Name: Norm Macdonald on the Grill Room Podcast w/ Alan Bastable (2011)
Uploaded: 2020-02-04T20:15:01.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on the Grill Room Podcast w/ Alan Bastable (2011)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-02-04. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on the Grill Room Podcast w/ Alan Bastable (2011)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-02-04. Transcript available.

Hello, and welcome back to another edition of the Golf.com Grill Room podcast,
where each
week we take you inside the ropes of the game's biggest personalities.
I'm Alan Bastable, and my guest today is comedian and actor Norm MacDonald.
Norm is probably best known for his years on Saturday Night Live, where he
employed
his rye wit as an anchor on the Weekend Update news desk.
That experience, no doubt, prepared him well for his newest venture, the sports
show with
Norm MacDonald, which debuted earlier this month on Comedy Central.
Here's a quick clip from that debut episode that golf fans might appreciate.
A heart-stopping charge in the back nine at Augusta National on Sunday propelled
unknown
golfer Charles Schwurzel to win the Masters.
After the win, Charles Schwurzel said, Charles Schwurzel?
Who the hell is Charles Schwurzel?
Okay, so Norm joins us on the phone now.
Norm, I hope you're ready to talk a little golf.
Yeah, let's talk golf, Alan.
So the show, the sports show is obviously a platform that allows you to poke
fun at all
sports, but in that debut episode, golf landed in your crosshairs a few times,
which I was
a little surprised by.
How closely do you pay attention to the game?
I pay attention to all sports, but the Masters just happened two days earlier.
So that's why it's such an important story, and Tiger almost made, it was
looking like a historic
day as he crossed the bridge, Hogan's Bridge, but it wasn't to be.
Now, were you a little disappointed by that?
Are you disappointed when a guy like Charles Schwurzel wins the Masters?
Well, I'm very disappointed because I want the, like, I like watching the best.
And, you know, it's sad that he got knocked out because, you know, I don't know,
I don't
want to, I like other guys, but then they're not in it, you know?
The top guys, Tiger leaves, and then so does Lee Westwood, Mickelson, and
everybody else's
guy, you know, everybody leaves every time Tiger leaves.
So that's depressing, too.
Well, I guess when a guy like Mickelson or Lee Westwood wins, it's not as funny,
right?
Well, not as funny?
Yeah, as a guy like Charles Schwurzel winning the Masters.
Oh, yeah, but I'm not going for, I'd rather have Tiger win than a funny guy, a
guy with
a funny name.
The joke doesn't mean as much to me as the golf.
All right, I didn't realize you were such a hardcore fan.
No, no, I want to see, I want to see golf prosper because I've watched golf
ever since
I was a kid, and before a Tiger, like, no one understood it.
You try to explain it to a back man when it was just the middle-aged men
playing the world's
slowest sport.
Then when Tiger came along, at least he generated some interest, and now people
are back to not
caring again.
But he'll come back.
It's just a matter of time.
He'll win one major this year.
So you mentioned you watched growing up as a kid.
Did you start playing as a kid?
How much golf do you play?
I'm no good.
I've played all my life, but I suck.
But it doesn't stop me from, I've already issued a challenge to Dustin Johnson.
I guess I haven't.
I may as well do it now.
And what is that challenge?
He probably listens to your podcast.
You know, I don't know.
I did see he laid off his caddie today.
Oh, well, good then.
This is my challenge.
It'll even be a little harder without a caddie.
I'll play him one round of any course he likes, or any course I like, I guess.
And, no, any course he likes.
And I get one free throw every hole.
That's the only.
And I think I can beat him.
All right.
How do you characterize your game?
Are you a big hitter?
Are you a good putter?
What do you do well?
Anything?
I throw the ball once per round pretty good.
Now, who was the best stick going back to your Saturday Night Live days?
Who was the best guy on staff there?
With golf?
Yeah.
Was there any great golfer?
I don't know, man.
Maybe Farley was the best golfer.
No, David Spade was the best golfer, I guess.
If Farley was the best golfer, I think you guys have issues.
I know.
We'd be in trouble.
I know.
Will Ferrell plays.
Will Ferrell plays a bit, right?
I think he plays, yeah.
But I've never played with him, so I don't know.
Now, did you see this guy, Kevin Na, on the PGA Tour, who made a 16?
Yeah.
That was depressing.
Actually, we're covering it on the show, I think, tonight.
What did you take?
I don't know.
We haven't put it together yet.
But it was fun to see him come out and just be laughing with his buddy.
But it was so funny to see him so deep in the woods.
You'd never see anyone that deep.
It's crazy.
It was like helicopter footage of a crime scene or something.
Well, he remained in remarkably good spirits, I thought.
Yeah, he did.
He came out smiling.
It was good to see.
Does that make you feel better about your game when you see a tour pro go out
and take 16 shots on a hole?
Yeah, when I see it, it makes me feel better, for sure.
Because, you know, you almost never see, like, yeah, that's like, you know,
that's not – you always expect one of those in the car every round.
These guys get one in their life, and it's a surprise.
Now, you're known for your impressions.
Have you thought about any golfers that might be ripe for an impression?
Golfers that would be good to do an impression of?
Yeah.
You'd probably do Nicholas.
