Sebastian Maniscalco

The superstar comedian reveals how he writes his material and the simple lesson that led him from from open mic nights to selling out Madison Square Garden. He also opens up about the time he hired his dad to give Robert De Niro acting lessons, the distinct difference between Italians and Sicilians, and  why he wants his son to get the same school punishments that he got as a kid. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
My father was on set. You know. It's another thing.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think I got my father teaching Robert de Niro
how to beat him on set. My dad, you know,
he's seventy what is he seventy six at the time,
and he's a hairdresser and he had to come and
take three days off to come teach de Niro, you know,

(00:34):
how to do hair on the set. And my father's like,
how much am I getting for this? And I'm like what,
I'm losing clings at the Swan because I got to
come and teach de Niro. And I'm like, Dad, you
know he worked de Niro. But my dad could you know,

(00:54):
he didn't give a shit.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Who it was. He just he was he was losing.
He was losing. Die jabs.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Hi, folks, this is Paul Anka and.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
My name is Skip Bronson. We've been friends for decades
and we've decided to let you in on our late
night phone calls by starting a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends of us.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
You're leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a city
president or too.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Join us as we ask the questions they've not been
asked before. Tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Hey what's going on?

Speaker 5 (02:18):
Hey? Skip, how you doing? I just, you know, I
was looking at the Netflix of Sebastian, who's going to
be on tomorrow. I's watching the show. He's brilliant, that guy,
and I'm really excited to talk to him.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
He really is. And you know what, for me, it's
it's particular fun because you know, I spend time with Sebastian,
we play golf together. He's just he's just a warm,
great guy. Whenever I've had people like I have two cousins,
Marissa and Lindsay, they're huge Sebastian fans, and you know,
I hate doing this, but you know, oh, can we
meet him? Can we meet him? And I called him,

(02:55):
who's out on tour? And I said, you know, I
got my cousins and whatever and everybody, you know, because
not now that COVID is you know, mostly behind us,
but everybody has become more cautious about having too much contact,
where you're going to possibility getting sick. Absolutely, haven't seen
me before the show. Like it's interesting because Paul you
like to see people after the show. He likes to

(03:16):
see people before the show. But you know, you have
my two cousins there. And he didn't give him like
just the handshakes and goodbye. I mean, he was really
you know, he's talking to him. He's just he's a
great guy. But I was going to tell you one
other things. When he had his fiftieth birthday recently, Edie
and I were invited to the party at his house
and we were driving over there and Edie said, you know,

(03:39):
how many people do you think will be here? I said,
oh god, Sebastian Maniscalco, hundreds. You know it's going to
be huge. We get there, there are like thirty or
forty people and I'm wondering, wait a second, but did
we get here too early and people are coming later?
And I said, well, Sebastian, I thought there'd be a
big crowd here. He said, listen, I perform in front
of big crowds, but for something like this, I really

(04:01):
just want the people who really mean something to me.
And I mean that's what he's like, he's thoughtful. He's not,
you know, just he he's a very interesting guy. He
knows that I drink diet coke. I'm almost addicted to it.
He said, hey, hold on, just wait here for a second.
So Eading Eric's is standing there, and he walks up
to the house because we're out in the backyard where

(04:22):
this party was going to take place. He comes back
with a can of diet coke. He said, we only
had one can of diet coke and I didn't want
anybody else to get it, so I hit it in
the refrigerator. Here you go, and he is a canned
die coke. But that's but my point is, that's what
kind of guy he is. That's who he is.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
You're going to love him, you know. I'm looking forward
just I'm looking forward to seeing that other side of him,
you know, because you look at you know what he
does up there. I'm sure there is another side, and
I think we're going to find out. Thanks for pulling
him in. He loves you. Okay, we'll talk later, Yeah,
by bye, yeah, by.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Say out of Paul. Anka is only on the phone
because there's a Wi Fi problem in his hotel. He's
performing eighty one years old. He's performing in Clearwater floor.
You're going to be performing when you're eighty, right, I hope.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So clear Water, Florida. What is that the Ruth Ecker
Ballroom over there?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, Ruth Ecker. Have you been down here for Bobby?
Have you worked here?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah? Yeah, I've been there. It's a nice room.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
First of all, high Sebastian.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Nice to meet you.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Nice to meet you too, and looking forward to this.
He used to hang on Chicago for many years, buddy,
when it was safe.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, those were the good old days.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Now.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, I was just there with my father down in
the city and we went to a little Italian joint
down there, and yeah, I don't know. The energy of
the city seems to not be the same as it
once was in the well the nineties, when I was
growing up there.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, when I went there. Did you go to Gibson's
is that? I know you're a foodie? Did you go
to do you go to give since to Lombard's place.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I didn't go to Gibson's, but I've been there. I
enjoy I enjoy that.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, that's my old that's my old hang there. We
used to have a lot of fun, Marty Gatilla and Lombardo,
the Greco family. But it has changed, unfortunately, but maybe
it'll spit around to the way we like it.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, everything's changing.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, Well we're doing all right.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Oh, I mean, you gotta be good. You're you're out
there performing in Florida. I mean, I only hope to
be eighty one years old doing stand up somewhere.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Well, I think the way you're going you look fit.
You know what I can't believe is, you know when
I got down here sixteen years old Sebastian, and they
said you're doing a show called ed Sullivan. They took
me into the Ed Sullivan Theater and two hours later
they said, you're going into Madison Square Gardens. We're changing
the venue. And here I am, my first time in
the States, singing Diana. That Coka made me a little

(06:54):
song that put me where I am today, and I
was scared to death. And you're going in there. You've
been selling that place out. What do you feel like, man,
going from you know, these little clubs testing your stuff.
What's the feeling going into massive square gardens as successful
as you are?

