Sebastian Maniscalco: It's An Italian Thing
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My dad is teaching De Niro and I'm sitting here looking at this going, I can't believe my father is teaching Robert De Niro how to do a dye job on the movie that I wrote. Somebody got to cue me or do I cue myself? Cue yourself. Okay. Okay.

Hey there, it's Kelly Ripa again back with another episode of Let's Talk Off Camera. I know that Albert is vibrating. Jan, you are also vibrating because we have a serious piece of talent in the house today. The person we talk about on loop. The person we talk about the most, the person we identify with the most, and really like we're convinced that he tapped our phones at some point that we didn't know. He's talking about all of our families. We talk about our families the way he does.

I'm talking about the brilliant Sebastian Maniscalco. I'm going to take you back in time. Take you back in time, okay, before I bring him on.

Picture it. It's the Academy Awards circa... What year did we figure out it was? 2016? 2016. Okay. Chris Rock is hosting. Mark and I are having dinner. And I don't go anywhere and I don't do anything, as you both know. I never leave my house, but we went down to the Tower Bar to have dinner. Okay? And...

Sunrise and Mark Ruffalo were there and our kids go to school together. And so they joined us for dinner. And once like celebrities join your table, then other celebrities come over. And before I knew it, Mark and I were paying for like 35 movie stars dinners at the Sunset Tower. And Chris Rock stops by.

And he invites us all to go see his practice at the comedy store. And I was like, yes, and we will have such discretion and we won't tell anyone anything. And he's like, okay, you can calm down. It's John just testing my material. So I want to know if people think it's good or funny. So the reason I take you on this preamble is because I am introduced to

the opening act who is going to bring on Chris Rock. And this man's name was Sebastian Maniscalco. Wow. And Mark and I cried. Everyone in the room cried. It's the kind of laughter where the back of your skull hurts. And I was like, this guy is me. He's Albert. He's Jen. He's all of us. He is telling everybody. He's telling all of our dirty secrets. And I said, Albert.

we saw this comedian last night. I discovered this guy. I discovered somebody. And I said, his name is Sebastian Maniscalco. And Albert's like, what are you talking about? Sebastian Maniscalco is a big star. What are you saying? The biggest, the biggest. You got to get out of the house, is what he said. Yeah, kind of what I said, yes. And then I went into a deep dive. He got me through the pandemic. I just watched all of his

Every comedy special he ever did, that's what I watched during the pandemic. So I say, without further ado, we bring him in to the talk. Ladies and gentlemen, Sebastian Maniscalco. Wow. I got to tell you, the intro, the lead time on that was... I know, I know. I know. We'll cut it down. No, it was just tremendous. I didn't know. I don't think I knew you were there

That night that Chris Rock ran the material. I think I might have heard that from you in passing, but I didn't hear it in such detail. And for me, as a comedian, a lot of times you don't even know...

Who's out there listening, right? Oh, Sebastian, we were the nobodies in the crowd. I mean, it was like Chris had heavy hitters. There were serious movie stars there. It was like a big deal. That's very sweet of you to say it was, uh,

And I'm glad to be on the show because I only talk to you in like three minutes, three minutes segments. By the time I start getting into a story, I find out that I'm in the car on the way back to the hotel. Exactly. So I understand that you're like literally in the middle of shooting your podcast, Daddy versus Doctor. So I really appreciate you taking your time.

lunch break or breakfast break or whatever break it is to squeeze in our tiny little podcast. There is no breaks in entertainment. You know, you're always running from one thing to the other. But when this opportunity came across, I said, absolutely, I would love to do it. I don't do a lot of podcasts because what I always say is like, what are people going to ask me? And that's why I love this show that maybe I haven't got asked in other podcasts.

