Norm Macdonald Cracks Up 'Comic Hero' David Letterman One Last Time

by Julian Spivey
One of those moments that truly hits home the fact that David Letterman has only two months left as host of the ‘Late Show’ came on Wednesday, March 19 when comedian Norm Macdonald, one of the true underrated guests of the show and personal favorite of mine, made his final appearance.

Macdonald has long been one of the greatest guests on Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ and you can tell that Letterman generally loves it when Macdonald appears on the show. When Macdonald is on the ‘Late Show’ the clock turns back many years and late night television truly turns into a talk show. Macdonald wasn’t on the show to pitch anything. It was just two friends and all-time legendary comedians telling stories and enjoying each other’s company for 15 to 20 minutes.

Macdonald is quite possibly the best storytelling celebrity. He frequently uses the unusual for storytelling medium of Twitter to spin amazing tales that leave his followers mesmerized like recent tales of how Eddie Murphy turned down an offer to play Bill Cosby at the “Saturday Night Live” 40th anniversary special, how he met Bob Dylan and the time he played poker with the late James Garner. As great as Macdonald is at telling tales on Twitter it’s always nice to see him do it in person on a television talk show – something that few give him an opportunity to do these days.

Macdonald has a great history of hilarious late night talk show appearances, not only on “Late Show with David Letterman” but other ones (typically Conan O’Brien hosted ones). His appearances on Letterman particularly stand out because the two seem to have such respect and a great liking of each other. Macdonald tweeted after appearing on Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ for the final time on Wednesday: “Tonight, my last Letterman ever. Never happier than sitting beside my comic hero.” Letterman on the show referred to Macdonald as “could be the funniest man in the world,” which is an unbelievably huge statement from a comedian of Letterman’s legend and stature.

Watching Macdonald blast through hilarious stories of legendary character actor Jack Warden blowing lines on his old sitcom “Norm,” in which Norm Macdonald played Norm (a great running joke throughout the segment), and how dirty of a talker hall of fame baseball announcer Bob Uecker is made Letterman’s statement seem not quite so ridiculous at all – but anybody who’s loved Macdonald’s style of humor over his career realizes there aren’t many who can draw laughs quite like him.

Macdonald’s final appearance on the show was just another in a long line of terrific appearances on Letterman. You could tell the two of them generally had a ball the entire time. As Yahoo TV critic Ken Tucker, who brilliantly live tweeted the interview (actually at Macdonald’s request), tweeted: “When Letterman has a guest he likes, his smile gets sappy, he’s more than willing—relieved--to turn it all over.” Letterman let Macdonald do most of the talking as he sat there with one of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen from him, almost busting a gut laughing at the sheer hilarity of Macdonald’s stories. At one point I even swear I saw Letterman wipe a tear from his eye he was laughing so hard.

Macdonald called Letterman his comedy hero. Letterman called Macdonald the funniest man in the world. Both of these legends are my comic heroes and both quite possibly the funniest men in the world. Their shared loved of sarcastically witty humor has always drawn me in and left me hanging on the edge of my seat. I hate that this was the last time I’ll ever see these two comedy heavyweights together – but may the greatness they’ve created together live forever on YouTube.

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