Sebastian Maniscalco, the Top-Grossing Comedian of 2025 So Far, Talks About What’s Next

After earning the distinction of the top-grossing Billboard Boxscore comedian for the first half of 2025 Sebastian Maniscalco has more than earned some rest and relaxation.

The Los Angeles-based standup superstar and actor’s It Ain’t Right arena tour grossed $35.5 million and sold 361,000 tickets over 30 shows in the first six months of the year — and that does not include the record-breaking five consecutive nights he performed at Madison Square Garden last September.

Informed of the milestone, which ranked him No. 25 among all genres of live performers — just below Dua Lipa — Maniscalco responded with his usual offstage reserve, a 180-degree departure from the outsized physicality and mannerisms of his performances.

“That’s nice to hear. There’s a lot of competition out there, so I didn’t think that I would have been the No. 1 guy,” he says. “But I’m not going to lie. It’s nice to be on top.”

Before heading off to Italy — he’s taking his mother to the Amalfi Coast — Maniscalco spoke to Billboard via Zoom, and talked about the podcast he recorded about the inventor of the Ponzi scheme, his upcoming Hulu special and taking some downtime before resuming touring.

Last year, you set a record for the most consecutive nights a comic has played Madison Square Garden — five — which means you performed to upwards of 85,000 people. Why do you think your comedy appeals to such a wide range of people?

Well, the observation material that I do hits a lot of different notes for people. I’m not talking about one specific thing, although I am an Italian American and I think a lot of my comedy resonated with the Italian American community at first.

That was never really my intention. I’ve always done material like hey, “I went to Chipotle,” or “Ever notice when your doorbell rings?” These are very broad topics that everybody could enjoy. Then I honed in on my Italian upbringing and my Italian father, which resonated not only with people with Italian immigrant backgrounds, but Spanish, Greek or wherever you come from.

And you know what? I feel like there’s more. When I look into the audience, I feel like I haven’t tapped into a mainstream vibe. I would like to look into the audience and see more Chinese people, more Black people, more Indian people — because I feel like the comedy speaks to a lot of different people and I haven’t felt like I’ve tapped into just yet. I feel like there’s more out there for me.

Are you consciously adjusting your set to tap into that?

I do whatever is funny. It’s not like I’m going, “All right, listen, I need a Chinese bit because I’m going to get the Chinese people.” I just do whatever is happening in my life at the time and if people seem to gravitate towards that, that’s fine. I don’t pander to those I want to come to my show.

How much longer will the It Ain’t Right tour continue?

The arena phase of the tour is over, although I do have one or two arena shows in Connecticut. Basically, what’s left is a lot of casinos between now and the end of the year. And then we’ll put this to bed. It’s been a great run. We did, I think, 86 shows over the course of eight months. It was the best time I’ve ever had on a tour. I brought two of my good friends, Pat McGann and Pete Coreale, who are opening the shows. They’re headliners in their own regard, and I have my best friend John Petrelli, who is my security, come with us, and we’ve really enjoyed every city. In the past, I would do the show, sleep, go to the next venue. This time, I enjoyed going out to different restaurants, golf, or what have you.

In your memoir, Stay Hungry, you compare the moment when the audience taps into your performance to music. Can you elaborate on that?

I feel like there is a music element to standup in the sense that it has a rhythm, pacing and cadence — whether you go higher with your voice or go lower to bring the audience in. With my act there also is the physicality that is infused into the material. I’m not just standing there behind a microphone telling jokes. That movement I compare to dance. It’s almost like you’re dancing to your words.

Nowadays, you’ve basically got to light yourself on fire up there for people to pay attention, and I’ve always been of the mind that you’ve got to give [the audience] a show, a performance. I mean people fought traffic, parking and had to get a babysitter to see me, so I take it very seriously.

I want them to leave my show talking about what they saw. Not only the performance but the production value of it. You’re charging a high ticket price, and you don’t want to have somebody walk in and see you performing on the stage that the arena gave you. I designed the stage for the It Ain’t Right tour as a triangle because when it was in the round, I felt like I was walking in circles. With the triangle I have three points to go to.

You are very involved in the production of your shows.

I like to get involved with the nuts and bolts of the production, of the lighting. The steps to the stage light up when I step on them. I came out on a Vespa. I did a preshow video that correlated to the Vespa. I was in a Vespa on the screen and the next thing you know I come onstage on a Vespa. They’re going to leave hopefully talking about how much they laughed and not about how beautiful the lighting rig was, but that enhances the experience.

