Name: Norm Macdonald on Studio Q (2015) CBC Full Interview
Uploaded: 2020-07-12T18:28:26.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on Studio Q (2015) CBC Full Interview' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-07-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on Studio Q (2015) CBC Full Interview' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-07-12. Transcript available.

Norm Macdonald on Studio Q (2015) CBC Full Interview

I am doing well.
So the question on everyone's mind is,
are you going to host this show?
Are you going to permanently host this show?
No, I won't, no.
I prefer you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
If, what did the LBJ say?
If elected, I will not, if, what is it?
If nominated, I will not run.
If elected, I will not serve.
I like Shad, man.
What about entertainment in Canada, period?
What about it?
Would you ever, do you want to work up here?
Do you hate working up here?
What do you think of the entertainment industry?
Well, when I was starting, I started a long time ago.
I'm an old man.
You know, 50.
Two score and 10, as Abraham Lincoln would say.
I'm, so, you know, let's face it.
I've seen more sunsets than I'm going to see.
But when I started out in stand-up,
there wasn't no Canadian TV, you know?
There wasn't nothing.
Or movies or nothing like that.
So we did our stand-up,
and then we would travel around,
and thanks to this very nice man named Mark Breslin,
who started Yuck Yucks,
we got a chance to do stand-up.
And, but there was nothing that we were going for.
There was only getting better at stand-up.
When I moved to Los Angeles, I started noticing,
the first thing I noticed was,
God damn, everybody's handsome.
Like, all the stand-ups were super handsome guys,
which is not the case here,
or it was not the case when I was here.
And so I was like, that's weird.
And then I realized they were only using stand-up
as a springboard to other things,
which I don't like.
I just like stand-up for its own sake.
Was it the performance side you liked first,
or the writing?
Writing, I liked just the writing.
Like, even later, like, I thought,
man, I should be doing something on stage,
because I would write the jokes,
and I would just stand like a statue on stage.
I move a little bit now,
but literally, first of all,
I'd be frozen with fear,
but also, it never occurred to me to,
if I was talking about rocking a baby,
to pretend to rock a baby with my hands.
I thought, I just said it.
So I could have really just put a bunch of papers
on a stool in front of everyone
and let them peruse it.
How did you get better at that?
I never got better.
I'm a little bit better at physicalizing my act,
a little bit,
but I'm still, it's still mostly words.
It's the imagination.
You know, the mind.
When I was young, we had radio,
and in many ways, it was better.
No, I'm just kidding.
But you know how they say that, old men?
They're like,
we would listen to the radio,
and it was better,
because your imagination is better
than your, you know,
especially hardcore pornography.
And you go, what?
You know, it's a weird thing, though, seriously.
Yeah.
They go like about,
so just speaking of pornography,
because nowadays it's so awful.
But in the old days,
in the old days,
all you had to see is a fleeting glimpse
of a lady's ankle,
and that would be enough.
But you think about that,
that's gross.
Like, that's,
a guy's at home,
doing gross stuff to himself,
thinking about a lady's ankle?
Damn, that's kind of odd, too.
So, do you think radio was better,
as far as the imagination?
Just generally speaking,
radio comedy,
which doesn't exist anymore.
But I was thinking of doing,
you know,
the radio podcast stuff.
I was thinking of doing
an old-timey radio thing,
because there are radio jokes
that can't be done on television.
I can't think of one.
But, you know,
it'd be like,
and it doesn't help any
that you're wearing
a, you know,
a pink chiffon,
something you don't see.
Yeah, yeah.
But it works after the joke
that you just heard,
you know,
informs the joke afterwards.
I don't know a lot of words,
Shad,
and I'm trying to fit them in properly.
Okay,
I want to stick on the topic of Canada
for a second,
since we have you here
on our public broadcaster.
Yeah.
You've said that,
as a young man,
going on the train across Canada
was one of your favorite things.
Yeah, I love that, yeah.
What was it about that
that you loved?
I'm going to do that again,
I think.
It was,
well, you see the country.
The train is the most beautiful,
you know,
all through literature,
the train has,
well, actually,
it symbolized death.
That's a very good one.
But when you go on a train
across Canada,
you start Moncton
and you go across.
Yeah.
The first couple days,
people are normal.
After that,
people go crazy,
start having sex with each other.
Not me,
but I saw it
and then a guy gave me a cookie.
I was only 16, right?
He gave you a cookie.
Is that like a signal?
Yeah,
like one of those cookies
that's laced with the drugs.
But I was only a kid.
I was only 15, 16.
So the guy sitting right beside me,
he's like,
hey,
you want one of these cookies?
I go,
no, man,
I don't want no cookie.
He's like,
these are good cookies.
I'm like,
I don't care,
I don't want no cookie.
He's like,
I'm telling you,
this is a good cookie.
I'm like,
enough with the cookies.
So anyways,
whatever.
The guy finally stopped yapping
about his cookies,
you know?
And then I woke up like a day later,
whatever,
and nobody was around
and I was hungry
and there was the bag of cookies.
I ate the whole bag.
Oh, no.
Yeah,
it didn't turn out well.
And then I remember
there was a little elderly black gentleman
that was a porter
who I said really filthy things to,
like almost like I was coming on to him.
As a teenager?
Yeah.
Because of the cookies?
Because of the cookies,
I figured I'd have my sexual awakening
with a 78-year-old man.
But you went back onto the train, though.
Yeah,
I've been on the train
three or four times.
So that didn't scare you off?
No.
The train across the county,
if anybody has a chance to do it,
is the most beautiful experience.
You know,
you go through Kickin' Horse Pass and stuff
and you go in the bar car
and you meet strangers
and you look out the window,
you know,
and there's a lady putting up her,
you know,
her wash on her line
with her clothespins.
