Though he’s made a career out of making people laugh, Sebastian Maniscalco means business in all aspects of his life.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the actor and comedian — who is starring in Apple Podcast’s first scripted docudrama, “Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story” — opened up about his new role, how his approach to social media and comedy has shifted throughout the years and why it’s necessary for him to be “half-psychotic” when it comes to parenting his two children.
“I think kids need structure, they need discipline,” said Maniscalco, who shares two children — daughter Serafina Simone, 8, and son Caruso Jack, 5 — with wife, Lana Gomez. “They actually thrive on it. I think if you’re a pushover or you’re soft with your kids… I come from a middle-class working family who gave me chores to do. I had to cut the lawn, I had to make my bed. I had to vacuum on Saturday. I remember I had to vacuum all the carpeting in the house on Saturday. And my kids are living a different life.”
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“They’re growing up with really no struggle,” he continued. “I mean, we’re not struggling for food here or shelter or what have you, but I’m instilling the values, the core values, and the work ethic that I grew up with in them. And the parenting, it’s 24/7. It’s like you can’t take a day off.”
“If they don’t say ‘Please’ or ‘Thank you,’ I’m there beating that into their head,” he added. “So it becomes just the standard.”
He continued, “The parenting that I see, we just had a party here at the house, and the kids are in the pool — ‘get out of the pool’ and the kid — ‘NO’… no, it’s like, you’ve got to be firm.”
Maniscalco, who’s currently on his “It Ain’t Right” stand-up tour, said he often pokes fun at his parenting style during his sets.
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“I joke about it in stand-up. I mean, you have to be half-psychotic almost,” he said. “When you talk to your kids — ‘GET OUT OF THE POOL’ — they have to know when you’re serious, and they have to know when you are joking. And the way you do that is tone, pitch, volume. I take it very seriously when I’m on the road.”
“It’s very difficult for me because my wife’s fantastic. She’s not the disciplinarian in the relationship, and I think that’s good to have that yin and yang,” he continued. “My wife is more of a nurturing, loving… and I could be that way. But I also have another side.”
“[Parenting] is the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life, being a parent,” he added. “Just to see your kids, kind of mold them and give them the tools that they need to be their own people. It’s great. But it’s no joke. It’s a lot of work.”
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Similar to parenting, his approach to comedy can have its serious moments, too.
As his career has progressed throughout the years, Maniscalco said he’s become “more reluctant” to post certain content on social media for fear of how people may perceive things.
“It’s like what I perceive as funny and postings on social media, I’m a little bit more reluctant. I’m reluctant to do that because social media, you don’t know how people perceive things and it’s there. Once it’s out there, it’s out there,” he said. “When you do stand-up comedy, it’s more of a performance. The stuff I’m saying on stage sometimes never happened to me. It’s a story I heard, and I interpret it as if it has happened to me. So it’s more of writing involved, but you go on social media and you want to comment on maybe something that’s happening in the world, and you don’t know how people are going to perceive it. You just don’t know..”
“I’m trying to just make people laugh, not stir up the pot,” he added. “But it’s sad. It’s sad that you even have to think this way because people are so sensitive nowadays. So it’s tough. It’s tough to be a comedian, at least for me. Not so much the performance, but just going online, trying to just joke around. Those days are not over, but limited.”
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On top of being a family man and stand-up comedian, Maniscalco is also focusing on his latest role in Apple Podcast’s “Easy Money: The Charles Ponzi Story.”
The eight-part series, which is set to premiere Monday, traces the rise and fall of Charles Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who defrauded the modern-day equivalent of a quarter of a billion dollars.
“I’ve always been a fan of kind of Ponzi schemes from afar,” Maniscalco said. “Like the [Bernie] Madoff thing really fascinated me that he bilked all these people out of all this money. I was almost part of a Ponzi scheme in the early 2000s. I saw it up close and personal, and I saw a lot of money being exchanged and was very enticed to get involved as an investor. I ended up not doing it, thank God. But it intrigued me.”
Maniscalco, who voices Ponzi, said the experience of recording a scripted podcast was one unlike any other role he’s taken.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “I was in a sound booth with no real actors around me and trying to visualize these scenes. And, in my head, I go, ‘Is this any good?’ And then when I listen back, and I’m like, the sound effects that they put in and the investigative journalism that they did, I mean, it’s really an interesting listen over eight episodes, and I’m really proud to be a part of it.”
“I describe it as an audio motion picture, basically. Although there’s no motion, it’s like watching a movie. It’s funny when you listen to it, you visualize where these people are. At least I did,” he added.