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Well, you know, I never got into the business to
do like these arena type shows. I came out to
Los Angeles from Chicago in nineteen ninety eight solely to
you know, do stand up comedy just as for a living.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
That's kind of the goal.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
And you know, for me, it was a slow burn.
I've been doing this for twenty five years, so I
didn't have any film or TV credits to really catapult
me into the stand up comedy scene. It was, you know,
going to comedy clubs, doing you know, the week at
the comedy club for one thousand dollars whatever they were

(07:47):
paying me, and establishing a fan base that way, and gradually,
over time, you know, the audience grew and now.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
You're going into places like Madison Square.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Garden, which you know, the problem with me is I
never really enjoyed that experience as much as I should
have because and I don't know if you suffer from this,
but I'm always thinking, my last show is my last show, you.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Know, right right, I get it.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
So this time around, I'm trying to stop and small
the roses a little bit more than I had in
the past, because you.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Know, these moments are fleeting.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
You never know if they're going to happen again, and
I'm gonna bring my family this time around on this tour.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
You know, my kids are six and four years old.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
They they kind of understand what daddy's doing now, So
just want to enjoy these moments. But yeah, Madison Square
Garden is something that is, you know, as big as
the room is, it plays very small. It's like an
intimate type of room as much as you could get
for an arena. So yeah, it's it's a special, special time.

(08:56):
So I really really enjoy the career right now. But again,
you know, I'm selling five shows of Madison Square Garden.
But in Norfolk, Virginia, I got two thousand people.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, we don't go to Norfolk. Does the timing device?
You know, I started years ago in Vegas. I had
every top comic because back then, you know, they work
with us. You've had Alan King, I had Woody, Allen Joe,
all opening acts, and they were all into the small
room environment like you started. Is there a certain device

(09:28):
when you're playing to a big audience that you're not
expecting to What is your timing level in terms of
responding to all of that? I mean it's phenomenal and
comedy is much different than music. You know, we get
up there. We can bullshit all we want because we've
got a band and everything, But what's your mindset when
you're getting up there? I've always wondered, because it's it's
something really a new dynamic in our business to see,

(09:50):
you know, guys like you and deservedly so. But with
that many people, what was your timing device on that?

Speaker 2 (09:55):
Well?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
You know, I think my act kind of suited for
a larger environment, although I agree with you, I think
the smaller rooms like the comedy clubs, are somewhere where
comedy should definitely be enjoyed. You know, you get into
a two hundred and fifty seat comedy club and the
audience is right there at your feet.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
And you could, you know, see them.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Eating or drinking, and they could see all your facial expressions.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
So definitely suited for comedy.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
But you know, in the arena, I tend to get
really physical on stage and big and theatrical, so it
kind of plays to that room. But there is a
little bit of a timing mechanism there that you have
to slow down a little bit. Although I really like
to pacete my material and enjoy the silence switch.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
You know, I'm a huge Johnny Carson Fan.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
I thought he had just his look alone and just
the way he would stop and kind of look at
the audience or look at the camera, really take his
time with the joke, because a lot of comedy is timing,
and yes, yes, today I see a lot of comedians
kind of just running through material. There is really no
timing anymore, which I don't know. I feel like, even

(11:14):
though the room is twenty thousand seats, you could almost
for me, the joy is just letting the silence kind
of take over the room and you could almost draw
them in by just being quiet.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
So yeah, it's a it's a.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Different performance, not so much where it's you know, strikingly
opposite of what I'm doing in a smaller room, but yeah,
there's a there's a timing aspect there that you have
to give a little bit more room for just so
the audience could catch on somebody.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
A comedian actually once told me that there are really
three phases of comedy. The first is when you can
make yourself laugh, the second is when you can make
your friends laugh, and the third is when and you
can get people to pay you to make them laugh.
So my question is, when did you realize that you
could actually get paid for this.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
So I fell in love with stand up comedy really
early on. I used to go over to my cousins
on Saturday and watch kind and have cable, and he
used to tape all the like the Danger Fields a
night at the improv. I used to watch all that
and I used to be fascinated how these comedians used
to memorize the stuff that it was like it was

(12:28):
the first time they were telling it. And then I'm like, oh,
this is this is something I really really enjoy watching.
And then when I got into school, I really enjoyed
doing book reports, getting in front of the class.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I was like a shy guy. I was not the.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Class clown I was. I actually despised the class clown.
I was always like, sit down, not funny. So yeah,
I always had this dream of like getting into this business,
but coming from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Hollywood seem like.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
A different planet.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
But as I as I, you know, went through my
life and graduated college, I'm like, I'm going to give
this a shot. And you know, I knew it was
you know, it's a long shot. But I definitely had
a work ethic instilled by my family and they told me,
you know, whatever you do, you do it at one
hundred and ten percent. And I didn't give myself like

(13:22):
an out a lot of people come to Hollywood. I'm
going to give myself five years and if I don't
make anything of it, I'm going to go back home
or whatever, which I think you're setting yourself up for
failure by doing that.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
So I said, this is you know, comedy or bust.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
This is the only thing I really really enjoyed doing,
and I want to try and make a living at it.
It wasn't about getting famous or celebrity or anything like that.
It was strictly I enjoy storytelling. I really love making
people smile. And there's no better feeling, whether it's twenty
thousand people or my mother.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
When people laugh to me, it's creates a feeling in me.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
What people don't understand is as good as they feel
laughing in the audience, I feel ten times better than
what they're feeling. So, you know, in order to make
a living doing it, you know, I always knew it
was a business, which I take it very seriously. You know,
I know how hard it is for people to come

(14:21):
out to watch the show, you know all that's involved,
from maybe getting a babysitter to paying for the parking
to you know, fighting weather if it's snowing in the.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
City, whatever it is.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
So I mean, people are coming out to see me,
so I take that very seriously to give them a
show where they will not only leave thinking wow, I
really got my money's worth that they would leave saying
to other people you got to go see this guy.
So yeah, I have fun doing it. It's really fantastic

(14:54):
to do stand up comedy. But also it is a business,
and I'm not blind to the fact that you know it, Sebastian.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
You know, most people, they never really know the mileage
that performers put in. That you need to get to
a place where you feel you're in the vibe and
you know what you're doing. And you did you know,
Bill Burr's a buddy, and he told me he ran
into you years ago. Was it on Fulham Street? You
guys had an apartment? Was it Fulham when I got
the street?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Roar when I told him, yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, And Bill told me he'd always run into you.
And you did all your time at the comedy club,
and you're doing it and believing in it. You know,
there comes a point even like with us singers, you know,
we had to put in mileage. We're scared to death,
We're not really got a hold of ourselves. When did
it kick in? What year after all that mileage were
you putting in? Were you onto something? And around? You know,

