixzz1g3a2BY41</a></div>
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		<title>More laughs on tap at Montreal’s comedy fest</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/more-laughs-on-tap-at-montreal%e2%80%99s-comedy-fest/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:42:12 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[MONTREAL &#8211; The laughs will linger longer in July. Just for Laughs execs have heeded the complaints of patrons and have extended the anglo portion of the festival to three weeks instead of the usual one – except for the Nasty Show series, which had always run the week before the logjam of English-language shows. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>MONTREAL &#8211; The laughs will linger longer in July. Just for Laughs execs have heeded the complaints of patrons and have extended the anglo portion of the festival to three weeks instead of the usual one – except for the Nasty Show series, which had always run the week before the logjam of English-language shows.</p>
<p>In this new scheme of events, the Nasty Show series will run July 14 to 16, along with other shows to be announced later. During the following week, the Ethnic Show series will get top billing, July 21 to 24. And in the last week of July, it will be the standard madness of the galas and one-man shows, not to mention the street festivities.</p>
<p>Schedule changes will result in venue changes. The galas will now take place in Place des Arts, not Théâtre St. Denis. The Nasty Show series will now be unleashed at the Metropolis, while the Ethnic Show series will move to Club Soda. Prior to this year, Club Soda had always been home to the Nasty Show.</p>
<p>In addition to schedule and venue changes, there have been significant hosting changes. In the case of the Nasty Show, it was unavoidable with the sudden death of last year’s host, Greg Giraldo. But festival programmer Robbie Praw has reached out to one of the biggest and nastiest and funniest folks in the business in Jeff Ross, the “Roastmaster General” who has earned his spurs eviscerating celebs on the Roast circuit.</p>
<p>Organizers have scored a coup on the Ethnic Show front as well. Taking over the reins will be Middle Eastern comedy sensation Maz Jobrani. Not as nasty as Ross, Jobrani will still blow away audiences with the same ease as the Roastmaster General.</p>
<p>“It’s probably a good thing that the biggest complaint we get is that people are not able to take in more festival shows, because they all tend to take place at the same time,” Praw says. “Now Montrealers will have the opportunity to see more and different shows.”</p>
<p>Praw is so confident that audiences will cotton to the acidic Ross that he has booked the Nasty Show series at the Metropolis, which has double the capacity of Club Soda. Then again, this year’s Nasty Show will run only three – not six – nights, and Ross will preside over eight – not 15 – shows.</p>
<p>“The Nasty Show has been around for so long and has been such a festival staple that we felt we had to do something bigger and bring it up another level, and to get the guy who could do that,” Praw says. “Ross is, without question, one of the most outrageous and shocking comics around. Not only will he host, but he will also be roasting Montreal and Montrealers.</p>
<p>“Those who feel the Nasty Show has gotten soft will see and hear nastiness like never before. And, seriously, I strongly recommend that anyone who is not sure whether or not they can stomach it all to stay away.”</p>
<p>Not the usual sales pitch one gets from a festival programmer. But Praw is not just kibitzing here. To prove that point, here is a selection of Ross’s – more printable – carvings:</p>
<p>On Larry King: “Even the title of his show, Larry King Live, was an oxymoron. He will spend his retirement opening a jar.”</p>
<p>On William Shatner: “You’ve let yourself boldly go. When did you go from Captain Kirk to Cap’n Crunch? Do you work on Boston Legal or at Boston Market? I wish that just once your spaceship could have landed on a planet with an acting school.”</p>
<p>On Abe Vigoda: “He wants to invite all of you to his funeral on Tuesday &#8230; at the Museum of Natural History.”</p>
<p>On Whitney Cummings: “She has been very busy, working on three pilots, and that was just on her way in here tonight.”</p>
<p>On John McCain: “I thought he was taking part in a candlelight vigil, but then I realized he was just blowing out candles on his birthday cake.”</p>
<p>On coming to the Just for Laughs festival last summer: “There were so many comics on my flight into Montreal that we had to go through an insecurity checkpoint.”</p>
<p>Also on the Nasty Show bill will be Anthony Jeselnik, a writer on the Jimmy Fallon late-night show and an up-and-coming comedy reprobate who distinguished himself most recently in the roasting of Donald Trump. To wit: “It’s been a rough year in comedy. We lost Greg Giraldo, but we kept Jeff Ross.” Should be really interesting with the two of them on the same show.</p>
