Sebastian Maniscalco (Live)

Amy Poehler: This episode is presented to you by Walmart. I'd like to say that I'm a pretty good gift giver. And for me, it's about making the extra effort to find the perfect gift. Walmart has the top brands we all love in one place. Nespresso, Nintendo, Apple, you name it. That's why it has to be Walmart for all my gifts this year. Guess "Best Gift Giver" award goes to yours truly. Get the brands everyone loves at prices you'll love at Walmart. Who knew? Go to walmart.com or download the app to get all your gifts this season.

[Amy Poehler takes the stage]

Amy Poehler: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. How are you doing? Welcome, everyone, to the first ever live Good Hang in person, not in studio, in the theater, whatever we're doing. Just a quick announcement before we get started. Please turn off your cell phones if you don't mind not taking any pictures during the show. We would highly appreciate it. We're very, very thrilled that you can be here.

We're also very excited because we have a small treat for you before we get into our interview. This is a woman who I have known for 30 years and who used to sing. I used to sing backup with her back in the day in New York City. She is responsible for the Good Hang theme song. She's going to play a few songs for you along with her friend, Chris Anderson. Give it up for Amy Miles, everybody.

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[Amy Miles performs "Good Hang" theme song] One, two, three, clap. Low consequences and low offenses, bend my arm, break a bone. Coming back to city in late summer, everybody, everybody, everybody's gone. Everybody, everybody, everybody's gone. Everybody, everybody, everybody's gone. Everybody, everybody, everybody's gone. Everybody's gone. Woo-hoo-hoo! Go in for the hug. Go out with a bang. What's up? What do you say? All I ever wanted was a really good hang. Hold my hand, see if I'm breathing. Tilt to the right and start believing. Money's got a dress that the party started. Money's got a party that starts tonight. Monday's got a dress that the party started. What do you say? It starts as two of the night. Monday's got a dress that the party started. What do you say? Party, you broke my heart. When I see you, I turn. I go home. Woo-hoo-hoo! Going for the hug. Go out with a bang. What's up? What do you say? All I ever wanted was a really good hang. Get up, what do you say? All I ever wanted was a really good hang.

Amy Poehler: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Amy Poehler!

Amy Miles: Hey! Hello!

Amy Poehler: Amy Miles! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Hello! Amy Miles, Chris Anderson, give it up one more time.

[Applause]

Amy Poehler: Hello everyone, welcome to the first official live recording of Good Hang. This is the first time we've done it, and we're really, really happy that you could be here. Thank you so much. Don't worry. I have my lip balm, and we're going to be okay. We're going to record our podcast.

I think there's a few people here tonight that don't know who our guest is. Raise your hand if you don't. Exciting. It's so great that you came without even knowing. That's a real fan. Thank you so much. Well, we're going to record. What if I just never told you? No, but we're very, very grateful that you are here tonight. Thank you to the Gramercy. Thank you to Walmart for sponsoring us. Thank you to Amy and Chris for their incredible music.

We're very, very excited because our guest tonight, who is going to be on stage, who we're going to dig deep and laugh well with, is the one and only Sebastian Maniscalco. Only the number one grossing comic in the world, I think. I don't know if it's the world. I'll check with him. But we're so excited to have Sebastian here. I'm going to go sit over there. Are you ready to get started? All right.

[Ad break]

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[Laughter]

Amy Poehler: We practiced that transition many times. We didn't get it right.

Okay, so welcome to another episode of Good Hang. Very excited to be doing this live with a band. Thrilled to be here in the Gramercy Theater. Like I said, thank you to Walmart and everybody who sponsored this. We're very excited to introduce our guest today. We have Sebastian Maniscalco.

Sebastian is one of my favorite comedians. I find him to be deeply funny, deeply physical. He seems super nice, even though I don't really know him. We talked a little bit backstage, but then I said, let's stop talking. If the cameras aren't rolling, then this ain't worth shit, is what I said.

We're going to have Sebastian on. But we always like to start these podcasts by talking to somebody who knows our guest so we can talk well behind their back. It's a little different because Sebastian will hear everything now. But we are very excited to introduce a friend of Sebastian's, a fellow stand-up performer who also is the co-host of the Pete and Sebastian podcast, which has been running now for 12 years and is an amazing podcast. Give it up, everybody, for Pete Correale.

Pete Correale: Pete.

Amy Poehler: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Pete Correale: Pete, we got a play on. This is phenomenal. We've been doing it 12 years. We've never had a setup this good.

Amy Poehler: I know. You're already so good at—I can tell you're a good performer, because as soon as you came in, you were like, here we go, everybody.

Pete Correale: Amy, I've been a performer for 30 years. Sitting here with you is one of the most exciting things I've got to do in my career. I'm not kidding.

Amy Poehler: I appreciate that.

Pete Correale: Amy was a little nervous backstage. She's never done a live cast before. I go, you're the best host of the Golden Globes that ever lived. This is a hiccup. Are you kidding? Come on.

Amy Poehler: If the people in the audience aren't famous, then I don't know what to do. It's weird. I just don't recognize any faces, and it throws me off.

Pete Correale: That's hilarious.

Amy Poehler: Okay. So, Pete, how did you and Sebastian first meet?

Pete Correale: We met doing stand-up. We met literally about 14 years ago in Canada. Montreal Festival put together this thing where we all stayed in Toronto in a hotel, and every night we would meet in a van. It was me, Sebastian, and four of the comics from other countries, a guy from Australia. I remember a guy from Ireland. But then we would shoot out to little theaters each night.

The first night I met him, the first time I met him, we were online to go through customs into Canada. He introduced himself. I never met him before. Then when we get to the hotel, I say, see you later tonight. We had our first show that night. We all get in the van. Sebastian's the last one to get in the van. I'm in the back of the van. He gets in the van. He's got a shirt on a hanger. Nobody knows anyone, so we're all quiet. I go, what is that? Your performance shirt? He goes, yeah, I get sweaty. I go, holy shit, guy. So I'm making fun of him because he gets sweaty. Meanwhile, it's because he's physical. Then he goes on to make 10 million gazillion. And I'm standing straight as a boy leaning against a goddamn brick wall.

Amy Poehler: Yeah, you gotta have a performer shirt. You gotta have a shirt.

Pete Correale: No, but that's what we first met.

Amy Poehler: Dress for the job you want, Pete. Dress for the job you want.

Pete Correale: Exactly. But we hit it off. Like you said, we've been doing it for 12 years. I bet it's similar to you and Tina in that sometimes we get together to do the cast and maybe you're not in the mood. So you call it the cast. We call it the cast. Even though we don't have quite as many viewers as you do, ours is still a cast.

Amy Poehler: There's a zillion podcasts. I don't pay attention to the numbers, Pete. I just do it for the fun.

Pete Correale: No, but you guys are so funny on it together. I love watching you too. You guys know each other really well.

Amy Poehler: Can I just ask you, you've done it now for 12 years. This is my first year doing a podcast. How do you keep it fresh?

