The Life Of Norm Macdonald - Documentary

There'll be a lot of party days later, but right now, this is I'm dead, like that guy, clearly in the best way. Didn't give a [ __ ] so he would do jokes that he knew were going to get nothing. When he smiled, I could picture him as a child. You get more than a joke and a laugh, you get that tone, you get that attitude. There is that uh invisible connection deep down. Here is actually very, very shy.

Why can't unfunny people die? No, McDonald wasn't a quiet taste. Never afraid to take risks and push the boundaries of the audience's expectations. His long, rambling jokes and deadpan delivery left some bemused, yet his shot with an unexpected punchline to company buying a mischievous smile would result in him becoming one of the most beloved comedians of the last 30 years. He passed away of leukemia on September the 14th, 2021, at the age of 61. The death would come as a shock to many, as he hid his 10-year struggle with cancer from the public, referring to face his illness alone, not wanting to become a figure of pity to his peers and audience. Death had been a subject which Norm had contemplated deeply throughout his life, possibly fueled by the stark bleakness of the surroundings in which he grew up in.

So when you grow up, what'd your folks do? Uh, well, my Dad, we're really like, real poorer and stuff. Uh, but later, my dad became like a teacher, so he had a little bit of money. Yeah, we lived like on a rural with animals farm. It was a dead farm. Yeah, it was my father's father's farm, but by this point, it'd become dead. But it was interesting because everyone was old where I lived, except me and my brothers. So I, I was with old men all the time. Yeah, but I liked them a lot. Yeah, I really like them. Do you still like old people? Love them. I love super old people because, uh, it's like it, it helps you with perspective, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

No one was born on October 17th, 1959, in Quebec City, on the cusp of the intense cultural change in French Canada. A primary change was an effort by the provincial government to take more control over the fields of healthcare and education, which had previously been in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. Although he grew up in this largely French-speaking area, Norm's father would forbid the family from learning French, possibly a resistance to the newly titled of French Canadians trying to create a separate identity from both the rest of Canada and France and establish themselves as a reformed province. Norm's father, Percy Lloyd McDonald, was born in 1916, so he had first-hand experience of the Great Depression, and though he never spoke much about it, his values and beliefs were informed by that difficult period. He was already in his 50s when Norm was born, so Norm and his two brothers grew up and around elder relatives and were surrounded by the verbiage, values, and traditions. It was an unusual upbringing which set Norm apart from his contemporaries, but one which helped shape the person he eventually became.

Norm's schooling was held on the CFB Val Cartier military base, just north of Quebec City. When I was a kid, I went to school, right? And there was this [ __ ] in my class. I guess back then they didn't like, take the retards out, right? So he was like, really big. He was bigger than everybody. Normally, he was like twice as big as everybody. His name was Vipond. Yeah, and my dad was my teacher, you know, right? And my dad was like a tough guy. Your dad was your teacher? Yeah. And you went to public school? Yeah. And they put you in a class with your? Because they never do that. Is it like a one-room schoolhouse? No, it was pretty small, but I don't know. When do you still messing? My dad was tough. He was a tough guy. So, uh, my dad said, hey, you got to be friends with the damn [ __ ] Vipond, right? So he made me be his friend for a whole year. Yeah, and I remember like he'd come over, you know, and one time like we played Scrabble. Oh, man. And like he just put any letters and my dad goes, whatever the hell he puts.

Both his parents were English teachers at the school and would teach Norm's classes periodically. Norm was a highly promising student with a natural inclination for mathematics, impressively doing calculus at nine years old, which resulted in him being moved up a grade multiple times. But Norm had a disdain for the rigid rules and boundaries that sought to control both his behavior and his force. For this reason, he would become more disruptive during his later school years.

Norm was a complicated child, and there was something a little off-kilter with him. When he spoke about his childhood, he never shared much in interviews, but one could always detect a hint of a troubled past, a sense of something unspoken. There seemed to be a period of his life and experience which he never quite recovered. Well, because I never like spoke or anything. You shy? Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, people say they were shy when they were children. I was like, it was like a pathology or something. Like I couldn't, like if I went to a store, I had to walk around the store for like 10 times before I could talk to the storekeeper.

Based on the true story is the novel Norm wrote that presents a fictionalized account of his life. In chapter 4, Norm writes about being sexually abused at six years old in a tool shed by a farmhand called Old Jack. "When I found him, he was sitting under the bladed maple tree. 'Hello, Jack. You thinking about the war?' I asked. Oh, Jack just sat still for the longest time, like I wasn't even there. It was like he couldn't hear or see me, like he was hearing and seeing different things. So I just stood there, and after a good long time, Old Jack looked up and seemed surprised that I was in front of him. 'Well, hello, Sprite,' he said. 'What's the matter? You look kind of down.' 'Well, I just didn't like Angus McGregor's story, that's all.' 'Say, Sprite, I know what will lift your spirits.' 'Well, I know the very thing. How'd you like to see a trained squirrel?' 'I was very excited, but you said you could never show them to me, Old Jack.' 'I haven't got the money to get your true birthday present, Sprite. This will have to do.' So we walked down the lane together toward the north 40. The beneficent moon hung low and shone bright, leading us to the shed. When we arrived, I was so excited I couldn't wait. I pushed the door open and rushed inside, looking for that squirrel, but I couldn't find him. I realized my mistake, that he'd only come out for Old Jack. So I glanced back at the open door where Old Jack stood, but his back was to me now. I was blocking out the light of the moon. Suddenly remembered that I'd read somewhere how the light of the moon was just an illusion and the moon was only a cold, cold stone. I watched Old Jack look from side to side before he turned his gaze on me. His eyes flashed black like the wing of a crow. He closed the door, and the inside of the shed went black. Then I heard the bolts. I forget what happened next."

