The first half or so was excellent for the most part, but it runs out of steam towards the end. Still worth watching, though.
15 Reviews
Pretty good
shanayneigh23 January 2019
Sebastian did it again
ecmimages16 January 2019
Hope It's Better Next Time.
dayana42118 January 2019
I love Sebastian and have seen all his comedy specials, but this one is my least favorite. It didn't really take off, kept waiting for a comedic crescendo like Sebastian is capable of but never happened. Hope it's better next time.
A Few Good Skits
bryno9218 January 2019
It was decent but there was quite a few bits about the pregnancy that I didn't care for about halfway through. The bits about exercising, the gas station, and Home Depot were his best parts. These occurred at the beginning and end so it wasn't a very consistent experience for me. He seemed to really start getting into it at the end, but then it justseems to end because of the time limit. I recommend watching it with lower expectations.
Another Great Special
alexspencermunoz10 February 2019
After reading the other reviews I was hesitant to watch. Luckily this was one of the funniest specials I've seen since his other one "Aren't You Embarrassed?". I definitely recommend it if you enjoy his humor. His faces and movements compliment the jokes perfectly. I laughed until it hurt!
still good but worst of his specials
paristsim7 September 2019
I am a huge fan of Sebastian! Coming from Greece which is not that far from Sicily, I always find many similarities in my family and his stories and the way he tells them always is funny to me. I watched this three times. In this one, I laughed the least in comparison to his other specials. Maybe the repetition of the same issues of his material (family and annoying behaviours of people, which is not that bad really), lack of very entertaining new jokes or a little of nervousness he felt more in that, doing a special in front of New Yorkers in probably the mecca of entertainment. I don't know. But it surely feels it lacks the freshness and delivery of his first specials. Despite that, as a huge fan I enjoyed it quite a lot, for example the part with his wife scratching his car and the body shop...actors.
I'm hungry for even more!
barrizehner-1698619 March 2021
When you're laughing out loud alone at your house you know it's funny
Marlon10574 September 2021
This is my second time to watch the show. It's so funny to me and maybe not everyone else. It's relatable to me because I have immigrant parents and I lived in an intense household. So some of the stories and the things he says from his dad's experiences makes me laugh because I've been there too. It's also fairly clean in terms of language and content that's very rare. It's fun to watch.
Sebastian Maniscalco is the funniest man alive
gcm-6883919 January 2019
Not as good as his first special
airborne_trooper18 January 2019
SM has two specials on Netflix. The first one "Aren't you embarrassed?" Came at a time when I didn't know who this guy was. But I literally laughed all the way through. His jokes had great timing, were relatable and to this day, I can watch that performance and still laugh at some of the jokes like I just heard them for the first time.
Stay Hungry is NONE of that. And it's a shame because when I saw this was out, I dropped everything to watch it. Like another reviewer mentioned, it's totally disjointed. So many of his jokes fall flat that it was almost cringy to witness, considering the incredibly large venue he was performing in; Radio City Music Hall.
There were a few parts that were genuinely funny, but the few parts that managed to get me to at least smile in this special, were more simply the fillers in the last one. That's how bad this one is in comparison.
Lastly this I'll say is that Sebastian is talented funny comedian, but I think they jumped the gun having him play this venue and if I had to guess, I think it made him try too hard. His last special everything was natural, almost as if he were reacting in the moment. This special, everything is forced, especially his signature physical gestures and perpetually annoyed persona that made him so funny leading up to this. My recommendation: Don't even bother with this one. It's a dud. But I genuinely hope it doesn't ruin his career.
Stay Hungry is NONE of that. And it's a shame because when I saw this was out, I dropped everything to watch it. Like another reviewer mentioned, it's totally disjointed. So many of his jokes fall flat that it was almost cringy to witness, considering the incredibly large venue he was performing in; Radio City Music Hall.
There were a few parts that were genuinely funny, but the few parts that managed to get me to at least smile in this special, were more simply the fillers in the last one. That's how bad this one is in comparison.