Pete Correale: For us, it's because we just talk about our lives. When we first started to do it, neither one of us knew much about cast. I said we both kind of agreed, let's keep it consistent. That was number one. Number two, do you want guests? He goes, well, I'm not really getting them. I go, I'm not getting them either. So if we want to keep it consistent, we figure no, and then we don't do anything topical. You could listen to any one of our casts and you wouldn't know what year it's from. Because it's about anything from going to someone's house and they make you take your shoes off to—so it never—there's always something new to discuss.

Amy Poehler: That's very, very smart. It's life.

Pete Correale: Yeah, you want to be able to catch up.

Amy Poehler: Right. I unfortunately hold the newspaper up to the camera on every one of my—my kids.

Pete Correale: Oh, that's why yours is also more popular.

Amy Poehler: Okay, now you're a basketball player in college?

Pete Correale: Oh, well, Division III, Amy, so let's pump the brakes on that.

Amy Poehler: Hey, it counts.

Pete Correale: What college?

Amy Poehler: I just said Division III. Once someone says Division III, you don't care anymore. You never mentioned the college?

Pete Correale: No, Fredonia State is the college.

Amy Poehler: Okay, and what was the name of your team? The Fredonia what?

Pete Correale: We were called the Fredonia Blue Devils.

Amy Poehler: Interesting. My high school was the Red Devils.

Pete Correale: Really?

Amy Poehler: Yeah. I want to ask your opinion about something.

Pete Correale: Please.

Amy Poehler: You bring that up. Where I live now, I live in a small town. I'm actually in the process of moving to Rochester, but I live in a small town called Fredonia. By the time this comes out, I'll be gone. I already bought a new house. But I've been there 12 years. My daughter is 12 years old, and our slogan, our high school logo is the Hillbillies.

Pete Correale: Oh, that's not going to last.

Amy Poehler: It's not going to last. It's been there for like 50 years. It's a guy with a beard and a jug of wine and a gun. I swear to God. They don't get rid of it because it's too expensive. They'll have to change the basketball court and the uniforms. So we're just the Hillbillies.

Pete Correale: That'll get you into Harvard.

Amy Poehler: By the way, we got to get into that.

Pete Correale: Yeah, we got to get into Harvard. It's important. We got to get into Harvard or we got to talk about Harvard? When you want to talk about things with Sebastian. Talk about Harvard? Sebastian didn't go to Harvard. I know that.

Amy Poehler: No, but when we went, when we played Boston, when Sebastian played the Boston Garden, I was open for him on the tour.

Pete Correale: Oh, yeah.

Amy Poehler: Incredible. We went to Harvard, and that whole thing that you and Tina went through.

Pete Correale: Oh, I'll talk to him about that. That's helpful. He's like, we can never talk about that. I said, Amy and Tina talked about it. I think you can.

Amy Poehler: A bunch of aggressive nerds shouting jokes at you.

Pete Correale: A bunch of valedictorians.

Amy Poehler: But you take it, because it's Harvard, right? If it was Jamestown Community College, you'd have been out of there in 10 minutes, right? Because it's garbage. You just take the punches.

Pete Correale: OK, so let's start this. I'm going to start this podcast with Sebastian. But I need to know, Pete, do you have a question you think I should ask?

Pete Correale: Yes. One question I think is Sebastian loves to entertain. However, he also loves for people to leave when he's done entertaining. It's a very bizarre thing. It's like, I love to entertain and now go home. You might want to ask him, what is it about—why is there an end to when people come over? Why does that bother you so much?

And the other thing, Amy, I love this guy so much for so many different reasons. He's a warm-hearted guy, good guy. But one big hang-up he has is noises. It's called, he's self-diagnosed misophonia.

Amy Poehler: How do you pronounce that?

Pete Correale: Oh, misophonia. Misophonia. Self-diagnosed. He's never done anything about it. But you could chew gum around them and then like a half hour later he'll tell me, you gotta stop with the gum. He has not gone and done anything about it. He always just likes to say self-diagnosed. So perhaps you might want to ask him, why don't you take it any further and find out?

Amy Poehler: I think it's because his comedy lives in irritation.

Pete Correale: Yes, yes, I know what you mean.

Amy Poehler: These are great questions because I know a little bit about misophonia. I have a really hard time with mouth sounds in general. Like on the microphone, I'm looking at you, NPR. A lot of people have to drink water. It's very stressful. So I'm going to talk to Sebastian about that.

Pete Correale: Very, very good.

Amy Poehler: Okay, well, we're going to get started. Pete, you've been amazing. Thank you.

Pete Correale: Thank you so much for coming.

Amy Poehler: Thank you, Amy.

Pete Correale: Thank you all. Have a wonderful time.

Amy Poehler: Everybody check out the Pete Sebastian Show. Thank you, Pete.

[Ad break]

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[Applause]

Amy Poehler: All right, we are ready to introduce our guest. Thank you so much again for coming. Give it up, let's keep the momentum going for Sebastian Maniscalco, everybody!

[Sebastian Maniscalco enters]

Amy Poehler: Sebastian, I want to tell you that I had a different shirt on and I changed when I saw what you were wearing. They told me backstage. I had a t-shirt. I was like, I wanted to be like, hey, who cares? Like we're all just—I just walked off the street. And then I said, you know what? You're a professional, Amy, and you need to treat this show like you're a professional.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Well, this is the first live show, so I'm like, all right, this is like a big deal, let me dress it up. I have another outfit just in case, but I felt like this was appropriate to wear a suit. Apparently you thought you were going to go to a t-ball game.

Amy Poehler: Well, I would much rather be underdressed than overdressed, but I bet you'd rather be overdressed.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I am typically overdressed for occasions. I don't know. Growing up, my mother always used to tell me, we're going to church, put your nice slacks on, we're going out to dinner. So I always thought when we were leaving the house, you should look presentable. But nowadays if you look around, particularly in this city, you roll out of bed and then you're at the Walgreens. I just feel like you should have a—

Amy Poehler: So you're trying to tell me that you don't wear sweatpants and bring your own pillow on the plane. That's what I'm hearing about.

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, I don't. I've never understood the whole pillow thing on the plane. I don't like that pillow thing. No offense, Gen Z, but there's a lot of—you guys are dragging around a lot of pillows. It's intense.

Amy Poehler: OK, we have a lot to talk about, Sebastian, because you and I were both in Chicago. You grew up in Chicago. Where exactly did you grow up?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Arlington Heights, Illinois. So I wasn't in the city of Chicago.

Amy Poehler: Right. And then you were what years were you there?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I was there from 1973 to 1998.

Amy Poehler: Okay. Yeah, I was there the same time. I mean, just for a few years. So when were you there?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Well, I went to Second City.

Amy Poehler: Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: A lot of people wanted to take class there, move to Chicago. I remember the weather, the weather in Chicago is the thing you remember because it's punishing.

