Latest / Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps / Flashback: Norm Macdonald

Transcript

Flashback: Norm Macdonald · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

• 0:00
  Oh, no, McDonald.
• 0:07
  This is a bit heartbreaking for me.
• 0:09
  I just wanted to bring you this as a way of eulogizing one of the most influential comedic
• 0:15
  voices in my youth.
• 0:16
  I remember when I was a kid.
• 0:19
  I would stay up late and watch Dave Letterman when Letterman had just moved to CBS and I would
• 0:25
  sometimes even set my VHS tape recorder to record him in the wee hours of the morning
• 0:31
  and then watch it in the morning before I got to school.
• 0:35
  And I saw a normal, Donald do a bit on Letterman and I still remember just thinking who is
• 0:41
  this weird guy with this deadpan delivery?
• 0:44
  If you're not very familiar with Norm, he's really a comics comic.
• 0:49
  I mean, he is quite absurdist, I say it is, was quite absurdist, quite almost bored
• 0:56
  villain and was an inspiration to the likes of Letterman and Conan O'Brien and Jim Carey.
• 1:03
  He's Canadian originally and he started out professionally writing on Rose Ann in the
• 1:10
  early 90s when that sitcom was huge and he got picked up by Saturday Night Live in the
• 1:16
  mid 90s.
• 1:17
  And he did lots and lots and lots of jokes about O.J. Simpson during the O.J. Simpson trial
• 1:22
  which pissed off the head of NBC.
• 1:25
  I can't remember exactly what position that guy had, but he was a friend of O.J.'s and Norm
• 1:31
  got fired ceremoniously after just three years of being one of the best weekend update
• 1:37
  anchors at the Saturday Night Live news desk ever.
• 1:43
  And he was beloved, he went off and did his own show, never really reached the same
• 1:48
  peaks in the past 10 or 20 years as he had in the 1990s.
• 1:52
  And one of the highlights of my television hosting, presenting experience in New York City
• 2:00
  was having him on Half-Post Live which I think was in 2015.
• 2:04
  And he and I hit it off to a sufficient extent that we exchanged phone numbers and would
• 2:09
  continue to text each other and occasionally bump into each other thereafter.
• 2:16
  And it was, I was like, that for me was the definition of having made it.
• 2:22
  Not interviewing the bigger name celebrities and the politicians and stuff like that which
• 2:27
  we did on Half-Post Live too, but for someone like Norm to just be in your presence doing
• 2:35
  his thing so cool, so comfortable, yet so awkward, which was part of his stick.
• 2:43
  I just loved it.
• 2:44
  I felt like I didn't have to do anything, so I just wanted to bring you this interview.
• 2:49
  The audio is not great, it's been ripped from video, so sometimes my voice jumps, so
• 2:53
  if you hear something that doesn't sound quite right, then that's probably just a technical
• 2:57
  glitch.
• 2:58
  There may be physicalities that you don't quite get from the audio, so in that case you
• 3:03
  can always go to YouTube and find the original version of it, but just listen to this mind.
• 3:11
  With no material, no gags, no punchlines, just an endless quest for the weird, the awkward,
• 3:21
  the absurd, the slightly off-putting.
• 3:24
  I loved it.
• 3:25
  I hope you do too.
• 3:26
  This is a little look back at my encounter with Norm McCommill on Half-Post Live in 2015.
• 3:33
  From his time at Saturday Night Live to his years of stand-up and sitcom appearances,
• 3:47
  Norm Macdonald is one of America's most beloved comics, so who better to be part of the
• 3:52
  judges' panel on NBC's newest season of last comic standing?
• 3:56
  Here's a look at what to expect.
• 3:57
  I'm an Iranian Homo!
• 4:01
  I can't!
• 4:02
  Hey, Ron Kagani, I think it's impossible not to love you.
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:08
  I like you to say Iranian Homo a lot.
• 4:13
  I think what you're saying, Norm, if you just come out here and just said Homo over and
• 4:17
  over again, he'd be your favorite comic of all time.
• 4:19
  I'm saying, if I had the guts to come out of the closet, he'd be the guy I'd go to first.
• 4:25
  Yeah!
• 4:27
  Norm joins me now.
• 4:28
  Thanks for being here.
• 4:29
  Hey, Josh.
• 4:30
  Good to see you, buddy.
• 4:31
  I believe you haven't been on yet.
• 4:32
  On what?
• 4:33
  On Half-Post Live?
• 4:34
  Yeah, I've never been on.
• 4:35
  Well, I don't live in New York City.
• 4:37
  I don't know.
• 4:38
  It's no excuse to fly in for it.
• 4:40
  That's true.
• 4:41
  No, I love Half-Post Live.
• 4:42
  I see it all the time.
• 4:43
  Good.
• 4:44
  I'm just in clips.
• 4:45
  When I found out it was a half hour, it was kind of sharp because of that.
• 4:47
  You thought I was just going to do 90 seconds with you and just nail exactly what I need to know.
• 4:51
  Yeah, that's right.
• 4:52
  That's what I thought you were school of.
• 4:55
  What's it like to be a judge of other comics rather than performing yourself?
• 4:59
  Well, I'm very judgmental.
• 5:01
  So, you know, it suits my school sets perfectly.
• 5:06
  You know what I'm saying?
• 5:07
  Judge, not unless you be a judge.
• 5:10
  I think I may have been Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I'm not sure.
• 5:14
  I think that's correct.
• 5:15
  Of Nazareth, not the other one.
• 5:17
  Yeah, not Jesus' age Christ.
• 5:19
  No.
• 5:20
  But I disagree.
• 5:22
  I think, you know, you judge.
• 5:25
  Judge away.
• 5:26
  Yeah, judge all you can.
• 5:28
  And I also want to be a judge because, well, I mean, I want to be a proper judge, you know,
• 5:34
  where I have a man's life in my hands.
• 5:37
  But in this thing, you just get to get to say, you know, you're not funny.
• 5:43
  Who told you you were funny?
• 5:44
  Seriously, some of these people, I swear to God, I can't imagine even being the funniest person in a room.
