Name: Norm Macdonald on Kevin McPeek's Bigger Vidcast (2012)
Uploaded: 2019-07-29T00:21:44.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on Kevin McPeek's Bigger Vidcast (2012)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-07-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm Macdonald on Kevin McPeek's Bigger Vidcast (2012)' from Happy the Dog on Comedy Buff. Published 2019-07-29. Transcript available.

We're sitting here with Norm and Donald at Kevin and Pete's Bigger vidcast and
we are backstage at Mark Woodley's Comedy Castle, worked 4 shows with Norm,
absolutely hilarious.
It was fun man, yeah you were awesome Kev.
I appreciate that and obviously legendary comedian and I'm going to ask you
some of the stuff that I always ask every time, you know what I mean, when you
were coming up like who did you listen to like as far as comedians, who do you
remember watching and listening when you were younger?
Oh when I was young, growing up, when I was young growing up my dad always
listened to Bill Cosby and it was funny because he was not a tolerant man of
other races.
As a matter of fact I later told Bill Cosby that and it made him happy because
it seemed like even though my dad was not a tolerant man of races, he loved
Bill Cosby more than anybody so we always listened to him when I was a little
kid and that was the first, by far the first before anyone else.
Okay and then when you got into the 70s and then it was like when I was a
teenager we all listened to Carlin, George Carlin and you know, Richard Pryor.
Richard Pryor.
Not Richard Pryor, no, I mean I don't know why but it was George Carlin and it
was Cheech and Chong.
Oh man.
Were kind of like the underground guys.
I think maybe Richard Pryor was too sophisticated for me or something where I
just for some reason I didn't, I don't know why I missed him because I listened
to everybody else.
Right.
I don't know why I missed him.
Huh.
Maybe, maybe he had, maybe he was a little later or something.
No, that wouldn't be it.
But anyways, I love, obviously I love Richard Pryor the best of anybody.
Right.
I don't know why he committed my consciousness.
Apparently.
Hmm.
But when I saw Richard Pryor I was like, oh my God.
That's how you do it.
Yeah, that guy, that's like, that's like crazy.
That's like when you read books and then all of a sudden you read, you know, a
Leo Tolstoy or something.
You're like, oh, that's different, you know.
Right.
You know what I loved about Pryor was he would always animate like these inanimate
objects in the stories.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love it.
Like my heart would say or the cows or the car said.
And the smell and all that.
Right.
Right.
That's amazing.
It's like you, you sort of like, wow, his heart has a point of view in the
story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like it's a heart attack or shooting the car.
Right.
And the lion, the tiger making the move and stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, the heart.
And then God would put him down.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And his heart would say .
Yeah, yeah.
And then shooting the car.
And the car was like, oh, man, you know.
And I remember.
And his acting was so amazing in those films because it was so small.
You know what I mean?
Like it wasn't big.
Like Carlin's was big.
Right.
Like Carlin did that big, overblown acting.
And Pryor did like real small stuff.
Right, right.
And Carlin played, or Richard Pryor, he would do every character in the story.
Yeah, that's right.
Like he went around.
Right.
You know?
So here he is walking.
Then the dog's like, I'm gonna fuck you.
That's right.
And then he's playing his heart.
And then he's playing, you know.
That's right.
You're right.
It's like you're going, wow.
He just, he brings, he steps into every role.
Yes.
And tells the story.
And you're like, man, that was.
It seemed he had every, everything in the arsenal.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's, yeah.
And you know, I think we talked about it earlier.
Like Flip Wilson was big in my life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he was like that.
Where he would be, you know, so the devil said, and then he'd do the voice.
That's right.
And then he, and Geraldine said, he'd do that Geraldine voice.
And you know, he played every character.
And, you know, I don't know that I would ever have the guts to try something
like that.
Where you do every character in the story.
Oh my God.
I am so unphysical.
You know what I mean?
Like, like, I remember like, I watched Brian Regan and I go, man, I wish I
could move.
And, and make my jokes come more alive like that.