<p>Joining Jobrani – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Howie Mandel – on the Ethnic Show will be the fast-rising Sebastian Maniscalco, who will bring a different Italian comedy dimension to proceedings.</p>
<p><strong>The Nasty Show,</strong> hosted by Jeff Ross, runs July 14 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and July 15 and 16 at 7, 9:30 and 11:59 p.m. at the Metropolis, 59 Ste. Catherine St. E. Tickets: $39.50. <strong>The Ethnic Show,</strong> hosted by Maz Jobrani, runs July 21 to 24 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at Club Soda, 1225 St. Laurent Blvd. Tickets: $35.50. Tickets for both shows go on sale Monday at the Just for Laughs and specific theatre box offices. Tickets for both shows are available to Just for Laughs club members as of Thursday. For more information, call 514-845-2322 or go to <a href="http://www.hahaha.com/" target="_blank">www.hahaha.com</a>.</p>
<div>Read more: <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/More+laughs+Montreal+comedy+fest/4493393/story.html#ixzz1g3ZB2yUs">http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/More+laughs+Montreal+comedy+fest/4493393/story.html#ixzz1g3ZB2yUs</a></div>
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		<title>Working with Vince Vaughn “Was Pretty Wild”</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/working-with-vince-vaughn-%e2%80%9cwas-pretty-wild%e2%80%9d/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:12:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco &#8211; who took the stage at Hollywood&#8217;s Improv Comedy Club last night &#8212; said you can expect about anything from his stand-up&#8230;except scripted punch lines, that is. &#8220;It&#8217;s kind of a social commentary on what&#8217;s going on in today&#8217;s society,&#8221; Maniscalco told Niteside. &#8220;It&#8217;s very observational, very relatable &#8212; anything from dating [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p id="paragraph1">Comedian <a href="http://sebastianlive.com/">Sebastian Maniscalco</a> &#8211; who took the stage at <a href="http://improvftl.com/show_right.cfm?id=59852&amp;cart">Hollywood&#8217;s Improv Comedy Club</a> last night &#8212; said you can expect about anything from his stand-up&#8230;except scripted punch lines, that is.</p>
<p id="paragraph2">&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of a social commentary on what&#8217;s going on in today&#8217;s society,&#8221; <a title="Sebastian Maniscalco" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/topics?topic=Sebastian+Maniscalco">Maniscalco</a> told Niteside. &#8220;It&#8217;s very observational, very relatable &#8212; anything from dating to shopping to teaching my father the Internet. It&#8217;s not really written out jokes, it&#8217;s more experiences &#8212; I&#8217;m just kind of living my life, and bringing it to the stage.&#8221;</p>
<p id="paragraph3">He added. &#8220;I just started watching <em>The Bachelor</em> a couple weeks ago to see what the big deal was…that will probably come up.&#8221;</p>
<p id="paragraph4">Maniscalco &#8211; who doubles as comedic style correspondent on <em><a title="The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/topics?topic=The+Tonight+Show+with+Jay+Leno">The Tonight Show with Jay Leno</a></em> and debuted his first hour-long special, <em>Sebastian Live</em>, on Comedy Central last year &#8211; is already gearing up for another segment set to air this fall.</p>
<p id="paragraph5">Until then, the <a title="Chicago" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/topics?topic=Chicago">Chicago</a> native is knee-deep in his 25 city stand-up tour, including a four-day stint at Hollywood&#8217;s Improv. And while he says the <a title="South Florida" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/topics?topic=South+Florida">South Florida</a> crowd is &#8220;always a good time,&#8221; he admits nothing quite compares to teaming up with funnyman <a title="Vince Vaughn" href="http://www.nbcmiami.com/topics?topic=Vince+Vaughn">Vince Vaughn</a> and other fellow comedians for the <em>Wild West Comedy Show</em>.</p>
<p id="paragraph6">&#8220;Hanging out with a <strong>Vince Vaughn</strong> for 30 days on a bus &#8212; yeah, that was pretty wild,&#8221; he laughed. &#8220;I remember when <em>Swingers</em> came out, and I read an article about it in the <em>Sun-Times</em> about two guys making this movie on a low budget and no permits, and I thought that was cool.</p>
