One Good Think #1: Sebastian Maniscalco

On how a difference in perspective can lead to persistence

Most will know—Sebastian Maniscalco is one of the biggest touring comedians in the world.

But back in 1998, shortly after Maniscalco moved from Chicago to LA, he knew little of comedy—besides the fact that he wanted to do it.

To learn, he decided to enrolled in a stand up comedy class offered at The Comedy Store in Hollywood. He tells the story in his book, Stay Hungry (which I wrote about on my blog along with other great books here).

And Sebastian did learn about stand up in the class— a lot about how to lean into his persona and to write a set, for instance.

But the bigger lesson (his Good Think, “GT”) he learned shortly after.

At the class he met a friend named Brett.

Maniscalco begged Brett to go do an open mic with him at the now closed Highland Grounds in Hollywood. He finally gave in.

Brett took the stage first. And, as he feared, he delivered his routine to a sickening silence and indifference. He was mortified.

Up next: Sebastian. And…

“Everyone in the place…continued to completely ignore me. Yeah, this is not one of those stories where people suddenly tune in and say, ‘Whoa! Who is this guy? He’s really great!”

That was a good lesson on how to bomb (a lesson that Bill Burr says all comedians should embrace). But the real lesson happened in the car on the way home.

When they got in the car, Maniscalco asked Brett when he wanted to do the next one. “I’m never doing that again,” Brett said. That was it. He was one and done.

“Brett reached his limit after just one demoralizing night,” said Maniscalco. “I had to ask myself, How many am I up for?”

This was a great question, and it proved the difference between, not just Maniscalco and Brett, but Maniscalco and every other open-mic dabbler. He had a different end game.

“I told myself that my hard limit of demoralizing nights was infinity. I would keep on doing this, night after night, three times a night, forever, before I admitted defeat. It wasn’t even about winning…It was a feeling of never being a person who gave up too soon and let his dream slip away.”

Maniscalco’s GT

The GT is Maniscalco’s question: “How many am I up for?”

Whatever pursuit I get into now, I ask myself that question. When will I give up? How many bombed comedy sets am I up for? Am I one and done like Brett?

Or is my hard limit infinity?

Is yours?