Well, but you know what you, you do, you do something more, like you do a
visual painting.
I guess with words a little bit.
Like when I listen to you talk, you picture it in your head.
You watch the little movie of what you're talking about in your head.
Yeah.
There are comments where I'm like, okay, I understand what you're saying and
that's funny.
But I know, I don't picture it or I don't live it, you know.
Yeah.
But like when you talk.
Oh, that's nice.
And I've worked with you the last couple of days.
I think I talked about the story.
It's hard not to talk like you.
I find myself going, so I want to, you know, do a little interview there.
But yeah, you know, and that's what I feel like I want to talk like.
Yeah, the funny thing is I don't realize I have an odd voice until people do
impressions.
That was the worst impression ever.
I always think it doesn't sound like me, but then when I hear a tape recording
of myself,
I realize that it does.
Yeah.
Well, you've, I mean, obviously you've had a great career.
As far as, you know, doing the things you want to do, it seems like.
It seems like you've been able to do this.
I was wanting to do it.
The only thing I ever wanted to do is stand up.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So everything else was just sort of came along with it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just like, you know, Mitch Hedberg used to have a great joke about Cameroy and
Wynn,
but like.
Right.
You're writing the script?
Yeah.
You can rewrite it.
I'll just send you a copy.
No, but he said like they make stand ups like be actors and stuff.
Yeah.
And then you go, you don't do that to, you know, if you're a good fisherman,
you're a good
fisherman.
Can you farm?
You know, whatever.
Something like that.
But that seems to me what they do in LA a lot.
Especially with acting, because stand ups aren't really.
In perspective.
Yeah.
They're not irrespective at all.
And, and they're not really fitted to be actors that much.
You know what I mean?
As much as like the grambling guys and stuff like that, that know how to talk
to each other.
Right.
Like stand ups are very specific thing.
And so, so even though things came my way from stand ups, sometimes I wish that
I'd only
done stand up here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because that's what I wanted to do from the start.
Yeah.
Because it was always stand ups.
So was it like an agent or a manager that got you, that kind of pushed you into
the damn
stuff?
Yeah.
Well, they offered me Saturday Night Live.
And I felt I couldn't turn it down because I, the guy told me, you know, you
can write
on Saturday Night Live and then, and then maybe get update.
You know?
And I wanted to do update because I knew I could do that as a stand up.
Because Dennis Miller had already done it as a stand up.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's really funny.
He's a great guy.
And so, so I did that, but it's strange like, cause I, I always kept doing
stand up.
I love stand up, but then people, I realized come back that when I do stand up,
people expect
things from you because they know you from, I always think they know me as a
stand up, but
no one knows me as a stand up, but no one knows, really knows me as a stand up.
Oh wow.
So they know you from all these other things.
People that know stand up know you as a stand up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like the general public.
But the general public would go.
Do Burt Reynolds.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So they say do Burt Reynolds.
You know, I don't do impressions or, or, you know, I did weekend updates.
So they think maybe I'm political, but I'm not political.
So sometimes, you know, it's, and I'm a little, you know what I mean?
You do, I've done so many things.
So it's like Dr. Doolittle and then I'm doing some real dirty joke.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Right.
But, you know, I like comedy clubs because you can do anything and you can be
your own
man and, you know, no collaboration.
And, you know, I mean, except with other comics going over.
Right.
And jokes and laughing at each other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I do miss is like the, like anytime I find myself working like more
casinos or
like more corporate stuff, I miss having other comics around.
Yeah, it's definitely.
You know, like when you gotta, when you're in a corporate situation and you go
up in front
of all these people and you're the only one there who's like, who really knows
how to
be funny.
You almost feel like you've been thrown to the wolves, you know what I mean?
But when you're in a comedy club and even if like, you know, I take a week
hosting,
you know, like a club like Mark's, I love to come in and host and just have fun
and work
on new stuff.
Yeah.
And I worked on three new jokes this week.
Yeah, that's awesome.
You know, it was so much fun.