• 5:51
  Let alone a professional comedian.
• 5:54
  And I was thinking like, who told you?
• 5:57
  Who wasn't that told you you were funny because that person, you know, owes you a lot of money because
• 6:04
  you're following a dream that's impossible to catch.
• 6:08
  Maybe after judging the whether the comics are good, you could then have the people who told them to become comics on
• 6:14
  and to deliver actual punishments.
• 6:17
  Yeah, I can judge them all.
• 6:19
  Because I take it that there's no punishment for being a bad comic on last comic standing.
• 6:23
  It's not like a judge in a sense that you can't actually lock them up in a cage in prison for 25 years if they do a bad job.
• 6:29
  Yeah, no, you can't put them on death row.
• 6:34
  Were you actually interested in the law? Was that ever a thing?
• 6:37
  No, just interested in being a judge.
• 6:39
  You don't have to learn the law to be a judge.
• 6:41
  Well, no.
• 6:43
  Judges don't just act on whims.
• 6:45
  You don't listen on the Supreme Court.
• 6:47
  Also, I'm going to just say to a guy like, okay, it's come time for your penalty phase.
• 6:52
  You get life or death.
• 6:57
  I don't know if I thought those were funny.
• 7:00
  Those are the two things that you get.
• 7:03
  So as well, the opposite things, you know, the guys obviously stand there going, damn, I hope I get life.
• 7:10
  You know, I'm getting kind of used to it.
• 7:12
  It's all I've ever known.
• 7:14
  Yeah.
• 7:15
  And I don't want a death, especially on that hot chair.
• 7:19
  So in addition to being a tragic indictment?
• 7:22
  I look at that hot chair.
• 7:24
  Well, the hot chair?
• 7:25
  No, I'm just saying when you think of ways to kill someone, it wouldn't be the first that came and my go got.
• 7:30
  Let's get a hot chair we can.
• 7:33
  The hot chair is so hot.
• 7:35
  It would boil a man's inside, you know?
• 7:40
  It seems like in addition to being an indictment of America's criminal justice system, the death penalty is amusing to you.
• 7:46
  Well, yeah, yeah.
• 7:49
  I am against the death penalty.
• 7:52
  As one of your great poets said, I shall have nothing to do with...
• 7:58
  I shall die, but that's all I shall have to do with death.
• 8:01
  Cameron, who was, but...
• 8:03
  Probably not Australian.
• 8:04
  Oh, yeah.
• 8:05
  That's a bit sophisticated.
• 8:06
  Oh, Aussies, man.
• 8:07
  They have poets.
• 8:09
  Yeah.
• 8:10
  We had a couple.
• 8:11
  Yeah.
• 8:12
  That'd be three.
• 8:13
  Yeah.
• 8:14
  Australian Rules Football Poets.
• 8:16
  Do you like it?
• 8:17
  You're a big golf fan.
• 8:18
  Do you watch any Australian rules?
• 8:19
  Well, when I watch sports like Australian Rules Football, I go, man, they must look at real football and go, why?
• 8:26
  We do.
• 8:27
  Because, like, you know, in real football, you throw, and you run, and then you rest for like five minutes.
• 8:32
  It's like, ah, whew.
• 8:34
  And then, you know, you take five minutes off to rest up.
• 8:37
  You guys, you never stop.
• 8:39
  Aussie Rules is a fast game.
• 8:40
  Yeah.
• 8:41
  We've also done understand the shoulder pads and the helmets and the pompoms.
• 8:44
  Yeah, who needs that?
• 8:45
  The singers and the fireworks and the...
• 8:47
  It's like a monster truck rally or something.
• 8:49
  Yeah.
• 8:50
  When I'm watching football or is this a show, what is this going on here?
• 8:52
  Show me a game.
• 8:53
  Yeah, I agree.
• 8:54
  I would love to live in Australia and watch the Australian rules football.
• 8:57
  We'll have you.
• 8:58
  And you don't come.
• 8:59
  Huh?
• 9:00
  We're going to keep normal Donald out.
• 9:01
  You can come.
• 9:02
  Do they have this show here?
• 9:03
  Yeah, we're everywhere.
• 9:04
  Because we're online.
• 9:05
  Do they have Skippy the Bush Kangaroo?
• 9:06
  They do have Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, which, to viewers who don't know it, it's sort of a...
• 9:10
  It's a rip off of Lassie, but instead of a dog, it's a kangaroo.
• 9:14
  There's a Bush Kangaroo.
• 9:15
  You can communicate with a little boy.
• 9:17
  Like when I grew up, it's one of those things where when you're growing up watching it, it's just the thing that's on TV.
• 9:22
  So why would you even spare it a second thought?
• 9:25
  But now that I'm sitting here with you and you point out the absurdity of the show, I suddenly realize that.
• 9:29
  Well, also, I feel like Lassie is a dog, but I feel like a Bush Kangaroo be a very dangerous pet.
• 9:38
  They're not that dangerous.
• 9:40
  A Bush Kangaroo?
• 9:41
  Well, a Bush just...
• 9:42
  I mean, that just means the outback.
• 9:43
  I mean, Bush makes it sound villainous.
• 9:45
  Yeah, yeah.
• 9:46
  Just take away.
• 9:47
  What if you just changed its name to Skippy the Cute Kangaroo?
• 9:50
  No, but as far as I know, a Bush Kangaroo is a carnivore.
• 9:55
  No.
• 9:56
  No?
• 9:57
  Leaves and things.
• 9:58
  Oh.
• 9:59
  I don't think there's such a thing as a Bush Kangaroo.
• 10:00
  I think you're getting caught up on this adjective.
• 10:02
  Oh.
• 10:03
  It's just a Kangaroo.
• 10:04
  It's just a Kangaroo.
• 10:05
  It's not going to be an urban Kangaroo.
• 10:06
  Well, you're right.
• 10:07
  Yeah.
• 10:08
  So you're saying they don't even need the Bush.
• 10:10
  It's redundant.
• 10:11
  It's a totology.
• 10:12
  We redundant.
• 10:13
  It is a totology.
