Name: Courtney Thorne Smith on Norm Macdonald's Chairman of the B-O-R-E-D
Uploaded: 2021-12-11T07:30:53.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Courtney Thorne Smith on Norm Macdonald's Chairman of the B-O-R-E-D' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-11. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Courtney Thorne Smith on Norm Macdonald's Chairman of the B-O-R-E-D' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-12-11. Transcript available.

We're talking to Courtney Thorne-Smith, who recently came into the news because
of her 1997 appearance on Conan alongside the late, great Norm Macdonald.
People resurfaced that clip and the way that everything went off the rails and
it went viral.
Again.
Again, yes.
Yes, it's always been a popular, it's just a classic Norm Macdonald clip.
He's so funny.
It is, and it builds really perfectly.
It's like a comedy masterclass.
But so how did that feel?
I mean, you said you just watched it again this morning.
How did it feel watching it?
It was so much fun to watch it.
I remembered it as being great fun.
And I remembered, you know, normally after a talk show appearance, it's kind of
like, ah, was it okay?
I don't know.
It was fine.
But I remember just having so much fun because I'd just been out there laughing.
Right.
And then people would say, was that okay for you?
Was that okay?
And I thought, to me watching it, I thought, I just looked like someone who was
having a wonderful time.
He was making me laugh.
Oh, you were perfect.
Conan was lovely.
Yeah.
I authentically was having a great time.
I mean, so I thought, so interesting that people say, and Conan, of course, is
like, are you okay?
I was like, did you not see me?
I was laughing so hard.
I was crying.
I couldn't even breathe.
I just thought, and I watched it afterwards.
And also, I've seen him over the years.
I'll run into him, and they'll check maybe a show had just went on.
But I watched it, and I thought, you know, I was there with Andy and Norm and
Conan, and I thought, what a heavenly place to sit.
If someone said, you get to have dinner with those three guys, we'd say, are
you kidding?
And you would expect to just sit there and laugh.
You wouldn't expect to have deep conversations.
You wouldn't expect to get a word in edgewise.
But it would be delightful to just sit and laugh.
And that's how it felt for me.
And that's exactly what happened.
Yeah.
Well, I think that that's what people are responding to, is you weren't able to
get a word in.
It was just, Norm was a steamroller, and he was, yeah.
The second there was a pause, I think after a while, it seemed like you and
Conan were kind of like, he's coming back in in 3.2 seconds, and go.
And he just kept interrupting.
Had you met him prior to that taping that night?
I don't think so.
Right.
I almost think, in a way, it was like, I almost felt like he was trying to
flirt with you on camera.
Is that a crazy thought?
Just that he was, I think he was trying to impress you.
Yeah, like it was his mating ritual.
Well, I hadn't remembered until I watched it again.
He said in the beginning they had a crush on me from the Tom Snyder show, which
is also hilarious.
So it started off on this lovely note.
I mean, it's not going to get much better than that.
He suckered you in with that, and then it was like.
You know, I don't mind being teased.
That's how my family communicates.
You know, that's how my group of girlfriends I've been friends with for 30
years.
To me, like a generous, loving tease.
Now, if he was saying something mean about me, it would have felt differently,
but he wasn't.
No, not at all.
It was just funny and light.
Well, you were a guest on Late Night six times.
So this was somewhere in the middle there, which made me happy, too, because I
was like, okay, at least you had had some other normal appearances on the show
as well.
Where you got to talk.
Where you were allowed to talk.
Actually talk.
Yes.
To be interviewed.
It wouldn't have bothered me, though, because, like I said, you know talk shows.
It's this very strange thing where you have to talk to a pre-interviewer, and
you have these set stories, and the host sets you up.
And Conan's so good at this, because even though it's set up, you still feel
like you're having a conversation.
When Norm started going, it just felt like a relief to me.
It was like, oh, great, especially when we were talking about chairman of the
board, because, you know, that was not, say, a project of great pride for me,
and I had to promote it.
And I think I was there to promote it, but Conan started with Melrose Place,
because he probably thought that was more interesting, and then went into
chairman of the board.
And I was so happy when Norm took it and ran with it, because I didn't know
what to say, because one of those things, it read as funny, I had high hopes
for it, I did it, the experience wasn't great, and I thought, oh, this is not
going to be what I'd hoped.
Like, you thought, you never know, this could be amazing.
I'm sure that happens a lot, where it's just, there's so many levels at which
things can go wrong, and, you know, even in editing.
Yes, and look, granted, you know, you're doing Carrot Top's first movie, you
might say, you might have had an idea.
But, you know, you also don't know, like, Courtney Cox in The Pet Detective,
and, you know, that was with a relatively unknown Jim Carrey, and that turned
out amazingly, so I thought, you never know, but I should have thought, that
probably doesn't happen twice in a row.
Right, in the same year, probably something, you finished filming, like, a year
earlier, so you probably were like, oh, my God, oh, right, I did that movie, I've
got to talk about it now, I forgot I did it.
