At a comedy show afterparty, these women groupies came for Norm. And Norm, not interested, said, “Hey You don’t want to party with a old guy like me. My dick doesn’t work! Those fellas could probably use some company!”
And they did! They all left together and Norm just hung out with the staff.
If you ever met comedians, they’re timid and shy, and often starving for attention. So to see someone like Norm MacDonald do that made him so incredible to me. Just super confident in himself.
His confidence was really something else. All of his friends in comedy describe him as “fearless” because he was never desperate to prove himself and seemed to just do whatever he personally thought was funny.
There are multiple stories of him going out and bombing on purpose, just for kicks.
There are multiple stories of him going out and bombing on purpose, just for kicks.
I mean if you listen to his live stuff, a solid quarter of it is him bombing intentionally, then just antagonizing the audience. Its like whatever the opposite of crowdwork is.
I only know his most mainstream stuff, but his part of the roast of Bob Saget was basically him bombing on purpose. I’m pretty sure he was just bombing hard because he knew his fellow comedians would love it, and he didn’t care one way or another about the general audience, although the general audience ended up loving it too.
Oh 100%. Its that he understands the fundamental thesis of comedy. You have to subvert expectations. And if they expect you to subvert expectations, you have to subvert that too. Whatever you are not supposed to do, thats what you need to do. Its what Kaufman got. Its what all the greats understand. But what separates the GOATS like Norm is that they go there. Even if there is telling the same OJ jokes again and again. Even if its a 1950’s joke book.
You can’t do comedy if you don’t know where “there” is. You can’t be a GOAT if you aren’t the kind of person who can always just “go” there.
I have some positive stories about Norm.
At a comedy show afterparty, these women groupies came for Norm. And Norm, not interested, said, “Hey You don’t want to party with a old guy like me. My dick doesn’t work! Those fellas could probably use some company!”
And they did! They all left together and Norm just hung out with the staff.
If you ever met comedians, they’re timid and shy, and often starving for attention. So to see someone like Norm MacDonald do that made him so incredible to me. Just super confident in himself.
His confidence was really something else. All of his friends in comedy describe him as “fearless” because he was never desperate to prove himself and seemed to just do whatever he personally thought was funny.
There are multiple stories of him going out and bombing on purpose, just for kicks.
I mean if you listen to his live stuff, a solid quarter of it is him bombing intentionally, then just antagonizing the audience. Its like whatever the opposite of crowdwork is.
crowdplay? 🤔
Crowd edging?
Crowd gooning?
crowd sounding
(am i doing this right?)
I only know his most mainstream stuff, but his part of the roast of Bob Saget was basically him bombing on purpose. I’m pretty sure he was just bombing hard because he knew his fellow comedians would love it, and he didn’t care one way or another about the general audience, although the general audience ended up loving it too.
Oh 100%. Its that he understands the fundamental thesis of comedy. You have to subvert expectations. And if they expect you to subvert expectations, you have to subvert that too. Whatever you are not supposed to do, thats what you need to do. Its what Kaufman got. Its what all the greats understand. But what separates the GOATS like Norm is that they go there. Even if there is telling the same OJ jokes again and again. Even if its a 1950’s joke book.
You can’t do comedy if you don’t know where “there” is. You can’t be a GOAT if you aren’t the kind of person who can always just “go” there.
If you look at that roast, I think only Bob Sagat and Gilbert Godfrey got the bit … Everyone else looked confused. He fucking roasted the roast.