It's very romantic, right?
You imagine your life
in any of these little cities
and what it would maybe look like.
Yeah.
And she,
the lady with the clothespins,
imagines your life.
Yeah.
And you brought up Moncton,
that's where the train line starts.
Yes, sir.
And you tweeted
a really great story
about your friend Phil.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
In Moncton.
Could you tell us about that?
Oh, well,
there was some unpleasantness
in Moncton
a year ago or so.
The shooting.
The shooting, yeah.
Which is something
that happens in our times.
That didn't happen
when I was a boy.
But, yeah,
I knew an old man there
who,
who my friend Shaggy,
that wasn't his real name,
but he sounded like
the dude from Scooby-Doo.
And so we all laughed
about that
because we did
Count Chocula
and smoked marijuana.
And so he said,
I was going to Moncton,
I just started taking the train
and I said,
I guess I'll work.
He said,
oh, yeah,
my old man's there,
you know,
Phil.
And so anyways,
when this unpleasantness
happened in Moncton,
it was the,
it was the,
it was the,
the Kings
were in the finals,
you know,
Los Angeles.
And I was there
and I had a ticket.
And instead of going
to the game,
my phone,
Phil talked to him
and he was like
barricaded in his basement.
And it was kind of cool.
Like I was talking to him
and then he was halfway through,
he was like,
ah,
screw this man.
I'm going to go upstairs.
Kept talking about his 50,
he had a big 50 inch TV.
He was going to watch it.
And then he reminded me
of all this stuff
that I was there.
And then the coolest one thing
was he reminded me
that he had taken me
to a game
where Daryl Sutter
had played in the game.
Like a junior hockey game
in Moncton?
Yeah,
so it was really,
really cool.
It was amazing.
Yeah, it was amazing.
You tweeted that story.
You also tweeted
a really touching story
about Robin Williams.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What is it with Twitter
and the short stories?
You seem to like that for me.
You express yourself well in it.
People like it.
What is it about Twitter
and short stories for you?
Well, because I didn't know
what Twitter was for
really much.
People told me,
you got to get Twitter.
And I was like,
no, people just say
that, you know,
I'm eating a hamburger.
Stuff like that.
That's what I thought it was.
Yeah.
Which it kind of is.
A lot of it is, yeah.
And so then I went on
and I told some jokes
and then my fans would go,
that one sucks.
They're supposed to be your fans,
you know.
They just abuse you constantly.
So, but then I would sometimes
have memories of people.
It was, you know,
people pass or something
and I'd have a memory
and no one to tell it to.
And so it would just be late at night
and sort of,
it's not really meant to,
as anything that would ever
be published or anything.
It was just a way of me telling
the people that followed me
on Twitter that I knew Robin Williams
and I met Robin Williams once
and he was very sweet to me.
And so I just, you know.
Do you think people are getting
a different side of you
through those sorts of tweets
and short stories?
Yeah, maybe.
Like, you know,
people are always thinking,
you know,
that you're,
that there's only one side to you
when, you know,
the performing side of a person
obviously is the smallest side
of their facets, you know.
but, yeah,
maybe they get a little bit of,
but that's not really why I do it.
I just do it
because it's late at night
and I'm alone
and I don't drink or smoke
or do drugs
or be promiscuous or anything.
So I just kind of reflect a lot.
Well, another thing
people got a sense of you
from Twitter
is when you defended
Alice Munro.
Oh, yeah.
A little attack
from Brett Eden Ellis.
Yes, yes.
Well, there's this guy,
Brett Easton Ellis.
Well, I don't really follow
modern,
I don't think you'd call that
literature,
graffiti,
whatever it is he does.
So he had written
something against Alice Munro
and then I gave him
the benefit of the doubt.
I read one of his
quote-unquote books.
Which one?
American Psycho?
American Psycho.
Yeah.
That was the famous one.
And people had told me
it was good,
but whatever.
So then I was like,
how dare this guy,
you know,
to say something
about something
he doesn't understand.
You know what I mean?
It's one thing.
You can be a bad writer,
but at least read.
You know,
at least you learn to read
if you're going to be
a writer,
for God's sakes.
Well, people probably
didn't know about
your interest in literature,
your analysis.
No, people don't know that.
I like writing a great deal,
you know?
Yeah.
It doesn't matter
to me the source,
but the greatest writers
are novelists.
Yeah.
But then I would put,
I don't know,
maybe singer-songwriters,
I'd put way,
way up there.
Ahead of comedians.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Why?
Well, because I don't think
of comedy really as an art.
Like, I think of other things.
I think of comedy
as more of a craft,
you know?
It can reach certain levels,
but only certain levels.
Because comedy requires laughter,
and as soon as you require something,
of an audience,
you're in trouble,
you know?
That's interesting,
because to me,
comedy is the highest art.
Really?
Because it's the most
kind of simple and precise,
and it holds the most things together.
Like, in one joke,
or one sort of comedic phrase
or story,
you can represent so many things,
and it's,
laughter is kind of the thing
that brings the most people together.
I think even more than music people
like laughter.
Uh-huh.
So I think it's kind of the highest...
What did you just say, though?
That it holds what?
It holds so many things together.
You know,
somebody can tell a joke
that is true,
that is funny,
that is sad,
kind of all at the same time,
and it can be as short
as one line.
So to me,
it's actually kind of the highest art.
No, I mean,
as far as writing goes,
like, to me,
the shorter the better.
Like, uh,
like if you take comedy,
writing like a movie
would be the worst to me,
and then a TV show,
and then a sketch,
I mean,
in terms of hardness,
and then a joke
would be the hardest,
and this shortest joke,
you know,
like, uh,
there's a famous joke
by Henny Youngman,
take my wife, please.
So that's four-word joke,
you know?
Three-word set up
an