Sebastian Maniscalco Won’t Change Jokes for People Who ‘Get Bent Out of Shape’
If you’re one of those easily bent-out-of-shape types, you better steer clear of Sebastian Maniscalco’s “It Ain’t Right” tour this summer. The comic told Fox News Digital that he ain’t changing any jokes just to avoid offending your delicate sensibilities.
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“I don’t really edit myself,” he said. “I would be lying to you if I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, is it worth doing that joke because it might cause A, B and C?’ There’s a little of that, but I don’t know, I’ve been all over the country and I feel like the people who are coming to at least my shows are dying to laugh whether it be appropriate, inappropriate. I mean, I hate to use the word ‘inappropriate.’”
That’s because in the world Maniscalco grew up in, “you made fun of everything and anything around you.” That included “your own family and yourself, and it wasn’t done with a mean spirit. It was just kind of pointing out behaviors or idiosyncrasies or oddities that were going on in the neighborhood, and everybody kind of laughed at it.”
That’s funny because just five months ago, Maniscalco told Drew Barrymore he refuses to make fun of his mother even though she fits in the “own family” category. “I am a mama’s boy,” he confessed. “I don’t really talk about her in my act, which she’s kind of upset about. She’s like ‘Where am I?’” But Maniscalco still won’t joke about her. “Mom could do no wrong. My mom’s just like a sweet little mother.”
But other than her, anything goes.
Listening to Maniscalco describe his act, it’s hard to understand why anyone would get hot and bothered. “So, my material tends to be experience-based. … I’m out going to Universal Studios. I’m going to the kiddie party. I’m going to school drop-off. I’m doing all these things that just happen to be part of my life. And through those experiences, I tend to have a point-of-view on what I’m seeing at any particular time during the day.”
Kiddie parties and school drop-offs aren’t getting anyone on the cancel list, but don’t expect Maniscalco to pull his punches anyway. He’s not going to worry about that “small portion of the population that tends to get bent out of shape in regards to some of the material,” even though “those people tend to have a loud voice.”
The best comedy advice Maniscalco ever got came from Andrew Dice Clay: “The only thing you can concentrate on is your own material. So, if you see a comedian get a TV show, or you see a comedian selling out arenas or whatever, don’t let that bother you. Don’t let that consume you. The only thing you really have control on is writing your own stuff and being the best you could do at what you’re doing, and your time will come.”
Good advice from a comic who knew a little something about getting people bent out of shape.