But I miss the camaraderie of just sitting down, you know.
It's interesting when you say hosting, you know, because people are all on the
headliner.
But I was talking to Cosby, one time I met him, I opened for him and he was
telling me when
he was in New York, he was the biggest comic.
And he would, the MCs were the lowest comics.
And he says he always would say, I'll MC.
And his idea was he'd MC, you know, for 15 comics or whatever.
And in between, he'd do five minutes each.
And he'd just always try out stuff.
No pressure.
And he said that's where he came up with this, you know, this flowing ability
of his to tell,
to story tell because he did it with no pressure between acts instead of being
the final guy
with all the pressure on him.
Right.
And it's funny because this week, I mean, bless their little hearts, I've had
more people
come up and go, you know, for an MC, you're really funny.
Usually the first guy's not that funny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the other great thing.
And I feel bad because I feel like, you know, those people are starting out and
they should
be in the cradle.
Right.
Like let, you know, a veteran open the show.
Yes, I agree.
And then let's bring a new guy up and let him do his little thing.
We'll, you know, nurture him a little and then we'll bring out someone else and
take the
show home.
Actually, when I started, where I started, I started in Canada and that's what
they did.
The MCs were all very experienced.
Right.
Which makes complete sense.
Yeah, it kicks the show off.
Because you're in Ward, yeah, that's the first guy you see.
And, you know, if he's only done standup for two months, he could go off the
rails easily.
Right.
So, and it's, I've been an MC, it's fun.
Like you're the guy, you're their buddy and stuff.
You know, it's funny, I've always said like, rather than a standup comedy class,
they should
teach, like I would love to teach an MC class.
Oh, that's great.
Like take all the MCs from the town and go, you know, for 20 bucks, come in on
Saturday
and for two hours, I'll show you how to MC.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
How to do it right.
That's great.
And you will become a better comic, the better MC you become.
Oh, for sure.
And people go, I can't wait till I'm not an MC.
And I'm like, well, Billy Crystal just MCed the Grammys.
Yeah, that's right.
Exactly.
Or the Oscars or whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
So, you know, you're going to climb the ladder to become an MC.
David Letterman hosts his show.
Yeah, he MCs pretty well.
Right.
He comes out, he's the first person, he does his monologue, then he brings out.
I said, you're going to climb the ladder to become an MC.
That's a great point.
So, learn these skills because they're going to serve you later, hopefully, you
know.
That is a great point.
If you have a good career.
That is a great point.
If you weren't doing this, what do you think you would like to do or what do
you think you
would be doing?
Well, I didn't get into standup right away.
So, I was like about six years after I left high school.
I was doing manual labor, which I would probably still be doing.
Yeah.
And I liked it a lot.
I liked it a lot because I think I liked like the aloneness of it and the,
and, like, because I was always the lowest guy and just, you know, doing jackhammer.
Big bohold.
Yeah, you kind of, your mind just goes away.
You just think, you just have fun thinking daydreaming all day.
Right, right.
Which I think is.
Which I was a standup talent.
I didn't know there was such a thing.
That was a funny thing when I started out.
I, you know, because I'd see them on this night show, but I thought there was
only maybe
eight or ten in the whole world.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
That's true.
I never thought of it.
I never thought of it.
And then I just got lucky enough to walk into a club.
And I was like, oh my God.
There's a whole world.
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always tell people, because I can never do it.
I don't want to do it.
I go, just do it.
It doesn't matter.
Like, even if you're no good.
Like, I would, because I remember on amateur night, that's way more thrilling
than like tonight.
Like, I remember the first times I did it, that was a crazy thrill.
Right, right.
But it was amazing and stuff.
Yeah.
When you can barely remember being up there.
Yeah.
Like, you remember walking down and you're like, what happened in the middle?
Yeah.
But it's so, so cool.
You know what I find so funny is when you look back at old tapes.
You have old tapes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
You know what's killer to me?
Is like, I watched an old tape and I was amazed at how ambitious I was as a
young community.