Lastly this I'll say is that Sebastian is talented funny comedian, but I think they jumped the gun having him play this venue and if I had to guess, I think it made him try too hard. His last special everything was natural, almost as if he were reacting in the moment. This special, everything is forced, especially his signature physical gestures and perpetually annoyed persona that made him so funny leading up to this. My recommendation: Don't even bother with this one. It's a dud. But I genuinely hope it doesn't ruin his career.
The special was edited way too much
rbuonomo2729 October 2021
I saw Sebastian on the Stay Hungry tour in Las Vegas and literally laughed nonstop for 90 minutes. This special was way too edited. It cut so many of the bits short and a lot of the big laughs were lost because of it. The special was a bit disappointing but it was more because of how it was chopped up rather than the material not being funny. Gave it an 8 because of how much I laughed seeing this show live.
"Stay Hungry" Falls Flat
saoirse141218 January 2019
Ten minutes into Sebastian Maniscalco's new Netflix special "Stay Hungry" I hadn't even cracked a smile; fifteen minutes in, I was checking how much was left in the special.
Maniscalco's characteristic Italian affect defines his new Netflix special. He speaks in short bursts, leaving ends of sentences hanging, and this blunt style comes through in the way he writes his comedy. Within the first fifteen minutes of the special he's run through multiple anecdotes, each less entertaining than the last. When I did finally crack a smile around the twelve-minute mark, it was during a story that would have had me in stitches had it been in the hands of a more gifted comedian. Punch lines that require earnestness are treated with derision, which ruins the joke entirely. By the time I was halfway through the special, the judgmental tone that Maniscalco is known for had become monotonous and grating.
All good comedians should be great storytellers and Maniscalco is not. His stories are disjointed and frequently interrupted to tell random bits from his life and share small pieces of information about his family throughout. There is no sense of plot or climax to any of his stories; the whole hour feels like you are listening to a three-year old telling you what happened at school that day. He feels flighty, easily distracted, and hard to follow.
"Stay Hungry" gives the impression that Maniscalco has difficulty finding topics to write his comedy about. He spends the first half of the special running through anecdotes at lightning speed, with none landing particularly well. Around the halfway mark he digs into his longest story, which is about the birth of his one-year-old daughter. It's Maniscalco's trademark style to find fault with everything around him and the birth of his child is no different. He derides the hospital, the nurses, his family and in-laws, himself, and everything about the process of childbirth. It would take a gifted comedian to make complaining about childbirth funny, and Maniscalco is not this comedian. When he finishes the story, you feel uncomfortable and confused as to what you are supposed to be laughing about.
Maniscalco tries to be a physical comedian, and it almost works for him. He paces across the stage, derisively mimics those who he tells his stories about, and uses his expressive Italian face to exemplify his disgust with the world at large. But it's hard to combine the use of physical humor with the angry-at-the-world comedy that Maniscalco relies on. Truly great physical comedians like Martin Short walk around the stage with a sense of joy about everything - they throw themselves into their physicality with an earnestness that demands that you take them at face value. Maniscalco uses physical comedy to mock the people in his world, and it often comes across as bland and distasteful. There's no doubt that he has a great stage presence, but he can't quite figure out how to use it to his advantage.
He's lucky that he has such a large stage presence because Radio City Music Hall is a big stage to fill. Despite being a sold-out show, it lacks the energy that came with John Mulaney's Radio City special last year. Maniscalco's audience become experts in polite laughter over the course of the hour and the larger pieces of applause feel forced by long pauses. With "Kid Gorgeous" you could feel from watching at home how much the audience was enjoying Mulaney's presence, and despite the fact that Mulaney does not engage with his audience in a traditional sense you can feel the give-and-take relationship between them. This aspect of stand-up is absent with Maniscalco - you get the distinct feeling that he is talking into a mirror.
