Sebastian Maniscalco | Her Love Came In Stage Time

The Person Who Believed In Me

Sebastian Maniscalco did three minutes at a potluck night at the Comedy Store and Mitzi Shore stopped him on his way out to say come back for ten. That was more or less the extent of their conversation. She skipped him past the six-minute stage entirely, and by Monday he was a paid regular, which some people there thought he hadn't earned. She'd hand him a 9:15 spot one week and a 1:30 a.m. spot the next, four people in the room, two of them asleep. He didn't understand the design until years later.

Their whole relationship was that. He never spoke to her on the phone more than once. She said essentially one sentence to him. She died in 2018 and he never thanked her directly — he's put her name in the credits of every special instead.

In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about the first time he ever did stand-up, in college, where an almost entirely Black audience yelled "Sandman" at him for ten minutes and he walked off having had the worst night of his life and thinking only that he couldn't wait to do it again. About selling satellite dishes from a kiosk in a South LA mall on September 11th. About performing in a boxing ring in Manteca with blood still on the canvas from the night before, while behind him someone picked up a spare. About a 79-year-old hairdresser father who told him he had to rent the lawnmower. And about the photograph that catches him off guard mid-interview — the one where they were still a unit.

Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com

Chapters ☀️

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:

The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew. In each episode, David asks one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? David is also a CBS News contributor and host of Beg Knows America, airing every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Sebastian Maniscalco

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Mariah Maull, Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

More description

Sebastian Maniscalco did three minutes at a potluck night at the Comedy Store and Mitzi Shore stopped him on his way out to say come back for ten. That was more or less the extent of their conversation. She skipped him past the six-minute stage entirely, and by Monday he was a paid regular, which some people there thought he hadn't earned. She'd hand him a 9:15 spot one week and a 1:30 a.m. spot the next, four people in the room, two of them asleep. He didn't understand the design until years later.

Their whole relationship was that. He never spoke to her on the phone more than once. She said essentially one sentence to him. She died in 2018 and he never thanked her directly — he's put her name in the credits of every special instead.

In this conversation with David Begnaud, he talks about the first time he ever did stand-up, in college, where an almost entirely Black audience yelled "Sandman" at him for ten minutes and he walked off having had the worst night of his life and thinking only that he couldn't wait to do it again. About selling satellite dishes from a kiosk in a South LA mall on September 11th. About performing in a boxing ring in Manteca with blood still on the canvas from the night before, while behind him someone picked up a spare. About a 79-year-old hairdresser father who told him he had to rent the lawnmower. And about the photograph that catches him off guard mid-interview — the one where they were still a unit.

Get more stories that remind you the world is still good. Sign up for our free newsletter: https://www.thedogoodcrew.com

Chapters ☀️

ABOUT THIS PODCAST:

The Person Who Believed In Me is hosted by David Begnaud, founder and CEO of Do Good Crew. In each episode, David asks one simple question: Who believed in you before the world did? David is also a CBS News contributor and host of Beg Knows America, airing every Monday morning.

Host: David Begnaud

Guest: Sebastian Maniscalco

Executive Producer: Olivier Delfosse

Associate Producer: Jonah Johnson

Booker: Sully Bloch

Director of Photography: Foster Parks

Live Production: Joseph Gabay & Will Whitley (Statik Creative)

Social: Mariah Maull, Maxim Trofimenko, Kylee Anderson

Theme Music: Slipstream

Post-Production: Longwave Digital

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believedpodcast

2026-06-08 61 min Transcript
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