(15:55):
that whole physical vibe of yours is part of the
magic of you, Like you know, I loved Kennison Carrie
does it well. It's a two part question, you know, One,
when did a kick in for you? And when it did?
Who around that doesn't have the it everything that you've
got that encompasses you, that makes you laugh, that hasn't

(16:17):
made it, that just doesn't have all of that that's
going to make it happen for them? If you know
where I'm going with that.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Yeah, So the first question I realized, I don't know,
I'd say seven to eight years in I started to
filing and find my voice, and you know it was
through a lot of trial and air. Young comedians come
up to me and go, oh, you know, like, what
do you recommend I'm just getting in the stand up comedy.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
What do you recommend? That's all him?

Speaker 3 (16:44):
I recommend you just treating this like if you were
bodybuilding and you were going to do a bodybuilding show.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
There is hours and hours and hours.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
That go into the gym to work every muscle that
you have on your body to make it look like
a statue at by competition time.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
And that's the same thing. It's it's all about repetition.
You know.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
I used to go and do comedy and you know,
three or four sets a night Monday through you know, Saturday.
I think it maybe maybe took Sunday off, but I
felt like I was if I was taking a night off,
I was almost like doing myself a disservice because I
would miss out on a learning experience on stage. You know,

(17:24):
every time you got up there, something would happen, whether
it be a heckler or you would get into a
almost like this zone of improving on stage with the
just one idea. And I also felt like, who's in
the audience. You know, I don't know who's in that audience.
There's somebody that could come in and go, Wow, this
this guy's funny. Let's give him a shot here or there.

(17:46):
So the more stage time I got, the more chances
I felt like it would give me not only to practice,
but get myself in front of the right people. And
as far as people today who I think are funny
or what have you, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
It's a hard question, I guess to ask.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
I'm not piped into the comedy scene as far as
like going to comedy clubs and going, Oh that that
cat's funny, this girl's funny, or what have you. I mean,
Nate Bergatzi seems to be a guy who seems to
be setting his audience. He's really coming up. We're going
to do a show here and at the Netflix is
a joke at the Hollywood Bowl together with Gaffigan and Seinfeld.

(18:30):
But I guess I don't know a lot of young
comedians on their way up that either have it or
maybe don't have it.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
I'm not really I don't know, Paul Listen, I got
two kids six and four.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
I barely got time for my own comedy let alone.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Anybody Do they get what you're doing, Sebastian? Are they
into it? Because my kids fluffed me off with my
music for a long time. But are they hip to
what you're doing?

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, I mean they've been to a couple of shows.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
They know Daddy makes people laugh, you know, and for
me also too, you know, the struggle being a performer
is I'm also I'm a father first, and I want
to be with my family for those moments.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
You know.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
My daughter has a gymnastics meet tomorrow at seven point
thirty in the morning, and you know, I've been invested
in this gymnastics. I've been to every meet, and then
I'm starting to think, Man, when I start touring in July,
you know, some of these moments I'm not going to
be able.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
To go to.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
And I know you can't go to everything, but you
know there's that struggle there with me too, going geez.
You know, I don't want to look back, you know,
twenty years from now, going what the hell was I
doing in you know, Norfolk, Virginia July eleventh, when my
daughter was doing a recital and I missed it.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
I hear you, there's there's there's that whole thing, you.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Know, I went through at Sebastian. I have five girls
and I got nine grandchildren. And to put the quality
time in because you're doing what you're doing because you
love it. They got to get it. But it's all
it's all quality time and not quantity.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
No, I agree. I think that's definitely true.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
It's not so much all these hours, but it's the
hours that mean a lot that you got to concentrate on.
But yeah, they're kind of a wearable my daughter more
so than my son.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
But yeah, they know that daddy's a clown.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
So Paul was talking about your physical comedy before I
get into this anecdote. Full disclosure. Sebastian and I are friends.
It's like golf together. We hang out together, and.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
He tells me every day Sebastian every day calls this
guy kills me. I love this guy. He's very fond
of you.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
As you know. Well, Skip's a great guy.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
One evening, I'm home and I get a phone call.
Phone lights up, says Sebastian's name. He said, you know, listen,
I'm down here Mobile, Alabama. He said, I'm doing a film,
feature film called About My File. So most incredible thing
is I had pictures of Robert de Niro on my
walls when I was a kid, and now Robert de
Niro is playing my father in this movie. I mean,

(21:09):
somebody's got to pinch me. But I got I got
a problem here. I said, what's the problem. He said, well,
my back is killing me. I got this pain down
going down my leg. I don't know what to do.
I think, you know, somebody said I got to get
an epidural. I'm in Mobile. I don't know who to
get an epidural from. I said, so, what are you
calling me for? He said, because you know everybody. So
I forged to know somebody. You figured, I know somebody

(21:31):
in Mobile, Alabama can give you an epidural. So I
called my friend Neil Elatroge, who was probably the greatest
orthopedic surgeon in America, and I called him. I tell
him the story, and he said, well, I don't know
anybody in Mobile, but I've got a doctor I think.
He said he was in Montgomery. It's like about an
hour and a half away in a car. I said, well,
you make a three hour round trip. I said, I

(21:53):
think so. He's really struggling and he's got to make
this movie. So Neil made a phone call. Next thing,
we know, you're off to see this doctor who shot
you up, and you know, got through this so that
you could get the film done.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Can you imagine I'm in Alabama.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
I'm calling Skip in La asking if he knows anybody
to help me out in Alabama.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Next thing, you know, I think, I think I was.
I was.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
I was in Birmingham, face down on at a doctor's
table with a needle about twelve inches long going into
my spine.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
And you're doing your first film, You're with de Niro,
you're learning a script, all of that perfect stuff, and
it shows you it's an imperfect world. How the hell
do you get through that? How do you do that
with that pain and having to address that and knowing
what that process is like doing a film? How did
you get through it?