<p>&#8220;Who would have thought 10 years later I&#8217;d be starring in a movie with the guy? It&#8217;s been a wild ride.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>Style Over Substance</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/style-over-substance/</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 16:44:22 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Sebastian Maniscalco, style correspondent for The Tonight show with Jay Leno and performer on Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, heads to the Playboy Comedy Club at the Palms for a few nights of laughs and possibly a little fashion commentary. Just remember, check your flip-flops at the door—Maniscalco will be judging. At what point [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sebastian Maniscalco, style correspondent for <em>The Tonight show with Jay Leno</em> and performer on Vince Vaughn’s <em>Wild West Comedy Show,</em> heads to the Playboy Comedy Club at the Palms for a few nights of laughs and possibly a little fashion commentary. Just remember, check your flip-flops at the door—Maniscalco will be judging.</p>
<p><strong>At what point in your career did you realize you could really call yourself a professional comedian and that this was going to work out for the long term?</strong></p>
<p>I started working full time as a comedian in 2005, shortly after we did the Vince Vaughn <em>Wild West Comedy Show.</em> I worked at the Four Seasons hotel from 1998 to 2005, so about seven years, just trying to put some food on the table and pay the rent while I went out to the open mics and got my feet wet with stand-up comedy. Very traditional in the fact that I had to pay some dues before I started making a living at what I love.</p>
<p><strong>How did Vince Vaughn come to choose you for the Wild West Comedy Show?</strong></p>
<p>We met about two years prior to 2005. He used to come out to a comedy show that was here in Los Angeles every Tuesday night and supported his friend Ahmed Ahmed, who is also one of the comedians in the movie. They were roommates and had known each other for 13 or 14 years and he used to come out to support him. We ended up meeting through Ahmed and Vince is from Chicago and I’m from Chicago and we just started talking about Chicago sports and developed a friendship then two years later he called up four of his favorite comedians and said, “I bought a million-dollar tour bus and I wanted to go take a tour across the country; what are you doing?”</p>
<p><strong>What has been one of your funniest moments as the style correspondent for <em>The Tonight Show with Jay Leno?</em></strong></p>
<p>We went to an airport to see what people wear at an airport. You basically had a guy in his boxer shorts and flip-flops, and he just thought that was appropriate to wear on an airplane. We went to church and some guy walked out with camouflage pants, and it just seems that society is headed toward the toilet. People don’t care anymore. It just seems very blasé. There’s no etiquette. Everybody’s comfortable. And I got a problem with that for some reason. I just wasn’t raised that way. I think it was all in my upbringing. When we went to church, we got dressed up, you wore your nice pants and now people will come out in their Dodgers jerseys and I’m like, “Where are you going?” “Oh, we’re going to the Dodgers game after this.” And I’d say, “So you wear your Dodger outfit to pray?” It was just a little unsettling for me but I guess that’s the sign of the times. I pitched doing a style section in Las Vegas because here’s a town where in the ’50s and ’60s, not that I was around then but, from what I’ve seen and what I’ve read and talking to my parents when they went to Las Vegas, you dressed up and you went out to a casino and you had nice clothes on. I go to Vegas now and I’m in the casino and I’m gambling and there’s a guy in a wet bathing suit gambling right next to me. There’s a town where as far as casual goes—it’s anything goes.</p>
<p><strong>Since you seem to know more about style than the average man, do you ever draw material for your comedy from outrageously dressed people?</strong></p>
<p>I do whole skits on it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a guy’s wearing flip-flop sandals, which I don’t understand. Men’s feet are disgusting to begin with but now they’re on display when I try to go out for a nice steak at a restaurant and I have to sit there and look at some guy’s hoof? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. It’s something that should be reserved for the pool or the beach.</p>
<p><strong>Where is your favorite place to people watch?</strong></p>
<p>Literally you step out your door and you could really see it anywhere. You go to a local mall or an airport, any place where people congregate. Wal-Mart’s the big thing now where people put the pictures up on the website. You go into Wal-Mart and you see stuff you typically wouldn’t see anywhere else. I’ve never seen a weirder group of people than at the post office. It looks like people are crawling out from under rocks to go to the post office.</p>
