Name: Norm Macdonald on his time on SNL - CBC radio (2015)
Uploaded: 2021-12-24T03:57:08.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on his time on SNL - CBC radio (2015)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on his time on SNL - CBC radio (2015)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-24. Transcript available.

Norm Macdonald on his time on SNL - CBC radio (2015)

So what we're doing is, because it's the 40th anniversary, we wanted to talk to
you about your experiences there and all that stuff.
So why don't you tell me about, actually let's start with something really
simple, like how did you get discovered for the show?
I was, the way I got discovered by Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live is I
was doing stand-up,
and so I knew Sandler and Spade from stand-up, and then they told their boss,
Lorne, about me, and he kind of takes people's words for stuff.
So then he called me, said, talk to me and stuff, and I said, yeah man, I'd
like to do that job.
And what was it, like, did you, were you sort of, I mean obviously it's
financially was great, it's a good platform,
but did you kind of buy, like were you into the myth of it, like did you love
it when you were younger?
Yes, I grew up on it, because I think I was, I think I was 13 when the first
show was on,
and I remember seeing the first show, because I think George Carlin was the
host, so I was, and it was,
like the only two new things I remember when I was young was Letterman and
Saturday Night Live,
that was different than all the rest of the TV, was all sort of old, for old
people, kind of corny.
And so, yeah, I wasn't, but I was just wanting to do stand-up, it wasn't like I
was aiming towards Saturday Night Live.
And even when Lorne, like, called me, he said, like, you gotta do two, write
two sketches, do two characters, and two impressions,
and then I said, I don't, I can't do any of that, you know.
So I think he just liked me, that I was stupid, and, you know, I was from
Canada, I talked to him about being in Canada,
I remember he had a show in Canada when I was a kid, the Hart and Lorne, Hart Pomerantz,
and he had, we had a comedy team,
that did a show when I was a little boy, and I remember that, because it was
sort of like the precursor to Saturday Night Live,
it was sort of super cool compared to Wayne and Schuster, so he liked that I,
that I remembered, that he liked that I liked that.
And then I think he just got a kick out of the fact that I, I knew if I did
anything in terms of trying to do a character,
or, I would be dead, because I knew my best hope was just to say I couldn't.
So you didn't do anything for your, like, what did you do for your audition?
Nothing, nothing, I didn't do an audition.
And so, can you describe, like, what was your first day like on the show, do
you remember your first day?
My first day on Saturday Night Live?
Yeah, like, working, not the first show, but the first day that you were there.
The first, oh, the first day?
Yeah.
Yeah, I showed up, this happens a lot on Saturday Night Live, I showed up the
first day and no one was there,
and I just sat on a couch.
Was it too cool or something?
Yeah, yeah.
What time did you show up?
Well, like, eight in the morning or something, I thought, like, that's when
jobs started, I didn't know.
So then, uh, no one was there forever, like, and finally people started, like,
shambling in at four or five in the afternoon,
and, uh, you know, I was already finishing my day.
And, uh, that's what I remember about the first day, just being all alone.
But it was cool, because I just went through everything, you know, rifled
through people's stuff,
and looked at old tapes, and went in Lauren's office, and had a shower.
There was a shower there?
Yeah, Lauren has a shower in his office.
I think only he and I have ever used it.
So, when, what was the first sketch that you ever got on, or what was the first
written material that you ever got on the show?
I wrote a sketch for the first show, uh, because Burt Reynolds had just, uh,
was on Larry King Live,
and was kind of famous at the time that, because he was in a contentious
divorce with Lonnie Anderson,
and he, uh, he was wearing this crazy purple suit on Larry King Live, and he
announced,
I will, you know, Lonnie Anderson is lying, and I will get her on this show
with you, Larry,
and we'll both take truth serum.
And I was like, truth serum? What? Is that even a real thing?
So, it was so funny.
And then, so, I wrote a sketch where they both drank, like, from beakers of
truth serum, you know?
And, uh, Lonnie did not care for it.
It opened the show, you know?
It was like a big, uh, hit at the table.
Uh, uh, what's his name? Did Burt Reynolds, uh, Phil Hartman.
Oh, wow.
It was Phil Hartman and Jen, Jen Hooks.
And, uh, it's just, uh, the next week, Lonnie, like, pointed it, pointed to it
as the example of what we should not be doing on the show.
He said it was just the, you know, he calls things Carol Burnett-ish, you know,
which is the ultimate insult.
He said it was just the most Carol Burnett-ish type of sketch.
But I didn't know what I was doing, I don't know.
And he let me do it, it got all the way to the air, he chose it, and he put it
on first, not my fault.
Um, do you think, like, it's weird, I think people have a weird sense of what,
because it's like, he's such a personality, I think people have a weird sense
of, like, how much control he has.
At the time when you were working there, like, what, because it's like, he didn't
like that sketch, and yet it still was first.
Like, how much control did he actually have in terms of the actual shaping of
the show?
He had absolute control.
He had absolute control over everything the entire time I was there, and the
entire time I ever remember him.
Except for one thing, I think in the history of the show, he didn't have
control over when I did Weekend Update.
Only thing that Lorne didn't have any control over.
And did it, like, um, but at the same time, it seems like the whole, the way
that the show's worked, or what has made it work at different times, is that he's
allowed different kinds of comedy to be on the show.
So it's not like, it's just going with his own taste, I guess, right?
He's amazing that way, yeah.
Like, he's told me, I don't get that guy, but, you know, and he allows comedy
that he even doesn't like.