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (22:44):
Yeah, you know. Every morning I was stretching, I was
working out. I was trying to keep myself loose and limber.
But no matter kind of what I did, it really
didn't help my psiatic pain. Recently, I've taken up and
I found that pilates was the It is the best
thing for you know, posture and.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Core stability and all that.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
But getting through that movie it was not It was
not a good experience for me for multiple reasons. A.
I was in severe pain. B. I felt like, you know,
I've never done a movie from soup to nuts like that,
and I'm doing it with arguably one of the greatest
who's ever done it. So there was a lot of

(23:29):
doubt and whether or not I could accomplish this feat.
So I was really, really in my head. But I
learned a ton from working with de Niro, and for me,
it was like a ten week intensive acting class. For me,
I've acted before movies, but nothing, nothing to this level.

(23:50):
So I kind of took that experience and used it
as a learning experience for future projects. But yeah, my
father was on set. You know, it's not that I
think I got my father teaching Robert de Niro.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
How to be him on a set.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
My dad, you know, he's seventy what is he seventy
six at the time, and he's a hairdresser and he
had to come and take three days off to come
teach de Niro, you know, how to do hair on
the set. And my father was like, how much am
I getting for this?

Speaker 2 (24:27):
And I'm like, what, I'm losing clients at the Swan.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Because I got to come and teach de Niro And
I'm like, Dad, yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
De Niro.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
But my dad could you know, he didn't give a
shit who it was. He just he was he was losing.
He was losing die Jabs.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Were you giving de Niro any comedy tips? I mean,
he's done comedy before, but I mean it was so personal.
I saw the film, it was wonderful. Are you giving him?
I mean, do you dare give him any tips? Because
we all know he's a sweetheart and he's just so talented.
Did you lay anything off on him in terms of
comedy tips because it was so personal for you?

Speaker 3 (25:09):
Yeah, I mean he had asked me a couple of
questions in regards like how would your father do this
or that? But the relationship between him and I on
set was very, very distant, you know, like we it's
like cut and it's not like we were just hanging
out going hey hey, Bob, what are you doing tonight
for dinner?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And it was none of that.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
It was he went to his chair and I think
got on the phone and opened up another noble.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
And I was in my line. So he was very professional.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
He helped me a lot with the acting, but as
far as like kind of shooting, there was not a
lot of Number one, not necessarily because of him.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
It was because of me too, because.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
I was trying to, you know, learn my not my lines,
but like figure out what I was going to do,
and and yeah it was there was no real tips
offered my way to him, but definitely the other way around.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
And did you get along with your father?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
You don't want my father to leave, so he didn't know.
He's like, where are you going?

Speaker 6 (26:18):
My Dad's like, I gotta I gotta work, Bob, and
and he's like, no, no, you gotta you gotta stay
here and help me.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
And my Dad's like, you know, I can't. I gotta
go back. I gotta go back home. So it was
definitely a great experience.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
And to share that with my father and my family,
my mother and my wife.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
My sister, all of us.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
Uh, it was definitely something I never saw in the
cards for me. But I mean I got a movie
out there that Robert de Narroll was playing my father.
So if it all ended for me today, I think
I think I'm all right.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, it was a great film.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
You know when you were talking, you and Paul were
talking about Madison Square Garden, which to me, that's the ultimate.
I mean, if you perform and you go to any athlete, basketball, player, hockey,
there's something magical about being in Madison Square Garden. I
mean it's just it's the pinnacle. But what was like
the worst place you ever performed?

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Worst place?

Speaker 3 (27:17):
I think it was up in Mantika or Mantiko is
northern California. I think it's the meth capital of the world.
The problem with stand up comedies people think they could
throw that. You just throw it up anywhere, whether it.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Be a restaurant or whatever.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
It's like, oh, we're gonna have comedy tonight, but really
you need kind of a stage lighting. But this was
in a boxing ring. It was a bar that had
a boxing ring in the bar and behind the boxing
ring was a bowling alley. And we arrived as me
and two other comedians and we're like, where's the show

(27:55):
and they're like, it's going to be in the boxing
ring tonight, and I said, so, you know.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
No introduction, no nothing, you just get in the boxing ring.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
There's fresh blood on the canvas from the evening before,
and you know, people are they don't even know comedy
is happening. They're drinking at the bar watching sports, which
is another thing. It's like they still kept the sports
on while comedians on stage and you know, I'm doing comedy,
you know, to whatever, twenty three people in a sports

(28:27):
bar while somebody's picking up a spare behind me. So,
but you need those nights, you know, you know, talking
about like the difference today in comedy, in anything in
the entertainment now opposed to you know, back when you

(28:47):
had to put in the reps and do the work
and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
There is no substitute for that.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
There's you know, I don't care how many Instagram videos
you put out in your living room, there is no
substitute that for actually going out and getting in front
of a live audience and performing. Whether you're a singer,
a dancer, a comedian, those definitely lay the foundation for

(29:19):
your your career and make you a seasoned pro. So,
you know, I relished at the time. I was like,
you know, I was. I was scared up there, you know,
I was. I was reeling. But you need those moments
in your career because when you're performing in front of
Madison Square Garden and something goes awry or someone you know,

(29:42):
I was in Atlantic City at the Bergata and I
was performing in the round and there was a commotion
in the crowd. I didn't know what it was. I
thought it was a fight. I thought something had happened.
Maybe somebody keeled over and had a heart. I don't
know what was going on, but they had to stop
the sh because there was a variety of different sections

(30:03):
that were having this issue where there was commotion and
they had I had to get off stage for them
to figure out what was going on. And I was backstage, going,
what's going on that we don't know?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
It turned out that someone threw up and it caused
a chain reaction amongst the audience, and everybody who saw
the throw up started to throw up. So we had
about five five or six different people hacking on.

