It was a full circle moment for Sebastian Maniscalco when he sat down at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills to talk to Us about his upcoming Hulu special, It Ain't Right (airing November 21), in mid-October. The 52-year-old comedian was a waiter at the famed establishment between 1998 and 2005. "I would take off during my breaks to do comedy up the street at the Comedy Store, and then come back and pick up my table," says Maniscalco, noting that he served a lot of celebrities during his seven years on the job. Two decades later, he's the famous one getting the five-star treatment. "It's nice to be on the other side," he says with a laugh. The Chicago native owes much of his success to his relatable, everyman humor - most of his jokes center around his childhood growing up in the 1970s and '80s with his Italian immigrant parents and his experiences as a dad to two young kids (he and his wife of 12 years, artist Lana Gomez, share daughter Serafina, 8, and son Caruso, 6). His long list of grievances, shared in his live shows and social media videos, includes grown men wearing flip-flops to restaurants, participation trophies and gentle parenting. "I like talking about things that people [deal with] on a day-to-day basis," he explains, "and how I'm dealing with the parenting of today as opposed to how I grew up." He's made a conscious decision to leave politics and hot-button topics out of his stand-up, and it's clearly working in his favor: In 2024, he made history by becoming the first comedian to sell out five consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden in NYC during his It Ain't Right Tour. As of July, the tour had raked in $35.5 million, making him one of the top-selling comics of the year. (He's also a crossover star with acting roles in the acclaimed films Green Book and The Irishman, the comedy About My Father, which he cowrote and starred in with Robert De Niro, and the HBO series Bookie.) Amid culture wars and a constant deluge of divisive content, Maniscalco's comedy has universal appeal. It's a throwback to simpler times. "You've got 18,000 people laughing at once, and they're coming from all walks of life with different religious backgrounds and different political views. I'm sharing my experiences with a group of strangers and everybody's on the same page and having a good time," Maniscalco says. "At the end of the day," he adds, "I just want to make people laugh." The star tells Us more about his career, pet peeves and learning how to stop and smell the roses. BRIAN BOWEN SMITH/DISNEY Your comedy connects with all different kinds of people. Why do you think that is? I've stayed away from current events and politics because I've always thought whatever my father is doing is a hell of a lot funnier than what the president is doing. You're getting hit over the head with bad news and politics. When people go out for a night of entertainment, they want to escape. I'd rather talk about my experiences than what's happening with the current administration. It just doesn't sound like fun. You're obviously hugely successful. Did you envision this for yourself when you were starting out? I just wanted to do stand-up for a living. That was the goal. I never expected to be doing these big shows. I concentrated on being the best comedian I could possibly be, and everything after that was kind of gravy. Are you able to enjoy your success? I'm not Mr. Positivity. It's very fashionable nowadays on Instagram [to be] like, "Oh, I get up and I do my affirmations and I have a vision board." It's not really my style. My fear is failing; when I succeed, I feel like it's going to go away. It's hard to sustain success. There's an expectation, like, "You're putting out a Hulu special, this better be equal to or better than the last one." It's a lot of pressure. Have you always felt that way? Yeah, it's kind of who I am. I don't live in the moment. I'm always thinking, "What's next week? What's two years from now? When am I going to die?" I'm 52 and I have a 6-year-old kid, so I do the math [and I'm thinking], "Where am I going to be when this kid gets married? A wheelchair, right?" Within the last year or two, I've learned to slow down and smell the roses. I get that from my wife. She's the more positive one. Do you remember ever having an "I made it" moment? Doing a movie [with] Robert De Niro as my father and having my father on set teaching him how to do blowouts and dye jobs was pretty surreal. My father is a hairstylist, and De Niro wanted to know how to do those things, so he called my dad, and here I am on set with my dad watching him teach De Niro how to be a hairdresser. Dan Anderson / (C) Lionsgate / Courtesy Everett Collection You also worked with Al Pacino, another legend, on The Irishman. Did you joke around with them on set? I was very nervous being around these guys. It's not like we got together and were, like, dying laughing in between takes. I was like, "Alright, I have to remember my lines." How does