Amy Poehler: Yes. When is the coldest you've ever been in Chicago?

Sebastian Maniscalco: The coldest temperature? God, I don't know. There's always like a wind chill. So I don't know, minus—I think it was like minus 15 one year.

Amy Poehler: So, yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Why? Do you have a record?

Amy Poehler: No, I was just curious. Like, Chicago, people that live in that area, you're proving my point, which is they don't really talk about the weather. They don't care that much about the weather. They don't make it a big deal.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, it's not a big deal. When you're living in it, it's just like the way of life. So we're not sitting there going, oh, it's really cold today. How do you think this is a record? I don't know. It's brutal.

Amy Poehler: And do you remember a restaurant in the Chicago area? Did you like to go into the city? Did you go into the city a lot?

Sebastian Maniscalco: We went into the city early on in my teenage years, 17 years old. I had a fake ID. We'd love to dance. We used to go to this place called Acapulco Bar. Alumni Club. We were big dancers growing up. There was a lot of good clubs in Chicago at that time. It was a good club scene.

Amy Poehler: Did you ever go to Baja Beach Club?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yes.

Amy Poehler: Okay. Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: So, yeah.

Amy Poehler: Yeah, maybe I saw you—were you at home? Did you ever go to a restaurant called Carlucci's?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I have, yeah.

Amy Poehler: Okay, I used to be a waiter there.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, really?

Amy Poehler: Yeah. I was thinking about our prep for today. For people that don't know, Sebastian's dad was a Sicilian immigrant, is a Sicilian immigrant. Carlucci's was the first time I learned about Italian fine dining in any way. Like I didn't know anything about it. Antipasti and semifredo and breadsticks. Those kinds of things. That's a course.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Funny you say fine dining. I started my waiting career at Olive Garden.

Amy Poehler: Oh, yeah. Great place to start. Great place to break in.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Hey, did you ever go to a place in Schaumburg called The Living Room?

Amy Poehler: Oh, yes. I worked there.

Sebastian Maniscalco: That was a very hot club, like bar. I'm surprised we didn't cross paths.

Amy Poehler: What kind of famous people came through The Living Room? Do you remember?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Not really. Not a lot of fame walking through The Living Room. But I remember it being kind of a cool club.

Amy Poehler: It was a cool club.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Not a lot of celebrities came through there. Maybe Dennis Rodman because this is the year where the Bulls were hot. But, yeah.

Amy Poehler: What did you do there?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I worked as a waiter in the fine dining.

Amy Poehler: By the way, this is the best lip balm I did. Are you kidding me? No. Are you joking? I have to tell you. Because this is a sponsor. Oh, it is? Lenej. And they're not sponsoring this, so we'll probably have to cut this out. But I use that all the time. It's the best.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay. You like your products.

Amy Poehler: Well, my wife likes products. While I'm in bed one night, she's like, here, you got to put this on. I'm going to bed. She put it on. Hello, new lips. Incredible.

Sebastian Maniscalco: In fact, you're reminding me, everybody who has lip balm, let's take a lip balm break while we—just for a second. Because it's too much, right? It's so dry out.

Amy Poehler: It's too much.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay.

Amy Poehler: So, but you've talked a lot on stage about how people should act in restaurants. I really relate because as an ex-server, as we like to call ourselves, you learn how to treat people in restaurants. You have strong opinions about how people should act in restaurants.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I mean, if you go to a restaurant, you should have some manners and be kind and not like, I don't know. I put a napkin on my lap. I don't know if that's out of style or if anybody's doing that anymore. But you should be polite to the server and vice versa. But I got a problem with servers nowadays.

Amy Poehler: Tell me why.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Just the way they come up. They come up, you know, and you're like, excuse me, can you think, and already the eyes are rolling. Nobody wants to be there. I don't know. It just seems like people are detached or disconnected.

Amy Poehler: Do you like when a server—this happens a lot in LA where you live, where we both live—where someone will duck down and get the same level as you?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I don't like that.

Amy Poehler: You know what I'm talking about? Like they're right here?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, they get right there. They get in real close. I don't like that. I don't like that move. I just rather have them above, in and out, maybe a little talk here and there, but nothing like—I don't want to know—sometimes the waiter will go, oh, you know, I don't normally have that because I'm lactose. Hey, guy, please don't need to know your medical history. Just bring out the burger.

Amy Poehler: Okay, and you talked also about—which I loved—and I should point out, as well as you having the most successful touring year of your career, would you say, this year?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, probably.

Amy Poehler: Congratulations.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Thank you.

Amy Poehler: Thank you. And you've got a new special coming out in November, and you made a beautiful film about your dad with Robert De Niro playing your dad.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, crazy.

Amy Poehler: Well, crazy. And you were on the show Bookie, and you've got all these things going on. When you talk to your audience, I still feel, Sebastian, like you're living a regular, normal life.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah.

Amy Poehler: That's not always the case. Sometimes when you see people on stage, they feel like they're talking about their coy pond or something. But it does feel like you are still in it. You have little kids.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yes.

Amy Poehler: And one could argue, you're a little old for that. You've got little kids.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I do. I'm 52 and I have a six-year-old son.

Amy Poehler: So that's it. Yeah. Okay, don't relax. No, I'm only kidding because I love you on Instagram when you talk about how tired you are.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm exhausted. And it's exhausting.

Amy Poehler: Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, I waited a little to have kids and now I'm paying the price.

Amy Poehler: Must be nice, yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm just—come on.

Amy Poehler: No clapper. No claptor. But your wife seems amazing, Lana. You talk about her a lot. I've seen her on the Gram. She's a hot piece, Lana.

Sebastian Maniscalco: She's 10 years younger. So, yeah. So I'm trying to keep up with her. She's an ex-gymnast. So she's always doing flips.

Amy Poehler: She's always doing flips?

Sebastian Maniscalco: She walks down the stairs on her hands.

Amy Poehler: No way.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I've never seen that before, but that's what I'm dealing with.

Amy Poehler: Does she do that when she's angry, when she's upset?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, she's never really upset. She's one of these, like, always got a smile on her face, walking around. I'm the one that's constantly upset.

Amy Poehler: Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: But no, she's a ray of sunshine, and she's a doll. She's very athletic, very strong, and I almost have my ARP card.

Amy Poehler: We're the same age. We're the same age. Yeah, we're getting up there. What are you enjoying about your 50s?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm glad I had kids this late in life just because I'm stable. I could provide them with a life that I'm not one of these guys, oh, I want to give my kids a life that I never had. I had a good middle-class upbringing and whatnot. But as an entertainer, a performer, you want to get to a place where you're stable financially before you start bringing people into the world. This is just business. It could be here one day, gone the next. I got to a place where I'm like, all right, let's start a family.

I like being in my 50s. I just wish I was a little bit more—I don't know. I went to go play basketball the other day. I'm like, how—I haven't played basketball in a while, and I'm like, I don't remember the rim being this high. So, but it's nice.