Speaker 7 (30:33):
You know, they had to bring up a hazdmat team
in to clear the vomit, and then I had to
go up. You know, after a forty minute break, I
had to go back up and finish the show.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
So you know, if I was if I didn't have
those reps before that happened, I would have been totally
lost on how to handle that situation. But you know,
I got up there and I and I you know,
made kind of fun of the whole what had happened,
and then you know, moved down with my materials. So yeah,

(31:03):
I mean it's, uh, you never know what's gonna happen
in a live show, And if you don't have those
reps behind you, I think it's a service.

Speaker 8 (31:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
I've seen so much of that, and if you're not
ready for it, it throws you. I'll never fee a
Tody Fields. You remember the comic Tody Fields. No, anyway,
she was one of the I love talking to you
because all the guys I grew up with. Everyone I
talked Today's never heard Alan King, Jerry Lewis, of course, right,
I know of them.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
So she hires this French singer, Charles Asnevoor. I you
heard of him. No, So anyway, Charles asnefor is a
Frank Sinatra of France, I mean huge, and when he
came to this country eventually did big business. She gets
it in her head to bring him to down to Miami.
I think it was the Fountain Blue of the Eden

(31:55):
Rock and they hired this French singer who sings in
French and he opens the show for Tody Field's places jammed.
You know, Miami was the place run by the boys.
Everybody was there. It was the glamour spot. And this
guy gets up and starts singing in French and some

(32:20):
woman in the front stands up and she goes, Sadie,
what time you're going to the pool tomorrow? Well that
was it. The act was over. Everybody left. They didn't
want to watch him. But he came off. He said, look,
I've never had this, but I'm prepared for it. But
you're so right when you get those instances. I've had
people with heart attacks in the audience, fights in the audience.

(32:42):
You got to really hold your ground around how to
handle it, because it throws the shit out of you.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
You're not prepared, Paul. So it tells the Bastian the
story about what happened the time with your tooth when
you were performing.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Oh Jesus. You know, as a kid, I played hockey,
so you know I got banged up between the no
and the teeth. So I had a cap in the
front that they kept fixing as the technology got better.
And you went playing the Bally's in Las Vegas, and
I got this dentist put in the new cap up
in front, and you know, I said, okay, cool. So

(33:15):
I go on stage and I'm in about ten minutes.
I don't know what happened, but I started singing some
high note and my tongue hit the tooth, and the
fucking tooth flew out right ringside, and I'm going, what
the fuck, What the fuck? Now this woman is standing up,
I'm singing, I got the lip rolled around the teeth.

(33:36):
I have your tooth, mister. Oh my god, I took
the tooth. I canceled the show. I almost killed the dentist,
and I went back got it fixed. But I'll never
forget that night I got your tooth, mister, rag. Those
are moments you're not prepared for, Sebastian, I can promise you.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
I don't think anything can prepare for your teeth falling
out on stage.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Well, thank god it was just one one.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
Your most recent comedy special. Is it me? You know
you tape that in Vegas? You wore a tuxedo. Why
was that white? You get all dressed up like that?

Speaker 2 (34:22):
You know, I.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
Grew up in a family where you kind of dressed up,
you know, like you're going out, put on your nice slacks,
We're going to dinner, going to church, you know, put
on your Sunday's best. And I would hear these stories,
you know, particularly from my parents saying, oh, you should
have been around when Vegas was Vegas, you know, and

(34:45):
the rat pack was there.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Everybody was dressed.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
To the nines and you know, suit and cocktail dresses.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
And now you go to Vegas.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
And the woman's labya is hanging out on the blackjack table.
You know, it's like it's like there's no like the
class or decorum. You know, you got men walking around
in bathing suits and flip flops throwing the dice. So
I'm like, you know, I want to pay homage to
kind of old, old school Vegas and kind of dress up.

(35:18):
I asked the audience to wear tuxedos and cocktail downs
and let's bring kind.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Of like that old world back to Vegas.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
And you know, looking back on that special, I typically
don't perform in tuxedos, so it does restrict my movement
a little bit. And then the audience, I'd say maybe
twenty five percent of them dressed up, and we had
to move the people that were in tuxedos to the
front because it looked like no one really, no one

(35:48):
really even.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Listened to the request of dressing up.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
So yeah, I mean, you know, I'm Paul, you could
probably speak to this, you know, work in Vegas, in
the era.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Did you perform there and just get handed a sackic
cash on the way out? How did that? I mean,
how did that work?

Speaker 1 (36:09):
I went to the Underworld. I don't say nothing. You know,
I started there in fifty eight. I worked for the boys,
but they ran everything. You worked the Copa Fountain, Blue Vegas.
When you worked there, it was legitimate. I mean in
terms of your payment. You know, working with Frank and
Sammy and Dean, we had a lot of licenses where

(36:30):
we took advantage, but by and large, till the g
came in and started getting heavy on them, you'd get
a check. I was earning maybe fifteen thousand dollars a
week doing two shows a night. I'd get a check.
But they were the best to work for. You shook
their hands, you had a deal, nothing like these characters today.
You didn't even need a contract. They protected you. Anything

(36:52):
you wanted you got, you got paid. As I said, legitimately,
there was no under the table cash. The fallacy was
there wasn't a lot of money around there, Sebastian. You know,
the government and everybody that was all over them felt
they were making millions. You know. I'd go in the
back room where they were accounting the cash, and maybe
there was like fifty thousand, seventy thousand. They would make nothing,

(37:13):
and they'd divvated up in Saint Louis and Chicago. But
there wasn't a lot of money, so we weren't really
living with a lot of cash. I mean, we'd play
around at the tables, you know, we'd get markers that'd
give us chips. You know, sometimes he wouldn't pay the markers.
And then sometimes the dealers who we knew there were mechanics,
had single decks. They'd come in and they you know,

(37:34):
we're all buddies. We'd tip them. You'd say, hit me,
he said, nah, you don't want it. They'd hit and break.
So it was that kind of camaraderie. But in terms
of getting cash, no, the cash flew out of the casinos,
out of the back rooms, and it was divvied up
all over the country. And as I said later on,
when I stayed in Vegas had been there for years,

