One of the greatest comedians of our time recorded one more stand-up special before he passed away, but it has been unreleased until now.
Norm Macdonald, who passed away in September of last year at the age of 61, had a one-hour stand-up special that was never made public.
The renowned Saturday Night Live actor and comedian, famed for his deadpan delivery, received a cancer diagnosis in 2012 but kept his condition a secret. In the summer of 2020, he was working on fresh content for a Netflix special when he had to visit the hospital.
He wanted to get this on film “just in case, as he put it, things went south,” according to Lori Jo Hoekstra, Macdonald’s longtime producing partner, who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter. “His test results were not good, so during the heart of COVID-19 pandemic and literally the night before going in for a procedure, he wanted to get this on tape,” she said. He wanted to have something special to share in case something unexpected happened.
A stand-up special was filmed in Macdonald’s living room as a consequence. In a single take, the actor recorded the full hour. Hoekstra remarks, “He looks wonderful, and the material is fantastic.”
In the end, Macdonald survived the treatment without incident, and the video was figuratively thrown into a closet. But a year later, before his special could be fully taped in front of an audience, Macdonald was very ill. He eventually became ill in August and September of last year, and when he realised he had recorded this, he requested me to locate it so he could watch it, according to Hoekstra. “He saw it in the end, right before he died.” Macdonald even proposed the hour’s title, Nothing Special, which is typically self-deprecating.
On May 30, Netflix broadcasted the unexpected show Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special.
The stand-up hour is probably a first in the history of comedy; it is a testament from a performer who delighted in defying expectations and a postmortem last joke. No one has heard of any comparison to this [situation] from the many talks I’ve had among our network of friends in comedy and producing,” claims Hoekstra, who in addition to Nothing Special also produced Macdonald’s ABC sitcom Norm and his Netflix talk show Norm Macdonald Has a Show.
The programme will feature highlights from the recent Netflix Is a Joke Fest where Adam Sandler, Conan O’Brien, Dave Chappelle, David Letterman, David Spade, and Molly Shannon discussed Macdonald.
Hoekstra explains, “It makes me so pleased that I can share it, but it also makes me so sad that we can’t enjoy it with him. He didn’t do this to cause shock by the fact that it exists. He took the shot because he cherished and was really proud of his material. He put in a lot of effort, so the thought of not being able to show everyone would have truly saddened him. It was for the stand-up, he said. I simply hope people recognise his efforts.