Amy Poehler: That's an ACL nightmare, though. Be very careful. There's nothing worse than a bunch of guys in their 50s going back to play basketball. It is just tear after tear.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm taking a little offense to this. I'm sorry. Just because, if you didn't know how old I was, could you just—wouldn't you look at me and go, yeah, no, he probably runs.

Amy Poehler: You're in terrific shape, by the way.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm not. I'm really not. I'm hiding a lot with the suit, but I just don't feel like I'm 52.

Amy Poehler: Well, I get it, but I have to say, I remember having younger kids. My kids are teenagers now, and the amount of play they have to do with kids is exhausting.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yes, it is.

Amy Poehler: Play is a nightmare.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah.

Amy Poehler: And when your kid—the worst thing to hear in the world is "Daddy, can we play?"

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah.

Amy Poehler: Did you have a favorite play? Did you have like a—oh, this is—I can do this? I remember having existential moments of true despair when I would come home from like shooting a long day and my kids would come up to me with Star Wars lightsabers and be like, yay, now we can play. And I was just like, oh, fuck. Like, oh, no. I have to play Star Wars. It was the worst. And I miss every second of it.

But Lana, does she come to your shows?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I mean, she comes, but I mean, it's—

Amy Poehler: Is she here tonight?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, no, no. She's playing with the kids.

Amy Poehler: You've played huge stadiums. You sold out—was it Madison Square Garden? How many nights in a row?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Five, six?

Amy Poehler: Incredible.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Thank you.

Amy Poehler: What's it like playing a space that big?

Sebastian Maniscalco: My act is kind of tailor-made for a large space. Obviously, comedy is better enjoyed in a room like this, I believe. But once you start getting into arenas and whatnot, I like to fill the room. I like to get up there and be physical and kind of prowl the stage. I'm not one of these guys that stands behind a microphone and tells jokes. Nothing wrong with that. But for me, especially nowadays, you've got to light yourself on fire up there for people to pay attention.

Amy Poehler: That's so true.

Sebastian Maniscalco: If you're not funny for an hour and 15 minutes, someone could just go back into their phone or slip out of consciousness or what have you. But I like to keep the people entertained, not only by telling the story, but also maybe acting out the story. It's not all physical.

Amy Poehler: You're such a funny, physical performer. I love watching you. I read something that was really cool—you designed your stage a certain way in your last special. Can you talk about that?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah. Normally I do it in the round and I had a round stage previously. Then this time I designed a triangular stage, which I could hit the points a little bit more. When you're doing a round stage, you kind of don't know where you're at sometimes in relation to like, have I been here for a while? But with the points, you're kind of like, no, okay, I'm at this point, I'm at that point, and I feel like I could service the room better just by using the triangle stage. Plus, I made the screen above me triangle. I like production, too, when I do stand-up, so I like to pay attention to lighting. It's big.

Amy Poehler: How is this lighting? I think this is beautifully done. Do you like the people over? We get people kind of on the side.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I do. I noticed that, too. I don't mind that. It's a little disconcerting because you guys are the same height as us. So it looks like they're on a ride. And then we got people in the back that are all—we can't see you, but we know that you're the real fans back there.

Amy Poehler: Oh, yeah. It goes deep. It goes deep.

Sebastian Maniscalco: It does go deep.

Amy Poehler: By the way, I don't know if you know this little trivia here, and I don't know if anybody in the audience knows—we did a movie together.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay.

Amy Poehler: We did a movie together. And you know when it came out, what percentage of it was on Rotten Tomatoes?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, I didn't check the percentage.

Amy Poehler: Was it bad? Is 7% bad?

Sebastian Maniscalco: That's right.

Amy Poehler: That was the first time I met you. In 2014, there was a movie called The House with just a young and up-and-coming guy named Will Ferrell, you know? And I picked the one fucking bomb that he made. I was like, sign me up for that one. No, him and I were in a movie that was so fun to make, because he's the best, called The House. There was a scene where—

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I was—by the way, I shouldn't say we were in a movie together. She was in the movie. I came in for a day. I think we made The House like a—it was like Vegas. I was one of the performers in the living room performing to one—I think it was Rory Scovel.

Amy Poehler: Yes. Yes, that's right for you.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, it was just a day of work, and that was early on. It was like one of my first movies I've ever done.

Amy Poehler: Yeah. What was your memory of it? Was it a good experience?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, no, it was a day. I came in. I never met you or Will or any of those people. So it was nice.

Amy Poehler: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I feel like I remember that time. And also, you have been performing for a while. You're not an overnight success. You've been putting the time in for a very, very long time, and you've been working very, very hard. What is it, in the same way we talk about fatherhood at an age where you feel like you were ready and mature for it, do you feel that same way about your fame and success?

Amy Poehler: Same. In 1998, I started doing stand-up. So for me, I worked at Four Seasons for seven years, getting my feet wet with stand-up comedy. And I didn't have a movie or a TV show or anything that really propelled me into the mainstream. I feel even now, too, I have a great fan base and what have you. But I still feel like there's room for growth. But it took a while. I mean, what is this? About 2015, shortly after we hit the house, 7%. That came out. I just looked it up before, and it's up to 20%.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, okay. We're moving up.

Amy Poehler: We're moving up. With inflation and everything.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah. But no, it's a slow burn for me.

Amy Poehler: That's great.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Nothing comes easy in my life. So, yeah.

Amy Poehler: Why doesn't things? What do you mean?

Sebastian Maniscalco: It's just, my father and I often discuss this. It's like the Maniscalco family always has to take the long road to get there. There's no shortcuts, which I'm not looking for shortcuts, but every once in a while it would be nice to get a pop.

Amy Poehler: How does your dad feel like he's taking the long road? How would he say he's taking it?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I mean, he immigrated here when he was 15 years old, and he had to learn a new language. He's still learning the language. It's fun hanging around with an immigrant father who just doesn't know the words.

Amy Poehler: Is there a word still that makes you giggle?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, he goes, "Oh, you know your cousin, he's going to... only miss what... old miss that... not only miss..." So there's a lot of that.

Amy Poehler: That one feels okay. That's like the hillbillies or something. But he is an amazing story, and you wrote a film based on his story. Can you tell everybody how—I'm sure you've answered this question before—but it's pretty awesome to work with Robert De Niro, I imagine.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I was very nervous. Basically wrote a movie, never thought it would get—you write these things, you never think they're going to do anything. But this one got picked up and De Niro's hands. He loved it, wanted to read it out loud here in New York City with a bunch of actors, so he read it out loud at a table. And after the table read, I went up to him, and I said, "So?" And he's like, "Well, what? What?" And he left. So I'm like, all right, that's the end of that. And two weeks later, I got a call that he's interested in playing your father. And I'm like, this is a guy that I had Goodfellas, Casino posters on my wall. And now he's going to play my dad in a movie. And then subsequently called my father down to Oklahoma where he was shooting the movie because he wanted to get to know my dad.