You're right. It's very different to have like a real conversation with someone. Yeah. I mean, you're employed by a large corporation, right? So I'm sure there's things that you can't say on your show in the morning, right? Yes. Right. Now you're doing a podcast, right? We're seeing a different side of you. Maybe it's a little bit more honest things that you wouldn't be able to say on your TV show that now you can say, okay,

on the podcast, right? Yeah. I mean, I really, I'm loving doing it, but you know, it's not about me. Let's get into you because you've got this film coming out May 26th called About My Father. So I want to talk about you as a dad and you being raised by your dad, because I think a lot of people think that entertainers are born into entertainment families and that was not the case for you.

No. So I grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and my father was a hairdresser. My mother was a secretary at a grade school. And I thought about Hollywood growing up as such a far planet that I would never, ever see. Like, where is Hollywood? Like, you never thought somebody from the northwest suburbs of Chicago would be, you know, in the entertainment business because that's just not the route you generally take.

But I always felt like I had a kind of a knack for making people laugh, particularly my family, particularly over dinner. We would sit there. I was the type of kid that I just didn't eat and run. I ate and I sat and talked.

My sister would leave and I would sit there with my parents for two hours making them laugh. I just always, always enjoyed making my family laugh. And at a young age, fell in love with standup comedy. I just didn't know how, when, where I was going to get into the business. And I did shortly after graduating college. But your dad is a hairdresser. Yeah. Okay. Did you have the best hair in school?

If you saw my hairstyle in school, you would have thought my father was in the concrete business. They're... I...

I don't have great hair to begin with. I have a lot of colics and I have a lot. It's very thin. So, no, I did not have the best hair in high school. I had a full blown mullet, which was completely embarrassing to walk around with, even given the fact that I had a father who owned three hair salons at the time.

But it was mullet season. Wasn't that a fashion-y thing at the time? It was, but my mullet wasn't as well-tailored as a lot of mullets in this school. I had a friend by the name of Johnny Gall who had a beautiful mullet. It was actually so beautiful, he permed it. So he had a permed...

mullet, which I tried doing and just didn't have the same effect. What about your mom and your sister? Did he style their hair? Yeah, so my dad did everybody's hair in the family.

well into our early 20s when i moved out of the house at 24 i had to go get someone else to cut my hair and i thought nobody in the world would be able to cut my hair like my father uh and often he would see my haircuts after i moved out to los angeles and critique them and say you know where are you going this looks looks terrible he's still he's actually here staying with me at the house uh

He's 77 and is still cutting hair. He's going to die doing a blowout. Now, did you have to, as a kid, I'm assuming you had part-time jobs. Sebastian, I don't mind telling you, your kids are younger than mine. My kids are now all adults. But we always made them have part-time jobs, which they thought was a punishment. But what...

we always had part-time jobs. Everybody we know with a work ethic has a part-time job. Was your part-time job like being a shampoo boy or sweeping hair? So I did go to the salon to sweep hair and I also was a cashier there every once in a while. But I think my first

real kind of job was at Fuddruckers when I was 14 years old. I was a busboy and I did have a lot of jobs growing up. I mean, I worked at Olin Mills Portrait Studio as a telemarketer selling portrait packages over the phone. I used to work at Honey Baked Ham, glazing ham at Thanksgiving time. You know, the difference in my family is there was no like Christmas break or

It was you're taking a break from school, but then you're going to work during the time that you're home to make a little ends meet. And I applaud you for making your kids work. It's not a punishment. It's actually trying to instill work ethic and responsibility at a young age. My kids are five and three, and my daughter and son make their bed every morning. I try to have them wash the dishes because obviously they're not growing up the same way I grew up.

For us, we were a working middle class family and there was not a lot of abundance. And now I often struggle with, man, things are readily accessible and you can't really fake environment, but you got to somehow point your kids in the right direction when it comes to work ethic and having them make their own bread.

This is my parenting advice for me, for somebody on the other side, make sure that they have those part-time jobs. It really does, like it changes their understanding of money. Another job you had that I'm really interested in was that you worked at the Four Seasons Lobby Bar. Yeah. So you must have encountered celebrities all over the place. Yeah. So I worked there 1998 through 2005.

