Last night, my wife, son, and I hopped on the Norristown High Speed Line (part of Philly’s public transit system) and 15 minutes later we were walking into the venerable Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA.
The reason for the journey was to see the hilarious, high-energy comedian Sebastian Maniscaclo. I’ve written about Sebastian before, proclaiming him as my favorite comedian, but last night was our first chance to see him love, and he did not disappoint.
I thought I would know most of his routine, since I’ve watched both his TV specials, What’s Wrong With People?“ and “Aren’t You Embarrassed?”. However, that was not the case, as the vast majority of his show was new material, with a few of his classic bits mixed in.
There was also an opening act, local comedian Pat House, who we all agreed was quite funny and whose lines we were repeating on our ride home. Here’s an older clip of Pat doing his standup routine:
Once Pat had warmed up the audience, it was time for Sebastian to take the stage, and he had the 3,000 members of the audience laughing out loud in less than 10 seconds. He then continued to do so for the next 90 minutes.
In many ways I consider comedians the ultimate entertainer. To take an empty stage all by yourself with nothing more than a mike, and to then get the audience to laugh at your jokes takes equal amounts of talent, confidence, and hard work.
When Sebastian thanked the audience at the end of his show, we were amazed that 90 minutes had flown by, and that he was just as energetic at the end as he was at the start, especially since he incorporates a decent amount of physical humor into his act. He also noted that he was willing to stay afterwards and get his photo with every single person that wanted to – that’s dedication to your fans.
So thank you Sebastian and Pat for sharing your talents, I wish you continued success.
By the way, Sebastian will be featured on an upcoming episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld.
My first post about Sebastian had a few clips of his routine, here are a couple more. Enjoy!
*photo at top is of the Tower Theater stage, 30 minutes before show time
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