Norm Macdonald Was One of 'My Guys'

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

I think we all have “our guys” when it comes to comedy. Comedians who’s sense of humor just hits us or we identify with because it’s like our own – or maybe because they have shaped our humor with their own.
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David Letterman has been “my guy” for as long as I can remember. In the summers when I was younger, I could stay up later than during the school year and this meant I could watch Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ on CBS five nights a week for two-and-a-half months. When I became a college student in 2006, I could watch it year-round.

I identified with Letterman’s dry wit, which came off as intelligent, but also mixed in some silliness along the way. It wasn’t long after getting into Letterman that I became familiar with “Saturday Night Live” via re-runs on Comedy Central that would show mostly episodes from the entirety of the ‘90s, including those three glorious seasons when Norm Macdonald was the anchor of Weekend Update, the mock news segment that poked fun at the biggest stories of the day. Macdonald was a lot like Letterman when it came to the dry sense of humor but was a bit darker (which really came out more in his stand-up than his television appearances), and this matter-of-fact “I don’t care if you like me or not” way of reading jokes about the biggest news stories of the day, particularly the O.J. Simpson trial, just tickled me. Macdonald was the rare comedian who made you laugh by occasionally turning off the live audience, like he was speaking instead directly to you watching from home.

He became another one of “my guys.” Reading so much about him today from fellow comedians and fans after his surprising death at 61 after a nine-year battle with cancer that he kept secret it seems he was “my guy” to an awful lot of people. That makes me incredibly happy. Though I’m not sure he would’ve cared all that much.

A lot of people felt Macdonald was the greatest Weekend Update anchor of all-time. Another thing Macdonald likely was was the greatest late night talk show guest of all-time, or at least of his era, particularly guest spots with Letterman and on all of Conan O’Brien’s shows, where he was regaling the audience with some long meandering story that you’d often wonder if there was a point or a punchline, but the trip was always well worth taking. His “The Moth” story on one of Conan’s shows is the stuff of legend. His appearance on Letterman after his firing from ‘SNL’ is legendary and the two men together on that episode are the epitome of “not giving a fuck.”

My favorite Macdonald late night talk show appearance was his final stand-up routine on Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ in 2015 where he got choked up talking about how much Letterman meant to him. I know the feeling was mutual between the two. Letterman released a statement following Macdonald’s death on Tuesday, Sept. 13 that read: “In every important way, in the world of stand-up, Norm was the best. An opinion shared by me and all peers. Always up to something, never certain, until his matter-of-fact delivery leveled you. I was always delighted by his bizarre mind and earnest gaze.”

A few months after Macdonald’s final appearance on Letterman’s show I had the true honor of getting to see him perform live on stage with his friend and former ‘SNL’ co-star Kevin Nealon with my brother and a close friend, who’d always shared a love for Macdonald’s comedic style.

It was everything I wanted from a Macdonald performance. He could open his mouth and stutter gibberish (and sometimes did) and I’d still find it the funniest thing ever – he just had that kind of hold on my funny bone.

Nothing shocks me any more in this world we’re living in. Even though you expected anything and everything with Norm Macdonald he was still capable of shocking you with a devastating punchline. Now he’s dead. It’s not a good punchline, but it’s shocking and the set up was fantastic.