You’ve got a Hulu special on deck for this year. When will it debut?

It hasn’t been announced yet. We did it at the United Center in Chicago in the middle of the tour. Originally it was scheduled to be at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey at the end of the tour because I wasn’t sure how a special in an arena would play. But then as I started to go through the tour, I felt like man, I’ve got another six months of this. By the time I’m ready to shoot the special, I’m going to be tired and bored with the material. Then I felt like, “Why am I doing it in a theater when all the beats are already plotted for an arena?” So, we moved it up. We did it in my hometown of Chicago at the United Center.

I’m really excited about it. I tried to do something a little different with the last special I did in Las Vegas. I had asked the audience to dress up like it was 1960. I did it in a tuxedo even though I generally never perform in a suit because it’s more restrictive, and I can’t do a lot of the movements. Also, I was dealing with sciatica during that special, so I wasn’t able to be as physical as I was in the past. I was a little disappointed with how it turned out, although I thought the material was good. I just thought it could have been better. With the new special, there’s no more suit, and it’s in my hometown of Chicago. I couldn’t have asked for a better audience.

You’re voice of Charles Ponzi in a podcast called Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story. How did that come about?

I’ve always been fascinated by Ponzi schemes. Somebody’s always cheating somebody out of money with elaborate schemes. I didn’t know the Ponzi scheme was actually named after a real guy.  

Will Malnati, who is also from Chicago, had done the Wild Things podcast about Siegfried & Roy, which I love, said, “I’m going to do one on Charles Ponzi.” He was an immigrant trying to make it in America and he got wrapped up in a thing that I don’t think he ever thought that was going to be as big as it was. He ultimately scammed people out of $800 million over nine months. I’ve done animation where you’re acting in a sound booth but I’d never voiced a character through the podcast vehicle. It’s also a love story between him and this beautiful woman Rose. So, I liked all the elements of love and thievery.

You also do a podcast with Pete Coreale.

We’ve been doing it for 12 years: The Pete and Sebastian Show. We started it out of the sheer enjoyment of calling one another on the phone and laughing. I said, “You know what? We should record these phone conversations because if we’re cracking up I’m sure other people would crack up.

He’s more of a beer-and-peanuts neanderthal, and I’m more of a wine-and-cheese guy who likes the finer things in life. At first, we were just doing audio. He would be in a car outside of a Starbucks ripping Wi-Fi off the Starbucks, and I would be in a hotel room in Denver. It’s not guest driven. We’ve had maybe 12 or 13 guests on our show over the course of the last 12 years. It was just two guys talking. We’re not making a dime but it has always been a passion project for us.

I loved Bookie. Your acting was very understated compared to your stand-up style. Did you take acting classes for that show?

I’ve been taking acting classes periodically since 1998, depending on what projects I’m doing. However, the reason I think it was funny is because, going into this, Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay, told me, “Don’t play the joke. It’s a conversation. In conversations, funny things happen, so we’re not looking to make people laugh.” I also think the relationship I had with Omar Dorsey who plays Ray — right from the get-go we had a really nice chemistry.

Acting isn’t really something that I’m like, “Oh, I can’t wait to get on set.” Because I compare everything to standup and you’re not going to find anything that gives you the pleasure you get from that immediate reaction of making people laugh over an hour and 20-minute set. You do a TV show, and sometimes you’re questioning, “Is is this funny?” because you’re not getting any laughter from anybody.

In Stay Hungry you wrote that for a lot of comics, comedy is tragedy plus time, but for you, it’s agony plus time. Can you explain that a little bit?

Yeah, I just have an angst. It’s funny when I go out sometimes whether it be a kid’s birthday party or someone’s behavior. I wish I didn’t have such a sensitivity to it and it’s a challenge sometimes when to turn it on and when to turn it off. It’s always there. I compare it to if you’re allergic to peanuts you’re going to get a rash. Sometimes I’m allergic to bad behavior and people doing odd things, and sometimes it consumes me in a way where it’s great for humor but sometimes it gets in the way of life.

I understand that you hate the word “foodie,” but you’re a real aficionado of restaurants and wine.

I wouldn’t say I’m one of these guys, who’s like, “Oh, there’s a 1969 Bordeaux that you’ve got to have, or this wine has notes of cedar.” I just know what I like when I drink it. My wife and I got married in Napa, and I was introduced to wine about 15 years ago through my father-in-law, who is a big wine guy.