Like, six months in, I was doing these really complicated, you know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm like, what in the world made me think I could pull that off?
Oh, yeah.
You know?
I mean, now I almost go, I could actually make that funny now.
Right, right, right, right.
Maybe that's where the gold mining material is.
Yeah.
And the old tape.
I also think, like, when I see the old tapes, I can't believe how badly I'm
doing and how
I thought I was doing well.
Like, I think you have a tin ear or something to lose.
You know what I mean?
And maybe six people are laughing.
That's enough for you.
So you're like, hey, I'm getting some laughs.
I need someone laugh.
Yeah.
Whereas nowadays, we'd be fucking, oh my God, six people are laughing.
You know, this is horrible.
It's weird.
And you know what's funny is, it's not just, when you find out too, it's not
just you.
Like, I've, I've, you know, you've been closing a club where some, where like,
some feed track
comes off.
And you almost feel bad for them that they did so poorly.
And they come up and go, boy, they were great, huh?
No, that's bad.
And you feel like, I would hate myself if I had that set you just had.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
These people are, you know.
You can't be too diluted.
You know what I mean?
You can't be diluted after the latest.
Yeah.
At some point you have to.
Well, Norm, I really appreciate you sitting down with me.
Oh, it was awesome.
It was an absolute pleasure.
It was a great week, man.
It was a great week.
It was so fun.
It was so fun.
It was so fun.
Thank you.
Thanks again.
Thank you.

Norm Macdonald on Kevin McPeek's Bigger Vidcast (2012)

We're sitting here with Norm and Donald at Kevin and Pete's Bigger vidcast and
we are backstage at Mark Woodley's Comedy Castle, worked 4 shows with Norm,
absolutely hilarious.
It was fun man, yeah you were awesome Kev.
I appreciate that and obviously legendary comedian and I'm going to ask you
some of the stuff that I always ask every time, you know what I mean, when you
were coming up like who did you listen to like as far as comedians, who do you
remember watching and listening when you were younger?
Oh when I was young, growing up, when I was young growing up my dad always
listened to Bill Cosby and it was funny because he was not a tolerant man of
other races.
As a matter of fact I later told Bill Cosby that and it made him happy because
it seemed like even though my dad was not a tolerant man of races, he loved
Bill Cosby more than anybody so we always listened to him when I was a little
kid and that was the first, by far the first before anyone else.
Okay and then when you got into the 70s and then it was like when I was a
teenager we all listened to Carlin, George Carlin and you know, Richard Pryor.
Richard Pryor.
Not Richard Pryor, no, I mean I don't know why but it was George Carlin and it
was Cheech and Chong.
Oh man.
Were kind of like the underground guys.
I think maybe Richard Pryor was too sophisticated for me or something where I
just for some reason I didn't, I don't know why I missed him because I listened
to everybody else.
Right.
I don't know why I missed him.
Huh.
Maybe, maybe he had, maybe he was a little later or something.
No, that wouldn't be it.
But anyways, I love, obviously I love Richard Pryor the best of anybody.
Right.
I don't know why he committed my consciousness.
Apparently.
Hmm.
But when I saw Richard Pryor I was like, oh my God.
That's how you do it.
Yeah, that guy, that's like, that's like crazy.
That's like when you read books and then all of a sudden you read, you know, a
Leo Tolstoy or something.
You're like, oh, that's different, you know.
Right.
You know what I loved about Pryor was he would always animate like these inanimate
objects in the stories.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
I love it.
Like my heart would say or the cows or the car said.
And the smell and all that.
Right.
Right.
That's amazing.
It's like you, you sort of like, wow, his heart has a point of view in the
story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like it's a heart attack or shooting the car.
Right.
And the lion, the tiger making the move and stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, the heart.
And then God would put him down.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And his heart would say .
Yeah, yeah.
And then shooting the car.
And the car was like, oh, man, you know.
And I remember.
And his acting was so amazing in those films because it was so small.
You know what I mean?
Like it wasn't big.