(37:55):
they were bringing Brinks trucks up to the MGM and
to Steve Winn places with millions that they put in
the cages. But back then, with the boys in the sixties,
there was not a lot of cash floating around.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
It just didn't exist.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Yeah, I just feel and Paul, listen, even if you
got cash, you're not gonna tell me on a podcast
that you were walking away with sas of cash.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
I believe me. I'm Italian.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
I understand the the you know what you have to say,
But in regards to like them treating the talent like
you know, I mean, nowadays it's so corporate. I mean,
you ask for one thing and it's got to go
through seven different people in order for you to get
something in a dressing, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
So it's again, I don't know, I felt like.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
That totally different.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, so I felt like I was born in the
wrong era.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Sometimes you know what, you're right because the way that
I saw it before Steve Winn changed it, it was
so free. It was so loose in terms of everybody
respecting each other, everybody there for each other. It was
a hang. Anything that we wanted the boys were there

(39:06):
and they'd give it to you and it'd got done
right on the moment. And they were just the best
to work for. I loved working for those guys. I
just loved it. And we missed them because when they
came in, you know, it took over. Howard Hughes was
the turning point. That's when Frank had his big fights there.
They just wouldn't give him anything anymore, and he you know,

(39:27):
I won't. I'm not going to divvy up on what.
But he had some major encounters with him, and he
moved to Caesar's Palace and we all ultimately went over there.
But they were the guys you got everything instantly. They
couldn't do enough for you. You know, I was never
owned by them. I was a kid doing well for them.
Nobody ever muscled me. They were gentlemen, these guys, and
every day they were dressed appropriately, they handled you appropriately.

(39:51):
When the day was done, they'd rip up the showroom,
bring in a work light, sit down and they played
gin for a dollar a point, take their coats off,
and it was very to the order of the way
they like their life. I love those days. When it
got corporate, it got real weird.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
And now Paul, you know, Sebastian has a long term
deal with the win Encore a residency, if you will,
which is great because for all of us who still work,
you know, it's not the work, it's the travel, I mean,
travel is just I was talking to Doc Rivers once,
our friend, the basketball coach. They were going out on
a five game road trip. I said, what's the toughest

(40:27):
thing about a five game road trip? He said, the packing?
You know, it's not the playing, it's not the practice,
it's the packing. But now you know, with this deal
that you've got in Las Vegas, living in LA and
it's just a forty minute right over, how many how
many shows do you have lined up?

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Actually?

Speaker 3 (40:44):
I'm going there this weekend and then I got one
more Memorial Day weekend in May, and then I'm going
to get Vegas a little rest while I go on
this it Ain't Right tour starting in July through April.
I'm going to kind of stay out of Vegas and
just pop around different different places in North America and Canada.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
We're going to do so. Yeah, I love Vegas.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
And you know, Friday and Saturday night, you leave Friday,
come back Sunday and talking no no real wear and
tear into your body traveling. I mean, I don't know,
I'm fifty and I'm starting to definitely feel the aches
and pains of years and years of you know, sitting
in those seats, and you.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Know, I don't I don't know how to sit in
a plane seat.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Still, I'm crossing my legs, I'm you know, I'm sliding
down on the chair. I still still don't even know
how to how to even get comfortable on these things.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
So what are you flying, Sebastian? What kind of plane
you fly in?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
What kind of plane?

Speaker 5 (41:47):
Well?

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Are you a private? You're going private?

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Sometimes I do when it's like hard to get to
a place commercially and it's kind of a tight turnaround.
I I generally fly on a private aircraft and depends.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
May Sometimes I'm with my family, I'll do it.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
I don't do it as much as I used to,
just because you know, I mean there's a cost involved
to flying private.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
You know everybody's like, oh, fly private.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Well, I mean yeah, it's it's fifty grand, you know,
to fly private, but it's a thousand to fly commercial.
And I'm I don't got any problem boarding an airplane,
as you know, just to save myself forty forty nine
and k.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
But listen, airports and flying to a eight like it
was years ago. It ain't easy.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
No, it's not.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
It's either canceling the stuff that's going on. It ain't easy.
I mean, we do it, but the luxury of the
other you've kind of earned it because you want to
get somewhere and be rested. But I've never seen you,
know you. I travel all over the world, the Asian airports,
so you're pan reports they're sensational. But you know, God
bless our country. You don't know if you're going to

(43:05):
get on a flight in two days. The crap that's
going on in our country, it's unfortunate, and I feel
for everybody, and I do it. My band gets stuck
places for two days. It's just not like it was
man And like you said, well, when you got to
get in somewhere, it's good to have that to preserve yourself.
I mean, I hear you with your bones at fifty,

(43:25):
but come sit with me at eighty two and I'll
give you a couple of little lessons.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
And you know, you talk about the time also as
a time factor, that you know, time is so precious,
and that's what I was going to ask, you know.
I know Sebastian's are foody, and you had a show
on the Food Network called Well Done that I thought
was great, but you don't do it anymore? Why is
that just curious? You'd ask our friend David Zaslaw. Now,

(43:52):
I had this show on Discovery and it was fun.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
I mean, the whole intention of the show was I
had interest in the food world, and I was like,
how do I marry the culinary world with the comedy world.
And we came up with this idea of like, I'm
interested in how sushi gets made, and we went out
and we talked to about sushi chefs and they taught
us how to make sushi. And I really had fun
doing it. It's just that, you know, the show, I

(44:20):
guess they wanted more of a for whatever the reason.
You know, they don't renew these things. We tried to
get it somewhere else, but it just didn't didn't fly,
but it was good for a while. Last we did
we did it during COVID and I really enjoyed it.
If there's an opportunity to do a well done two
point zero, I'm definitely up for it. But you know,

(44:42):
I kid about David. He definitely gave me a shot
at a time where I really needed it. And then
subsequently we're doing the show now with Chuck Laurie on
Max called Bookie.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Yeah that the person was great.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Hey, Sebastian, how many times have you been to Italy?
And where do you like to eat over there?