<p><strong>How do you deal with hecklers?</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes it’s cool to have banter with the audience. Occasionally somebody will say something and I’ll say something right back and everybody laughs and it’s funny. But then sometimes you get a drunk person who’s had a lot of alcohol and is disrupting the show and I really have no patience for it. I try to address it with a joke. Every heckler is unique because they say something and you react to what they say or what they’re wearing or who they’re with so every response to a heckle is unique. It interrupts the flow of your set, the timing, it messes up your show and the people who are there aren’t there to hear people scream and interrupt the show so I take offense to it that people would ruin a show where people came out to laugh.</p>
<p><strong>What can you tell me about your new upcoming comedy special?</strong></p>
<p>I just finished taping it. This one is called <em>What’s Wrong with People?</em> It basically covers anything from the way people behave at Subway when they’re ordering a sandwich to how people love to sample before they buy at a yogurt place. Everybody’s nuts about yogurt so I went to check out what’s with this yogurt craze and I’m watching people have to sample 16 different flavors before they buy something. It’s the little annoyances everybody goes through during the day. I think everybody comes home after a long day of work or a long day of going out and has a conversation with their significant others and say, “What the hell is wrong with people?” I cover lots of different subjects. I cover dating; I cover my father and the Internet. My father is an immigrant from Italy and he wants to learn the Internet and he called me up one day and I had to try and navigate him through the Internet over the phone. We’re editing it right now then we’re going to shop it around. My last two comedy specials were on Comedy Central, so hopefully we’ll land it there.</p>
<p><strong>I know you’ve talked about observing people, but who or what else really makes you laugh?</strong></p>
<p>I like Bill Burr and Brian Regan. They are two of my favorites to watch, very relatable. Brian Regan is a guy who doesn’t say one swear word in his entire show and in today’s world where everything seems to be raunchy and dirty and to see somebody like Brian Regan come out there and do a very clean act and make it very relatable and funny is refreshing.</p>
<p><strong>Is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to about your upcoming trip to Las Vegas?</strong></p>
<p>I like Las Vegas because it kind of gives me a chance to gauge my material in front of a very diverse group of people. There are a lot of different people in the audience and you can kind of get a barometer for how your material plays throughout the country. This is kind of the pulse of the country.</p>
<p><strong>What can fans at the Playboy Comedy Club expect from your act?</strong></p>
<p>It will definitely have some material specific to Las Vegas. Expect a different type of comedy. You could bring your grandmother to the show, you could bring your teenager to the show and everybody’s going to find something they can relate to. It’s classy comedy. If the Rat Pack was around today, I think I’d be the sixth member.</p>
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		<title>Check Your Jerseys and Flip-flops at Sebastian Maniscalco’s Show Door</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/check-your-jerseys-and-flip-flops-at-sebastian-maniscalco%e2%80%99s-show-door/</link>
		<comments>http://sebastianlive.com/check-your-jerseys-and-flip-flops-at-sebastian-maniscalco%e2%80%99s-show-door/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 May 2011 16:43:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sebastianlive.com/?p=292</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Allison Duck Sebastian Maniscalco, a style correspondent for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and a performer on Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, headlines at The Playboy Comedy Club at the Palms through Saturday night and offers laughs and possibly a little fashion commentary. Check your flip-flops at the door because Maniscalco will [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>By <strong>Allison Duck</strong></em></p>
<p>Sebastian Maniscalco, a style correspondent for <em>The Tonight Show With Jay Leno</em> and a performer on <em>Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show</em>, headlines at The Playboy Comedy Club at the Palms through Saturday night and offers laughs and possibly a little fashion commentary.</p>
<p>Check your flip-flops at the door because Maniscalco will be judging.</p>
