He was often playing at the legendary Mayfair in NYC and he never said a word. Joel Bagels would be yakking away making everyone laugh and not a peep from the pro which was disappointing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Beale
He came to perform in a nearby town many years ago and dropped in to CAZ's 20-40 LHE. Not a peep but I decided to go to the show because I was curious as to why he was considered great.
Well! W/I 30 seconds he had the house roaring and it never stopped.
RIP
Norm was not a comedian who always had to be the funniest guy in the room which is part of what made him so great.
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. — some humorless guy, apparently.
Anyway, this is, imo, Norm's great poker joke, which I believe I heard on the 2+2 PokerCast at some point, and I have retold a fair number of times since:
It was actually Thor Hansen who said that... funny remark though.
Bill Simmons did a podcast this AM with Norm’s longtime producer. 30 mins of firsthand Norm stories….as funny as he was on TV he was supposedly even funnier IRL. The pod is one of the most epic 30 minutes of absolute hilarity I can remember.
Funniest guy in my lifetime, just the best. Single greatest talk show guest of all time, and somehow his standup was even better. I once saw him two sets straight in DC, completely different 90 minutes both times, something that most comedians work a lifetime for he was able to completely change in one night. His unique comedic genius didn't stop there, he recognized my buddy and I from the first show and sat at our table during the middle act. Now this was no normal middle act, this was quite possibly the worst comedian in the history of comedy. He was a guy whose schtick was that he was an atheist, but not only that he was the most hardcore atheist ever and every joke was about how much of an atheist he really was. Well Norm knew this guy was going to bomb, so there he was sitting at our table cackling at the top of his voice over every non punchline. Whole place was groaning four minutes in, except our guest of honor who was loving every minute.
One of my best friends and I would wait for Norm tickets like most people wait for concerts and sporting events. The guy had the most unique take on the world, constantly searching for the perfect joke and never taking the easy punch line. My favorite memory was at the small showroom at the South Point where I probably saw him 8 times. In between making us die laughing, I am sitting front row and he asks me what I do for a living. We begin to talk for five minutes about poker during the set, he invites me backstage to continue our gambling conversation, and then just lays into how boring my buddy who is an accountant.
It's one thing to be funny, its a whole different thing to do anything for a laugh. He got fired from just about every hollywood job he ever had because of that drive. When the head of NBC whose best friend was OJ Simpson told him to stop with the constant OJ jokes, he shoehorned in every OJ joke he could think of. When comedy central tells him he needs to be brutal during the roast of Bob Saget, he reads from a the softest joke book from 1950. When the University of Iowa sold 10s of thousands of tickets but told him about what he couldn't say, he brought out his most lude set and laughed as thousands of people ran away from their seats. He has been banned for three decades at ESPN after ignoring the producers and having the funniest opening monologue at any awards show in history. He was uncompromisingly dedicated to the art of joke telling, while at the same time underselling how incredibly well read and analytical he really was. He didn't even tell those closest to him that he had cancer so as not to get in the way of making the audience laugh.
I haven't been able to start once again going down that Norm Macdonald youtube tunnel, but I can't wait for when I am able to again. Just remember, board is spelled "bored" and there are some things they can't take away from you, unless you kill your wife and waiter.