Speaker 4 (45:16):
That's my hang.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I love it over there.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Yeah. So my father and I went back.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
I went for the first time, I think, and I
think it was two thy fourteen, maybe ten years ago,
and my father hadn't been back since he since he left,
so it was fifty years.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
He was going back for the first time with me,
and it was something else. Say.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
He grew up in a small town in Sicily called Sheffalou,
which is about an hour east of Palermo. And we
went back and he's showing me all the you know,
this is where I learned to play soccer, this is
where your grandfather had his barbershop. And I'm crying right
and he ain't doing nothing. My Dad's like stoneface. And

(46:04):
even while I'm crying, I go nothing there. You ain't
feeling nothing. You're here with your son where you grew up,
and you act like we're at target, you know, like
where's the where's the emotion? And later on he said
I was I wasn't shock when I was there.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
I didn't really even take it all in. It had
he went back again without me, and.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
He he felt it then, but while he was there
he was really really kind of taken aback by the
whole experience. And since then, my wife and I have
gone for our honeymoon. We really loved the Amalfi Coast there,
and we went to Tuscany Florence. I like the food
better in the south, not that I'm not into the

(46:52):
north and northern food, but the further south you go,
I believe the food is.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Far above what you would get in in the place
like Milan. I mean, especially in Sicily.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
There's so many different cultures of food there, you know,
because it's been conquered so many times. You have a
lot of Middle Eastern influence there as well. So yeah,
it's a great price. Every time I go someplace other
than Italy, I tell my wife why didn't we go
to Italy? You know, we went to Turkey one year.

(47:25):
It's Stanbul and it's nice, but you know, I'm walking
around going why didn't we just go to Florence? Why
don't we got to try anything else? I'm very partial
to Italy.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
Yeah, I go every year.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
I mean I lived there in the sixties. You know,
Morricone was my arranger and I was recording in Italian.
So I got smitten with a place, you know, when
I was just a kid, and I go back every year,
and a daughter lived over there, and I agree, it's
the best hang for me every summer to go over there.
They've held that tradition and it's unlike anywhere else in

(47:59):
the world. Should go to Asian and get into that
Asian thing, but it Lea is the best, at least
the best.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Yeah, and our producer Jordan has an Italian connection. Jordan
should jump in here and tell Sebastian. He'll get a
kick out of it.

Speaker 8 (48:13):
My girlfriend's name is Cheffaloo and they're from Cheffalou. Were
there over the summer. They're from Porticello and Cheffalu. We
go there all the time. They still got family, beautiful place.
I know, cheffalo Well.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Wow, you know, you don't run into a lot of
people that know about the town, and uh, once you
get there, it's it's like you know along that Lungo
made street there and the town itself is so small
and quaint and has a lot of charm.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
It's it's a real, real beautiful place. That's that's that's so,
that's so odd that and even her last name is
the town.

Speaker 8 (48:52):
Yeah, I got a question for you. My my mother
was half Italian and half Sicilian, and she always made
the distinction. And I'm half Italian, half Sicilian, I'm not Italian.
And everybody I know that that is half Italian or
partially Italian parties of Sicilian. They're very clear about making
the distinction. What is the difference to you? Do you

(49:12):
ever articulate the difference between being Italian and Sicilian? And
if there is a difference, what is it.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I don't know. The Sicilians, I know.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
It's almost like there's a rivalry between the north and
the south in Italy.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
So I think that's why.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
People are very kind of passionate about Hey, I'm Sicilian,
I'm not Italian, but I grew up more on the
Sicilian side as far as my family is concerned, like
my father and there, I think they had more influence.
Although my mother always listens to these podcasts and she's like,

(49:52):
why don't you ever.

Speaker 6 (49:53):
Talk about me in the You know, my mom is like, come,
I'm not in you act. You know that people got dying, so,
but yeah, my.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Mother's side was very kind of quiet, reserved. My mom
was kind of shy. My grandparents on my mother's side,
although we saw them a lot, we're just kind of like,
kind of a reserved people. But then you go on
my father's side, the Sicilian side, and that's where all
the characters are. That's where all the kind of the

(50:26):
loud and kind of boisterous, you know, personalities are on
that side.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
I thought that side was just a lot.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
There's a lot more comedy going on that side where
I could extract from how they were behaving or how
my father behaves to my mother. That that's kind of
where I went with the comedy. But the differences, I
don't know. For me, it was a little bit more
the volume. The Sicilians had more volume and more heated

(50:56):
arguments than maybe.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
My mother other's side.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
I don't know if you're feeling out with your wife, Jordan,
but I take it by your last name, you are
nowhere near Italian.

Speaker 8 (51:09):
No, I'm half I'm no, excuse me. My mother was
half Sicilian, half Italian, and so I got yeah, hilari.
Hilari was my my Sicilian Sicilian side. But yeah, no,
that scans from every just half Northern Italian, half Sicilian
that you definitely got more of the characters and more
of the volume from that from the southern half.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
Yeah, you know, Paul has bands that you know will
go to his concerts over and over again. And remember
when you know he was working with the Wind, you know,
we had Garth Brooks and people would say, this is
the fifty second time I've seen it. But it doesn't
really happen with comedians, right, I mean unless the act
changes there it's if you're you did your routine, let's

(51:52):
say hypothetically at the win encore. You don't get people
that go and see the same act over and over
the way they would for Paul or other singers. Right,
it's not the same.

