Name: Norm MacDonald Talked About Lorne Michaels and Getting the Weekend Update Job
Uploaded: 2023-01-11T13:00:38.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm MacDonald Talked About Lorne Michaels and Getting the Weekend Update Job' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-01-11. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Norm MacDonald Talked About Lorne Michaels and Getting the Weekend Update Job' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-01-11. Transcript available.

So what do 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, he 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 is 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.
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 quality.
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 got to 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
and 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 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 was sort of super cool compared to Wayne and
Schuster.
So he liked that I, that I remember, that he liked that I liked that.
And, 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.
So I knew my best hope was just to say I couldn't.
So you didn't do anything for, like, what did you do for the audition?
Nothing, nothing, I didn't do an audition.
And so what, can you, 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 day, 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 cold 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 no one was there forever, like, and finally people started, like, shambling
in at
four or five in the afternoon, and, you know, I was already finishing my day.
And 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 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, 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, uh, 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, Lauren 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, dude?
Burt Reynolds, uh, Phil Hartman.
It was Phil Hartman and Jen, Jen Hooks.
And, uh, just, uh, uh, the next week, Lauren, 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.
Uh-huh.
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.
Right.
Like, how much control did he actually have in terms of the actual shaping of
the show?
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, uh, when I did
Weekend
Update.
And when I talked about that, that's the only thing that Lorne didn't have any
control over.
Um, and did it, like, um, but at the same time, like, 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,
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, uh, 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 then 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 where it was
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, I, I, 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.
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, I went a little, I went a little crazy.
Because I had the freedom, you know.
And then 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.
Are you planning any tribute to Norm MacDonald?
And can you tell us about how much he's impacted you and the staff?
And everything, just his legacy.
I, I think he meant the world to the people there.
I can tell you from just the number of people I've heard from, the number of
people that have
gone and talked about Norm, all of us had, you know, when you work with
somebody for that
many years and, and they make you laugh and, and you're aware of who they are
as a person
and, and as a friend, I think Norm was one of the funniest people I've ever
known.
And because he's Canadian, I put him right there up in the top five.