And at that time, a lot of the press junkets were held at the Four Seasons. So movie came, you know, you had a bunch of people interviewing the celebrities and then they would all come to the lobby bar. This is what I didn't like about press junkets. All these people were on a per diem, right? So they would come to the lobby bar, like 19 of them. They all sit together.

And then want separate checks. So I had to give 19 checks to the press junket people. And it burned my ass so bad that, yeah, it scarred me for life. Yeah. It's a nightmare. And if you worked in hospitality on any level, you know the nightmare of splitting checks 95 different ways.

What I want to know is, though, when it comes to celebrities at the Four Seasons Lobby Bar, who was horrible? I don't have any real nightmare stories when it came to celebrities at the bar because pretty much all of them were very cordial and nice. I have nice stories about celebrities. I tell you who I was scared to wait on was Sean Penn.

He would come in and sit outside on the patio.

Didn't talk a lot, just kind of wanted his tuna rolls and wanted to be left alone. Tuna rolls. Yeah. He ordered spicy tuna rolls. I remember that for some reason, but just an intense guy. You know, I just, I made sure when I had his table, I was on it. That's that stuff was coming out because I just felt he was like a little volatile, but, but, but nice. Who was a good tipper? Who's the best tipper?

Shaq was the best tipper. He would come in on a Sunday. Oh, really?

And it was like serving a giant, right? I had to put the coffee in like a cappuccino mug and give him a dessert spoon to stir it. You know, like I wasn't going to give him the... So it looked normal size. Yeah, it's like he's so big and he wouldn't even ask for a check. He would just put money under the plate. Like he ordered a fruit plate. He would just put the money under the plate. It would always be a couple hundred bucks for a fruit plate and a coffee. He was really generous. I...

I waited on Robert De Niro and he kept eating almonds. I kept replenishing his almond caddy. And then subsequently he's playing my, my father. I waited on the guy. And then 20 years later, he's I'm acting with him. So it's, some of it's been really kind of surreal for me to,

be around these celebrities in two different kind of environments. One where I was providing them a chicken satay and a scotch. And next thing you know, we're running lines in Alabama. You worked with him in The Irishman, right? Is that where you met him? Yes, I met him there. I met Joe Pesci and him the first day of shooting. And I don't do a lot of acting. It's not something that that muscle is not really exercised quite often. And then next

Next thing you know, I'm in a scene with arguably two of the best actors of our time. So I had severe anxiety going into that whole experience because I just didn't know. I think sometimes in your career, you question, should I be here? Am I good enough? And then we did the rehearsal. And then shortly after the rehearsal, my confidence kind of kicked in. And yeah, I didn't become friendly with the guy because...

He's not one of these guys where, you know, they yell cut and I'm going, where are you going tonight? You know, it's, it's, it's just, he's kind of, he minds to himself. He doesn't really engage. And that's how it was when we were filming about my father. It'd be like,

They yelled cut and he went to his chair and opened up another, you know, no boo. When you're De Niro, you can do that. I'm trying to like, I'm going back because you left college and,

Did you start working in stand-up right away? Did you do open mic nights? Did you take improv in college? Like, what did you study in school, and how did you make the jump from school to show business? So I wanted to quit college when I was a freshman and start stand-up then, but my father said, no, get a degree, and then you can do whatever you want. So I graduated with corporate organizational communications.

Whatever that is. Oh, thank God you have that. Yeah. And then I worked at United Airlines Employees Credit Union during the day in Chicago. And then I worked at night in a fine dining restaurant in Schaumburg, Illinois, called The Living Room. And I saved up $10,000 and I moved out to California when I was 24 years old. And then...

right away got a job at the Four Seasons and then started, I took a comedy class actually, a stand-up comedy class to get my feet wet with just getting up on stage and getting used to it. And then just started doing open mic nights and going to comedy clubs, trying to become a paid regular at these comedy clubs here in Los Angeles. And it was a slow burn. This stuff was like long. It was a long...

process to kind of get to the stage I'm at now. I didn't have any TV or film credits to really kind of catapult me into drawing a lot of people at comedy clubs or theaters. It was all basically on the back of going to comedy clubs in each city and

shaking people's hands at the end of the show, taking pictures with them, selling my DVD. And then next year they would bring a couple other people to the show. So there's a lot of like, you know, spending five nights in Addison, Texas for $1,200. Yeah.