<p><strong>Allison Duck:</strong> At what point in your career did you realize you could really call yourself a professional comedian and that this was going to work out for the long term?</p>
<p><strong>Sebastian Maniscalco:</strong> I started working full time as a comedian in 2005, shortly after we did the <em>Vince Vaughn Wild West Comedy Show</em>. I worked at the Four Seasons from 1998 to 2005, so about seven years, just trying to put some food on the table and pay the rent while I went out to the open mics and got my feet wet with stand-up comedy. Very traditional in the fact that I had to pay some dues before I started making a living at what I love.</p>
<p><strong>AD:</strong> What has been one of your funniest moments as the style correspondent for <em>The Tonight Show With Jay Leno</em>?</p>
<p><strong>SM:</strong> I’m kind of an old soul when it comes to dressing up, kind of presenting yourself in a respectable manner, but when we went out and did some of that stuff for Jay Leno, we went to an airport to see what people wear at an airport. You basically had a guy in his boxer shorts and flip-flops, and he just thought that was appropriate to wear on an airplane. We went to church and some guy walked out with camouflage pants, and it just seems that society is headed toward the toilet.</p>
<p>People don’t care anymore. It just seems very blase. There’s no etiquette. Everybody’s comfortable. And I got a problem with that for some reason. I just wasn’t raised that way. I think it was all in my upbringing. When we went to church, we got dressed up, you wore your nice pants, and now people will come out in their Dodgers jerseys, and I’m like, “Where are you going?” “Oh, we’re going to the Dodgers game after this.” And I’d say, “So you wear your Dodger outfit to pray?” It was just a little unsettling for me, but I guess that’s the sign of the times.</p>
<p><strong>AD:</strong> Since you seem to know more about style than the average man, do you ever draw material for your comedy from outrageously dressed people?</p>
<p><strong>SM:</strong> I do whole skits on it. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a guy’s wearing flip-flop sandals, which I don’t understand. Men’s feet are disgusting to begin with, but now they’re on display when I try to go out for a nice steak at a restaurant, and I have to sit there and look at some guy’s hoof? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. It’s something that should be reserved for the pool or the beach.</p>
<p><strong>AD:</strong> What can you tell me about your new upcoming comedy special?</p>
<p><strong>SM:</strong> I just finished taping it. This one is called <em>What’s Wrong With People?</em> It basically covers anything from the way people behave at Subway when they’re ordering a sandwich to how people love to sample before they buy at a yogurt place. It’s the little annoyances everybody goes through during the day. I think everybody comes home after a long day of work or a long day of going out and has a conversation with their significant others and say, “What the hell is wrong with people?” We’re editing it right now, then we’re going to shop it around.</p>
<p><strong>AD:</strong> What can fans at The Playboy Comedy Club expect from your act?</p>
<p><strong>SM:</strong> It will definitely have some material specific to Las Vegas. Expect a different type of comedy. You could bring your grandmother to the show, you could bring your teenager to the show, and everybody’s going to find something they can relate to. It’s classy comedy. If The Rat Pack was around today, I think I’d be the sixth member.</p>
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		<title>Riffing on things Italian</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/riffing-on-things-italian/</link>
		<comments>http://sebastianlive.com/riffing-on-things-italian/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:43:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sebastianlive.com/?p=289</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[WHO: Sebastian Maniscalco. Sebastian Maniscalco got a break when he met Vince Vaughn, who picked him to be part of a comedy tour. WHAT: Comedy. WHEN: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday. WHERE: Bananas Comedy Club at the Holiday Inn, 283 Route 17 south, Hasbrouck Heights; 201-727-1090 or bananascomedyclub.com. HOW MUCH: $20. Sebastian Maniscalco is really [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="storybody">
<p>WHO: Sebastian Maniscalco.</p>
<div>
<div id="storymedia">
<div>Sebastian Maniscalco got a break when he met Vince Vaughn, who picked him to be part of a comedy tour.</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>WHAT: Comedy.</p>
<p>WHEN: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday.</p>