Like Carlin's was big.
Right.
Like Carlin did that big, overblown acting.
And Pryor did like real small stuff.
Right, right.
And Carlin played, or Richard Pryor, he would do every character in the story.
Yeah, that's right.
Like he went around.
Right.
You know?
So here he is walking.
Then the dog's like, I'm gonna fuck you.
That's right.
And then he's playing his heart.
And then he's playing, you know.
That's right.
You're right.
It's like you're going, wow.
He just, he brings, he steps into every role.
Yes.
And tells the story.
And you're like, man, that was.
It seemed he had every, everything in the arsenal.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's, yeah.
And you know, I think we talked about it earlier.
Like Flip Wilson was big in my life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he was like that.
Where he would be, you know, so the devil said, and then he'd do the voice.
That's right.
And then he, and Geraldine said, he'd do that Geraldine voice.
And you know, he played every character.
And, you know, I don't know that I would ever have the guts to try something
like that.
Where you do every character in the story.
Oh my God.
I am so unphysical.
You know what I mean?
Like, like, I remember like, I watched Brian Regan and I go, man, I wish I
could move.
And, and make my jokes come more alive like that.
Well, but you know what you, you do, you do something more, like you do a
visual painting.
I guess with words a little bit.
Like when I listen to you talk, you picture it in your head.
You watch the little movie of what you're talking about in your head.
Yeah.
There are comments where I'm like, okay, I understand what you're saying and
that's funny.
But I know, I don't picture it or I don't live it, you know.
Yeah.
But like when you talk.
Oh, that's nice.
And I've worked with you the last couple of days.
I think I talked about the story.
It's hard not to talk like you.
I find myself going, so I want to, you know, do a little interview there.
But yeah, you know, and that's what I feel like I want to talk like.
Yeah, the funny thing is I don't realize I have an odd voice until people do
impressions.
That was the worst impression ever.
I always think it doesn't sound like me, but then when I hear a tape recording
of myself,
I realize that it does.
Yeah.
Well, you've, I mean, obviously you've had a great career.
As far as, you know, doing the things you want to do, it seems like.
It seems like you've been able to do this.
I was wanting to do it.
The only thing I ever wanted to do is stand up.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So everything else was just sort of came along with it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Just like, you know, Mitch Hedberg used to have a great joke about Cameroy and
Wynn,
but like.
Right.
You're writing the script?
Yeah.
You can rewrite it.
I'll just send you a copy.
No, but he said like they make stand ups like be actors and stuff.
Yeah.
And then you go, you don't do that to, you know, if you're a good fisherman,
you're a good
fisherman.
Can you farm?
You know, whatever.
Something like that.
But that seems to me what they do in LA a lot.
Especially with acting, because stand ups aren't really.
In perspective.
Yeah.
They're not irrespective at all.
And, and they're not really fitted to be actors that much.
You know what I mean?
As much as like the grambling guys and stuff like that, that know how to talk
to each other.
Right.
Like stand ups are very specific thing.
And so, so even though things came my way from stand ups, sometimes I wish that
I'd only
done stand up here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because that's what I wanted to do from the start.
Yeah.
Because it was always stand ups.
So was it like an agent or a manager that got you, that kind of pushed you into
the damn
stuff?
Yeah.
Well, they offered me Saturday Night Live.
And I felt I couldn't turn it down because I, the guy told me, you know, you
can write
on Saturday Night Live and then, and then maybe get update.
You know?
And I wanted to do update because I knew I could do that as a stand up.
Because Dennis Miller had already done it as a stand up.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's really funny.
He's a great guy.
And so, so I did that, but it's strange like, cause I, I always kept doing
stand up.
I love stand up, but then people, I realized come back that when I do stand up,
people expect
things from you because they know you from, I always think they know me as a
stand up, but
no one knows me as a stand up, but no one knows, really knows me as a stand up.
Oh wow.
So they know you from all these other things.
People that know stand up know you as a stand up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like the general public.
But the general public would go.