And by the time you came back, you had $750 because after the plane and all the, you know, the food and whatnot, there's just a lot of that in order to establish a fan base, which sometimes a lot of people, you know, they're not kind of aware of the things you have to go through to get to where you're at. They don't kind of see that kind of work being done often.

Did you ever bomb? Like, were there any nights where you're like, I quit comedy. I am not cut out for this. No, I never felt I wasn't cut out for it. There was nights I had bombed and it was awful, but there was never a...

a point in my life where I said I should be doing something else. I knew I had what it took to do stand-up comedy and I knew that it was going to be a process and there's going to be nights where I'm not going to do as well. I mean, there's nights now where, you know, I do a joke and it's complete silence and it doesn't faze me as much as it used to, but it is awful when you say something you think is funny

And collectively, 150 people don't say nothing. There's no validation that what you thought was funny resonated with a group of people. So it is awful when that happens. I wasn't really discouraged by it.

I just knew it's part of the process. So Jan is telling me specifically that there is a night that you had where you got to appear on Jimmy Fallon. Yeah. Maybe she's using your words, but she's saying that you said that you shit the bed the night you shit the bed on Fallon. Yes. That week leading up to Fallon was a big week for me. I was doing a lot of press promoting my special show.

I had my wife with me. My mother was in town. My mother-in-law was in town. And the end of the week was going to be capped on a Friday night doing the Jimmy Fallon show. So I had a bunch of people with me. I typically don't travel in a quote-unquote entourage when I come and do shows.

you know, your show, it's maybe me and a publicist. I never understood these people that come in with eight, nine people deep. Eight, nine, that's nothing. That's car one. Sometimes we have four and five cars that roll up for one person. And I look at that, each head is a dollar sign, right? I mean, I like to roll real, real thin because I don't need a lot of handholding. I never understood the whole

handholding and no, he needs this or she needs that. Forget it. So I'm at Fallon and I'm acting like I'm hosting a party. My wife is there. I'm talking to my manager. I got my agents, this and that. I'm only doing four and a half minutes. I know it like the back of my hand. You know, it's not like I got to rehearse it. I've done this performance several times. So what the hell am I worried about? So I go out one minute into this, I go blank.

I don't know what happens to me. Like you had a stroke, like a stroke. Everything went quiet. There's cards that have my act on it. I can't read the cards. It's blurry. I turned to the band. They're looking at me like, we don't know it. So I was just saying out loud, I'm, I'm, I'm Italian.

I'm Italian because the next joke was me being Italian. And then I snapped out of it. I just kind of snapped out of it and then went back into my act. You pulled yourself back together. Yes, but it felt like it was a half an hour. So then I go to the desk during the break and I tell Jimmy, I don't know what the hell happened. I apologize. No, don't worry about it. It happens all the time. We'll edit it out. It was like second nature. That happens all the time. And I thought my career was over.

And then when I saw it, it was like seamless. I mean, there's a little, there's a little hint of me coming out of a coma. It was, it was well done. So the next time I went on Fallon, I had asked if they have the clip.

of me going silent. Can we play that for the audience? And I'll kind of take them through what I was thinking at the time. So we kind of rehashed it on the show, but that was, that was the worst experience I think I've ever had in entertainment. That's actually incredible.