Then when it comes to food, I like to cook. I’m not doing any gastronomy over here. I like to make steak. I like to make chicken. We do a taco night for our kids, and I’m always trying to perfect the taco meat. My daughter, who is eight years old, I made burgers for her last night, and she said, “Daddy, I like it, but it’s got a little too much oil on it.” I put a little oil on the bun and then put them down on the grill to toast them a little bit. I over-oiled it, which I knew, but then she picked it out. I was like, “Jesus, eight years old.” At eight years old I didn’t care what the hell I was eating. But apparently my daughter is Bobby Flay.

We just enjoy eating great food. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be a tasting menu. We love going to a nice taco shop, burger place, but we also like eating at Providence here in Los Angeles which is Michael Cimarusti’s restaurant. It’s all seafood and I love seafood. Now that I have a family – a son and a daughter – I like to introduce them to new foods as my grandfather did when he was alive, and I was eating squid at eight years old.

Do you have a go-to wine?

Right now, it’s just a basic pinot noir by Flowers that we like. Cabernets seem to be a little heavy on a Tuesday night when you’re just relaxing. We adjusted our taste to pinots now. What else do I like? Ann Colgin – Colgin Cellars has a beautiful red wine that they do, but I don’t get to have it often. It’s a very expensive wine.

You’re also an Italian beef fan. Have you watched The Bear?

I just started about a month ago. I’m not too far into it, but it definitely brought back memories of Chicago and Johnnie’s Beef, Portillo’s makes a good beef. Who else? Mr. Beef. A lot of beef in Chicago.

What music do you listen to, and have your kids influenced your musical tastes?

I grew up on Al Jarreau, Miles Davis, Grover Washington Jr. My father had a lot of jazz in the house. Growing up, there was mainstream music like Michael Jackson, Prince, Bon Jovi and all that. I’m listening to Teddy Swims right now, who I think is a really great singer. I took my kids to the Beyoncé concert. Talk about performance and show business. That’s a huge, huge show, and she’s a great performer. I like The Weeknd. So, I’m all over the map with my tastes.

Have you ever gone back to Sicily to see your family’s origins?

I took my father about 12 years ago. My father and I always wanted to go back to his hometown. He never took us when we were kids, and then later in life, I said, “We’ve got to make a trip.” Then he goes down with quadruple bypass surgery. He comes out of that, and I go, “Listen, we’re going to Sicily before you die. This has got to happen.” So, shortly after he had the surgery, me and him took a journey to Sicily, to the Amalfi coast and to Rome. I got to see where he grew up.

Where was that?

It’s a small fishing village called Cefalù. It’s about an hour east of Palermo. Ever since we went, he’s been back every year. It reignited his passion to go back to his hometown and reconnect with old friends. It’s nice to see that he’s fallen in love with where he came from, because he was so worried about work. My father came to this country and that’s all it was. Work. He had this whole mentality if he left for too long, people were going to forget him.

Which I have, too, a little bit, in comedy. Nowadays, you feel like you’ve constantly got to be out there touring or on Instagram. Then I talked to Chris Rock, and he’s like, “You can’t make an entrance if you never leave the room.” I took that to heart. I think I’ve established a fanbase where if I did take some time off and wasn’t constantly out there, I would keep them when I came back. So, I’m trying to take Chris’ advice.

During this downtime are you looking forward to anything in particular?

I’m going to get back into golf. I just went golfing this weekend. We did it in Las Vegas while I was performing there. I want to do some golfing and then I’m taking my mother to Italy for her 80th birthday. She always wanted to go to the Amalfi coast, so we’re taking her there.

Then, I definitely want to start cooking again because it’s very relaxing for me. I’ve got so many recipes that I’ve saved on Instagram that I want to try out. I like going into the kitchen and homing in on a dish. I haven’t gotten good enough in cooking where I start improvising, like, “Oh, what is this going to taste like?” I like following a recipe to a T and having it come out right.

Do you have a favorite dish you like to make?

Everybody likes when I make steak. People go, “Well, how hard is it to make steak? You just cook it.” But I put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 275. I let it rest for 15 minutes. I do a sear two minutes on each side. Just a good helping of pepper and salt on it. No sauce, no nothing. I just started making mashed potatoes, which turned out fantastic when I added a little garlic which wasn’t in the recipe. Nothing where it would be like, “Oh, I do this thing that it takes eight hours to prepare.” I’ll do a pasta dish with oil and some garlic and a little parsley on top, cheese. Maybe a little branzino, salt, pepper, stick it in the oven. Squeeze a little lemon or oil on it. Simple.