Norm was later asked about this in an interview in 2016. "Well, let's, we wanted to talk about, if we may, probably the darkest moment of the book is you, you imply pretty strongly that you were sexually abused as a young man with the hand of a seemingly kindly family friend." "Uh, well, I just write what I remember happening, yeah." "Did that give you any pause, first of all, to, well, I remember nothing. I don't remember being, uh, someone pointed it out to me later that there seemed to be a passage where people would just naturally infer that something bad happened, but nothing bad happened that I know of, really. Because it's a frightening moment in the book, and there's a chapter where you do say, 'I don't remember anything that happened for the next several years.' I had a, I had a lapse of memory for a few years." "Do you have any interest in figuring out what did happen?" "Um, no. I would, if something terrible happened, why would you want to remember something awful? You never have a recovery memory that's good. You never go, 'I used to like blueberry pie,' you know what I mean? It's always something horrifically violent or sexual. So I don't need that. I have enough trouble in life."

Before Norm and his family left their farm and moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Norm attended Gloucester High School out of respect for his parents who instilled the importance of education in him. Norm was dutiful to his studies. His prowess was still particularly evident in mathematics, but the confines of academia were wearing for Norm. Despite cautious warnings of his parents, he had no desire to follow in their footsteps to slog away a nine-to-five job with little hope of achieving anything but a stable income. Norm wanted to take his life in a different direction. He continued to go through the motions while deciding what to do with his life. School was too easy for Norm, and he would graduate at age 14, despite his later claims that he dropped out at 16. Norm then proceeded to Carleton University in Ottawa to study mathematics and philosophy, but he would soon drop out afterwards, briefly enrolling at Algonquin College's program for journalism and broadcasting television, following in his elder brother Neil McDonald's footsteps. Neil continues to have a successful career today for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Norm would then move to Vancouver on his own and proceeded to work odd jobs of manual labor to make money while deciding what to do with his life. "And where do you work at here?" "Just like manual laborers, too young to, I had to go like as like an undocumented worker, kind of, I guess. Looking back, and then it's down on the corner and trucks will go by and you get in them and stuff like that." "What, how old are you?" "Well, no, I wasn't, well, no, it wasn't like the depression. It was like, yeah, like if you're standing at the for temporary labor, like you stand in the corner and then trucks go by and then you all run up to the truck and try to get in. And then they have these other temporary manpower places where they really jip you or they take almost all the money and they give you like minimum wage. Back then was $3.15 an hour or something, but then the company that the middleman for the company would make eight, whatever. And then you'd go and then you'd like, like the worst was I were, I wasn't a garbage truck once. It seemed fun at the time. It seemed like, hey, that's fun, like right on the back of a garbage truck because you know you're riding, you're standing up. It looked fun when I was a kid. Fresh air, yeah, yeah. But, but first of all, the guy goes way faster than you think, the driver, like you'd never have time. And then people put everything in their garbage. Like it'd be, you pick up the garbage can be filled with sod, it'd weigh like 200 pounds. And then the next place would be like a couch that's broken in half. And then you're exhausted. And then funny as well as you go, they all, the garbage men went to the same place for lunch, so they completely ruined this [ __ ] guy's business, just stink in there as a restaurant, just stuck from garbage. And, and so he had no other clientele after a while. And then so you're exhausted and everything. And at the end of the day, like you're so tired, and then that you drive to the dump, which is the worst place. It's just like, like hell itself, you know, there's little fires all over, there's rats running around everywhere, it's just. And then you drive home, and then I had to get on a bus, and you smell like garbage."

In quiet moments during these long working hours, Norm had decided to pursue his love of stand-up comedy. Being incredibly shy and introverted, Norm would create an onstage persona of sorts in order to feel more comfortable performing. A comedian Norm grew up admiring was Bob Hope, not for the quality of his comedy, but for the on-air persona Bob had created for himself during his career. When appearing on talk shows, before any interview, Bob Hope would spend time preparing in advance, making sure he knew every question the interviewer would be asking beforehand, ensuring that he had a supply of quips and one-liners at the ready to deflect any questions that were being thrown his way, particularly those he deemed to be too personal or intrusive. In doing so, he always cleverly managed to keep everyone laughing, but also maintained an air of mystery. Norm once letting his showbiz math slip in front of the cameras. This resonated with Norm, something he would employ throughout his career.

"Bob Hope was a fantastic comic because he was never, ever once serious and he never got a sense of there's two kinds of guys. This guy's like Pryor, who are like brilliant because they're so vulnerable and you know who they are. And then there's guys like Bob Hope, who are brilliant because they're like invisible to me. Bob Hope, in a way, is a little bit on a higher level because he presents a sort of an existential view of life where everything is is reduced to the the breeziest jokes possible. It doesn't even seem like he's a person. It seems like he's a cartoon. And I think if you can rise to the level of cartoon, like Bob Hope, the fact that you can't even quote a Bob Hope joke, and yet he was maybe the most successful stand-up comic ever, is a testament to his unbelievable skills as a stand-up comic because he didn't need jokes. This guy didn't have good jokes. People would write them for him, and they, and they all sucked. And he, I remember going on The Tonight Show, every joke sucked, and then afterwards, you'd be smiling and stuff."