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So when you have those moments or when you bomb or in your mind, like after your show, let's say you sell out Madison Square Garden. Do you leave the stage and take a victory lap or do you, in your mind, go over the things that you're aware of?

didn't go the way you wanted, does that occupy your time? Or are you able to leave it all on the stage? No, there's a, there's a little bit of a review that happens after you leave the stage where, you know, I should have, I forgot this piece or I ran over that show. So there's never, you know, I don't know if it's a cultural thing and the way I grew up, but we never really celebrate

Right? I don't know if this... Is this being Italian? It's Italian. It's Italian. It's Italian. So is your dad like... If I had said to my dad, because my dad worshipped De Niro, worshipped Pesci. If I said to my dad, I'm making a movie loosely based on you and Robert De Niro is going to play you, I don't know that there'd be any living with Joe Ripa. I don't know if we'd be able to ever... Like...

Tell me about your dad and that conversation. We never had Robert De Niro really in mind just because it was such a, you know, you don't really think that that could even happen. We wrote it. We ended up sending it to him because by that time I had worked with him in The Irishman and he had come to see me perform at Radio City Music Hall. So there was some bit of a connection there.

He really enjoyed it. And at the time, I told my father, I go, you know, De Niro is in talks about playing you. And again, my father's like, all right, yeah, okay, De Niro, right? He don't believe it until he sees it. So when I told him De Niro signed on, still, you know, I don't think he really got his head around it until...

De Niro wanted to hang out with my dad and study him so he could learn how my dad smokes a cigar, how he wears his hat, how he reads the newspaper. And he told my dad to come to Oklahoma where he was filming a movie and spend a couple of days with him. So, of course, my dad, being who he is, goes, listen, in order for me to do this, I'm going to lose out on some clients.

Right. So I go, you know, you're going to be hanging out with De Niro. Forget the clients. Right. So he went and hung out with De Niro for a couple of days. And I call him. I go, what's going on? This guy's working me to death out here. He goes, I thought I was going to hang out with him a couple hours. I mean, his living room.

six, seven hours asking me about the cigar and this and that. So he then had to come to the set

and teach De Niro. There's a scene in the movie where De Niro is doing hair at the salon and he wanted to know how to actually do a dye job and put the foil on the hair. And my dad is teaching De Niro and I'm sitting here looking at this going, I can't believe my father is teaching Robert De Niro how to do a dye job.

on the movie that I wrote. It was one of those things where you never thought it would be possible. And my father, during the whole thing, I think was extremely proud and really, really... When he saw the movie here at the house, he cried at the end. It must be really surreal for him to see a guy we grew up watching cry.

playing him in a movie. It's something I really can't describe, and I don't even think my dad could describe it. And there's some videos he sent of the both of them, and my dad teaching Robert De Niro a Sicilian dialect and how he would say things in Italian in the script.

I was like, wow, that's like cool behind the scene footage you don't typically see that often. Like Robert De Niro in his prep to play a role. Yeah. I haven't really seen that. And hopefully you're going to release this special footage. You should definitely release this special footage. Yes. That's got to happen. Yeah. So the character of your mom is dead in the movie. So how...

You sound like my mom. Tell me how your mom, how'd your mom take that? What did she have to say about that? My mom often wonders why she is not represented in my stand-up nor in

in a movie or what have you. It's just my dad seems to be a character in himself and there's so much comedy to mine with him. My mom is a little bit more like me and a little bit more reserved in the sense that she's guarded. She was born here. My father was born in Italy. So with that comes a lot of different aspects of comedy. Not that my mom, my mom's pretty funny herself, but when I said she was dead,

In the movie, she's like, why am I always not? Because I did a sitcom. She wasn't in it. You know, it was just my dad. So I don't know. I feel like you can't touch mom when it comes to anything comedic. You got to keep her.

I also think, though, in a two-Italian family household, you get one character and one who's reserved. Like, at least in my family, my mom is reserved. But she's unintentionally funny. She doesn't mean to be, but she just is. Your dad's the loud one. My dad is the loud, verbose dad.

out in the public, if you wanted to make a movie about my dad, he would happily sign on for that. Just so you know, if you're looking for new characters. So you've got like your dad, you're raised old school and now you become a dad. Well, first let's go. You meet your wife, Lana, right? Yes. Yes. Gorgeous. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Was she a gymnast? It was a gymnast. Um, so extremely athletic, uh,

My daughter now is taking gymnastics, so it's really cool for my wife to kind of see almost a little mini version of her flipping around and doing cartwheels and all that stuff. So yeah, my wife is extremely athletic. She's 10 years younger than me, and it shows. Yeah, so she comes from a completely different background, and we just watched

The Sopranos last week. She's never seen an episode. And of course, I've seen the whole thing. I said, you know what? Let's start watching this. So midway through, she's like, could you hit pause? I hit pause. And she's like, I think this is so... It's going to be so beneficial to me because...