Yes, I think I kind of hoped it would kind of fade away, and then they said,
you have this in your contract, you have to go promote it, so I went on Conan,
who's a very safe place for me, and like I said, he's my, he was my favorite
host, I felt the most comfortable there.
And it was one in the morning, so there was no pressure.
It was one in the morning, well, the whole show felt, you know him, he's so
lovely as a person, and he's so irreverent, and I thought, well, I can just go
in here and have a nice time at least, and then I'll be done, I'll do my, my
duty.
And then Norm started, and it was just a gift, it was just great, you do it,
you do it, rock on, and I got to just sit there and laugh, I was, beside myself,
I was so happy.
That's great.
And he did really get word out on the movie.
I know, I was going to say, it was probably the best promotion that the movie
got.
Well, it wasn't really, it wasn't great promotion, but you know, the movie wasn't
going to sink or swim based on promotion or not, it was just, it was going to
sink is the truth of what was going to happen.
And, but I got to have a really fun talk show appearance, and it happened once
before, I did the Tonight Show, and I was talking about my sister's wedding,
and I did a bit about my dad telling a joke as we were walking down the aisle,
and Don Rickles was there.
And Don Rickles started riffing on my dad being insane, and why was he at the
wedding, shouldn't he have been in a home, and he just went off on my dad, and
people said, was your dad upset?
I was like, was my dad upset?
Oh my God.
It was the highlight of his life, he never stopped talking about it.
Don Rickles teased him.
He was beside himself.
So we both got to be teased by comedians we really admire.
That's great.
So were you already a fan of Norm's, or were you, did you, were you aware of
Norm at all?
I was a fan.
I'm a comedy nerd, I always have been.
Oh, great.
So I was a big fan going in, so it was fun to just be there and sit next to him.
Yeah.
Thrilled to have him take over my interview.
Get the Norm treatment.
Yeah.
That was the tail end of him hosting Weekend Update, because I think he left
the show later, SNL later that year.
So it timed out nicely.
And yeah, he was riding that wave of, you know, being the Weekend Update host,
which is-
Uh-huh.
Where he was brilliant, obviously.
Great.
So a lot of times, I think he'd be like a last minute booking sometimes,
because he'd be in the building.
And it's just like, that Conan was mentioning this, that, you know, if someone
dropped out or something,
oh, you can get Norm down, which is like a, you know, usually a step up
sometimes, you know, wow, you have Norm coming in.
And a lot of times, Conan had no idea what he was going to say or do, which-
Yeah.
Made it all exciting.
Yeah.
And he could trust him, right?
He knew it was going to be funny.
Right.
He knew it was going to be interesting.
Well, also, don't you think, I feel like he works on a different timeframe than
the rest of us.
Yeah.
Right?
Like, that's one of the great things.
His timing is so funny.
When you said, you know, in the interview with me and Conan and him, he was
like, there'd be a pause and then there'd be like, he would come in at just the
end of the pause.
Like, his timing was so extraordinary that you never knew when you were talking
to him when the break was going to be, when the punchline was going to be.
And you don't care.
You just kind of, and he did, you know, I saw him on Comedians in Cars getting
coffee.
Yeah.
Right.
I felt the same way.
I thought, oh, he's just having a lovely time.
He's just in the moment in his own world, his own time, having a wonderful time.
He doesn't seem nervous.
He doesn't seem like he has to perform.
Right.
Yeah.
That's a really good point.
He, he would, he'd take over and change the timing of whatever was going on and,
and, and kind of turn it in.
You're right.
To norm time.
Norm time.
And you had to, you were literally kind of had to just be in his thrall and go
along for the ride.
And he would always just, you know, stick the landing.
It was always great.
Because he was so interesting.
Like it wasn't, you don't feel, I didn't feel like I was fighting for stage
time.
It was like, he was talking and everything stopped.
And we all just stopped and looked at him until he was done.
Right.
Because it was the most interesting thing in the room.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, I wasn't, I mean, luckily I didn't think, he's taking my time.
I need to compete.
Didn't even occur to me.
I just thought, oh my God, Norm Macdonald is talking.
Right.
This is amazing.
And I don't remember any other example on late night where he would just kind
of take over like that during someone else's interview.
It was just, yeah.
I wonder if he felt bad after that.
Yeah.
I don't think so.
I think it's like, as I was saying, when they saw the shot, it had all of us in
it.
You know, Andy, Norm, me and Conan.
So it was like, we're all there together.
Hang on.
We're a panel.
We're all there together.
Well, I love, you can really see that Conan doesn't know what's coming.
I mean, I know Conan loves that too.
And things get derailed and he's like, all right, we're all, we're throwing the
note cards out.
And now we're just following this, this new thread.
But yeah, you can really see it, the joy that he's like, what's about to come
out?
And how am I going to react to that?
Well, and I think the reason that chairman of the board final joke is so
memorable is because Conan tees it up.
Like, you know, he goes, what's the name of the movie?
And you're like, chairman of the board.
And then he just turns to the board and goes, dude, something with that, you
freak.
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 minutes.
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.