During 1985, Norm started his stand-up career, regularly performing in comedy clubs around Ottawa. Yuck Yucks was the comedy club where Norm started making his name. "Uh, I think, uh, one of the hottest guys around, as they all are tonight, but this is definitely one of the hottest guys. A big hand, please, for Mr. Norm Macdonald. Okay." [Applause] "No, that's very nice of you. You know, like my name. No problem. Norm. Okay. Excellent. So you ever get a lottery ticket? Like, buy a lottery ticket? Here we go. Everyone's let me give you one as a present, like for Christmas or something like that, because I was a weird gift. There, but he got some weirdest gift. Say, here you go. Nothing."

But his confidence was shaky in the beginning. On one occasion, Norm fled the stage, convinced that he had flopped spectacularly, believing that he could never do comedy again. Howard Wagman, the manager of Yuck Yucks, had been highly impressed with Norm's performance and chased him down and invited him back to do more gigs. This spurred Norm to continue honing his craft. With his confidence growing, Norm was attracting attention on the comedy circuit. Many were surprised at how quickly he was progressing at stand-up comedy. It was also at Yuck Yucks where Norm met his future wife-to-be, Connie Valcourt, who was waiting tables. After a short courtship, the pair would marry within just six months. In 1986, he was heralded by the Montreal Gazette as one of the country's hottest comics after his performance at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.

But in the same year came Norm's first bout with cancer, which threatened to derail his promising start in the industry. This resulted in Norm taking a year off for treatment on his stomach cancer diagnosis. In a 1986 interview for the Montreal Gazette, Norm shared with Bill Brownstein how a diagnosis of cancer had given him a new perspective on life. He told the reporter that he had initially attempted to joke about it in his stand-up act, though no one believed him. Subsequently, he quit smoking, and his comedy material took on a brighter outlook. After making a full recovery from cancer, Norm was eager to get back out on the road and try material out on new audiences, so he embarked on a journey crossing the border from Canada into the United States, performing wherever he could. The American audiences took to Norm's unique comedy style. The next couple of years saw Norm regularly work in the LA comedy circuit, soon attracting the attention of a few casting directors.

His big break came in the form of a spot on the popular variety show Star Search, hosted by Ed McMahon. Ed McMahon was best known as the long-running sidekick to Johnny Carson on The Johnny Carson Show, remembered fondly as the human laughter track, as his laughter had a way of ensuring Carson's jokes didn't fall flat. As Norm warily took to the stage, Ed McMahon watched him, brother stern's silence from the wings. Norm wasn't expecting a rapturous reception, but his set fell on surprisingly deaf ears, winning just three quarters of a star. He recalled looking across to Ed McMahon at one point and being met with a face glare, making it all too clear his performance had not hit the mark. "As just the old Ed wouldn't even muster a fake laugh. And she said, 'They have an opening for a comedian tonight. You'd have your own half-hour special and a comprehensive dental plan.' Such a good opportunity. 'Dear Mom, I'm not a comic, I'm a healer. Just this one steer. Do it for your father's sake. He'd be so proud.' The Nipsey says to me, 'I got news for you, that is not a bratwurst.' All right, I'll do the damn show, but I won't be happy. I'll be miserable." "Fair enough. We better leave now. You're on station 15 minutes. Oh." [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

As Norm's comedy career began to gather momentum, he received the news of his father's passing. His father had been a great influence on Norm's life, and although he wasn't the most loving dad, he offered wisdom and lessons to Norm rooted in a different, more traditional era. Despite the humiliating performance on Star Search, Norm caught the attention of casting agents of The David Letterman Show. There, now making his network television debut, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Norm Macdonald." [Music] "Thanks. Good to be here. Uh, I've been traveling around a lot, watching a lot of the TV, you know, and, uh, we've seen these new sports on the TV where they'll try to combine two sports together and make up a new sport, you know, like a guy will run 100-yard dash and then fish. Do I love the TV? You know, is that a cat food commercial? I said, at the end of it, said, 'All natural food for your cat.' All natural food. The cat food is made out of horse meat. Yeah, that's the way it works in nature. The, the cat right above the horse in the food chain."

Norm's performance on the show was a resounding success, and from that moment in 1990, he became a regular and a much-loved fixture on The David Letterman Show. "Dave, I'm sitting here beside you here. I'm right beside you. I'm over here in the chair. There he is." [Applause]

It was so well received that he was then invited onto The Conan O'Brien Show, where his unique brand of humor was once again embraced by the audience and Conan himself. "Do you have a scene where you and, and him embrace?" "Yeah, lots of making out." "Oh, for God's sake. Nothing but making out." "All right. It's like Nine and a Half Weeks." "Carrot Top, I see." "We were doing, wow, I gotta check out that movie. Is it called Nine and a Half Seconds?" [Applause] "It's like he's a premature ejaculator, you know? You know what happened? This is what happened. You know what happened? He said, 'Nine and a half seconds,' and I'm looking at him, cause I know there's more, and I wait and wait, and I see the glimmer in the eye, and then bang. I thought you were going to, but no. But, uh, what's the movie going to be called? I know what it's going to be called." "Yeah, what's that?" "If it's got Carrot Top in it, you know what a good name for it'd be?" "What's that?" "Norm: Box Office Poison." "Ing Courtney Thorne-Smith, the girl sitting to your left, is in the movie. I'm gonna go see it." "She's a beautiful lady and a talented. Nice talk show, yes, as evidenced by her appearance on our rival show. All right, well, there's this two-hour season finale of Melrose Place. There's this movie coming out, yes, title undetermined at this point. Chairman of the Board. Wow. All right. Do something with that, you freak." "I, I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D."