Speaker 3 (52:03):
No, no, I mean there are people that come and
see the same thing over and over again in comedy,
but it's nowhere near the amount of people that come
to sing the same song at a concert.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Ye'ar in and year out.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
So that's the challenge for comedians is you know people yeah,
you know, they once you hear a joke, you know
where it's going and they want to hear something new.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
So in this day and age where all your material
basically is online.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
You have to You're almost forced to come up with
the new material every time you go out on tour,
whereas before, you know, in the eighties, these a lot
of comedians they toured with the same material year in
and year out, just because there was no way for
anybody to see it. You know, there was no internet
back then, so you could go to a city time

(52:55):
and time again and maybe get away with doing the
same act. But now they exposure is so abundant that
there's no way you could. You could go on, you know,
come to do another show in Chicago with the same material,
you'll be booed.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
I love the way you get to change it up, though,
because Billy Joel's done what one hundred shows at Madison
Square Garden, and he's basically singing the same song over
and over and over, right, I mean, but you get
to change it up.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Different, different, But on that point, that's an interesting point.
Sebastian and Skip. In trying to stay contemporary and current
and having to prepare it, at what point in there
in the timing aspect, does it maybe become old in
preparing it and going shit, I'm too late on this,

(53:45):
How do you assess that to stay current but keep
the timing of it and not get old like a
lot of the political stuff. You see some comics are
dealing with political terms. Well, it's by the time they
finished writing it and doing it, it's old. It must
be a concern trying to stay fresh on what's happening
in a contemporary sense, if you know where I'm going.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Yeah, I think if you're doing a lot of material
in the political forum that it could be dated and
maybe current events, you know, But I like to kind
of keep my material broad in the sense where, hey,
you know, my family and I just went to Universal Studios.
This is what happened at Universal Studios. Now, I could

(54:30):
do that tonight at a show, and I could probably
do that three years from now, and it's just still
it's still relevant, just because you know, it's not a
current event or something that's happening that people. It's like
a fleeting moment. So I like to really draw from
my own life experience. And I was just talking to

(54:51):
Jay Leno the other day about you know, he doesn't
have like an assistant that goes and runs errands for him.
He does it himself, and uh, that's the way you come.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
Up with material. You've got to go live your life.
You got to be out there. You know.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
You can't you know, you can't be isolated in your house,
at least I can't. I don't sit at a desk
writing material. I gotta, like, I gotta go and see
things and experience, you know, the recital at school. I
just went to a parent teacher conference yesterday for my
four year old son.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah, you know, they ain't doing calculus over there.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
But you know I go, not only because it's my
wife and I, you know, do everything together, but you know,
there's morsels of material that come, you know, like I
even asked, and this is just an idea I had yesterday.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
I go, well, my kid acts up, here, is there
like a punishment? Do we like?

Speaker 3 (55:50):
Because growing up I used to they used to. I
used to stand on the wall at recess, facing the wall,
and the teachers are like horror five.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
They're like, no, no, no, they don't. We don't do
that here.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
If they do act up, they get they get to
sit at a table and do a table choice.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
I go with the table.

Speaker 3 (56:10):
So it's like I always find a lot of humor
in this is the way I grew up.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
This is what we did and this is what we're
doing now, And.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
A lot of people could relate to that, just because
you know, I used to do this doorbell bit where
you know, this is how the doorbell rings back in
the eighties, and now the doorbell rings now this is
what happens.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
So it's like a multi generational bit where you know, if.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
You lived in the eighties, you get it, if you
live now, you get it, and everybody in between. So
a lot of my material is based in that kind
of uh set up, just because I just think it's
always fun to compare, you know, generations and whatnot. Not
to say that one's better than the other. It's just

(56:57):
that the slant is, you know, I don't know, I
grew up on the wall. I turned out pretty good,
so why not for my son?

Speaker 4 (57:07):
You know?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Yeah, I get Hey, Sebastian, are you are you able
to with all this amazing success? Are you able to
enjoy your success?

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Now? No? H here's another Uh, here's another thing I
wrestle with.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
You know, I'm trying not that you need to spend
money to enjoy your success, but I always look at
my career going you know what's enough, Like how much
is it enough?

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Like how much do you need to live? And do
this or do that?

Speaker 3 (57:42):
And once you start, you know, listen, I don't have
like a guideline. I didn't grow up this way. I
grew up in a working middle class family, so you know,
I grew up in a family where if we didn't
eat at dinner, like our food, my father would eat
everybody's food because it was wasteful.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
You know. And I still have that mentality.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
I feel like I grew up during the depression, like
it's gonna go away.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
So I have that mentality, which is good to have,
but you need to kind of like kind of loosen up,
you know, Like I don't know, I still feel I still.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
Have that kind of working class mentality, but I'm living
in a different class of people. So I always, you know,
like everybody out in La this is, this is you know,
skipkick relate to this.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Everybody, especially at the golf course. Everybody's got a second home, right, you.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Gotta go, you gotta placing cowboy, you gotta go to
cow you gotta get a placing Cowbo. And I'm like,
for what, I'd rather stay at the guy's place. That
bought it in Cowbo rather than me, and yeah, and
leads because I know how much I got a home.

(58:58):
I know how much it takes to like run this place,
and there's no way I can have a second home
somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
I drive myself.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
Nuts in there. Done that.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Speaking of driving yourself nuts, this has been great And
I've got to go because I got to practice because
you and I are playing golf Tuesday. Don't forget.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Yeah, no, I'm.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Skip is facilitating my membership into a golf club, and
he's working miracles all of an artists.

Speaker 4 (59:26):
He's the miracle worker.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
He's the miracle worker that Skip. Hey, Sebastian, I must
tell you. I respect you, I enjoy you, and I
got to thank you for taking out the time.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Man.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
I really appreciate it, and I will continue to think
good things for you because I really enjoy what you're
doing with your life.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Stay with it.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Well, that's very sweet of you, And I know maybe
we could get this orchestrated through Skip because he's kind
of the guy who's the.

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Mayor of the town.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
But let's when you're back in town, let's all break
some bred somewhere.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
I know Skip went to Stella last night.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Maybe we all could go and have a nice Italian
meal together and uh and share some war stories.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Yeah, and you come out play Sherwood. I live out
in Lake Sherwood. We've got a pretty good golf course
out there. Have you ever played it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
I don't want you to lose you listen. I don't
want you to lose your membership.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
I've lost it already. We've got everybody out there. Skip,
you got to bring him out to Lake Sherwood one day.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
I don't know his game right now is available for
home games only. I don't know if we're going on.
I don't know if we're.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Going Okay, Sebastian, take care of yourself. Good talking to you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Thanks for having me. Nice. Thanks Sebastian, take care guys.
Thank you good. I'll see you Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
You got it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson is a
production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
The show's executive produce sir is Jordan Runtog, with supervising
producer and editor Marcy Depina.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
It was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson and
mixed and mastered by Doug Boum.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
If you like what you heard. Please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite children