Norm MacDonald
Norm Macdonald’s Posthumous Nothing Special Is Unlike Any Other Comedy Performance — Review
It’s hard to imagine a comedy set like Norm Macdonald’s latest and last. Nothing Special, a title that manages the Norm-like feat of simultaneous irony and honesty, was recorded at Macdonald’s home, without an audience, during the pre-vaccine pandemic days of 2020. It’s performed in the style of a webcast; MacDonald has a microphone, but he’s sitting down, focusing mostly on his face, as if Zooming into his own special. The press materials boast that it was done in “one take,” which is both impressive, in that Macdonald appears to do 55 minutes of comedy more or less extemporaneously without any breaks for laughs, and obvious, in that he’s occasionally interrupted, by a ringing phone or a barking dog. The comic had been preparing material for his next Netflix special, but, as very few peop...
Surprise Norm Macdonald Stand-Up Special, Filmed Prior to His Death, Coming to Netflix
Norm Macdonald was working on new stand-up material for a Netflix special before his death, but he never got to try out the routine in front of a live audience. Fortunately for fans, the comedian committed his jokes to tape in a home-recorded video that the streaming platform will soon unearth for the first time. Macdonald was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, but kept his illness private from the public. According to Lori Jo Hoekstra, the comedian’s longtime friend and producing partner, he recorded his final special before heading into the hospital in 2020 as a precautionary measure. “His test results were not good, so during the heart of COVID-19 pandemic and literally the night before going in for a procedure, he wanted to get this on tape just in case — as he put it — things went south,”...
Oscars 2022: Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget Omitted from In Memoriam Segment
Every year, the Oscars honor the stars who passed away in the year before the event, and every year, they forget to mention at least one deceased legend. This time around, the big names omitted from the Academy Awards In Memoriam segment included Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget, and Ed Asner. While Macdonald, Saget, and Asner primarily worked in television, the comedians’ deaths still left a major gap in the industry. Macdonald — who passed away in September following a nine-year battle with cancer — is perhaps best known for his time on Saturday Night Live, but he also appeared in films like Grown Ups, Back to Norm, and Dirty Work — the latter of which was directed by his good friend, Bob Saget. Saget, who died of head trauma while on tour in January, appeared in films like ...
Remembering Norm Macdonald, Michael K. Williams and More Celebrities Who Died in 2021: Photo Gallery
The end of any year is good cause for us to look back at those we lost, and in the world of entertainment, there was a lot of heartbreak, as valuable and important voices went silent. The list of those who passed away in 2021 includes beloved TV stars like Michael K. Williams, Willie Garson, and Ed Asner, the respected directors of Lethal Weapon and Big Little Lies, and great writers such as Larry McMurtry and Joan Didion. Below, see their photos along with the many other artists whose contributions to film and television will not be forgotten anytime soon. (You can also see a gallery of musicians we lost in 2021 here.) Advertisement <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1035003" data-attachment-id="1035003" data-permalink="https://consequence.net/2020/05/ro...
Norm Macdonald Tributes: Adam Sandler, Conan O’Brien, & More Honor Comedian
As news of the death of actor and comedian Norm Macdonald at 61 years old reverberates throughout Hollywood, countless tributes have poured in from fellow comedians and actors. “Every one of us loved Norm,” remembered Macdonald’s Saturday Night Live castmate Adam Sandler. “Some of the hardest laughs of my life with this man. Most fearless funny original guy we knew. An incredible dad. A great friend. A legend. Love u pal.” “I am absolutely devastated about Norm Macdonald,” said Conan O’Brien. “Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again. I’m so sad for all of us today.” Advertisement Related Video “In every important way, in the world of stand-up, Norm was the best,” former Lat...
Dirty Work Is a Weird Glimpse Into the Movie Career Norm Macdonald Almost Had
Norm Macdonald, who left us too soon at the age of 61 after living with cancer for a decade, was a comedian’s comedian. You can tell because so much of his greatest work is just him. There’s the opening passage of his special Me Doing Stand-Up, where he immediately pontificates about being haunted by the grim specter of death (“It’s good to be alive, isn’t it? That’s what I say. I find that to be the goodest thing there is, to be alive. And uh, the reason it’s so good, it’s cause it’s so bad to be dead. It’s not like life’s so fucking great, but compared to being smothered in earth…”). There’s his legendary ultra-clean roasting of Bob Saget, and his interjections on Conan O’Brien’s first Late Night show, where he couldn’t stop running down Carrot Top. Even the Saturday Night Live gig that ...
Norm Macdonald’s 5 Most Memorable Moments
No one did comedy like the late Norm Macdonald, because no one understood comedy like Norm Macdonald. He was a stand-up not just first and foremost, but in his entirety. Hollywood often balked at his ability to headline a movie or TV series, and that was likely just fine with him — his craft was the joke, not “acting.” “There’s a craft to comedy that’s not an art,” he told Larry King in 2018. “Because the craft is this: You have to make the audience make a specific noise at a specific time all together. Art is open to interpretation; stand-up comedy is not. You must get the exact same — it could be silence, it could be anger, it could be anything — but you have to have that same noise from every single person in the audience. If it’s mixed, you’re dead.” That idea that the comic had to eli...
Norm MacDonald, Former Saturday Night Live Comedian and Actor, Dies at 61
Norm MacDonald, the Canadian comedian best known as the host of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s, has died at the age of 61 following a private battle with cancer. Deadline was first to report the news of MacDonald’s death. In a statement, Lori Jo Hoekstra, who Deadline reports was with MacDonald at the time of his death and his longtime producing partner, said he’d been battling cancer for a decade. “He was most proud of his comedy,” Hoekstra told Deadline. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.” Born on October 17, 1959 in Quebec...
R.I.P. Norm Macdonald, Beloved Comedian Dead at 61
Norm Macdonald, the beloved comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member, has died at the age of 61 following a nine-year private battle with cancer. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic,” Macdonald’s friend and producing partner, Lori Jo Hoekstra said in a September 14th statement announcing his death (via Deadline). “He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.” With a quick wit but painfully slow delivery, Macdonald was known for long walks to bamboozling simple, left-field punchlines. His “Moth” joke, delivered during a 2009 appearance on Conan, is a particularly beloved example of his tension-snappin...