Norm would become a popular guest for television and radio, as he was able to converse on any subject, no matter how out of depth he might be, making funny observations while being charming and engaging. "[ __ ] once as a joke, he said, 'Everybody conception saying, are you a [ __ ] game?' I'm gay, man. I mean, the show about smoking, they thought you meant the British word for cigarette. All right, uh, exactly. Can I bum a [ __ ]? That's what they say in England."

Happens. Following his rounds on TV, Norm was spotted for his quick wit by the producers of The Dennis Miller Show. It wasn't long before he was being noticed by Roseanne Barr, who felt she needed a writer from a completely different background compared to the usual Harvard-educated writers on the staff.

In 1992, Norm and Connie had their first and only son together, Dylan. It was always a source of great pride to Norm that he was a father, and he did his utmost to revive for his son. He ensured Dylan had the best education, claiming he wanted him to have the experiences and opportunities that he himself had never had.

After a short period writing for Roseanne, Norm's big break came in 1993 when he joined NBC's Saturday Night Live. After being initially hired as a writer, Norm eventually became a cast member and would spend a total of five seasons on the show. "Hey, hey, check out the podium. Look at this. Mr. Reynolds has apparently changed his name to Turd Ferguson. That's right. Turd Ferguson. It's a funny name. Yeah. What happened? What happened to the bear? Get him. I'm not wearing my glasses. Yeah, the polar bear killed Jay. What do you mean you weren't talking to me? We're looking right at me. When you, who are you calling Mr. Dictionary? We're at the, we're at the Red Lobster there, Paul, and I'm enjoying what I always get there, you know what I always get? The, the Fisherman's Platter."

But Norm's most notable performance on the show was undoubtedly his tenure as the Weekend Update anchor during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. He would compound O.J.'s guilt every week on this segment. "Potential jurors for the O.J. Simpson case were asked to fill out a 75-page jury questionnaire. This week, in the entire state of California, only one person got a perfect score: Chow Ming Woo. After the trial, plans to attend Caltech. By the way, you can now purchase a bronze statue of the Juice for only $3,395. And for an even five grand, you can buy one that Al Cowlings has kissed. The ass of O.J. Simpson's new fitness video was released this week and hitting the shelves next week. Simpson's newest video, 'Door Fun Stalking.' Aha!" [Applause] "According to retailers, the most popular Halloween mask this year is O.J. Simpson. And the most popular Halloween greeting is, 'I'll kill you.' And that guy who's bringing over your glasses or a treat?" [Music] "And the Pope came out with a book this week, which contains a series of essays examining faith and morality in today's secular world and the changing role of the Catholic Church as it approaches the 21st century. The book is entitled, 'God Himself Told Me That OJ Is Guilty.'" [Applause] "In other book news, Prince Charles released an autobiography in which he states that he never loved Princess Di and that his father pressured him to marry her. The book is entitled, 'Of Course, OJ Did It.' I mean, come on." [Music] "In his book, O.J. Simpson says that he would have taken a bullet or stood in front of a train for Nicole. Man, I'm going to tell you, that is some bad luck when the one guy who would have died for you kills you."

"OJ announced this week that he's coming out with a new book called 'I Want to Tell You.' And if it's successful, OJ will work on yet another book entitled, 'From Football to Prison: My 25 Years of Showering with Other Men.' Finally, in honor of the 50th anniversary of their first publication, Random House will be releasing special commemorative issues of many Dr. Seuss classics. The first to hit the bookshelves will be 'Green Eggs and Ham,' and 'OJ Is Guilty.'" "Judge Ito was interviewed this week by a local TV station in Los Angeles. Asked by the interviewer if it was appropriate for a supposedly impartial judge to be on TV with his case still pending, Ito said, 'Maybe not, but how appropriate is it to kill your ex-wife?'" "It was revealed today that O.J. Simpson told police that Nicole Brown Simpson used to beat him up. He also claimed that she and Ron Goldman killed him." [Music] "O.J. Simpson's lawyers have decided to skip hearings on DNA evidence and go right to trial. Asked why they did this, the lawyers replied, 'We want to get OJ acquitted as speedily as possible so he can get back to doing what he does best: killing people.'" "Let's get to O.J. O.J. Simpson's lawyers say they don't want the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in the courtroom during the trial. They're afraid the presence of the family members will just remind OJ of how much more killing he still has to do." [Applause]

"Well, O.J. Simpson's lawyer stopped feuding this week. Finally, the Dream Team, F. Lee Bailey and Robert Shapiro, were able to put aside their differences and express their admiration for each other after O.J. threatened to cut their heads off." "According to the National Transportation Safety Board, sleepy truckers are responsible for one thousand deaths a year. In second place, O.J. Simpson had two deaths a year."