• 10:14
  Can we get the producers of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo on the phone and ask them exactly why it was called?
• 10:20
  I thought of a great show because I love Skippy the Bush Kangaroo so much.
• 10:25
  And I was thinking of a sequel, you know, for the younger children.
• 10:30
  Joey the Bush Kangaroo.
• 10:33
  Baby.
• 10:34
  No, Skippy the Bush Joey.
• 10:37
  Skippy the Bush Juppie.
• 10:38
  Baby Kangaroo runs.
• 10:40
  It doesn't.
• 10:41
  Maybe like Puffy the Baby Deer.
• 10:42
  Yeah.
• 10:43
  I'm trying to think what the equivalent here in North America would be where you don't have Kangaroo.
• 10:46
  I do think men would be very, but you think I'll tell you who children, even worse than men around a Bush Kangaroo and a friend Australian child, being around Ralph Harris.
• 11:01
  You're just coming out with the obscure Australian references.
• 11:03
  No, we're in America knows who Ralph Harris is.
• 11:05
  They don't.
• 11:06
  I don't think so.
• 11:07
  But Ralph Harris is an old musician.
• 11:10
  I guess he's a folk musician and comedian who now lives in the UK who it turns out may or may not have been a pedophile.
• 11:18
  Yeah, yeah.
• 11:19
  But he was a good man compared to Jimmy Seville.
• 11:24
  None of this will play very well in America.
• 11:27
  He's just going to be huge in the UK, Australia.
• 11:29
  They're going to love you.
• 11:30
  I want to take a look at the moment when after you'd gotten, you lost your job at Saturday Night Live, things that invited you back on to host like 18 months later, right?
• 11:40
  Yeah, and you were kind of musing on stage in your introduction about what had happened since you obviously weren't funny enough to be on the show.
• 11:48
  But now you're suddenly funny enough to host the show and this was your explanation.
• 11:52
  Oh, it was ruminating.
• 11:53
  You were ruminating.
• 11:54
  Let's take a look at your explanation.
• 11:56
  Then it occurred to me.
• 11:58
  I haven't gotten funnier.
• 12:00
  The show has gotten really bad.
• 12:10
  So yeah, I'm funny compared to, you know, well, you'll see later.
• 12:18
  Okay, so let's recap.
• 12:20
  The bad news is, I'm still not funny.
• 12:26
  The good news is, the show blows.
• 12:30
  I remember when I was doing that, and you're going to hear it if you listen to it, but the writer is a booed during that.
• 12:38
  You know, after not writing anything for the entire show, hey, they booed.
• 12:44
  It's policy. It's a policy thing to do.
• 12:46
  I assume you wrote that, did you run it by?
• 12:48
  I mean, you must run it by.
• 12:49
  You must do the dress rehearsal and run it by the producers and the writers.
• 12:52
  I was going to do it.
• 12:53
  I was going to do a thing that I thought would be really cool.
• 12:57
  And I was talked out of it.
• 12:59
  But I was going to do the myelog and then leave and let them do the rest of the show by themselves.
• 13:05
  Which I thought would be good for the show, because it would be, you know, that I have to get to get band together and, you know,
• 13:11
  work around the fact that the host wasn't there and stuff like that.
• 13:15
  This was a course at the end of period when Letterman had also...
• 13:19
  He hadn't gotten over the fact that he'd been fired by NBC and gotten the tonight show, right?
• 13:23
  And you went on Letterman and I still remember seeing this.
• 13:26
  He was just fired up with anger and fury on your behalf at the pinheads at NBC.
• 13:31
  I want to take a look at Letterman.
• 13:33
  Letterman talking about this after you got fired.
• 13:35
  Look at this.
• 13:36
  I didn't tell you something, Norman. I'm very happy for you because one or two times ago when you were on the show,
• 13:41
  you had been fired. You lost your job in a Saturday night live on the weekend update.
• 13:46
  Because those people didn't have the guts to stand by you.
• 13:49
  Because those people wouldn't know funny if it bit them in the air.
• 13:53
  And...
• 14:01
  And they, of course, were hoping that they'd never hear from you again.
• 14:05
  They were hoping, of course, that they had squashed out another career.
• 14:07
  They thought, okay, that's it for him.
• 14:10
  What did that mean to have Letterman at your back?
• 14:13
  Oh, Letterman was so kind to me.
• 14:17
  Yeah, one thing about being fired was like a lot of cool guys.
• 14:21
  They really loved mostly Letterman, you know? He's my favorite guy ever.
• 14:24
  But Letterman is turning Gary Shannon.
• 14:26
  And he's Chevy and all these guys jumped to my defense, which was really nice.
• 14:31
  But especially David Letterman because he was the reason I got in the stand-up.
• 14:36
  And he's the reason that I love comedy so much.
• 14:39
  Why? Can you elaborate on that?
• 14:41
  Because I feel David Letterman is the best comedian I ever lived.
• 14:45
  Like he was, you know, he just turned everything on its ear.
• 14:49
  And I think, you know, people talk the way they do now because of David Letterman.
• 14:54
  And he had a great deal to do with, you know, this irony soaked away people,
• 15:03
  a converse nowadays, even if they don't understand what they're doing.
• 15:08
  Yeah. And there was a certain eloquence to the way that he'd deliver a gag,
• 15:12
  especially, I mean, not so much in his stand-up, but when he's interviewing someone,
• 15:15
  I mean, he was a huge inspiration to me as well, to be able to find the exactly perfect
• 15:20
  articulate, almost overly formal words that he would use.
• 15:23
  Like, you know, he'd never say, you know, enjoy a drink.
• 15:26
  He'd say enjoy a delicious beverage or something.
• 15:29
  Yeah, he'd use over articulate words and mix them with, you know,
• 15:37
  a super old-timey phrases that he enjoyed and stuff like that.
• 15:42
  Would you remember your first set on Letterman?
• 15:45
  Yeah, I didn't remember that.
• 15:47
  Long, long time ago.
• 15:49
  And I remember because, you get real afraid because, like, he had these other two guests on
• 15:54
  wherever they were, and then he had me, you know.