Amy Poehler: No way. So you're like, "Dad, he wants to hang out with you?"

Sebastian Maniscalco: And my dad's like, "How much am I getting for this?" So like, no, you're gonna go for three days. He goes, "Yeah, well, you know, he still cuts hair." He's still cutting hair at 79 years old. He's like, "Well, I gotta readjust my clients and I'm gonna lose money if I go down there for three days." And I said, "Just don't worry about it. Just go." So he went. He spent three days with De Niro, and De Niro is taking notes. "How do you wear your hat? How do you hold your cigar? Tell me how to say this in Sicilian." So then he came back, and then De Niro wanted him to come to the set. And my dad's like, "I ain't going to the set."

Amy Poehler: He didn't?

Sebastian Maniscalco: This is a movie with De Niro. We grew up watching. And my dad's like, "I ain't." And I said, "Just come to the set and hang out." So my dad was on set teaching De Niro how to do blowouts and dye jobs.

Amy Poehler: We should make it clear that Sebastian's father does hair. And was a hairdresser for your whole life, right?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, so he cut my hair until I left the house at, I think, 23.

Amy Poehler: Does he still want to cut your hair now?

Sebastian Maniscalco: He cut my hair about four years ago, and I said, "That's it." No, he's falling apart. I mean, he's... He's falling apart. His shoulder's falling off. It's not easy getting old.

Amy Poehler: No, especially at that age. Now, every time I talk to my parents, it's like, "I'm not peeing right."

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay.

Amy Poehler: Is it true that Sicilians have great hair?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I don't know. I'm losing a lot of my hair. It's a lot of dust up there. I use a pepper.

Amy Poehler: Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: So it's called a fiber. I do a lot of pepper before I come up here. I got someone back there with a pepper mill. Like with the Parmesan gravy, just a little bit more. But I do want to talk about you on stage because I love watching you perform. As we talked about earlier, you are physical. A lot of people on stage are kind of neck down or disconnected from their body when they're telling jokes. They're telling it from their head. And you really do tell it from your whole body when you perform. Did you always like to move as a kid? Are you a physical guy? I know you like to dance. I've seen you dance a lot.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I do know what you're talking about. I feel like you shake it out.

Amy Poehler: Come on, everybody knows you shake it out.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I shake it out, but it's not because I have anxiety or anything. My shaking out is a little bit more just for the performance. I do like to move my hands and be physical and have facial expressions when I'm talking. I just took that and made it a little bit more grand when I'm on stage.

Amy Poehler: Do you have any people that when you were growing up, like physical comedians that you loved?

Sebastian Maniscalco: John Ritter is mine.

Amy Poehler: Dude, I was just saying that. Are you kidding me? No. I just said backstage, we were talking about physical comedy because I was talking about you, and I said, "I love how physical Sebastian is." And I said, "To me, John Ritter was my favorite." Three's Company for you young people. Go watch Three's Company and you're going to see.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, unbelievable, like a master of physical comedy. Even though John wasn't a stand-up, I took a lot of what he was doing. I used to watch Three's Company like game tape growing up. Over and over and over again. There was a scene where he was on a hammock trying to get on the hammock and he fell off. All those little movements. And then he would hit himself and come up and have this dazed look. So all that stuff I really incorporated. He was a big inspiration for me. But the physicality for me, it's just fun to do. And I got to keep myself entertained up there as well.

Amy Poehler: Yeah, I bet. Because you did 80-something shows this year?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, it was a lot. 84 shows I think I did.

Amy Poehler: Dang. Do you ever do two-a-days?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I used to, but no more. No more. Just too tired at the end. I'm old.

Amy Poehler: Well, Tina and I were on tour and we would do—you know what our favorite thing was? A four o'clock show.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Incredible. You never do a four.

Amy Poehler: No, I didn't do comedy during the day.

Sebastian Maniscalco: You gotta do a four. It'll change your life.

Amy Poehler: Wow. Four o'clock show? You're done by 6:30?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, I like the concept. I'm wondering if my audience would look at the ticket and go, "Wait, four o'clock? We ain't going..."

Amy Poehler: I gotta tell you, every single person at that four o'clock show was pumped. Am I wrong? They wanted to go to bed. They want to go to sleep.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Listen, that is nice for the audience. Come home and get a light snack and go to bed.

Amy Poehler: How do you feel about sleep? I always like to talk to people about sleep on Good Hang. What is your sleep routine when you're on the road? And is it different than when you're home?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yes, it's difficult on the road. Last night, I had the worst sleep because three hours on a plane and I got to adjust. But when I'm home, I am starting to go to bed, sadly, after I tuck my kids in. It's embarrassing.

Amy Poehler: I love this. Talk to me about the time.

Sebastian Maniscalco: So I'm in bed about, I'd say about nine o'clock.

Amy Poehler: Incredible. Sebastian, this is my audience. It is. We love bedtime. We love bedtime. All we think about is bedtime. We love bedtime. 9 p.m. is a winner move.

Sebastian Maniscalco: It is. I try to be consistent with the sleep just because if it starts to vary, it gets screwed up on the other end. Generally speaking, I get up around 6 o'clock regardless of what time I go to sleep.

Amy Poehler: Are you doing any sleep, Eight Sleep mattress, ring?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No. I have a CPAP machine because I have...

Amy Poehler: You're wearing a breather or whatever the hell that is?

Sebastian Maniscalco: A breather? Whatever the hell it is? I thought only like...

Amy Poehler: Exactly. I know it's usually... I thought that was like a man thing.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Right. Lucky for me, it's not just a man thing.

Amy Poehler: You're right. It usually is a man thing. Have you ever heard a woman going, "I got to travel with this thing?" I never heard of that.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm sorry. Not a lot of women are doing that.

Amy Poehler: Well, I've always been ahead of my field.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Well, yeah, it's pretty sexy stuff. But yeah, I have sleep apnea, so I wear a sleep apnea machine. And I got to tell you, I love it. It's changed my life. I love it. I would never change it for the world. I love it so much. It's totally changed my life. Anybody who's thinking about it, just for fun. Anybody who wants to try it for fun, do it. It's great.

Amy Poehler: I've heard it's very beneficial.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Incredible.

Amy Poehler: Do you do it consistently every night?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Of course. Got to do it every night. And it puts you right to sleep. It's like the sound. And it has air—excuse me, water. So it's like hydrated. So you never wake up with dry mouth, bad breath, nose, any of that stuff. Because you're always hydrated. You put your lip balm on, your creams, you hydrate, and then you go. And then you look like a fighter pilot and you go to sleep.

Amy Poehler: But what's your bedtime routine? Tell me about your lotions because I bet you have a skincare routine.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I do. I do have a skincare routine. A little toner, a little face cream. And I put a little cologne on before. I got a little nighttime cologne. Different than daytime cologne? Yeah, I shower prior to bed. Of course. Do a full—I'd say the last two years I've been doing a full body lotion from head to toe.