"It was revealed this week the defense lawyer Johnny Cochran once abused his first wife. In his defense, Cochran said, 'Hey, at least I didn't kill her, like some people I know.'" "Tomorrow, Judge Ito will take O.J. and the jury on a tour of the now-famous crime scene. For the jury, it will be their first look at the actual location. Of course, OJ will be just a case of 'been there, done that.'" "Judge Ito is happy with the jurors' field trip to the crime scene last week. It went off without a hitch, said, 'You know, not one murder.'" "OJ's pal Al Cowlings now has a 1-900 number for $2.99 a minute. Cowlings will tell callers that OJ is innocent, and for $3.99 a minute, he'll try to do it without laughing." [Applause] "And this week, Simpson defense lawyers questioned witnesses about a half-melted container of ice cream found at the murder site. The Simpson defense has seized upon the ice cream for two reasons: one, it may help fix the time of the murders, and two, it was the only thing in the murder scene without any of OJ's blood on it. Something." [Music]

"To illustrate the point that their client is running out of money to defend himself, O.J. Simpson's lawyer said this week that if he had to do it over again after killing his victims, OJ would now rob them as well." "When you find troubling, we went was O.J. Simpson high on speed the night of the murders?" "Absolutely not," said defense attorney Johnny Cochran today. "And a simple test of any of OJ's blood found at the crime scene will prove it." "Thank you. And OJ's pal, Cowlings, said this week that in looking for the truth in the O.J. Simpson case, he sometimes talks to a picture of Nicole Brown Simpson, something that in the past would have gotten him killed by O.J." "F. Lee Bailey said this week that if the defense only knew what Ron Goldman's last words were, they might be able to find the real killer." "You know, if you ask me, Goldman's last words were probably, uh, 'Hey, you're O.J. Simpson.'"

"Oh no, OJ is struck again. How about that? Good thing." "And in court this week, Kato Kaelin testified that O.J. Simpson did not appear angry before or after the period of his wife's murder, but Kaelin admitted he could have been a touch edgy while he was actually murdering her." [Applause]

"Hertz rental car company announced this week that will buy 520,000 vehicles, increasing its worldwide fleet 24 percent. In addition, they will try to find a new spokesman who won't kill his ex-wife."

It was also during this period, Norm suffered greatly from panic attacks, claiming he once had a panic attack while filming his Weekend Update segment. No one was surprised when he was offered the job of hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner. He never imagined himself to be the type of person the White House would consider for this position, as Norm had always considered himself to be somewhat avant-garde and was certain that they would be seeking a more traditional type of host. "Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, you know, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, you know, broadcast legend Larry King, you know, a pornographer Larry Flint, you know, Dick Morris. The list is starting to drop off a little, folks, but still, you get the idea. It's daunting. And of course, it was very inspiring to see President Clinton up here on crutches making a speech. I mean, I thought that was just amazing. You know, I mean, it's been difficult for the president, you know, he can't jog now, and he needs help getting around, and he's still, you know, he's still, uh, occasionally suffers great pain, you know. On the upside, you got your medical marijuana, so that's, uh, yeah, you must inhale, sir. It's the only way you're going to get better. It's." [Applause]

"Baka SNL. The higher-ups had advised Norm to stop with the OJ material, but despite the warnings, Norm continued with his jokes, not realizing the cost it would eventually incur. His actions displeased Don Ohlmeyer, NBC producer and friend of O.J. Simpson, leading to Norm being dismissed from the show." "You don't mind if I ask you a question? I hear today, I hear this story and others like this press release, you get your ass fired. Is that?" "Yeah, no, you didn't get fired. Yeah, they fired. No, they didn't fire you. No, I'm serious. I talked to a guy that said I'm fired. Fired from your television job? From on the weekend? You know, I do the news, the weekend updates, and I do the jokes sometimes. Many times, the best part of the show." "Yeah, all right. Uh, it's all a matter of opinion. That's your opinion. That's my opinion. You know, but then the guys that can fire me, that's not their opinion. Now, why would they fire you?" "Well, uh, I fired you. First of all, let's get some names here. Let's get this on the record." "Well, I don't know the guys like, because the guys I work with, I, Lauren Michaels and stuff." "Did Lauren Michaels fire you?" "No, he didn't. He didn't fire me. He likes me and stuff." "Well, he is his show, isn't it? I thought it was his show." "Yeah, but, uh, well, then how can a guy come in from the outside and fire you? Somebody from ABC fired." "No, no, they're NBC. What happens is you work on the show, and then there's these guys that hang out like in the halls. Yeah, we got them here. We got them here. And they're called executives. They're NBC executives, right? And then I'd see him. I didn't know who the hell they were, what they did, you know. Now I know what they do. They fire me for Weekend Update. But, uh, they, they said that this guy, Don Ohlmeyer, turns out to be the president. Now I know Don Ohlmeyer, and just between you and me, he's an idiot. Oh, yeah. I was hanging out and stuff, and then the guys go, 'Hey, man, you got college, dude?' Don Ohlmeyer is the president of, uh, the network. Donald Ohlmeyer, the president of NBC, right? And they're telling you, you've got to call Don Ohlmeyer." "Yeah, yeah. He tried to get in touch with you, and they said, 'Please call Don Ohlmeyer.'" "Who tells you to call Donald?" "He didn't drag out in touch with me. He's, he said to Lauren, 'I want this guy off.' Up there, you know, decent. Don Ohlmeyer wants you off update. He told Lauren that. Lauren wants you on, but Don Ohlmeyer wants you off, right?" "I don't buy that for a minute. Lauren wants you off of it, and he's afraid to tell you to your face because of his relationship, so he has Don Ohlmeyer do it. He got to do it. Saturday Night Live. Lauren's the guy in charge of Saturday Night Live. Why do you have to call Don Ohlmeyer?" "Well, he's like, apparently the, I don't even know what the guy is. Yeah, he's the president of the network." "Yeah, but when any other instructions about what you're doing happened, where did they come from? In my, uh, in your tenure there, who talked to you about what was going on?" "Answer the question." "It was Lauren." "Right. Fine. So why now are you talking to Don Ohlmeyer?" "Because Lauren doesn't have the balls to tell you he wants you off Weekend Update." "Wait a minute. Lauren doesn't want me on Weekend." "Right. That's it. I'm being serious with you now." "Of course." "Oh, that's horrible."