• 15:57
  So it was like, I can't remember what it was, but it was a big guest.
• 16:00
  Was it on late night, by the way, or had he moved to CBS?
• 16:02
  Yeah, he was back on NBC.
• 16:03
  And he would go, he was a Harrison Forrest with us tonight and, you know,
• 16:08
  David Boy, but the reason you're all, like, you know, showing up.
• 16:13
  Norm Mac Donald is with us, and he said that like six times.
• 16:16
  I was like, oh my god, like, but maybe realize something about the David Letterman show
• 16:22
  and it helped me because on all the other shows are different.
• 16:26
  But on the David Letterman show, like, there's a joke going on.
• 16:33
  And David Letterman is in on the joke.
• 16:36
  And the studio audience is in on the joke.
• 16:39
  Paul Schaefer and the band are in on the joke.
• 16:41
  And even the audience is in on the joke.
• 16:43
  And the joke is the guest.
• 16:45
  It's you.
• 16:46
  And once I realized that, then I just started fooling around with Dave.
• 16:54
  Do you even remember the experience of doing that first set?
• 16:57
  Or are you just totally numb like a deer in the headlights thinking, oh my god,
• 17:00
  I'm on Letterman show.
• 17:01
  Oh my god, I'm on Letterman show.
• 17:03
  Well, I know I remember where for where the funny thing is,
• 17:08
  because I always got to, I started doing sound to get on the David Letterman show.
• 17:12
  So once I got on the David Letterman show, I was so excited.
• 17:15
  And then I did it, and I did a specific joke.
• 17:19
  And he kept repeating the punch line for the rest of the show.
• 17:24
  So that made me really, really, really happy.
• 17:26
  And then I went back to my manager.
• 17:31
  I was like, hey, cool.
• 17:33
  You know, I'm done.
• 17:34
  Like I'm finished.
• 17:35
  I thought that was the end of the road.
• 17:38
  Then he's like, well, maybe you could consider sounding like that live or something.
• 17:41
  Maybe you could do something else.
• 17:43
  Maybe you could do like an act.
• 17:47
  I've achieved everything I want to achieve.
• 17:49
  It's done.
• 17:50
  Bill and Dave.
• 17:51
  That was the end.
• 17:52
  Of course, you did iconic impressions of Dave on SNL as well.
• 17:56
  I just want to take a look at one of those.
• 17:58
  This is you interviewing John Lovitz, who's playing Marv Albert.
• 18:01
  Oh, yeah.
• 18:02
  He told me he could do.
• 18:03
  This is when Marv Albert was being accused.
• 18:04
  He told me he could do Marv Albert.
• 18:06
  And he couldn't.
• 18:07
  Well, we'll see.
• 18:08
  Let's take a look.
• 18:10
  Anyway, later on, we have Janet Elfen from the Dharma and Greg program coming on.
• 18:14
  You enjoy the Dharma and Greg there, Paul?
• 18:17
  Yeah, great.
• 18:18
  Dharma, Greg.
• 18:19
  Yeah, yeah.
• 18:20
  You know, I like Greg on the show.
• 18:23
  You know, I think he's money in the bank.
• 18:24
  He does a good solid job.
• 18:25
  You know, it was dependent on him.
• 18:27
  But for my money, if you really want to be entertained,
• 18:29
  you know, you've got to go with, don't you?
• 18:31
  Cramer.
• 18:32
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 18:34
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 18:35
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 18:37
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 18:40
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 18:42
  When I was doing Letterman, it was very difficult because, you know,
• 18:45
  I didn't really want to do a guy that was funny to me,
• 18:48
  and I do it with any comments.
• 18:50
  But they cut out my favorite thing,
• 18:54
  because I wrote the sketch, you know.
• 18:56
  My favorite thing, which was, I said,
• 18:59
  oh, Paul, one thing, I forgot, I'll be right back.
• 19:02
  And then I had him leave.
• 19:05
  And then I ran around the building, like,
• 19:09
  just four blocks around the building,
• 19:12
  and then came back, and I was like, oh!
• 19:14
  Ha-ha-ha!
• 19:15
  You know what I mean?
• 19:16
  That's what Letterman used to do in the first,
• 19:18
  sort of, five years or so of the CVS.
• 19:20
  He'd just run outside.
• 19:21
  He would just do some stupid stunt,
• 19:22
  and then pretend that he'd just come back in from running.
• 19:24
  Exactly.
• 19:25
  Yeah.
• 19:26
  The fake breathing.
• 19:27
  So I was trying to do the, I was just trying to do it to him doing that.
• 19:31
  Pure nothingness.
• 19:32
  Love it.
• 19:33
  He has comedy.
• 19:34
  I want to bring in some of your fans
• 19:36
  who want to ask you questions.
• 19:37
  Oh, yeah.
• 19:38
  So first up is Scott Bluban, the Hay Scott.
• 19:41
  Hey, how are you?
• 19:42
  Great.
• 19:43
  You got a question?
• 19:44
  Yes, I've really enjoyed
• 19:47
  Norm's appearances on the Howard Stern Show.
• 19:50
  And I was wondering if he ever thought
• 19:53
  about either joining the show,
• 19:56
  had talked to Howard about that,
• 19:57
  or maybe having his own show,
• 19:59
  on one of Howard's stations,
• 20:01
  on serious satellite radio.
• 20:04
  No, I haven't.
• 20:06
  But then again,
• 20:07
  I don't think of anything ever.
• 20:09
  I never think of anything.
• 20:10
  Yeah, you thought you were done the first time you've been away?
• 20:12
  Yeah.
• 20:13
  Basically, my career is like people ask people,
• 20:15
  other people think of stuff.
• 20:16
  So they go, you want to do this?
• 20:18
  I'm like, maybe we'll see what,
• 20:20
  first of all, we'll see what,
• 20:22
  and then after that,
• 20:23
  we'll see what the money is.
• 20:25
  What does that refer to?
• 20:26
  I don't like to say.
• 20:28
  What, can you give us a hint?
• 20:29
  Huh?