I feel like this is a playbook of how your family behaves. All right. Minus the, minus the killings, you know, minus the murders, minus the murders. Right. Uh, you know, and again, I go back to the Italian, the Italians just have a certain way of, of thinking of handling life situations. I think it's baked into our DNA and I got happy because I,

My wife looks at me like I'm some type of like lunatic unicorn. Nobody, you know, like she don't know anybody that thinks the way I do. But there's a whole group of people that behave this way. She just hasn't seen them. And so watching The Sopranos for her was like watching a documentary on how other Italian families behave. Yeah. But so your wife is an Italian. No, she's Jewish.

So tell me about the merging. Like, how did you meet and how did you merge your families? Yeah. So our personal trainer, we shared the same personal trainer. That's how we kind of got together. And...

The merging of the families, I don't know, it wasn't as big of a cultural shock. Because I said in a couple specials ago, Jews and Italians, it's like same corporation, different division, right? A lot of similarities, particularly the family.

They're very big on family. They're very big on, you know, the mother-son dynamic is really prevalent in both different religions and cultures. So I think Jews and Italians get along, you know, very well just because there is a lot of similarities. So what about the families? Like, do they mind collectively or singularly? I'm just going to lump it all together. Do the families mind when you make jokes about them? You know,

It's almost instinctual to me what I can and cannot say on stage. But there's things I got. I got 40 minutes of material that I can't say unless people pass away. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I just kind of know what's on limits and off limits. I haven't had anybody tell me except for my mom.

that I couldn't say or talk about a specific thing. There's one thing that I said. What was it? I can't tell you. She wants it buried with her. But there's just things you know. I can't touch that. But certain things you know are also universal. And I would think that when you have a family such as yours, when you get together, do the aunts, do the uncles say, that bit you did, that's about me, right? Yeah, you get a little of that. Definitely.

definitely also get you know you get together oh why don't you do that that and it's like no let's yeah yeah because it's not funny I've got a funny joke for you yeah it's generally not funny and it's like I don't do jokes it's like what are you telling me the joke for and telling me to put it on stage I do like storytelling you know

But, you know, it's just people trying to connect in some way, which I understand. Are your kids funny, Sebastian? Yes, they're funny, particularly my daughter right now. My son's going through this, and I don't know if your son, if you can remember when he was three. We're going through that stage of he's very adversarial, very confrontational.

And sometimes as a parent of a son, you don't really have anything to compare it to. So you look at it going, is this like a stage or is he going to be in a juvenile detention center at 17?

The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's is fighting for a different future. This is near and dear to us, right, Albert? Yes. My father recently passed away from Alzheimer's after a long, long battle, and we wished that he would have gone for testing way earlier on, and early testing definitely will help. Walk side by side with your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers in the world's largest fundraiser to fight the disease. We're closer than ever to stopping Alzheimer's.

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Fiji water's electrolytes are 100% naturally occurring. Visit your local retailer to pick up some today for your next backyard party, beach or pool day, hike or even your home office. It's not just water. It's Fiji water. So I'm going to make you feel better right now. I did it boy first, girl second, boy third. Okay? You had your girl first. Girls are fast.

They're smarter. They pick up things quickly. They understand everything almost from birth. They have a level of emotional intelligence that boys don't get until they're much older. And so when you have your girl first and then your boy comes along, he seems like there is something wrong with him. Yeah. My daughter, like you said,

you know, was still just an angel. You know, we didn't have any of these like problems with her where, you know, we told her to get in the car. She got in the car. You tell my son to get in the car and it's a complete collapse. Yeah.