Norm's personal life appeared to be somewhat tumultuous over this period, and it seemed he was looking for solace in all the wrong places. Rumor had it that he had carried on a brief affair with model Elle Macpherson. Amid the chaos of his divorce proceedings, Norm had also taken up gambling in a big way, with any money that he made being lost nearly immediately. "Gambling is a, I don't know, you know, I kind of, like, I went broke like a few times when I actually had lots of money. No, gambling. Three times. Gambling with gambling, yeah. And I mean, broke, dead broke, like, uh, and, um, so would you call yourself a degenerate gambler?" "Well, I don't, degenerate is a negative connotation, yeah, but certainly compulsive, yeah. And, and but, um, I don't know what it was. Like, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I do know this: when I would go broke, because they say gamblers want to lose and stuff, yeah, all the same to me, but I will say the three times that I went broke for a lot of money, I had a very freeing feeling, you know. I would go to the coffee shop and have a coffee and have nothing. And, yeah, a lot, a lot of me is, uh, trying to get the [ __ ] as aesthetic as I can in my life." "Oh, really? So it was a Zen thing." "This is like, you would recommend if you wrote a book on Zen, it would be like, go out, make a bunch of stupid bets, lose everything, and enjoy." "He's been in the art of being a [ __ ]. The, uh, but I, I, not because it bring would bring me peace of mind or anything, but because every, every, uh, my, when I'm in a, I bought a house, yeah, first time ever, yeah. And it was like I was Walling myself into a [ __ ] mausoleum or something. All of a sudden, when you had money, [ __ ]. Yeah, I'm like, I don't want to be here. Yeah, I don't want, I don't want a bunch of stuff to have to [ __ ]. Mostly because I'm lazy, I guess. I don't want to have a [ __ ] footstool because then I have to clean it up, right?" "Right. I feel the same way." "Possible. Well, it's exhausting because there's no end to, uh, you, you become tethered to it, and you worry about it. You got a house, it's like, who's gonna fix that light, right? Do I got a color guy? Do I gotta hire a guy to call the guy? And I'm sure you know, and I know guys because we're not rich, but we know rich guys, yeah, that have [ __ ] massive houses and, and [ __ ], and you go, [ __ ], it seems like a nightmare life."

Life after SNL started promisingly for Norm, being offered to write and star in his own movie, Dirty Work, based off a short story by Roald Dahl, "Vengeance Is Mine." Norm's friend and fellow comedian Bob Saget would direct it. The film follows longtime friend Mitch, played by Norm, and Sam, played by Artie Lange, who start a revenge-for-hire business. "You fellas have a lot of growing up to do, I'll tell you that." Ridiculous. The movie received largely negative reviews upon its release and it was financially a disappointment, but had since become a cult classic amongst Norm fans.

Despite the failure of his movie, Norm still had plenty of fans within the industry who believed in his talent as a writer and performer. Fortunately, he was offered another project: the chance to write and star in his own sitcom, The Norm Show. The Norm Show is about the life of Norm Henderson, played by Norm, a former NHL hockey player who is banned for life from the league because of his gambling and tax evasion. To avoid jail time for these crimes, Norm must perform five years of community service as a full-time social worker. The series was met with mixed reviews. Michelle Greepy of the New York Post was critical of Norm's performance, stating that "Norm brings nothing to the would-be comedy except dead weight." "Hey, man, this is a gambler's anonymous. Must be down the hall. Look, Mr. Johnson, I can't send any more caregivers to your house, though, right? You attacked the last one, and then you filed a lawsuit claiming that he attacked you. It did. All right, then. Now, because of your lawsuit, I'm not allowed to send another caregiver to your house. All right, but I'm going to give you a number who can call." Despite the tepid reviews, the show stayed on air for three seasons until it was canceled in 2001 for low ratings.

But TV executives still hadn't given up on Norm. In 2003, Fox offered him another opportunity to write and star in a sitcom, A Minute with Stan Hooper. Stan Hooper, played by Norm, a famous newspaper columnist turned TV commentator, moves his family from their New York home to a small Wisconsin town where he hopes to better get in touch with Middle America. In an attempt to make his weekly long television commentators more appealing to a larger audience, Norm had stated it was his goal to lull the audience into complacency and become more subversive if time went on, which included a plan for Stan's wife, Molly, to be murdered by a drifter at the end of the first season. But Fox canceled the show before any of these plans could be enacted.