• 20:30
  Give us a hint, what this refers to?
• 20:31
  This?
• 20:32
  Yeah.
• 20:33
  No, this is mine.
• 20:34
  On the satellite live,
• 20:37
  on the 40th reunion show,
• 20:39
  40th anniversary show, right?
• 20:41
  Eddie Murphy was supposed to play Bill Cosby.
• 20:43
  Yes, that's right.
• 20:44
  Well, we wanted him to play Bill Cosby.
• 20:46
  Yes.
• 20:47
  And he didn't want to.
• 20:48
  Yes.
• 20:49
  What was that about?
• 20:50
  Well, he thought that
• 20:54
  all the facts were not in at that point.
• 20:57
  The documents said yet to be unsealed.
• 21:02
  And so being a big fan of Duke process,
• 21:08
  he decided it not proper to assume,
• 21:14
  to assume guilt.
• 21:16
  So I thought it was very admirable
• 21:18
  because it would have got a huge, huge laugh,
• 21:20
  you know, him doing Bill Cosby.
• 21:23
  And I thought it was kind of cool that he went,
• 21:27
  he doesn't need laughter.
• 21:30
  That's, he's kind of a zen-like guy, you know?
• 21:33
  Do you?
• 21:34
  When you talk to him, he's very calm.
• 21:38
  And then all of a sudden, he'll burst forth
• 21:40
  with the funniest thing he've ever heard.
• 21:42
  And then he returns to his,
• 21:45
  to his equanimous state.
• 21:49
  It's very, very interesting to see.
• 21:51
  How do you figure out how much to share
• 21:53
  about what goes on behind the scenes of SNL?
• 21:55
  Because I know that you were talking about Eddie
• 21:57
  not doing Bill Cosby on Howard Stern's show.
• 21:59
  And Seth Meyers wasn't crazy about that.
• 22:02
  He came out about the Ellen set.
• 22:04
  I wouldn't have told that.
• 22:06
  Seth Meyers of that?
• 22:08
  Yeah, he said,
• 22:09
  do we have the quote here?
• 22:10
  Just bring out the quote.
• 22:11
  He said, I wouldn't have told it.
• 22:12
  I feel the same way.
• 22:13
  I think when you're at SNL,
• 22:14
  you're seeing so many different things behind the scenes.
• 22:17
  There are often things to give away.
• 22:18
  That are yours to give away.
• 22:20
  Norm played it in a way that is very normal.
• 22:22
  Donald,
• 22:23
  Eddie went on to praise you.
• 22:24
  But I don't know what that means.
• 22:26
  I mean, how do you choose what to reveal
• 22:28
  and what not to reveal what to share
• 22:30
  and what not to share about an institution as powerful as it is?
• 22:32
  I always think what would Seth Meyers do?
• 22:38
  ridiculous.
• 22:40
  That's your, do you have like an necklace or something
• 22:43
  with a WWSMD and whatever you're in a pickle,
• 22:47
  just hold that and what would Seth do?
• 22:50
  Yeah, because if you really want to be really funny,
• 22:56
  then that's what you want to do.
• 22:59
  You want to think,
• 23:00
  what would make Seth Meyers laugh?
• 23:04
  That's how I live my life.
• 23:06
  What do you think of his show?
• 23:07
  Of what show?
• 23:08
  The Seth Meyers show.
• 23:09
  It's not something I would do.
• 23:12
  What do you make of the entire landscape
• 23:18
  of late night changing so much now?
• 23:20
  I mean, with Leno,
• 23:21
  Leno out of the picture,
• 23:22
  with what Falun's now doing,
• 23:24
  with Letterman gone,
• 23:25
  with Colbert coming in.
• 23:27
  You had a very heart-felt and teary good-bye to Letterman
• 23:31
  on one of his last shows.
• 23:33
  Well, I love Letterman.
• 23:34
  I was too young to understand Johnny Carras,
• 23:37
  everybody said he was the best.
• 23:39
  And I take it on faith, you know?
• 23:41
  But when Letterman came,
• 23:42
  then he was the voice of my generation, at least.
• 23:46
  And everyone since then
• 23:49
  hasn't come close in mind.
• 23:53
  But there's too many, you know?
• 23:56
  There used to be two Letterman and Carson Letterman.
• 24:01
  Yeah.
• 24:02
  And now there's a last count.
• 24:04
  I think there may be about,
• 24:06
  I think it was 40,000 someone told me.
• 24:09
  40,000.
• 24:10
  Someone told me 40,000.
• 24:11
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:12
  On the East Coast.
• 24:13
  Right.
• 24:14
  And so I said to myself,
• 24:16
  I said to myself,
• 24:17
  I said to myself,
• 24:18
  I said to myself,
• 24:19
  I said to myself,
• 24:20
  no, it's all splintered, you know?
• 24:23
  Yeah.
• 24:24
  I heard somebody say that.
• 24:25
  There's a great documentary about Carson
• 24:27
  if you want to get inside of why he was so great on Netflix.
• 24:30
  I come up with what it's called,
• 24:31
  but it gave me an insight for the first time.
• 24:33
  Oh, yeah.
• 24:34
  The original stuff that he was doing when he was young
• 24:36
  and just how groundbreaking
• 24:37
  and how really kind of, you know,
• 24:39
  boundary pushing and stuff that he was doing was,
• 24:41
  you should get it up.
• 24:42
  Yeah, because you used to like
• 24:44
  Graham Norton interviewing Sid James.
• 24:47
  Graham Norton's not on in Australia.
• 24:49
  I think, well, he wasn't when I was growing up.
• 24:51
  I don't know.
• 24:52
  You get in your British industry and very confused.
• 24:54
  I know.
• 24:55
  That's Skippy.
• 24:56
  Remember the magic boomerang?
• 24:59
  No.
• 25:00
  Feller had threw up a boomerang.
• 25:02
  Well, child, you know,
• 25:03
  threw up a boomerang.
• 25:04
  And this is an Australian program.
• 25:06
  And time would stop.
• 25:09
  And then he would go and do something.
• 25:11
  And then the boomerang.
