Name: Greatest Talk Show Guest of All Time
Uploaded: 2023-05-12T16:22:19.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Greatest Talk Show Guest of All Time' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-12. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Greatest Talk Show Guest of All Time' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-05-12. Transcript available.

Obviously a lot of entertaining celebrities, but Norm MacDonald used to come on
our show in the early days.
And those were, I thought, great television because we never knew what was
happening.
And it was always teetering on the edge of, it was all about to blow up.
It's all about to fail and it would always end brilliantly.
And then he, you know, he stopped coming around and it was just a period that
passed.
And I was always sad about that because I thought we're a very celebrity
conscious age and people always think that the best guests are the biggest
celebrities.
Sometimes, you know, the best guests are these people that you have a weird
connection with and it's compelling television.
People see and they talk to me about it later on.
Like I'll be out in the world walking around and people will say, I saw that
when, you know, when you were with Harland or when you were with Norm or with
Ron.
And if that really got, that got wild and crazy in a way that they don't see on
television now.
Have you, over the years, who are some of the people who have been your go-to
people that, I just remember Dave in his early years had Terry Garr and he had
Sandra Bernhard.
Yes.
And they were kind of magic together.
Who are your...
I had so many people, Norm MacDonald was this person who would come, you all
know Norm MacDonald, but Norm MacDonald, when we'd have him on in the early
days.
To this day, I've never interviewed anybody like Norm MacDonald.
Who was the best guest that you've ever interviewed and who was the worst?
I love Will Ferrell.
I also love Norm MacDonald because he comes on and his stories are all invented.
None of them are real.
They're all old farmer's daughter's jokes.
And he pretends they just, he'll come on.
I'll say, what's up, Norm?
He'll be like, ah, the other day I was walking down the road and a pirate comes
up.
I'm like, what?
Yeah.
A pirate comes along and he's got three pigs with him.
One of them is wearing a hat.
One's got a pipe.
And then it's just a complete waste of everybody's time that's absolutely
delightful and hilarious.
And so I love him.
Your favorite guests are always like the Bill Burr, Norm MacDonald, this might
go off the rails really fast type of guests.
Yeah.
I mean, Norm MacDonald, one of the great talk show guests of all time.
He invented something that, no, Norm MacDonald invented this amazing thing that
I've never seen anybody do before or since.
It's kind of like he split the atom.
It was that revolutionary.
Norm would come on and he would, instead of telling you a real story, like if I
had you on the show and you're like, hey, Bill, you know, tell me, well, you
know, and remember I was living in Chestnut Hill once and you would tell a real
story about what happened to you in your life.
Norm tells old jokes.
As stories that happened to him.
Yeah.
So I'd be like, Norm, what are you up to?
And I mean, really old jokes from like the 1920s.
And he'd be like, well, Conan, I don't know if you're aware that I purchased a
farm, Conan.
I'd be like, really?
You purchased a farm?
Yeah, yeah, I purchased a farm.
Of course, I have, of course, I have three daughters.
And I'm like, you have three daughters?
Yeah, I have three daughters on the farm.
One very attractive, one not as attractive.
And of course, the third, not, you know, kind of, well, she's ugly, Conan.
She's ugly.
And I'd be like, uh-huh.
Well, one day this traveling salesman comes to the farm and he says, now, Norm,
I'll tell
you, I tell you.
And then it's like, he's telling an old traveling salesman joke.
Yeah.
And it's, but you know, about halfway through where it's going.
No, I mean, I usually know, I know kind of what he's doing.
I'm laughing that he has the balls to do this.
I'm laughing at the audacity.
So I don't even care if this joke lands or not.
I'm laughing that he's committing to the fact that, you know, no, he doesn't
have a farm.
He doesn't have three daughters.
There's no traveling salesman.
And he doesn't care in a way that is exhilarating and scary at the same time.
Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
And plus he probably has some people in the audience who are taking completely
seriously,
right?
Yes.
Yeah.
He's got some people thinking-
We call them tourists.
Yes.
We call them, they're usually from San Bernardino.
Well, Norm had the greatest talk show moment in the history of talk shows with
Courtney Thorne
Smith.
That was epic.
That was so great.
And it's funny because-
It's lived on.
Who knew that we were going to have YouTube eventually where we could just queued
up on
command?
God bless YouTube.
I had no idea.
When those things were happening, I thought, we're talking 1993, 94.
When those things were happening, I thought, you know, what did I know?
I just thought if you were up and you saw it, that means you saw-
That was it.
You saw an amazing thing happen.
And if you, and then maybe if I get to stay on the air long enough, we'll have
a one-year
anniversary show and maybe you'll see it then.
But if you're not there for that, it's gone.
And now I meet people, I mean, that around the world that will say, oh, I just
saw that
thing with you and Norm and Courtney Thorne Smith.
And I'll think that was a moment of my life when I was 30.
Yeah.
And I'm like 85 now.
Like, how is that possible?
You are making a movie with Carrot Top, right?
I made a movie with Carrot Top.
Okay.
She left Melrose Place to do a movie with Carrot Top?
That's where I'm going, my friend.
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 would be?
What's that, Norm?
Box Office Poison.
I made it too.
She's in it.
What about my career?
Courtney Thorne Smith, the girl sitting to your left, is in the movie.
I'm going to go see it for 20.
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.
Oh.
All right.
Do something with that, you freak.
I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D.
I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D.
I bet the board is spelled B-O-R-E-D.