Comedy Central would then come to Norm with a show reminiscent of his Saturday Night Live Weekend Update news anchor segment, but instead covering controversial sports-related stories. "This week, Phoenix Suns president Rick Welch told the New York Times that he is gay. Rumors have swirled around Welch ever since he debuted his idea for the Suns' new uniforms. No uniform." [Applause] "In a heartwarming gesture, the entire Suns team rallied around their president and blew him." [Applause] "This week, Charles Barkley said that every professional athlete has played on a team with a gay guy. Yes. No active player in a major sport has come out of the closet. What the H." [Music] "Marketing your town, whose folks, this has been the gayest week in sports ever. Rick Welch, president of the Phoenix Suns, out. Former Villanova player, Will Sheridan, out. Professional bowler, Scott Norton, out. Imagine how big this news would have been if we knew any of these guys."

The show was closer to Norm's humor and stand-up, but the viewing figures weren't good enough to warrant another season, and the show was ultimately canceled. After the failure of multiple of his projects, Norm, true to form, merely shrugged it off with his trademark nonchalance, indifferently brushing it off with the assurance that he didn't care. But on the contrary, Norm most likely cared too much, with his laid-back attitude being a coping mechanism to help him deal with potential failures in life. The late entertainer Dean Martin also employed this attitude throughout his career. If you watch old footage of Dean Martin, he always had a certain air about him, relaxed, composed, and seemingly to simply drift through life with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other. It made people think he was perpetually blissfully intoxicated. "I'm not starting. I'm almost through. Good to see you. Aren't all these people get in your room?" "No, but where's the guy you talked to?" "Oh, that's the way it works." [Applause] "So this is Old John, you know, not only are you important in show business, but I found out you're important in hotels and everything. I get a room. There's a John. Beautiful."

Anyone who knew him would know that behind the veneer, he was anything but. His appearance deceptive, his demeanor carefully cultivated. What lay beneath was a man who worked hard and achieved a great deal. This attitude, exemplified by Dean Martin and embraced by Norm, was one of the many facets of Norm's personality. While Norm was often seen as laid-back, friendly, and even vulnerable, there was also a menacing side. "I heard you were an ass-kicker too. That's pretty fast." "I go to the world. You were a rough character in the water, huh?" "I did. I heard stories. That's different. Stories. I heard stories about Norm where a drunk guy comes up to him at the bar goes, 'Hey, aren't you Norm?' And he's gone. He's just suddenly gone. What happened? What happened to that guy?"

There had always been stories about the scrapes and brawls Norm would get himself into in bars. There seemed to be a deep-seated anger in Norm, possibly a byproduct of childhood trauma or just an inbuilt part of his personality. With his somewhat old-school view of the world, he seemed always out of step with the prevailing liberal consensus on the comedy scene, and he wasn't afraid to stand alone with his beliefs. For instance, on the roast of Bob Saget, Norm wasn't a fan of the crude style of roast comedy, so he decided to do the exact opposite and read jokes from a tame vintage joke book which his dad had given him before he died. "Bob, you have a lot of well-wishers here tonight, and a lot of them would like you to, would like to throw you down one." "Oh, well, they want to murder you in a well. Seems a little harsh, but apparently they want to murder you in a well. It says here on this card. Now, but Bob has a beautiful face, like a flower. Yeah, cauliflower." [Applause] "No offense, but your face looks like a cauliflower." [Applause] "As you can see, he has wavy hair. It's waving goodbye. On Academy, he's going bald." [Applause] "No, I think that that Bob should join the Ku Klux Klan, and that's not because he's racist. He's not racist. It's just that he'd look a lot better with a hood over his head on account of his face." [Laughter] [Applause] "No, there are times when Bob has something on his mind. When he wears a hat, Bob is not very worldly. He thinks the English Channel is a British TV station and not a body of water separating England and France. Do you know that? He has never slept with his wife. Isn't that odd? He says that it isn't honorable to sleep with a married woman, even though she's married to him. Rest for Bob Saget, right? Who's a friend of mine, yeah, and I don't, I, I guess I don't like roasts, yeah, but, um, I mean, I, I shouldn't say that. I guess I admire. I got, I don't really admire. It's a certain style, certain stuff I've come to accept things, yeah, but, uh, but Saget said, 'Can you come and roast me?' And Saget's like a really nice guy, and he said, '[ __ ], I don't know, man.' Because, come on, I don't know why he kept pushing it, yeah. So I'm like, it was the night before, and so this guy, Sandy Gallin, who was the producer of these roasts and stuff, yeah, or Joel Gallin, I don't know. After, I don't know his name. I only did one, and that was all I could take. That stuff. And so he said, 'I don't know how to do this stuff.' He goes, 'Just be shocking.' And so luckily, when he said shocking, I thought, 'Oh, well, if I do the opposite, you know, it's, like I said, I've heard people go, 'I got it.' I go, 'Well, what the [ __ ] is to get?'"

In 2013, Norm was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is a cancer of the plasma cells. He would only disclose his illness to his immediate family. He was prescribed dexamethasone, which caused him to gain weight. For Norm, faced with a cancer diagnosis and searching for comfort and solace, religion became a beacon of hope. He was trying to find some kind of meaning to life and a.