• 25:14
  The boomerang would come back much later
• 25:16
  than an actual boomerang would, you know.
• 25:18
  Why are you so familiar with
• 25:20
  Arcane Australian television shows
• 25:22
  that even I have never seen or heard of?
• 25:24
  Oh, I know lots of facts.
• 25:26
  Do you know that it's called Down Under?
• 25:28
  Really?
• 25:29
  Yeah.
• 25:30
  What is?
• 25:31
  Australia.
• 25:32
  Australia is called Down Under.
• 25:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 25:35
  And also, if you spin,
• 25:37
  you spin the other way.
• 25:39
  If you spin.
• 25:41
  Yeah.
• 25:42
  Then you spin the other way.
• 25:43
  Yeah, you spin like a top.
• 25:45
  Yeah.
• 25:46
  You're a top spin.
• 25:47
  Yeah, I know.
• 25:48
  On Australia, a top spins the opposite way
• 25:51
  of a top in America.
• 25:55
  What happens if you just spin the top the other way?
• 26:00
  Oh, I think something happens
• 26:04
  with the universe.
• 26:06
  I mean, I'm not in my question.
• 26:09
  So if I spin a top the wrong way in Australia,
• 26:12
  then something happens with the universe.
• 26:14
  Why do you get makeup, but I don't?
• 26:17
  You did get makeup.
• 26:18
  I was talking to you in the makeup chair.
• 26:20
  I look like Nosferatu.
• 26:23
  I've got a little shine on my forehead.
• 26:25
  Yeah.
• 26:26
  Yeah, look at that.
• 26:27
  See that?
• 26:28
  Look at that.
• 26:29
  Not right there.
• 26:30
  Oh, yeah.
• 26:31
  Your widow's peak.
• 26:32
  Yeah, I know.
• 26:33
  Yeah.
• 26:34
  How come you've still got hair?
• 26:35
  Well, I have somebody else's hair.
• 26:37
  Oh, really?
• 26:38
  Is that effective?
• 26:39
  What?
• 26:40
  The hair transplantation?
• 26:41
  Oh, I never had a transplantation.
• 26:42
  Why do you have someone else's hair?
• 26:44
  I got a rug.
• 26:45
  Oh, a tube.
• 26:46
  A tube.
• 26:47
  What does it look like under it?
• 26:48
  It's a very good one.
• 26:49
  A bulb.
• 26:50
  Would you like to see it?
• 26:51
  Yeah, please.
• 26:52
  It's stuck too hard to this.
• 26:54
  It's stuck too hard.
• 26:56
  Do we have any solvents?
• 26:57
  Do any questions?
• 26:59
  Maybe some solvents.
• 27:00
  Solvents?
• 27:01
  Some kind of a solvent to just get the glue.
• 27:04
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:05
  Our viewers comment as they watch this online
• 27:07
  and someone's just commented,
• 27:08
  Natalie says, on the today show,
• 27:09
  you said that Amy Schumer is the funniest person in the world.
• 27:12
  How does she compare to Letterman?
• 27:14
  Oh, Letterman's funnier.
• 27:17
  But I was talking about the new generation of people that are out.
• 27:23
  Yeah.
• 27:24
  I consider personally,
• 27:26
  and I take myself out of the equation
• 27:29
  that Amy Schumer is the funniest person in the world.
• 27:32
  Now, if I were to put myself in the equation,
• 27:34
  I would say Amy Schumer is the second most funniest person in the world.
• 27:37
  Well, you already said Dave's more funniest,
• 27:39
  so she's third now.
• 27:40
  Well, Dave, you have a Dave's retired.
• 27:42
  He's still a person.
• 27:43
  I know, but it's hard to know if he's funny or not,
• 27:45
  because he's living in Wyoming with a buffalo going around.
• 27:52
  I don't believe he is.
• 27:53
  I think he's just back in Connecticut.
• 27:54
  Where are you always living?
• 27:56
  That's what what's his name?
• 27:57
  Is it say Rickles?
• 27:58
  Rickles used to say that he lives in Wyoming.
• 28:00
  Well, he used to say,
• 28:01
  there's one guy in a shed with a rake on it.
• 28:04
  Like did you just say stuff that made no sense?
• 28:07
  That's what I loved about Rickles.
• 28:09
  I had Jim Brewer on the show.
• 28:12
  I loved him.
• 28:13
  Yeah, he was talking about that.
• 28:14
  It was a nice boy.
• 28:15
  He was talking about a sketch
• 28:16
  that you guys were doing on SNL.
• 28:17
  Nice.
• 28:18
  Yeah.
• 28:20
  Well, yeah.
• 28:21
  I didn't know if that was willfully condescending.
• 28:22
  Oh, no, no, no, no.
• 28:23
  No, no, no.
• 28:24
  I meant that.
• 28:25
  That's a great boy.
• 28:26
  You know, he's a man.
• 28:27
  A man, he's a man.
• 28:28
  He's a grown man.
• 28:29
  He always seems like a childlike.
• 28:31
  He does.
• 28:32
  That's true.
• 28:33
  Yeah.
• 28:34
  And he's also always seems stoned,
• 28:36
  which is weird, you know?
• 28:37
  Yeah, yeah.
• 28:38
  His eyes have that.
• 28:39
  Yeah.
• 28:40
  But he was talking about this sketch
• 28:41
  where you were going to be playing Rod Sterling
• 28:43
  from the Twilight Zone.
• 28:44
  Sterling we call him.
• 28:45
  Sorry, what's Rod Sterling?
• 28:46
  Rod Sterling.
• 28:47
  And you were going to be doing this big, big impression.
• 28:49
  And Chris Katan.
• 28:50
  Oh, yes.
• 28:51
  Anoyed that you weren't in character
• 28:54
  doing the impression through the whole rehearsals.
• 28:56
  And just before you went to air live,
• 28:59
  this happened.
• 29:00
  Take a look at Jim describing the scene.
• 29:02
  I'll just say he goes,
• 29:04
  Hey, Katan,
• 29:05
  and everyone's a real penny ass like you.