Like on the floor. And we're like, you know, is this kind of like what a three-year-old does? So, yeah, we're going through that whole stage with him. And, you know, plus I'm an older parent. You know, I'm 49. And I think when you have kids later on in life, you're so conditioned to have like your own routine. And you've been doing that for so long. And now you've got kids that completely, like, I'm going to bed. Like, okay.

Almost at the same time that I put my kids down because I got to get up at four o'clock in the morning and start doing stuff because once they get up, forget it. You know, your day is shot. It's over. Your life is over. Yep. Do you have to be friends with their friends? Parents? My wife is really good about this. My wife is extremely social.

And she knows everybody at the school's name and their kid's name. And, you know, for me, you know, I go to the school, but it's more of a military mission for me. It's like drop off the asset and get back into the chopper. My wife is, you know, talking, hey, and getting to know the people, which is which is fine. But

I, I, I, we've met some really nice families there, but my wife is, is totally into like, she feels like she's almost, uh,

going back to school, meeting new friends, you know? That became my core, you know, when I had young kids, my core friend base were the moms of my kids' friends. And all the dads, we never saw the dads. The dads were almost like theoretical fathers. We would see them at like twice a year, like back to school night or graduation. I remember somebody came up to Mark and me at our son's eighth grade graduation and

and said, Oh, I've really enjoyed having Joaquin. He's so curious and this and that. And,

you know, he's one of our best students, blah, blah, blah. And then walks away and Mark's like, who was that? And I go, that's Joaquin's history teacher for like eight years, eight years. That's been his history teacher. Do they go to a fancy school? Yeah. They belong to a private school. And, you know, I, I, I emceed the gala last year, you know, of course, of course you did. Yeah.

If you have your kid in a private school and you are in entertainment in any way, you are hosting that gala. Yeah, you know what, though? I didn't get asked to host the gala this year. And I told my wife, I go, sniff around over there, see if they got a problem with what I said this year or what's in my new special. Because, you know, I'm pretty honest in my stand-up. So I was like...

Did I lose my job? At the gala? So, uh... They probably have a lesser comedian or lesser entertainer dad or mom on the premises this year, and they're gonna hit them up, and then they'll come back to you. I thought I had the job for the whole time my kids were gonna be there. I just thought I was the guy.

But now I got to go this year and this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to go and see who they got and I'm going to go to my wife. It's just not good. Terrible. Terrible. I don't know. I really want to thank you for being here. You are comedy gold and I really look forward. Now, I just want to get your plugs out while you're still here. Yeah. May 26th, About My Father gets its...

theatrical release that's a big deal this is a big deal you are starring opposite robert de niro you have arrived you are an a-list movie star you're a movie star oh yeah don't forget sebastian also has a podcast called daddy versus doctor which is available now it's you talking to a pd your kid's pediatrician yeah so what we did was i'm the worry wart in the in the marriage

So the kid's got a stuffy nose. We're going to the hospital. That's kind of my mindset. So I would call my pediatrician constantly and go, you know, this is what's going on. He's got a pink eye or whatever. So we decided to do a podcast where we take callers.

And people would call in with a behavioral issue or a medical issue. He would give the medical advice and I would kind of sprinkle it with humor and give examples of my own parenting nightmares or what have you. It's called Daddy vs. Doctor. And it provides, you know, because I think a lot of parents out there think they're the only one going through this stuff. Like I just said to you, my three-year-old is a terror. And I feel like we're the only family that's got a three-year-old. But once you start hearing other people's stories...

it kind of quells your fears about parenthood and whatnot. And this is what this podcast is designed to do. So unlike our podcast, your podcast is a public service.

It's helping people. It's helping people. Also, speaking of helping people, your Netflix special, Sebastian Maniscalco, is it me? Yeah. Is streaming now on Netflix. It's so good. So good. It's so good. Cal, I'm so glad you discovered him. It's amazing. I know. Thank God. I'm just thankful that I discovered you back in 2016. I'm thankful that you discovered me. Thank you.