Yeah, you don't hear many of them talk, since only Tiger seems to ever have a
microphone in front of him.
Yeah, but he doesn't talk when he does have a microphone in front of him.
That's true.
That's the issue with him.
I can't think of – I mean, you know, I'd like to say I do a mean Duffy Waldorf,
but I don't.
Who introduced you to the game?
Did your dad play?
No, my dad didn't play.
We didn't have any money when I was young, so, you know, it was a rich man's
game now.
Now it's a poor man's game.
But back then, it was just rich people we never even thought we were allowed to
play.
And you grew up in Quebec City, right?
Yeah.
So, you're a Mike Weir fan?
Mike Weir?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, you know, I was born – like, we had the – this is the problem with
Quebec with sports.
If you want me to get serious.
Sure.
I'm sure you want me to get serious.
That's why we had you on.
Now, Mike Weir is great.
We had a player named George Knudson.
He was the best Canadian golfer.
And then – I guess Mike Weir was.
But then we had Mo Norman, who invented natural golf.
He's from Canada.
The eccentric, the bipolar Mo Norman.
Tell us about these Normcasts.
I understand you did one for the Masters.
I didn't get a chance to listen to it.
Oh, yeah.
I did a Normcast for the Masters.
The idea is that if you want to watch the Masters or any event that I'm
watching in Normcasting,
you can feel free to turn on the Ustream on the free computer and listen to me
watching the game along with you.
That's what I like to do.
And then I take tweet quests from the blogosphere.
So, yeah, you've got a pretty considerable following, like 200,000 or so?
All right, yeah.
For a latecomer.
That's pretty good.
Were you – on a Sunday afternoon, if you're flipping around, would you watch
a PGA Tour event or, you know, a rerun of one of your old movies?
Oh, no, I'd watch a PGA Tour event, no question about it.
I would – that's probably my favorite thing to do is watch a PGA Tour event.
You know, I like when courses are tough.
I don't like when, you know, the leader has 32 under or something.
But I'll watch most of them anyway.
I mean, does golf generally lend itself to satire?
I mean, more so than – I mean, I would think basketball or football, there's
plenty more jokes.
Oh, there's not many jokes in golf because – also, like, right now, it's
whatever the sport is defined by the personality.
And, obviously, there's only one personality right now.
Yeah.
You know, sometimes a guy will wear a different colored shirt, you know, and
try to be a colorful character.
But – or that guy, you know, that goes down for the putts, you know, Villegas.
It's not Villegas.
Right.
Yeah, Camila Villegas.
Yeah, Villegas.
Good.
That goes down for the putts.
So, at least he knows to do something colorful.
But they're mostly colorless characters right now.
Right.
Except for, I don't know, even Rory's kind of boring.
I don't know.
What did you make of his implosion at the Masters?
That was pretty tough to watch.
Yeah, that was pretty hard to watch.
But, you know, it looked like – yeah, everyone else was under par except him,
which was really bizarre.
But it was – it seemed like –
Everything was setting up for Tiger in the fall for McElroy.
And then they cast the cast of no-names all around him.
But we just have to wait another event.
Right now, all the four owners of the majors suck.
I mean, they don't suck.
That's not where I thought you were going with that.
I don't want them to be.
I don't want them to be, put it that way.
And a couple of years ago, like, every one was a disappointment.
Like, Kenny Perry was going to be the oldest guy to win.
And he got beat by Cabrera or somebody.
You know, Y.E. Yang beat Tiger and then Phil Mickelson and David Duvall were
two back and they didn't win.
And the fourth one, I can't remember, but it was also depressing.
Oh, and Watson.
Watson, Sink beat him out.
Yeah, all in the same year.
Like, four almost good stories.
But you do like, you like Tiger to rebound and get at least, at least one major
this year?
Yeah, because I think, like, it's been hard on him.
You sound like you almost take this personally.
No, well, I do because I've been watching the guy for 16 years, you know.
I'm the real victim in this.
I'm the forgotten victim.
The guy spent 16 years of his life watching the guy play golf just so that I
could see him lose because of some weird thing happening.
All right, give us, before we let you go, give us one bold or fearless
prediction for the rest of the golf season, a non-Tiger prediction.
Yeah, I almost had couples for the Masters and then it looked good for a couple
days.
That was my last bold prediction.
Yeah, couples, the problem with him, he only shows up at one major every year.
Yeah, I know, that's the big problem.
I'd say John Daly will win on the PGA Tour this year.
Wow.
And I'd say for a major, I'd pick, it's so boring when I don't talk for a long
time.
It's the beauty of the podcast, we can edit all this out.
Yeah, I'd pick, I'd pick L's, I think L's will win a major.
Those are my two shockers.
All right, well, we'll hold you to that and we'll check in with you.
We'll check in with you later in the year.
Hey, Norm, thanks a lot for your time.
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.
Good luck with the show.
Okay, thank you.
That was comedian Norm MacDonald, whose sports show with Norm MacDonald airs
Tuesday nights
at 1030 on Comedy Central.
That's a wrap for the Grill Room podcast.
Please come back and join us for another episode next week right here on Golf.com.
You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.
Simply visit iTunes and search for Golf.com Grill Room.
I'm Alan Bastival.
Thanks again for tuning in.