• 29:07
  And you're a screw.
• 29:08
  Nobody likes you.
• 29:09
  Nobody likes you.
• 29:10
  Nobody is standing you.
• 29:11
  I can't stand you.
• 29:12
  You ask him out anyway.
• 29:14
  Three seconds.
• 29:15
  And he just insulted him on such levels
• 29:18
  that was so wrong that I can't repeat.
• 29:21
  And Lily, when the sketch started,
• 29:23
  he turned, he goes,
• 29:24
  Imagine if you will.
• 29:26
  I just, I just,
• 29:27
  Do you remember that?
• 29:30
  Yeah, I didn't say what he said.
• 29:33
  He was saying he was big.
• 29:35
  He was paraphrasing and being kind.
• 29:37
  What did you say?
• 29:38
  Well, Chris is a great guy.
• 29:41
  But he used to bring around women all the time to the show.
• 29:46
  You know?
• 29:47
  Big tall women, you know?
• 29:50
  Big bruises, you know?
• 29:54
  And he'd say,
• 29:55
  Look, I'm heterosexual.
• 29:58
  I mean, he wouldn't say that out loud.
• 30:00
  But that's what the picture.
• 30:02
  That would be the caption on the picture in the New Yorker.
• 30:06
  Boy, those are funny.
• 30:07
  So it was something related to his sexuality?
• 30:10
  Maybe.
• 30:11
  But listen,
• 30:12
  if I call a person gay,
• 30:14
  that meant that, you know, insult.
• 30:15
  It's a good thing to say.
• 30:16
  Yeah.
• 30:17
  Yeah, if you say it's an insult,
• 30:18
  you're the homophobic, not me.
• 30:20
  Correct.
• 30:21
  It's a Supreme Court sister.
• 30:22
  That's absolutely.
• 30:23
  Uh, we've got one now.
• 30:25
  Do you think the LGBT community,
• 30:27
  do you know, first of all,
• 30:28
  do you know even know what it stands?
• 30:29
  Yeah.
• 30:30
  What does that work?
• 30:31
  Let's be engaged by a sexual entrenched gender.
• 30:33
  Is it?
• 30:34
  I don't know if you're right.
• 30:37
  But...
• 30:38
  I mean, you can make up whatever acronyms you want.
• 30:40
  Well, you got a computer.
• 30:41
  You're going to look it up.
• 30:42
  I'm going to look up what LGBT means.
• 30:44
  That's what it means.
• 30:45
  That's what it means.
• 30:47
  Because B, I mean, all Bs are G.
• 30:52
  All bisexuals are gay?
• 30:55
  Well, yeah.
• 30:56
  Obviously, right?
• 30:58
  Well, they have gay components.
• 31:00
  All Bs are G.
• 31:03
  Uh, all Bs, all Ls are B.
• 31:07
  I'm sorry.
• 31:08
  Well, you're saying all bisexuals are gay.
• 31:10
  I'm trying to use some syllogisms.
• 31:12
  No.
• 31:13
  I'm saying, do you think any of them go,
• 31:16
  ah, she's a...
• 31:18
  I wonder if those...
• 31:21
  You ever think of the meetings they go?
• 31:23
  Uh, uh, can I,
• 31:26
  because, you know, they're community.
• 31:28
  The LGBT community.
• 31:29
  I don't know where it exists.
• 31:31
  Where they have their headquarters.
• 31:33
  But do you ever think the Ls and the Gs and the Bs go,
• 31:36
  ah, I have an idea.
• 31:38
  The Ts.
• 31:40
  You know, I think it's LGBT sounds good.
• 31:44
  And then somebody else will go,
• 31:45
  somebody with a hat that look like Carmen Miranda's.
• 31:48
  We go, no, I like LGBT.
• 31:50
  And then the other person,
• 31:52
  you're going to get a lot of trouble for this segment.
• 31:55
  I'm not.
• 31:56
  What?
• 31:57
  I'm not.
• 31:58
  I love everybody.
• 31:59
  You know what I mean?
• 32:00
  You know what I mean?
• 32:01
  With that love, what do we got?
• 32:03
  I don't care if a guy's a guy, a girl,
• 32:07
  a guy girl, I couldn't care less.
• 32:10
  I love them all.
• 32:11
  What do you make of that?
• 32:12
  I'll have sex with any of them.
• 32:14
  So you're with the B?
• 32:15
  Ah!
• 32:16
  You're the B.
• 32:17
  No, I'm just, I'm a person that is so tolerant
• 32:21
  that I would have sex with an allergy of BRT.
• 32:26
  Isn't that nice?
• 32:28
  But I would not have sex with a straight person.
• 32:35
  We've got some questions on Periscope.
• 32:37
  We're also on Periscope.
• 32:38
  Oh, cool.
• 32:39
  I was trying to get off of this live where it's written on the Periscope.
• 32:42
  Watch the heart shoot out, man.
• 32:45
  Yeah.
• 32:46
  Pink ones, the blue ones.
• 32:47
  Oh, they're lovin' it.
• 32:48
  They're lovin' it.
• 32:49
  Someone says, well, Norm bring his podcast back
• 32:51
  and someone says, does Norm want a career in golf commenting?
• 32:56
  Do you practically have?
• 32:57
  Because you do these vlogs?
• 32:58
  I do, love.
• 32:59
  I already am a golf commentator.
• 33:01
  I just use a new media outlet to comment on it.
• 33:08
  Twitter.
• 33:09
  Yeah.
• 33:10
  Which is way far past television.
• 33:13
  You probably don't get the...
• 33:14
  They don't give me this.
• 33:15
  That's the problem.
• 33:16
  And they don't give me any cash.
• 33:18
  No, Twitter doesn't.
• 33:19
  You don't get paid for Twitter, Norm.
• 33:21
  So I'm like, I said, man, I'd like to get out on Twitter
• 33:24
  because I'd like to make a lot of money.
• 33:26
  And I'd like to get some of this.
• 33:28
  But nothing.
• 33:29
  But that doesn't matter.
• 33:31
  You know, it's for the art.
• 33:33
  You know?
