Sebastian Maniscalco has two dads — and we're not talking about a TV show. Well, actually, we are talking about a TV show, but not the late 1980s Paul Reiser-Staci Keanan vehicle “My Two Dads.”
No, we're talking “Sebastian,” which NBC is filming as a possible addition to its fall lineup. Though still in the pilot phase — similar to being a Triple-A baseball player — this one looks like it has a good shot to be called up to the big leagues.
For one thing, Maniscalco, 42, is one of the hottest stand-up comics going. He recently shot an episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” with one of his comedy idols, Jerry Seinfeld. Indeed, Maniscalco has been compared to a young Seinfeld.
“He brings in an audience that is not unlike an early Seinfeld,” manager Judi Brown-Marmel was quoted as saying by concert industry publication Pollstar.com.
Introducing him before driving him around in a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z-28, Seinfeld gave Maniscalco a ringing endorsement: “This guy just makes me laugh in so many different ways. He looks funny, he sounds funny, he talks funny …”
Maniscalco comes to town this week to play the Carnegie Library Music Hall in Munhall — another sign that his career is rising, as he has made the important step up from comedy clubs to concert halls.
As the comic will be taping his third Showtime special in two weeks, Maniscalco fans can expect new material, though much of it will still be based on his family.
Salvatore Maniscalco, Sebastian's tough father, looms over his live comedy show, as well as the TV show “Sebastian.” Which brings us to another chip in favor of the show making it: Tony Danza — from “Taxi” and “Who's the Boss?” — plays the TV version of the comic's Italian father.
Maniscalco described the show in a recent phone interview: “It's a lot of things about my father not being typical, me getting married and my wife finds his ways odd — and me being caught in between. Me trying to satisfy two people in my life.
“My father grew up in Sicily on a farm, and he implemented it into the way he raised a family. ... When I said I wanted a dog, he said, ‘Go two houses down and pet their dog and come back.' ”
He added his father was pushing him to get a job since he was 8.
“It's his voice that's constantly in my head — even now that people pay good money to see me,” the comic says. “He's always said, ‘No one's ever going to hand it to you.' But my father's always been supportive. When I wanted to do comedy, he said, ‘If you really think you got a shot, go for it.' ”
It was just seven years ago that Maniscalco moved from his father's house in Chicago to Los Angeles, where he soon landed a “gig” — as a waiter.
Now, he has received the seal of approval from perhaps the biggest comedian of this generation.
“I met Jerry last year at a comedy club. He enjoyed what I was doing, and we became fast friends,” Maniscalco said. “For me, since I had been watching him growing up, ‘Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' was like my Johnny Carson moment of getting to sit on the couch.” (Carson would invite young comics he liked to sit and talk after they told jokes.)
Even more than Seinfeld, there's one person Maniscalco wants to score points with: his father.
“To this day, he's my biggest fan and also biggest critic,” the comic says. “He comes to shows and writes notes on napkins.”
Tom Scanlon is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