To be on the show.
And I remember being mad at him, going, come on, Lorne, what is, what the fuck
are you doing?
Like, why is all this dancing and singing and shit?
It's supposed to be, this is a comedy show.
And then he told me, and he goes, no, it's not a comedy show.
This is a variety show.
I'm like, oh, I didn't even know.
That was a comedy show.
But he said, I think if you could sing or dance, you'd think differently.
And I was like, yeah, I guess he's right.
The show itself started with very, it started at, its beginnings were that it
was,
you were doing something very different on TV.
Did you feel a sense of, like, it had lost interest in pushing boundaries or
something
at the time you were there?
At the time, yes.
Because I would always write sketches that would be rejected out of hand, you
know.
And I would go, why?
Controversial.
And I was like, well, I thought that's what we did.
I thought that's what Saturday Night Live was, you know.
But I was kind of living in the past.
But then when we got update, I went a little, I went a little crazy.
Because I had the freedom, you know.
And I engineered it all so that I got downy, you know.
Because I knew if I had downy, I'd have a lot of power behind me.
But then he emailed me and said, I should ask you about Rodney Dangerfield when
he was
on the show and you had some experience with him.
Can you tell me that story?
Rodney came on the show to do update.
Like, sometimes Lauren would just go, oh, Rodney Dangerfield is here.
You know, and you go, we don't know, how do we use him, you know.
It would be hard to use him on update.
So then Jim had this idea, Jim Downey, where I would go, you know, he would go,
I tell you
I got no respect, you know, do a joke.
And then I go, that seems funny.
Rodney, you don't get any respect.
What about your kids?
And they must give you respect, you know.
You're doing good.
My kids, they don't give me respect.
They do a few more jokes, you know.
I go, that seems hard to be.
What about, certainly, like if you went to a bar, like a bartender would give
you respect,
right, you go, I tell you, dude, I go, like, this is atrocious, you know.
But anyway, he's right, and he's like, what the fuck?
He didn't understand any of that.
He's like, why, doesn't this motherfucker know?
I don't get no respect, you know.
So, anyway, that's when you get, well, yeah, you have to do the show at 8.30,
and then
the dress rehearsal, and then at 11.30, you know.
So, he had to get there real early, you know, and he said, Norm, I got to talk
to you.
He's like, why the fuck?
He goes, I know how to do my jokes.
Why can't I just leave and come back at midnight?
You know, I'm like, well, I don't know, Rodney, like, you have to do the dress
rehearsal, you
know, and they make us do the dress rehearsals.
He goes, I don't mind, yeah, he goes, I don't mind fucking acting a million
times.
I go, yeah, I know, I don't know.
So, then he goes, then he said, I tell you, we were all alone, you know, and
Rodney was
like my hero and stuff, and he goes, he goes, I tell you, kid, it's all waiting,
you know.
He goes, just fucking waiting, you see, you know.
He goes, you do TV, you just sit in a room, and you wait all the time, you know.
He goes, the same with movies.
You just sit in a trailer, and you wait the whole fucking time.
He goes, that's no life, you know.
He goes, oh, you know, all there is is stand-up.
He goes, oh, the rest of it's all shit, you know.
Movies are shit, TV is shit, you know.
He goes, always remember, kid, it's just stand-up.
So, it was very, like, moving and everything, and then he goes, he pauses, and
then he goes,
stand-up is shit, you know.
And so then, I was staring at him all alone in a room, you know, after he told
me
everything in the world is shit.
Well, that was Rodney, man.
The heaviness, that's what I would always say.
Oh, the heaviness, Norm, the heaviness, you know.
Oh, he would have been really old at that time.
Yeah, he, I guess the thing with Rodney is he didn't make it until he was, like,
50 or
something, so he didn't care for that, you know.
He didn't like all the other people getting the fruits of show business, which,
to him, were just drugs and women, you know.
He came from that era, where it was like, broads, I tell you, booze, you know.
So, he didn't like that he had to wait until he was older to get that.
So, okay, so you start working on Weekend Update, you and Downey.
Tell me about, what did, like, what did you learn about writing from that
experience?
Like, you and just, you guys, was it pretty much just the two of you at a
certain point?
Yeah, me and Dan, well, we decided, like, very early on, like, I was like, let's
just, because
I was like, I don't like jokes that, I don't like jokes that are clever, I was
telling him.
I said, I don't like, like, innuendos, like, are my least favorite types of
jokes.
I'd rather just say the thing, you know, and I was saying, like, you know, they
always make
innuendos so it'll be palatable, so old ladies can, like, snicker at it.
And I go, why not just say the thing outright, you know?
And he was like, oh, that's interesting, and then he knew this band, The Clash,
that he
really liked, he was like, like, you mean, he's like, you mean like The Clash?
I'm like, I don't know what that means, but, you know, like, just jokes, like,
stripped
down jokes.
So, then he played The Clash, and we go, oh, I understand, but yes, it's like
that, like,
like, I listen to Outlaw Country, so I understood it was the same kind of idea,
it was just strip
it down to its essence, use as little few words as possible, and then just be
preposterously
blunt about things, rather than, rather than clever in any way.
Our top story tonight, the nation is still reeling from Thursday's bombshell
announcement
that Lisa Marie Presley has filed for divorce from Michael Jackson.
According to Friends, the two were never a good match.
She's more of a stay-at-home type, and he's more of a homosexual pedophile.
So, we decided to do t