Amy Poehler: Oh, very good. All right. What kind of brand you got going there? We'll cut it out. Don't worry. What is the brand?

Sebastian Maniscalco: It's a variety of different brands. I can't recall because my wife is just giving me stuff. "Here, use this lotion."

Amy Poehler: Oh, okay. Smart. You don't want to give them free stuff. I get it.

Sebastian Maniscalco: There's one. A lot of them I can't pronounce. Some of them are French. So, and then I've been doing this cologne routine where I do five sprays in my palm. I get it hot and I neck it and I go to bed. And then in the morning, what I've been doing—and this is something maybe you guys should try tomorrow—I've been doing two different colognes: one on the front and one on the back. So you get one scent coming and one scent going. It's a beautiful technique.

Amy Poehler: Wow. Are you into men with cologne?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I love it. Sure.

Amy Poehler: And also the front and back is genius. Because it's like...

Sebastian Maniscalco: It's beautiful. I thought I knew him.

Amy Poehler: You know? He's still a mystery to me. I mean, you're on tour all the time. Who's making you laugh right now? Do you watch comedy? Do you like to go?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, I don't either. It's just a busman's holiday.

Amy Poehler: But do you watch stuff to make you laugh? Do you watch videos? Do you watch other comics?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I don't look at entertainment for the comedy of it. I look at documentaries. I like drama. If I want to laugh, I got a friend back in Chicago. His name is George. I'll call him.

Amy Poehler: Tell us about George.

Sebastian Maniscalco: He's one of these guys that just, he's funny. We talk about daily life and he just makes me laugh. So George is kind of my go-to for comedy. As far as stand-up comedy, I don't like watching it generally. I mean, I like to laugh. I like to see what people are doing. Maybe a special will come on, I'll see five minutes of somebody and I'll just turn it off if I really like it. The last one I watched from front to back was Giannis Pappas. A couple specials ago I thought was really, really funny and he caught me on a night where I was so giddy and laughing. So generally speaking though, I'm like documentary. I laugh at serious moments. I love serious.

Amy Poehler: Do you watch anything like reality TV? Do you care about that?

Sebastian Maniscalco: My wife got me into Love is Blind. So now and then.

Amy Poehler: What are you laughing at? I guess the question is, do you believe it is?

Sebastian Maniscalco: The show? I mean, come on, the concept of it is cute. "Oh, I'm going to fall in love with somebody and then on the inside..." But that's half. You're going to eventually come out and look at the person. If they've got no teeth, it's a problem. They've got to walk down the stairs on their hands for them to be worth their salt.

Amy Poehler: I mean, Love is Blind is, for me, for people who are listening who might not know, they talk and then they finally see each other after they meet each other just from talking. And my mirror neurons, I get so codependently stressed when those doors open. The body language is so stressful when they go from arms open to just pat pat pat. Oh, yoi yoi. And the way the body never lies. When they go in for the kiss and it's just like, they turn their mouth away and give them the cheek. It's brutal.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Or she could be that too, but it's brutal. No, I can't handle that.

Amy Poehler: All right. So you like dark stuff.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Well, I mean, dark. It's just like, I like serious moments. Serious moments I tend to laugh at and find funny. Like my wife will be telling me a serious story and I'll just bust out laughing. She goes, "What the, what's wrong with you?" I don't know. I'm thinking about something that's funny pertaining to what you're saying.

Amy Poehler: Yeah. I know what you mean. Okay, so you've got a new special coming out.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah.

Amy Poehler: Another hour plus the material. It takes you how long to get new material?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I don't know. It's been averaging like three years. Every three years I come up with an hour. It's difficult because what you want to do going into these specials is you want it to be equal to or greater than the last one. And it's difficult because a lot of comedians have a lot of their best material coming out of the gate because they've been working so long. And now people expect a certain level from you. So I take it very serious to make these specials kind of special because I felt like my last one I was going through injury. I had sciatic pain on my right leg.

Amy Poehler: No way.

Sebastian Maniscalco: And it was very hard for me to move around.

Amy Poehler: Too much play.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Too much play. A lot of play. And I felt like I couldn't perform like I normally would because I was in pain. I couldn't move. Plus, I dressed in a tuxedo. I'm like, "I'm going to try something different." I'm going to bring Vegas back to Frank Sinatra. So I wanted the audience to dress up and this and that. 20 people dressed up. And I felt very hampered in a tuxedo. I couldn't move in a tuxedo. So I wanted to kind of correct that with this special. And I have no more sciatica and no more tuxedo.

Amy Poehler: Do you have a good sciatica stretch? Do you keep up on that?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I do. I take a ball.

Amy Poehler: Tennis ball, lacrosse ball, what kind of ball?

Sebastian Maniscalco: It is a ball that you would buy to roll out your legs. And I put it right here in my psoas. And I roll.

Amy Poehler: You guys know what that is, right? I feel like this is a health related section. We're doing sleep. Now we're doing sciatica.

Sebastian Maniscalco: It's sleep apnea. We've touched. We've got to get all the tips.

Amy Poehler: Okay. Put it in your psoas. And roll it.

Sebastian Maniscalco: So you get on the floor and then you basically lay on it and roll. I believe from my research, which is Instagram, a lot of the sciatic pain is coming from the front side of the body, particularly in the psoas. And I have a very tight psoas region. Not to brag. I got a big psoas.

Amy Poehler: Okay. So what I've learned—you and Pete have been doing your podcast for 12 years. What do you like about doing it? What have you learned? Like, what's the best thing about having a podcast? What do you like about it?

Sebastian Maniscalco: What I use it for is long-form storytelling. So Pete and I are like, he's a beer and peanut guy. I'm a wine and cheese guy. We're very opposites in the way we conduct our life. And he's so funny and so quick-witted, and he's a great listener. A lot of times when you're telling a story, you know this, that story has beats to it. If somebody tells me, "Tell that story about that," I'll look at the crowd and I don't know if you do that with a crowd, but like a group of people. And I go, "I'm not telling that story because I know the attention span of where we're at." I know the story needs to breathe. But Pete allows me to really go off on a tangent with a lot of the stories. And he adds great commentary. So we're not guest driven. We don't have a lot of guests just because we have so much fun talking to one another. But we've been doing this for 12 years. It's like a recorded phone call. And we have a ball, and that's kind of what I get out of the podcast. As Pete was saying, we don't really have—I mean, we have a loyal fan base. Nothing like this army you have that comes out to see you. But it is, if you're looking for really just storytelling and comedic storytelling, that's what I believe podcasting has done for us. Because when you do stand up, you need it to be tight. You need it to be hitting on all cylinders. With the podcast, you guys or whoever's listening to it could be in your bathroom, getting ready or working out. So yeah, you chuckle here and there. It's funny. But yeah, it's been a pleasure working with him and we plan on doing it. It's a labor of love for us.

