Name: Comedians Share Their Most Cherish Norm Macdonald Stories
Uploaded: 2021-09-16T19:07:59.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Comedians Share Their Most Cherish Norm Macdonald Stories' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-16. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Comedians Share Their Most Cherish Norm Macdonald Stories' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-16. Transcript available.

when you talk about like someone who who stands up um against the greats with a
singular voice
all you need to hear is one it's like those great jazz musicians you can tell
the difference between
dexter gordon and john coltrane you know and uh just in a few notes whether it's
um
uh and norm mcdonald's one of those guys who would just you could tell a joke
they could get nothing and then he could tell that same joke and murder with it
all because of the
way he his incredible unique delivery and i just there was an innate sense to
him of what was funny
and an impeccable timing that was just you know the best form of it was for
stand-up
also conversation i mean just to be in a room with him don't be on a plane with
them
do other comedians as a comedian then do you learn from each other as far as
that goes do you kind of
like okay he told this joke this way and you kind of like that that friendly
competition and you know
who can tell the jokes that it's like tennis it's definitely like tennis i mean
you want to play
with somebody better than the norm was the funniest guy in the room norm would
um was it necessarily the
one who got always the biggest laughs from the audience but from the comedians
we knew he was
a particular genius you know norman have this intel incredible ability to tell
a joke and you have no idea
where it's going and then you get lost and think oh i know where this is going
but then you the next
thing you know you forget he just he was a master of turns and slight and like
you know last time i
performed with him in 2016 i didn't know it was gonna be the last time i
performed with him i just
found that out in my old pictures and um he was like about ready to light a
cigarette and then he would
tell a joke and then he but and then you know he'd be he'd take any beer and
then it was just anything
could be funny you know and all afternoon as we do this uh you've been playing
on and off with a
cigarette did you do you smoke i quit smoking a year ago good for you thank you
you quit smoking yeah
and uh you when you smoke at the tomorrow show we puffed we didn't smoke we
puffed you probably caused
many children to start smoking so you hold a cigarette and you never light it
yes it helps me
i have an oral fixation the doctors tell me that never
i'm like uh beretta like he did this thing about like um this joke which i just
thought it's just
it's just genius he said you ever uh find yourself in the middle of a lie and
you you realize wait a
minute there's no possible way that i could benefit from this lie why am i
lying like hey you see the
new star wars movie yeah and that's the joke i'm trying to become a better
person trying not to lie as
much as i used to you know i uh you know i'm you ever lie for no reason you
know usually there's a
purpose to your lies but sometimes you know just a big lie will spill out of
your evil head there
you know you don't even know why you know like guy will come up to you go hey
you ever
see that movie with meryl streep and the horse then you go yes
then back at you what the hell am i lying about over here
i stand to gain nothing by this lie
the hell am i thinking back here in my head
yeah it's the timing it's the it's the idea it's the pause it's the kind of you
know he was
very proud of the fact that he would always play you know he was the smartest
guy in the room too
the most well-read you know and maybe i would read one book on a on an author
he read them all
yeah and um but he always said you know these guys are trying to play more than
you audience don't
like that they don't like that they want somebody they like you know charlie
chaplin was the biggest
star in the world because he was less than everybody else you know look at that
guy yeah my life's tough
look at that guy and he's right yeah that was a big influence on me but um i
will perform this weekend
i was thinking about not i was thinking about not coming out just like but i
don't know norm wouldn't
want that i'm gonna go perform and uh dedicate it to norm and i'll do some of
norm's jokes
you know really smart you know he was like a math genius and he was extremely
bright
so one time we were doing a show in um
you know biloxi mississippi and i i'm not i'm not like him at all except if you
if you say to me
like you can't say that or talk about a certain thing or don't say that i'm
like well now i have
to it's just kind of your instinct about people you know right don't do that it
really bothers me and
then you're kind of a jerk no like oh you mean like this so so we were doing a
show and and uh
i opened for him about i did about i guess 15 minutes or 20 then he had live
but it was for um
it was for a um what do you call it um
what when then when they comp the audience you know what i mean big gamblers i
forget the word yeah
so it wasn't people paying tickets but anyway they did it we did it so he's
doing the show and he's
you know he's very funny but he's dirty so so someone yells out well we don't
like that kind
of talk so there's about i don't know 400 people there and he goes well how
many of you don't like
that kind of talk you know and it was like the whole practically the whole room
he goes well how
many of you don't mind and it was like 20 people just or 10 people he goes well
i i hate to disappoint
that that those 10 people because the rest of you don't like it and then he
just got dirtier
i'm just like crying laughing you know because the audience wasn't even
laughing but he just you know
that that was you know that was a typical him