"Stay Hungry" is the first comedy special I have watched in a very long time where I didn't laugh once. If you want to hear a middle-aged Italian complain about the world, listening to someone on the New York City subway would probably be funnier; if you want an hour of comedy, re-watch your favorite special again instead. I promise it's a better use of your time.
Maniscalco's characteristic Italian affect defines his new Netflix special. He speaks in short bursts, leaving ends of sentences hanging, and this blunt style comes through in the way he writes his comedy. Within the first fifteen minutes of the special he's run through multiple anecdotes, each less entertaining than the last. When I did finally crack a smile around the twelve-minute mark, it was during a story that would have had me in stitches had it been in the hands of a more gifted comedian. Punch lines that require earnestness are treated with derision, which ruins the joke entirely. By the time I was halfway through the special, the judgmental tone that Maniscalco is known for had become monotonous and grating.
All good comedians should be great storytellers and Maniscalco is not. His stories are disjointed and frequently interrupted to tell random bits from his life and share small pieces of information about his family throughout. There is no sense of plot or climax to any of his stories; the whole hour feels like you are listening to a three-year old telling you what happened at school that day. He feels flighty, easily distracted, and hard to follow.
"Stay Hungry" gives the impression that Maniscalco has difficulty finding topics to write his comedy about. He spends the first half of the special running through anecdotes at lightning speed, with none landing particularly well. Around the halfway mark he digs into his longest story, which is about the birth of his one-year-old daughter. It's Maniscalco's trademark style to find fault with everything around him and the birth of his child is no different. He derides the hospital, the nurses, his family and in-laws, himself, and everything about the process of childbirth. It would take a gifted comedian to make complaining about childbirth funny, and Maniscalco is not this comedian. When he finishes the story, you feel uncomfortable and confused as to what you are supposed to be laughing about.
Maniscalco tries to be a physical comedian, and it almost works for him. He paces across the stage, derisively mimics those who he tells his stories about, and uses his expressive Italian face to exemplify his disgust with the world at large. But it's hard to combine the use of physical humor with the angry-at-the-world comedy that Maniscalco relies on. Truly great physical comedians like Martin Short walk around the stage with a sense of joy about everything - they throw themselves into their physicality with an earnestness that demands that you take them at face value. Maniscalco uses physical comedy to mock the people in his world, and it often comes across as bland and distasteful. There's no doubt that he has a great stage presence, but he can't quite figure out how to use it to his advantage.
He's lucky that he has such a large stage presence because Radio City Music Hall is a big stage to fill. Despite being a sold-out show, it lacks the energy that came with John Mulaney's Radio City special last year. Maniscalco's audience become experts in polite laughter over the course of the hour and the larger pieces of applause feel forced by long pauses. With "Kid Gorgeous" you could feel from watching at home how much the audience was enjoying Mulaney's presence, and despite the fact that Mulaney does not engage with his audience in a traditional sense you can feel the give-and-take relationship between them. This aspect of stand-up is absent with Maniscalco - you get the distinct feeling that he is talking into a mirror.
"Stay Hungry" is the first comedy special I have watched in a very long time where I didn't laugh once. If you want to hear a middle-aged Italian complain about the world, listening to someone on the New York City subway would probably be funnier; if you want an hour of comedy, re-watch your favorite special again instead. I promise it's a better use of your time.
Worst ever
tagean198118 January 2019
Don't waste your time
jalechutcheson24 October 2022
I cut it off after 5 minutes. There were no jokes, just a guy talking. It's like listening to someone else's conversation except there's no one on the other end. Just a guy, overly animated, telling stories to a wall. Stories of things that happened in his life. No punch lines or funny turns. Just, "People bring exotic animals on planes nowadays... ha ha ha." And, "I was with my dad today, he kept calling me 'Biggie Shot' because I'm famous now. Ha ha ha." The only entertainment you might get is from his overly dramatic retellings. It's as though he wants to recreate Dane Cook but the stories themselves are not interesting. You'll find more humor in less time by asking a stranger how their day went...
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