Amy Poehler: That's great. The best thing about it, I feel like, is with these longer extended conversations, you can figure out how you feel about things in real time. You can hear people kind of sort through their value system in a way, but also just like they figure out life in real time with someone else. It's kind of cool to hear that. And because of that, I want to throw out some things and I just want to get your take about how you feel about them. Okay, so we're going to do a little speed round.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, good.

Amy Poehler: Okay. Shoeless households.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay. It's a big debate. Because I do a joke about going over to somebody's house and they ask, "Can you please remove your shoes?" And I'm like, I'm a grown man. I don't feel like I should be walking around somebody else's house in my socks. I just don't feel confident. Once a man loses his shoes, you can't really debate any other man. It's like you're in your socks, guy. Come on. But there's people out there that are very adamant. "How dare you come in with shoes on. You know how much stuff is on the bottom of your shoes. You're going to traipse that into the house." Yeah, okay, fine, I get it. It hasn't been a problem for me for the last 52 years. No one ever got sick.

Amy Poehler: I like what—did somebody come in there with their shoes on? So if you come by the house, people will be kind and go, "Oh, do you want me to take my shoes off?" And I feel so good when I go, "Nah. Leave them on." Especially women, man, they love shoes. They come over with a nice heel and they go, "Okay, let me take this off." And then they go walk around barefoot. Have you seen the bottom of some people's feet? What kind of bacteria? That might be even worse than a shoe.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Now, Pete was talking once about misophonia. Are you a germaphobe?

Amy Poehler: I'm not a germaphobe. I wouldn't say I'm not wiping down the plane seat when I walk on the plane. But I often look at people and how they conduct their lives and go, "How the hell could you be doing that here?" I just feel like there's no like—you go on an airplane and people will take their shoes off and they're barefoot and then they walk into the bathroom. Oh, not okay. Wow. Not okay. So I with this misophonia—if you don't know what it is—and again, Pete said I was not diagnosed with it.

Sebastian Maniscalco: His question I think was, "When are you going to get properly diagnosed with it?" I don't think I need to. I just feel like if you were opening up a bag of chips right now and eating Doritos, my window of tolerance for that is very small. Could be anything. Typing. Heavy typers.

Amy Poehler: You don't like a heavy typer.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, God. I mean, if you're banging on the keyboard at Starbucks and I'm waiting in line, I will just hear the keyboard and nothing else. I could drown out all other sounds. Like a Tom Cruise movie. It's amazing. And I don't want to get rid of this because I feel like not only do I have a sensitivity to sound, but also just people in general, their behavior. And I feel like if I lose the misophonia, I'm going to lose the ability or my radar to detect that that guy hasn't laughed at all. So that's why I keep the disease.

Amy Poehler: Yeah. Wedding registries.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Wedding registries. Oh, that's a good one. We had a registry when we got married. I have no problem with it. I don't pay attention to it because, growing up in an Italian family, we often brought money to the wedding. So you put some cash in an envelope, and you don't bring a toaster or a blender. Nice cash envelope. I think everybody likes that, especially when you're getting started married. It used to be people got married kind of young, and they needed a start. "Here's $500. Go buy something to get your life started." But now it's like, I don't know, man. It's like the parents are bankrolling a lot of these kids today. I mean, it's amazing.

Amy Poehler: And it got silent in here because maybe some of the people are in there. Yeah, this is New York City. Look at how quiet it got. Your mother paid for the tickets tonight. Yeah, everybody turned to their mother who they're with and said, "I don't know what he's talking about." But is there anything at a wedding that people do that drives you nuts?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'm not into taking home food. And this is big in the Italian culture. They'll go to the sweet table. Italians have a sweet table. And they'll take a styrofoam to-go thing that they hand out. And they'll take the cookies and the sfogliatelle. They'll take it all home. I'm like, come on. Have this for breakfast tomorrow? I just think it's a packing move. I don't like to go at a wedding.

Amy Poehler: I've never seen that.

Sebastian Maniscalco: No, come to one of my weddings. You'll see it.

Amy Poehler: Pets. Should people have them? Should people have pets?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I have to tell you, I've never had a pet up until a year ago. I got a dog. We have two dogs now. So we got them for the kids. I'm not a huge animal lover. I like animals, but I'm not coming home and "Ha-ha." I don't take it out to get coffee. I'm taking out an airplane. I just felt like we had a pet in the neighborhood growing up. His name was Edolo. It's the male version of Italy. Edolo? That's the name of the dog, Edolo. And it lived in the garage year round. I mean, it would be 13 below and the dog would be in the garage. I don't know. It was just kind of like there, the dog. It wasn't like the focal point of the home. It was just like, "Yeah, you're right." But now the dog's up here and it's the petting. It bothers me. I'm sorry. It's just...

Amy Poehler: What kind of dog do you get?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Cats, forget it. I'm sorry. I'm allergic to cats. That's why I don't like them. But God, I don't even go to people. I got a good friend. He's got a cat. He's got two cats. I go, "I can't come to the house until the cats die." I can't.

Amy Poehler: Amy Miles has cats, and she had a cat that really tried to almost become your lover. The cat would—and I was saying, I feel the same way about cats. I feel fine with them and I think they're great, but I don't really want—I'm a tiny bit allergic, just a little bit. So I try not to touch them. And because of it, they're obsessed with me. I just ignore them and they just come up and crawl and they get in your clothes. And Amy used to have a cat named Nosferatu who would try to suck your spirit out of your mouth. So I understand. Yelling. How do you feel about yelling?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I mean, I don't know. A good yell every now and then is healthy.

Amy Poehler: Do you yell at your kids?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, I yell at my kids. Again, I'm not one of these parents that gets on the same level as their kids and goes, "Just tell me what you're going through." It's not that. I think a good dose of a yell—not a lot—because with raising kids, you have to act sometimes like you're psychotic. And if you lose your composure, the kids will go, "Wow, we don't want to see that again." So a good yell, I think, every now and then, sets the family straight.

Amy Poehler: Agreed. Oh, you're getting some applause. I'm surprised. You're getting applause from the parents of the people who paid for their kids to be here. Santa Claus.

Sebastian Maniscalco: We had a problem with Santa Claus. Again, this is another thing I'm not into. My daughter accused my wife and I of being Santa Claus. This is when she was five years old. And I wasn't ready for it. I thought Santa Claus discussions normally happen maybe around 8 to 10 to 11. So I'm like, "What? Five? That's a little young." So I came out of the room. I asked my wife. I go, "Get on this text story that you're with the moms and find out what's going on at school." We found out that a lot of parents tell their kids there's no Santa because they don't want to lie to their kids. Now, I'm thinking that's all I do is lie to my kids. "Eat your carrots. You're going to see better." But yeah, so I got so upset. I was at a Christmas party. There was a Santa Claus there. So I'm telling Santa—generally speaking, when I go to these parties, you dance. I talk to like the waiters and the people that are working at the party.

Amy Poehler: Got it. I get it.