<p>WHERE: Bananas Comedy Club at the Holiday Inn, 283 Route 17 south, <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/hasbrouckheights">Hasbrouck Heights</a>; 201-727-1090 or bananascomedyclub.com.</p>
<p>HOW MUCH: $20.</p>
<p>Sebastian Maniscalco is really looking forward to playing <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/hasbrouckheights">Hasbrouck Heights</a> this weekend.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been to Bananas in New Jersey before, and love it out there. [There are] a lot of Italian people,&#8221; the comic says. &#8220;I&#8217;m Italian, from Chicago, and I always like playing heavily populated Italian areas. They seem to get my humor.&#8221;</p>
<p>It isn&#8217;t just paisans, though, who get a kick out of Maniscalco. The comic has won fans of all stripes with his comic riffs on not just Italian weddings and such, but everyday experiences like shopping, driving, dating and using technology.</p>
<p>Nowadays, even his divorced senior-citizen parents are going high-tech.</p>
<p>&#8220;My mother&#8217;s actually on dating websites, which I never thought would be possible, especially coming from an Italian family,&#8221; Maniscalco says. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got my 65-year-old mother telling me the other day, &#8216;Yeah, I&#8217;m up on italianmeet.com.&#8217; I go, &#8216;What? I hope it&#8217;s &#8220;m-e-E-t,&#8221; Ma.&#8217; &#8221;</p>
</div>
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		<title>Defend Yourself! Sebastian Maniscalco</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/defend-yourself-sebastian-maniscalco/</link>
		<comments>http://sebastianlive.com/defend-yourself-sebastian-maniscalco/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sebastianlive.com/?p=262</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you’re a man who enjoys the bliss of a frothy morning latte-–Sebastian Maniscalco thinks you’re one silly goose. He doesn’t have time for that behavior. Nor does he condone it. Maniscalco enjoys his coffee—the way a sailor or an oil driller might—straight-up black. His profound disgust with human behavior has landed him coveted slots [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you’re a man who enjoys the bliss of a frothy morning latte-–Sebastian Maniscalco thinks you’re one silly goose. He doesn’t have time for that behavior. Nor does he condone it. Maniscalco enjoys his coffee—the way a sailor or an oil driller might—straight-up black. His profound disgust with human behavior has landed him coveted slots on <em>The</em> <em>Tonight Show with Jay Leno</em> and <em>The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson</em>.</p>
<p><strong>So, you’re coming to <a href="http://sebastianlive.com/tour-dates" target="_blank">Boston</a>. Are you ready for it?</strong><br />
Yeah, it’ll be my first time performing in Boston. I’m looking forward to it. I get a lot of emails from Italians up in Boston. I guess my material is hitting home with them. Although I must admit, I’m not too fond of the <a href="http://digboston.com/think/2011/01/toe-the-line/" target="_blank">Patriots</a>.</p>
<p><strong>That’s a shame because Tom Brady got tickets to your show.</strong><br />
Is that right? Should make for an interesting show.</p>
<p><strong>Just kidding! He won’t be there.</strong><br />
[<em>Laughs</em>] Ohh, shit!</p>
<p><strong>You openly loathe men who drink lattes and wear flip-flops. Tons of pretentious people live in the Back Bay, so you may see some offenders here.</strong><br />
Uggh, God. It just bothers me. You can’t escape it. I don’t know what’s happened over the last 15 years. Even at baseball stadiums, you see flip-flops everywhere.</p>
<p><strong>You seem like you’d be fond of smart cars.</strong><br />
Are you kidding me? If you’re a guy and you’re driving a smart car; you really have to look at yourself in the mirror, man. If you see a guy behind the wheel of a smart car, chances are he’s going to step out and have a pair of flip-flops on.</p>
<p><strong>You seem romantic. With <a href="http://digboston.com/laugh/2010/02/26482/" target="_blank">Valentine’s Day</a> coming up, do you have any suggestions that may help some of our readers get laid this holiday?</strong><br />
You know what? I think I’m a throw-back. I’m still taking women out on dates. Apparently that’s a lost art. I’m not too suave. I think it’s just important to treat your girl right. Be a gentleman. If that’s possible.</p>
<p><strong>Would sending a text message requesting a booty-call be inappropriate? </strong><br />
I’ve actually given up on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0TEZEmqkI" target="_blank">text messaging</a> these days. I’ve gone old school and I’m talking to people now. It’s definitely throwing a lot of people off. I’m actually making phone calls. I’m out there making some human contact. I can’t do the text messaging anymore.</p>
