The comedian has achieved mainstream fame with other creative ventures but will return to his stand-up roots by embarking on his biggest tour to date.
With his 47-city It Ain’t Right tour, Maniscalco’s has added "more bells and whistles" for the arena crowds across North America.
“I’ve always liked being a showman. I grew up with lots of bells and whistles when it came to going to shows like Motley Crue, Prince or Michael Jackson, so I always loved the spectacle of it all," Maniscalco says. “Although this is not music, I not only wanted to give the people a night of laughter but something to look at.”
Maniscalco will bring his show to Dallas’ American Airlines Center on Aug. 10. His tour also includes dates in Houston, Austin and San Antonio in August.
The comedian is no stranger to performing in Dallas, as he has been coming to the city since 2003. His first show was at The Addison Improv on Belt Line Road, supporting Freddy Soto for a New Year’s Eve show.
“Dallas has always had great crowds and they’re really comedy savvy,” Maniscalco says. “They let loose and laugh at the absurdities of life. They’re always out for a good time.”
Before each show, the comedian says, he wants to immerse himself in a city as much as possible to get a grasp of its culture and have a reference point to connect with the audience.
“If you relate to the audience and their city, then they feel like you’ve done your homework and they feel part of the show from the get-go," he says. "I’ve been coming to Dallas for years and it’s always fun to go out and get a pulse of what’s going on."
Throughout the years, Maniscalco has risen through the comedy ranks to be one of the premier comics in the country.
This reputation is built upon years of success and acclaim — a huge blessing for any comedian. However, it can also create a certain amount of pressure for future tours and specials.
“Coming up through the comedy ranks isn’t necessarily easier, but the level of expectation was none," Maniscalco says. "You’d come on stage and people were like, ‘Who’s this guy? Let’s see if he can make me laugh.' But now when you come with a fanbase and people expect a certain level of comedy, it’s a lot of pressure to meet those expectations.
“It’s not like a band where we can rely on old hits. If an old band plays new music then people will want the music that they grew up on. In stand-up, you have to keep evolving as a performer.”
During the It Ain’t Right tour, Maniscalco will give his hot takes on the absurdities of modern life, including nonexistent manners and wallet-wincing prices. The comic will also discuss the social media circus, which he describes as a “blessing and a curse” for comedians.
“You need [social media] to get the word out there and share your material to feed the fanbase,” the comic says. “But in this day and age, with every fart you blow there’s always somebody there to smell it. I take the good with the bad and navigate those waters.”
Despite the downsides, Maniscalco believes that social media is also one of the contributing factors for the huge comedy boom in recent years as demand for stand-up shows appears to be at an all-time high.
Bell Curve and Sebastian
He also attributes this comedy boom to the invention of the podcast. Sebastian has successfully jumped on this trend by hosting his own podcast with Pete Correale, The Pete and Sebastian Show.“Podcasting has [meant] that people fall in love with the personalities of these comedians on the podcasts and come out to see them because they have such a personal connection with them,” Maniscalco says.
Social media keeps comedians on their toes as they have to see what is trending within the comedy world. Maniscalco noticed that crowd work videos were popular with audiences (just look at the insane success of Matt Rife) and capitalized on this by uploading a couple of videos to social media.
“I’ve been doing crowd work for 25 years, but apparently it’s popular now in the stand-up comedy world," Maniscalco says. "It’s not really prepared jokes or material, it’s in-the-moment stuff. I had a couple of crowd work clips that I thought were pretty funny — sure enough, I put them up and I got more views than material I’ve crafted throughout my entire career.”
Alongside his successful stand-up career, Maniscalco also launched his directorial career with the 2023 comedy About My Father, starring Robert De Niro and Kim Cattrall. It was a huge moment in his career as he embarked on new creative ventures alongside comedy. It was also a vast shift from stand-up comedy, as there is a long wait from production to release to gauge the audience’s reaction.
“Stand-up will never be replaced in regards to immediate gratification or immediate disaster," he says. "Whether you say something love or something people hate, you feel it right there and then. With a movie or a TV show, you have to trust in your abilities that this is funny or the director knows what he’s doing and there’s a lot of factors that go into making comedy in film or TV. It’s totally different.”
Sebastian Maniscalco will perform at 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 10, at the American Airlines Center, 2500 Victory Ave.