• 33:34
  And so...
• 33:35
  I think maybe your manager needs to speak to you
• 33:37
  about lucrative opportunities versus non- lucrities.
• 33:40
  Ah!
• 33:41
  Take your filthy lucrid.
• 33:43
  Make it filthier.
• 33:46
  I think Scott, do we have one more question from Scott?
• 33:50
  Scott, jump back in and you can wrap it up.
• 33:53
  Ask me about my podcast.
• 33:55
  Oh, yeah, that's right.
• 33:56
  Well, Periscope did.
• 33:57
  Yeah, Periscope.
• 33:58
  Is it coming back?
• 33:59
  Yeah, the problem with my podcast.
• 34:01
  I only get guests that are interesting, unlike you.
• 34:05
  You know, you have to just...
• 34:06
  Whoever they throw in here, you know, you have to...
• 34:08
  Yeah, but you're good.
• 34:09
  You're interesting.
• 34:10
  All right.
• 34:11
  You know, if we could start it all over, I would, you know.
• 34:14
  What would you start with?
• 34:16
  First of all, I just start with how much I...
• 34:21
  I love Caitlin Jenner.
• 34:24
  And how courageous I think she is.
• 34:28
  And all transgenders, you know, are courageous, you know.
• 34:34
  Except the ones that are serial killers.
• 34:39
  I don't care for them.
• 34:42
  I'm torn, actually, with the...
• 34:45
  Because I love the part of them that is transgender so much.
• 34:50
  There's only been two in the history of the world, you know.
• 34:53
  Transgender people or transgenders serial killers?
• 34:55
  Transgender serial killers.
• 34:57
  Ed Geen, and there was another fellow.
• 35:00
  Lady, lady.
• 35:02
  And I'm torn because the transgender part of them, I love so much.
• 35:07
  And the serial killer part of them.
• 35:09
  I mean, I don't care for that.
• 35:11
  You know, I mean...
• 35:14
  Let me just go out of the web here and say,
• 35:17
  I am against psycho-sexual sadists who slay people.
• 35:25
  But it's a difficult balance because on the other hand...
• 35:28
  I love transgender so much.
• 35:31
  I love them.
• 35:32
  Well, if I could have sex with a transgender every day for the rest of my life, I'd be happy now.
• 35:41
  As long as they're not straight.
• 35:43
  Yeah, I don't like straight people.
• 35:45
  There you go.
• 35:46
  You heard it here first, folks.
• 35:48
  Everybody but straight people.
• 35:49
  Everybody but straight people.
• 35:51
  Straight people I got no use for.
• 35:56
  Well...
• 35:59
  Is this an odd interview for you?
• 36:03
  I love it.
• 36:04
  I love interviews.
• 36:06
  I love interviews where I don't know where they're going to come from.
• 36:08
  Because I know that you can handle it.
• 36:10
  You know, sometimes...
• 36:11
  I got a lovely bunch of coconuts.
• 36:13
  That wasn't Ralph Harris.
• 36:15
  What was Ralph Harris' coconuts on?
• 36:17
  I don't know, but it was probably racist.
• 36:19
  Was he racist?
• 36:20
  I don't know.
• 36:21
  He's an old Australian man, yes.
• 36:23
  Yeah.
• 36:24
  He's an old Australian man.
• 36:25
  Old people are racist.
• 36:27
  We can even against Australians.
• 36:31
  Yeah.
• 36:32
  Australians are particularly racist.
• 36:39
  I can see her old day, but your real publicists would kill me.
• 36:43
  Oh.
• 36:44
  It'd go crazy.
• 36:45
  If you sat here all day, even if I left?
• 36:47
  No, if you left, that'd be fine.
• 36:48
  I will be sitting here all day.
• 36:49
  What am I going to do?
• 36:50
  I got a lot of stuff to do, a lot of people I interview.
• 36:53
  You're not the only one, Norm.
• 36:55
  You're a charming fella.
• 36:56
  Oh, thank you.
• 36:57
  How long were you in the...
• 36:59
  Let me just turn the tables for a moment.
• 37:01
  You know?
• 37:03
  Interview.
• 37:04
  Yeah, as long as you take the flag for the fact that I'm not rapping.
• 37:07
  When you're the journalist, you're the one who's job it is to, you know, afflict the...
• 37:17
  Again, I think of it too many more.
• 37:21
  You afflict the powerful and you...
• 37:26
  I hold the powerful to account.
• 37:28
  That's what you do.
• 37:29
  As a representative of the fifth estate.
• 37:31
  The fifth?
• 37:32
  I didn't know there was a fifth estate.
• 37:34
  I don't think there was now.
• 37:35
  There's a fifth one?
• 37:37
  Yeah.
• 37:38
  Is there a third tram?
• 37:40
  There's a lot of estates.
• 37:41
  There's a lot of estates, Norm.
• 37:43
  Okay.
• 37:44
  You're a good man.
• 37:45
  I got to kick you out.
• 37:46
  I love you, man.
• 37:47
  I love you, too, Norm.
• 37:49
  It was really nice.
• 37:50
  I mean, I don't love you that way.
• 37:52
  Well, unless.
• 37:53
  Unless.
• 37:55
  Unless I'm not straight.
• 37:56
  Yeah.
• 37:57
  All right.
• 37:58
  It's more coming up, Norm.
• 37:59
  All right.
• 38:00
  Watch this space.
• 38:01
  All right.
• 38:02
  Thanks for joining us.
• 38:03
  Thanks for our community members for their questions.
• 38:05
  And you can be sure to check out the newest.
• 38:07
  No, you never got the Scots, but.
• 38:09
  We didn't get to Scots.
• 38:10
  Scots had a question, yeah.
• 38:11
  Oh, yeah.
• 38:12
  We got his first one, though.
• 38:13
  He was the same guy.
• 38:14
  Oh, same fella.
• 38:15
  Yeah, same fella.
• 38:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 38:17
  The newest season of the last comic standing is on NBC tomorrow, July 22nd.
• 38:21
  Keep watching our first live.
• 38:22
  Plenty more conversations coming up.