Now days the tag line 'As seen on Comedy Central' is getting to be placed on more and more DVD's. In this case it's for the comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and before now I had never heard of the man. Comedy is a fickle art and when it comes to listening to someone new I start to wonder if that person will be funny or not even before hearing the act. Not only that but I have to be in the right mood for comedy. If I'm upset or feeling down, then I'm not going to be looking for a laugh. This is all happens before the jokes are told. When they jokes do come then it's got to be said just right. Just think over the years of how many comedians have made a joke to get that laugh and what they get is an uproar of anger or judgment from the crowd. It's happened many times to the famous big name stars to ones that no one heard about until that one mistimed or poorly made joke was told.
With all that going through my head I put in the DVD of Sebastian Live I got ready to watch this new comedian. First off, I don't get what's the deal with these comedians putting short skits at the beginning of their shows. I have yet to see any that has been funny and I really could care less what they are doing back stage. On this DVD it's only about 30 seconds worth so though I don't like the beginning back stage skit it was short enough to be bearable. Once on stage Sebastian came out with not that much energy and it could be heard in the crowd in the way that they really wasn't laughing or clapping much.
His jokes were a little original, the material not so much but what he was saying about it was different enough that it was funny. Only problem was that he did start off slow and didn't really seem to be into his own jokes. I was able to chuckle a few times from the jokes but so far those first 10 minutes was going by slow and I wasn't impressed. But that all changed around the 15 minute mark into the DVD. Sebastian started to get more involved with how he was telling the jokes, he was starting to laugh with himself as he told them, and that made me laugh as well. He brought some life into the jokes he was telling and though some of the subjects that he talked about I have never experienced there was some similarities to some things that I have done and that made the jokes pretty funny.
By the time the 1-hour act was finished I had found out that Sebastian Maniscalco is a pretty funny guy. He really got into telling the jokes by moving around the stage; he was giving facial features that fit well with the joke, and best of all he was laughing himself. A comedian that doesn’t seem to be having a good time on the stage usually won't be that funny and Sebastian Maniscalco does not do this. Aside from the few minutes of a slow start he picked up the pace and brought home the funny and that made this DVD a funny watch and he has become a comedian that will be on my radar for when I am watching Comedy Central. There are two special features on the DVD though both are just an ok watch. The first is a cartoon of one of the more funny jokes that he tells. Even though I had just watched him perform the joke about 30 minutes before I still enjoyed hearing it again. But I preferred the on stage telling of the joke rather then watching a short cartoon telling of it. As for the second special feature, it is the recording of Sebastian's first performance. Some of the jokes he tells in this performance is the same as what was on the live part of the DVD there was other material that was not and it was just as funny.