Comfort in the possibility that death may not be the end. You're trying to get some spirituality in your life. I'm trying to because all I, uh, the only real joy I get, uh, other than I love watching comedy, but, uh, anything deeper than that is, I read a lot of literature and stuff. I'm not, I'm not educated. Like, I never had any schooling and I don't read nonfiction much, but I read lots of literature. And, um, like who, uh, until story. Oh, yeah. But the, um, faith keeps coming up and you're like, these [ __ ] are smart. Yeah. I mean, you know, like I was, I was like, you know, uh, prior is this [ __ ] most deep profound guy. I haven't [ __ ] heard from my limited perspective. Now, all of a sudden, I'm reading books. I'm like, holy [ __ ] this guy knows everything. Like, yeah, I was reading Tolstoy. I was like, [ __ ] one word, one sentences guy. And so, but then I was like, why are all these guys, uh, it all comes down to faith, you know? It seems to every [ __ ] great novel I read, it seems like faith is the, the only, um, um, salvation. Yeah. So, but I don't know how to get it.

Away from the public norm would remain single for the remainder of his life. His nine-year marriage being his only serious relationship. I don't have a busy life. Oh, so then it's good to actually talk to a human. Yeah, that's the thing. I really have to try to focus on in my life is getting out outside of my apartment, talking to human beings. But you said you don't go out anywhere. No, I never. And you don't drink. Well, I don't drink, so I don't go to bars like that. You know, that cuts a lot of social, like that cuts almost all social life out. And then I don't like going to restaurants and eating for long periods of time. So, yeah, mostly I'm alone in my apartment.

No one would continue regularly performing stand-up throughout his treatment. It was his first love and the only thing he really enjoyed doing. Whilst at The Comedy Store in L.A., Norm would strike up a friendship with the manager, Adam Ingot. With the fair deciding to jump on the podcast bandwagon, 9/11. Hahaha. This way you never hear he made love to me in the ass. So a woman, hey, how about this one? They say pimping ain't easy, Andy, but what they won't tell you, it is much, much more difficult being a prostitute. The thing is pretty easy. Barbara Walters is planning to announce her retirement. What's next for Babs? Death. Well, how about this? College freshman Scott Damerow Larry said a new world record by using his head to bust 142 eggs and he now officially holds a place in the Guinness book of [ __ ] retards. Laughs. Jesus. Oh, come on. That's not a Chinese guy. I wasn't saying it was. Some gold-plated chains would make a nice retirement gift for a very, very good slave. It would run for 39 episodes before Netflix bought the format and changed her name to Norm Macdonald Has a Show in 2018.

At the end, we weren't getting along. Hitler had a chaplain and hearty mustache. Yeah, yeah. Excuse me. Oh, we're talking male authors obsessed with female bodies going on and on about webbed feet and soft insulated. I'm sorry, that's male otters. [Laughter] Stay well. Thank you again.

Norm was invited back to perform stand-up on David Letterman's last ever show. I remember Dave differently because the first time I saw him, I was 13 years old. I was living in, uh, I was living in Toronto, Canada, and I went to a talk show they had there, and David Letterman was the stand-up comedian on the show. And, uh, I loved stand-up. And David Letterman did this joke that I told everybody. This joke, I love this joke. It still, uh, stays with me. It was my favorite stand-up joke ever. So I'd like to do it for, if you'd like to hear it, because I, uh, I, I was on the street the other day and, uh, I, uh, I saw a garbage truck. And on the back of the garbage truck, there was a small sign that said, please do not follow too closely. Another of life's simple pleasures ruined by a meddling bureaucracy. Ladies and gentlemen, you remember the old days when when Dad had pile of kids in the station wagon and we'd all go out and follow a garbage truck? [Applause] So anyways, I'd just like to say, I know that, uh, Mr. Letterman has, uh, uh, not for the mockish and he has, uh, he has no truck for the sentimental, but if something is true, it is not sentimental. And I say in truth, I love you. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Very funny, Norm. And thank you. Thank you for everything. Thank you, Norm Macdonald, ladies and gentlemen. That was very sweet.

Norman Normandy went chemotherapy for his cancer, after which it went into remission. But in early 2020, it returned, turning into myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer that often develops into acute leukemia. When Norm got ill, his mother, being in her late 80s, would move into an apartment in the same complex as Norm so that she could look after him. Norm would regularly upload clips to Instagram of him and his mother being silly. And a bear appeared and I said I was gonna run away from the bear. She's sad, you can't run a outrun a bear. And I said, I can outrun you. Why did God make only one Yogi Bear? Because when you tried to make a second one. Hey, listen. So, uh, we're brought to you by collagen water. It's made to make you look younger. We're not going to test it out with my mother. I have a drink, mother.

When COVID hits and lockdown started in 2020, Norm would post videos on Instagram of interviews with friends in the industry called Quarantined. Many of Norm's friends now knew he was ill, but didn't know how to approach the subject. My good friend Josh. Oh, there you go. Hi, Jeff. I saw the folks that you're from, uh, from Maine. And, uh, so I was, uh, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing great. Couldn't feel better. You look terrible. Why? I feel great. I feel great. All right. Anyway.

Norm would also film his last comedy special titled Nothing Special from his living room. His venues were shut down due to the pandemic. With his health deteriorating, Norm went to the City of Hope Medical Center in July 2021. This is where he would remain for the rest of his life. And I'm pretty sure I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure if the cancer dies, I mean, if you die, the cancer also dies at exactly the same time. So that to me is not a loss, that's a draw. That's a Uncle Bert's wife, where is it? Fair and square. The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast. If you're not careful, it's too late. Of course, the young man will never understand this truth.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]