<p><strong>Human contact? That would scare this generation of readers. We can’t handle face-to-face conversations very often. Texting is better.</strong><br />
You’re right. It’s all text. It’s an email. It’s a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/sebastiancomedy?ref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. It’s a tweet. I don’t know, with all the time that our people are spending on the Internet, do they even have time to go and do things? You know, other then spend time with themselves and sit on the Internet?</p>
<p><strong> No. We just sit around and tweet to Loni Love all day. Sometimes she responds.</strong><br />
[<em>Laughs</em>] So that’s who does it for you? Loni Love is at the top of your food chain?</p>
<p><strong>She is. Speaking of food, you toured with Vince Vaughn on his “Wild West Comedy Tour.” What his body mass like? Was he the manorexic looking or was he kind of doughy? </strong><br />
No. Actually, we worked out on that tour. If you ever work out with Vince Vaughn, it’s hysterical.</p>
<p><strong>We will probably never work out with Vince Vaughn.</strong><br />
Well, hanging out with him in the gym was hysterical. He would make up these <a href="http://digboston.com/?s=gym" target="_blank">exercises</a> that I’ve never seen. One day when we were at the gym, he was trying to make me laugh and wound up pulling out his back. He was trying to keep in shape on that tour. He was certainly trying, at least. But it didn’t really last long because he got hurt.</p>
<p>[<strong>Sebastian Maniscalco</strong> at the Wilbur Theatre. Fri 1.28.11. 246 Tremont Street, Boston, 617.248.9700. 730 pm/All Ages/$$$. <a href="http://www.thewilburtheatre.com/" target="_blank">thewilburtheatre.com</a>]</p>
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		<title>Maniscalco in Chatham Saturda</title>
		<link>http://sebastianlive.com/maniscalco-in-chatham-saturda/</link>
		<comments>http://sebastianlive.com/maniscalco-in-chatham-saturda/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>wp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://sebastianlive.com/?p=259</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Plying his trade in Los Angeles, Sebastian Maniscalco has worked with some of the best in the business. But nothing beats the stage in his mind. &#8220;There is no better performance than a live performance at a club or theatre,&#8221; Maniscalco said. The popular comic and Chicago native will perform at the Just For Laughs [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Plying his trade in Los Angeles, Sebastian Maniscalco has worked with some of the best in the business.</p>
<p>But nothing beats the stage in his mind.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no better performance than a live performance at a club or theatre,&#8221; Maniscalco said.</p>
<p>The popular comic and Chicago native will perform at the Just For Laughs Road Tour Saturday at the Kiwanis Theatre.</p>
<p>He said Canadian audiences are hip to his material, which is mostly observational.</p>
<p>&#8220;My material comes out of real-life situations,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not the type of guy that likes to set up jokes. It&#8217;s more stories and anecdotes.&#8221;</p>
<p>These can be anything from dating and relationships, to driving and technology.</p>
<p>Maniscalco is a correspondent on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and appeared in the Vince Vaughn Wild West Comedy Show.</p>
<p>He also makes his rounds on the television circuit.</p>
<p>The Just For Laughs Road Tour is in its seventh year, but it is the first time for Maniscalco.</p>
<p>He mentioned Johnny Carson and Don Rickles as some of his comedic influences.</p>
<p>&#8220;I liked John Ritter &#8230; I really enjoyed his physical humour,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I like to be animated on stage and move around a lot.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maniscalco said he tries to inject a local vibe in each of his shows.</p>
<p>He said crowds often appreciate a little bit of research.</p>
<p>&#8220;Anytime I go to a city, I refer to something that they can relate to right off the bat,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;re really intrigued with what you&#8217;ve got to say.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maniscalco will appear in a documentary called &#8220;Just Like Us&#8221;, which is about comedy in the Middle East and how the art form crosses cultures.</p>
<p>Tickets for the Kiwanis Theatre show are $38. For more information, call 519-354-8338, or visit <a href="http://www.cktickets.com/" target="_blank">www.cktickets.com</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>tterfloth@chathamdailynews.ca</p>
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