You know what? Usually people forget the ones that discovered them, but Sebastian never has. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You know, it's so funny.

I could watch Albert listen to Sebastian Maniscalco. It's overwhelming. Because it's so much of your life. It's my whole... It's our lives. It's our lives. Like, it's the same... If you held up the sign Entenmann's Cake one more time... You got to get him to talk about the Entenmann's Cake. Yeah, but he does that in his comedy special so much. We need to drive people to his comedy special. Okay, but tell everybody about the Entenmann's Cake. He just talks about Entenmann's Cakes, which if you don't have an Italian-American family...

- You may or may not know about Entenmann's cakes, but not the way we know about Entenmann's cakes. Entenmann's cakes are for company only. - Only, only. - You do not cut in to the Entenmann's cake. - You always have an Entenmann's cake, Jan, and it's only for company. - You have it, and if you go to the Entenmann's outlet where they have them discounted, - Oh yeah, you buy them at the outlet. - You buy them in bulk and you freeze them in the freezer so that you can take them out for company. - And if you're a kid living in that house, you do not go anywhere near that Entenmann's cake. - Wow, you don't touch the Entenmann's that is for company only.

Can you imagine sending Joe Ripa to De Niro's house for a week and not being there to supervise it and micromanage it? Like, I would have been bugging if my dad was like... Bugging. Look, I have sweat stains from listening to Sebastian talk about his dad in De Niro's house in Oklahoma. So that's where Joe Ripa is different. He'd be like, if he wants to study me, he's going to have to come to me. Yeah.

It would be just that simple. And he'd be yelling him the whole time. He'd be screaming at De Niro. And my dad idolizes and loves De Niro. He is like, oh, that De Niro. He is, you know, he is. That's a full circle moment. But my dad doesn't care even if he idolizes you and you irritate him. He will yell at you and tell you as such.

Don't you agree? Yes, I agree. That was something. That was amazing. Amazing. And I feel like his pediatrician podcast came like too late for me. I could have really utilized that at some point. Yeah. Because Mark was the nervous Nelly parent also. Yeah. I was just like, my mom didn't really take us to doctors that much. Right. She thought if you go to a doctor, they're going to find something wrong. So you just ignore whatever the problem is.

So, you know, and so that's how I raised my kids. Like it didn't really matter what the story was as long as there was no like bleeding from your ears, you're probably fine. Bleeding from the ears to me seemed like the line where that could be like brain trauma, but everything else is fine. But Mark could have benefited from the Daddy vs. Doctor podcast. It's great. I love it.

Anyway, don't forget. Hey, listen, don't forget our podcast. I mean, if you're here, you haven't forgotten, but tell your friends about our podcast. It's available wherever you get your podcasts. It's called Let's Talk Off Camera. And it really is a gem of a show. I think it's a gem of a show. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Yeah, I'm glad you're enjoying it. And that's it. That's all. See you next week, everyone, when we talk off camera again. Bye-bye. Bye. Woo-hoo.

Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa is a co-production of Melojo Productions and PRX Productions with help from Goat Rodeo. Our theme song is Follow Me from APM Music.

From Melojo, our team is Kelly Ripa, Mark Consuelos, Albert Bianchini, Jan Chalet, Devin Schneider, Michael Halpern, Jacob Small, Roz Therrien, Seth Gronquist, and Nick Ribula. From PRX Productions, our team is Cara Schillen, Genevieve Sponsler, Megan Nadolski, Edwin Ochoa, Rebecca Seidel. Additional sound design by Terrence Bernardo.

The executive producer of PRX Productions is Jocelyn Gonzalez. This show is powered by Stitcher. You want a fast, reliable connection for all the streaming, gaming, and internetting you love? You need Xfinity Internet, with gateways engineered to handle hundreds of devices at once. Visit Xfinity.com to learn more. Xfinity. Bring on the good stuff. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas.

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