Why Norm Macdonald Got Emotional on His Last “Late Show” Appearance (2016)

can i give you a compliment many times when i'm feeling down what i do is i go on uh youtube yeah yeah yeah and i watch you on various talk shows and i have a good laugh oh that's nice you're a very good talk show guest i believe disney world well there you go down in florida you ever go there i've never been there well you don't have your baron not barren but you're right i'm trying that's right i'm i'm barren i'm infertile and possibly have children you hate me now because there's stuff about your testicles [Applause] you know what's a funny thing about talk shows because you know i've done them for 20 years and 20 years ago when i went on a talk show you would talk and then it would just evaporate into nothingness and now it's forever right i have a uh where i'm saying how cosby is the greatest guy in the world you know what i mean they don't know what year it's from yeah or anything like that i'm not exactly sure what brought you to being a stand-up comic because you described like even in school you weren't the class clown or anything like that not at all no first of all i couldn't afford the shoes right to be the classic and what about the red nose how much does that cost there was no money in the family no but seriously you you that's all right you can go now that was a great line you can't do better than that you decide to become a comic you're working at it and you're working i guess it was in la at this point a johnny carson scout yes sees you in a club johnny carson has already announced his uh retirement right and johnny carson as you know used to be able to anoint comedians you became instant financial success so in my mind as he only had six months ago i said i'm going to be the last comedian to be anointed by johnny carson right so jim mccauley would come to the show you know he's the talent scout for the tonight show yeah yeah and then afterwards one time he came up he said the first time he said i didn't like you but i was really drunk great it's my whole life one time i'm on stage i look over he's necking with a girl oh my good god so then finally he goes uh he goes listen you're a jay comic and i go well what does that mean because jay letter was doing it monday night guest host so he's like yeah you're the you're more of a jay comic then whatever that means meaningless nonsense right so i go no no i think i'm a johnny comic that's what all my friends say you know he's like no jay and then he's like oh besides and then for some reason whispers that he goes jay will be taken over you know i know it was in the paper last year we saw that yeah he said if you do good on jay johnny will watch at home you know which again again an audition there was a lie like you know johnny's at home hey i wonder how jay's doing yeah johnny johnny by the way want the time off he wasn't sitting at home watching the tonight show right he was on a a yacht with bombastic bushkin and his wife and his beautiful wife alexis i ended up doing my first on dave and that was bad well there was a real bond letterman was your guy letterman was my career guy i mean he once said if we could have norman every week we would have and then he said the ultimate compliment there may be people as funny as norm but i don't know anybody funnier that had a floor right yeah no yeah that meant something to me that'll buckle your knees ladies and gentlemen could be the funniest man in the world we got the paperwork on that and he always called you norm mcdonald like he like he exaggerated your name whatever it was but you went on there and you did really well you picked up on that yeah it would always be norm mcdonald is here and i'm like old macdonald is here i don't know what it was norm mcdonald norm mcdonald norma mcdonald it was such a genuine moment when you were the last stand-up comic to perform on dave's show sometimes with the way you are the way you carry yourself i don't see you as an overly emotional person and i was really moved honestly when unless you were the last comic to stand up comic to perform on letterman you went out and did a set and then you turned to dave and you said a couple of heartfelt things and and you were moved to tears and i was really moved by that because i didn't know you felt that way about letterman and you were so complimentary to him and you kind of let down the the comedy thing which i thought was so strong because when you're doing stand-up you know it's false by nature yes and then all of a sudden you kind of opened up as to who you were for real yeah and you showed letterman how much you cared about him i'd just like to say i know that uh mr letterman is uh uh not for the marquis and he has uh he has no truck for the sentimental but if something is true it is not sentimental and i say in truth i love you and it was really genuinely moving and i think it's because you feel like wow well also it was accidental i didn't go out there with with that place no but you wanted to say something i wanted to say something i didn't know quite it was it wasn't that right um there was some stupid thing i'd written you know that sounded just written and fake and then when i started to say it i was like i was gonna sound i'll just talk you know did letterman say anything to you afterwards after the show was over or was it there was no discussion of it he whispered in my ear or something then you want to keep private private he said something to you that that you that was special uh toward you yeah yeah very special very special because and you know um the night after that bob dylan who was also holds a special place in my life was also on the show those three days were emotional very emotional for me yeah as much as saturday night live holds memories for me and david letterman although i have no backstage uh experience with him at all right um just things he's talked to me about in between commercials and stuff like that i i always felt so uh so close i felt i i really felt like that they talked about father figures that he was my father figure oh my god very funny norm and thank you thank you for everything thank you norm mcdonald ladies and gentlemen that was very sweet norman good night everybody

Channel: The Howard Stern Show

Views: 676,206

Rating: 4.9410744 out of 5

Keywords: The Howard Stern Show, Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Gary Dell'Abate, Baba Booey, SiriusXM, HSS, htvod, howard stern show, howard stern interviews, stern show, norm macdonald, johnny carson, david letterman, jay leno, late night talk show, late night, tonight show, late show, stand up, comedy, comedian, stand up comedy

Id: VmOTs36HFPw

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/runuover1981]

I’ve never seen that clip before. Thank you for sharing. I loved Norm so much. His delivery made everything hilarious This is one of the first times I’ve seen him being pretty serious. Rest In Peace.

[u/QuantumFeline1]

I’m glad I saw your post. I wasn’t aware he passed—definitely a huge shock. I was fortunate enough to see him perform maybe 10 years ago. His humor will be missed.