as you can see he has wavy hair it's waving goodbye on account he's going bald
i remember the joke was like your face looks like uh cauliflower you know like
you look so ugly you
look like your face looks like cauliflower and then people would laugh and bob
was laughing hysterically
because yeah like a collie flower no they put in laughs afterwards but i was
there on stage
no but bob has a beautiful face like a flower yeah cauliflower
no offense but your face looks like a cauliflower
i mean i was there i'm like dying laughing you know yeah i was there for the uh
espy awards uh when he
hosted and um a lot of asbn executives were white knuckling his his monologue
the entire time
and when he told the joke about charles woodson winning the heisman trophy he
became the first
defensive player to win the heisman trophy congratulations charles that is
something
that no one can ever take away from you unless you kill your wife and a waiter
in which case
all bets are off
did they laugh well there was a lot of i think sort of woe and nervous laughter
and
then cutting away to athletes who were just like shaking their heads like they
didn't know what to do
they had no idea what to do with their faces you know at that time right it's
like that then he
you know you take a big risk when you do that i mean he did that at the casino
we were banned for
i couldn't work there for five years really are you serious he got banned from
that casino in biloxi
mississippi for fun and he was gambling and he got caught counting cards
you know what it was it was like he was kind of like the bob dylan of comedy he
was doing the lyrics
and words and phrases that nobody else in comedy was using and it wasn't that
he told jokes as much
as just told stories in a funny way and had a just funny inflection was truly
an original i mean that
was you know everybody else wrote jokes he talked funny and just having a
conversation with him
was even when he told a joke joke he did in such a way you think he was just
talking you know i mean he
talked about uh i i i i saw him on a show as this is this is a joke he told it
was pretty funny
so the guy goes into this guy's got a story you know and now we're going to
start you know he would
just do that we're talking he says uh give me a says to the clerk give me a
polish sausage
and the guy says oh are you polish and i'm just first of all it's very
insulting okay
i come in for paul to tell you i'm polish he says you know if i came in and
asked for a pizza would you
ask him italian if he had for chinese food he said are you chinese why did you
ask if i was polish and
the guy says because this is a hardware store
and it was i mean he told it much funnier than i told it and it's i i don't
think it was his joke
but it was one of those jokes that goes around but what he told it was just so
hilarious i mean and
he it's so deadpan and it's so such a you know him bob newhart just legendary
guys and he
he was not a guy you know i i tried to teach him how to drive i had him on my
show the car show and
we went out to the um the uh the racetrack out of willow springs right and i
paid an alfa romeo you
know and i'm gonna go there's a stern wheel here yeah that's a steering wheel
okay and i'll ride next
to him and he's going 18 19 miles an hour he goes oh this thing is pretty quick
what's not normally
only going 18 miles an hour hey i never knew how we even got around l.a because
he never drove to
before uber or anything you know right no you always ask friends for ride
always yeah so i said well
hold on let me show you what it can do you know so i i get the cargo a little
fast i'm going
25 30. he's going hey oh oh slow down there hey hey hey hey hey hey i go no we're
going 35 miles an
hour we're on a racetrack there's not even another vehicle on the course and
and and he was hilarious
and he was at one point he got it up to 50 miles an hour he's like oh this is
really flying hey
he's moving here now he you know that whole thing and you know he he was just
great he was just great
oh still have you fun on the brake gonna put it in drive and let's uh proceed
forward by pressing
the gas yes take your foot off the brake just lightly press the gas right there
you go
ah there you are and obviously turn the wheel right to go right yeah okay my
god i'm a good car driver
how do you get around l.a without a driver's license uh uber you open so uber
must be like a godsend
for you huh yeah yeah yeah oh my lord wait wait wait that's not the that's
great you know what happened
there jay you're going 24. yeah yeah you're going 24. i confused the brake with
the gas momentarily okay
yeah that's not a good thing dude well listen look you're going 47 now it's a
new record it's a new
record man this is fun oh my lord wait okay okay you're doing all right he was
if you didn't know he was
norm mcdonald you think he was just some sort of odd character you know right
but truly truly a character
in the best sense of that word he was a great impression that he did a great
burt reynolds
oh that was oh yeah right i mean right now we thought is that burt reynolds
hey uh check out the podium look at this mr reynolds has apparently changed his
name to turd ferguson
that's right turd ferguson it's a funny name great he did a great letterman i'd
never seen anybody do
letterman and he did a great letterman and it was really really i think even a
lot of them was like
whoa you know
crunch
no he was yeah he was yeah i'd forgotten about that he did letterman and they
did they did a whole send up on
of letterman on that you know the saddest part of it he's one of those guys you
just couldn't wait for
him to become a cranky old man because he was a cranky young man you know and
and norm was one of
those guys you just wanted to you wanted to live forever just because as a
cranky young man it was
funny as a cranky old man to be perfectly in character you know and he could
really then get
get away with anything because he was an old guy.