Consider the odd case of Sebastian Maniscalco, the hottest entertainer of whom no one has ever heard. Well, certainly not no one, but in the days prior to my attending his Saturday night performance at Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa, a surprising number of friends and acquaintances—including some ostensibly show-biz savvy folks—all asked the same question when I apprised them of my plans to see him: “Who?”

For the uninitiated, Maniscalco, who turns 45 next week, is a suburban-Chicago native and veteran of the standup comedy wars who appears to be on a course headed for supernovadom, if he’s not already there. Not only was Saturday’s highly entertaining turn his ninth sellout of an 11-day, 10-SRO-show run of his "Stay Hungry" tour that ended Sunday (at Borgata’s “big room,” the 2,400-capacity Event Center), he is booked Sept. 13 at South Philly’s Wells Fargo Center. The latter gig puts him in the company of such titans as Eddie Murphy and Kevin Hart.