Comedy Central Presents: Sebastian Maniscalco

Before the arenas and the Scorsese movies, Sebastian Maniscalco was an exasperated guy in a half-hour Comedy Central slot trying to figure out why everyone at the airport had a dog in a sweater. This 2008 set reveals the early iteration of his physically animated style. The core of the material is built around the friction of early adulthood: the panic of silently calculating a sushi bill on a first date, the inherent danger of drunkenly typing with T9 predictive text, and the harsh reality of women in their twenties expecting men in their thirties to go dancing.

Aired in January 2008, the special arrived right as Maniscalco was gaining national traction through his appearance in Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show. It captures him at an interesting pivot point. He had spent years waiting tables at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills while working the Los Angeles club circuit, and the polish from those reps is obvious here. There is a distinct lack of the massive stage production he later became known for, leaving just a guy with a microphone getting highly agitated about couples who argue in Las Vegas casinos.