Do Burt Reynolds.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So they say do Burt Reynolds.
You know, I don't do impressions or, or, you know, I did weekend updates.
So they think maybe I'm political, but I'm not political.
So sometimes, you know, it's, and I'm a little, you know what I mean?
You do, I've done so many things.
So it's like Dr. Doolittle and then I'm doing some real dirty joke.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Right.
But, you know, I like comedy clubs because you can do anything and you can be
your own
man and, you know, no collaboration.
And, you know, I mean, except with other comics going over.
Right.
And jokes and laughing at each other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I do miss is like the, like anytime I find myself working like more
casinos or
like more corporate stuff, I miss having other comics around.
Yeah, it's definitely.
You know, like when you gotta, when you're in a corporate situation and you go
up in front
of all these people and you're the only one there who's like, who really knows
how to
be funny.
You almost feel like you've been thrown to the wolves, you know what I mean?
But when you're in a comedy club and even if like, you know, I take a week
hosting,
you know, like a club like Mark's, I love to come in and host and just have fun
and work
on new stuff.
Yeah.
And I worked on three new jokes this week.
Yeah, that's awesome.
You know, it was so much fun.
But I miss the camaraderie of just sitting down, you know.
It's interesting when you say hosting, you know, because people are all on the
headliner.
But I was talking to Cosby, one time I met him, I opened for him and he was
telling me when
he was in New York, he was the biggest comic.
And he would, the MCs were the lowest comics.
And he says he always would say, I'll MC.
And his idea was he'd MC, you know, for 15 comics or whatever.
And in between, he'd do five minutes each.
And he'd just always try out stuff.
No pressure.
And he said that's where he came up with this, you know, this flowing ability
of his to tell,
to story tell because he did it with no pressure between acts instead of being
the final guy
with all the pressure on him.
Right.
And it's funny because this week, I mean, bless their little hearts, I've had
more people
come up and go, you know, for an MC, you're really funny.
Usually the first guy's not that funny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's the other great thing.
And I feel bad because I feel like, you know, those people are starting out and
they should
be in the cradle.
Right.
Like let, you know, a veteran open the show.
Yes, I agree.
And then let's bring a new guy up and let him do his little thing.
We'll, you know, nurture him a little and then we'll bring out someone else and
take the
show home.
Actually, when I started, where I started, I started in Canada and that's what
they did.
The MCs were all very experienced.
Right.
Which makes complete sense.
Yeah, it kicks the show off.
Because you're in Ward, yeah, that's the first guy you see.
And, you know, if he's only done standup for two months, he could go off the
rails easily.
Right.
So, and it's, I've been an MC, it's fun.
Like you're the guy, you're their buddy and stuff.
You know, it's funny, I've always said like, rather than a standup comedy class,
they should
teach, like I would love to teach an MC class.
Oh, that's great.
Like take all the MCs from the town and go, you know, for 20 bucks, come in on
Saturday
and for two hours, I'll show you how to MC.
Yeah, yeah, that's great.
How to do it right.
That's great.
And you will become a better comic, the better MC you become.
Oh, for sure.
And people go, I can't wait till I'm not an MC.
And I'm like, well, Billy Crystal just MCed the Grammys.
Yeah, that's right.
Exactly.
Or the Oscars or whatever.
Yeah, exactly.
So, you know, you're going to climb the ladder to become an MC.
David Letterman hosts his show.
Yeah, he MCs pretty well.
Right.
He comes out, he's the first person, he does his monologue, then he brings out.
I said, you're going to climb the ladder to become an MC.
That's a great point.
So, learn these skills because they're going to serve you later, hopefully, you
know.
That is a great point.
If you have a good career.
That is a great point.
If you weren't doing this, what do you think you would like to do or what do
you think you
would be doing?
Well, I didn't get into standup right away.
So, I was like about six years after I left high school.
I was doing manual labor, which I would probably still be doing.
Yeah.
And I liked it a lot.
I liked it a lot because I think I liked like the aloneness of it and the,
and, like, because I was always the 