Sebastian Maniscalco: So I'm talking to Santa. You're going to the back of the house. Yeah, I go back to the house. So I talked to the Santa and I said, "You know, kid don't believe." And he goes, "Well, I offer a service where I could come to the house." So yeah, this is in Los Angeles. Can you believe it? "I come to the house on Christmas Eve. And I'll put the presents down." So 12:30 at night, this guy comes. I put my robe in the driveway. "Come, come, this way. The tree's over here, Santa." She comes in. I wake up the kids. I go, "Santa's here." We come. We look at Santa. And then Santa, and then the kids go back to bed. I peel off three hundred for this drunk Santa in my house. And now the kids, they believe again. So I highly recommend if you can get a Santa to come to your house. It's incredible.

Amy Poehler: Incredible. Wow. And I guess the last question I want to ask you, Sebastian, and thank you so much for your time. And again, check out Sebastian's new special on Hulu and all of the good work that he's doing. It's so great to have you. Thank you so much for doing this. It's been so fun. Can you just talk me through how you cook your steak?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay.

Amy Poehler: Because it feels like what I've read is that you do a reverse sear, and I want to talk about it.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Okay. I like these questions. So I found this video about 10 years ago online about the reverse sear. Basically what it is is you take the steak out of the refrigerator, you leave it set for about 30 minutes, get it to room temperature. I like to do mine about 45, 50 minutes. Just let it get used to the atmosphere.

Amy Poehler: And what kind of cut are we talking about?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I used to like ribeye. Now I'm on to New York strip because the ribeye got a lot of fat on it. And at this age, I could go at any minute. So I'm doing New York strip steak and I heavily salt it and heavily put pepper on it right from the hair. And then I set the oven to 275. I put it in there for about 45 minutes. After the 45 minutes, I take it out. I let it rest for 15. All the while, I got a cast iron skillet, white hot. I do a sear for about a minute each side, cut and serve with a little rosemary lining the serving plate. I like garnish on a plate when it comes to the table because a lot of times when you have steak, there might be a little blood or whatever moving throughout the plate. And I like the stems of rosemary. It kind of adds a nice touch.

Amy Poehler: Anything else in the pan? No butter?

Sebastian Maniscalco: No. I know a lot of people do a little oil maybe, garlic, and then they kind of baste it with the spoon. No, this is a—you don't need it. You want a shout out and a sponsor for this? Snake River Farm Meat is probably the best meat that you can get. You got to order it online though. I've been promoting this meat company for a while.

Amy Poehler: For real?

Sebastian Maniscalco: And not one free filet. I'm the guy that gets nothing. Like, Amy probably has a bunch of stuff coming to the house, right? Swag. "Here's this, here's that. We understand you got a band. Here's a guitar." I get nothing. Nothing is sent to me. No, "Here, try this, try that." I got no boxes. DJ Khaled is constantly opening up a watch or shoes. I got nothing.

Amy Poehler: And what's your sides? Before you go, I need to know, what are you serving with your steak?

Sebastian Maniscalco: So we like to do a fingerling potato.

Amy Poehler: Whoa, not what I expected. What did you expect?

Amy Poehler: I expected a whipped or a mashed.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Funny you say that. I started doing mashed because my kitchen is being remodeled right now. I can't cook. But I started doing mashed potatoes prior to the kitchen remodel. And, you know, it's a little bit labor intensive.

Amy Poehler: Yeah, it's not easy to get a good mashed.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Yeah, it's not easy to get a good mashed. But the fingerling is sufficing for now. And then I'll put a green in there. I'll put a broccoli. I'll put a little asparagus. I'm trying to get the kids to eat healthy with this kind of grab-and-go stuff that I'm not into the processed foods. Although, I'm not saying that I'm eating so well. But you want to give the kids a nice... Here's a little tip I tell people, young kids, that I'll share with you too. I learned it from my brother who lives in Sweden with his Swedish wife and family. They do this. I don't know if it's sweet. It's probably not Swedish. Just what they do.

Sebastian Maniscalco: When dinner time is almost ready, like that hungry time when the kids are about to eat and food is cooking, they just put a big plate of vegetables with like ranch or hummus on the table. Your kid is hungry and they eat a bunch of carrots and celery just as a snack because it's not part of their dinner. But the minute you put it on the plate with anything like pizza or pasta or anything, they're not going to eat it. If you slide it in there before dinner, when they're hungry, they'll have a few carrot sticks. They don't even know they're eating it.

Amy Poehler: That does sound good in theory. But how prone are you to... Cut some carrot radishes. You got this beautiful tray of vegetables and one carrot, and then who's eating the rest of the vegetables, right?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I know.

Amy Poehler: Are you going to knock them out? No, they're going in the garbage. You're right. Cutting too many vegetables is a nightmare.

Sebastian Maniscalco: But I would take a vegetable over a fruit any day.

Amy Poehler: What's your vegetable? Favorite.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Well, I love anything in the pea family. So I love a pea. I love a, you know, what do you call it? Snap pea.

Amy Poehler: Thank you.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I love a pea. I love an asparagus. I love a potato. Does that count as a vegetable?

Amy Poehler: Yeah, does it? I don't know.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Mushroom. I love a mushroom.

Amy Poehler: Okay, a mushroom. So what's your favorite fruit?

Sebastian Maniscalco: I feel like some kind of savory like a chicken curry with mushrooms and rice...

Amy Poehler: No, no, no, no, fruit. Did you hear fruit?

Sebastian Maniscalco: Oh, you said fruit?

Amy Poehler: Yeah, fruit. You said it like this: fruit.

Sebastian Maniscalco: What you found in fruit? What you found in fruit? Shit. What you found in fruit? My favorite fruit?

Amy Poehler: Fruit. Yeah.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Fruit. Is... I don't know, a plum.

Amy Poehler: A plum? Oh, wow. What's your favorite fruit?

Pete Correale: What's your favorite fruit?

Amy Poehler: Fruit is a banana or a strawberry. It's a toss-up. And a vegetable, I like an asparagus. I love an asparagus. I really dig in the asparagus. But if I had to choose, I'd go strawberry or banana over a vegetable.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I ain't dead wink.

Amy Poehler: You'd go fruit over veg.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I'd go fruit.

Amy Poehler: Wow. And you got this audience. As we wrap up, I guess, raise your hand. Raise your hand if you'd go fruit over veg. Wow. Look at that. Look at that. I can't even see the people up the top. That's impressive. The people on the side on the park ride are all veg. Nobody's voting fruit. Unbelievable. Well, you found your audience, Sebastian.

Sebastian Maniscalco: I did. It's my group of people.

Amy Poehler: Give it up, everybody, for Sebastian Maniscalco. Thank you so much. That was amazing.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Thanks for having me here. I really appreciate it.

Amy Poehler: Thank you. Sebastian Maniscalco, everybody. You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paper Kite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaya McMullin, and Alaya Zanaris. For Paper Kite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

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