Norm Macdonald

In the newly released Netflix show shot in 2020, the late comedian delivers almost an hour of his trademark provocative humor.

You just lie” about the duties you’ll perform in the event of a crash. “I love doing gigs, and I miss it, my God I miss it,” says Macdonald. “Especially casinos, those were my favorite gigs, because I’m a DEGENERATE GAMBLER as it turns out. In the opening to the new Netflix event “Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special,” the graphics tell us:

Norm Macdonald “was, in a weird way, reconciling his mortality hilariously in front of us,” Dave Chappelle says of the late comic's "Nothing Special."

“This guy was, in a weird way, reconciling his mortality hilariously in front of us,” Chappelle says, after viewing the special. And this is what I said, ‘(Expletive) I almost picked that!’” Or when he cracks that his father was progressive because they had a "gender neutral bathroom." It was a very fitting goodbye.” Chappelle describes Macdonald as "uncharacteristically emotional when we parted company" the last time they saw each other at The Comedy Store. A picture from that night concludes Chappelle's "The Closer" special, dedicated to Macdonald. Chappelle says Macdonald picked his head up for the photo. I thought it was the other fella.’” And hanging out, and we have dinners and breakfasts and (expletive). He’d just be so much fun to see. He encourages the audience to having a living will and warns viewers, “You’ve got to be ready for anything life throws at you, in this here world. Macdonald loses his train of thought at times (whether that's part of his routine is hard to say). There are bits that might make some viewers cringe, like Macdonald's use of the R-word before launching into an uncomfortable bit about people with Down syndrome. It's interrupted by a dog barking in the background, and Macdonald's ringing phone, which he answers. The Quebec City-native, known best for his time as an "SNL" cast member (1993-98), died in September 2021 at 61. “I don’t want anybody painting my hair black on account I don’t want to die and then be surprised," when God says, "‘Well, I made your hair white. He wears a navy plaid blazer, baseball cap and headphones that he likes because they cover his white hair that he no longer wants to color.

The late comedian had some great material in a just-released stand-up routine recorded before his death.

David Letterman, Dave Chappelle and Adam Sandler are among the comedians who sat down to watch and discuss "Norm MacDonald: Nothing Special"

“That picture — it’s in the end of ‘The Closer’ — was the last time that I saw him. “I just had a sense of like, I could feel that he had this kind of urgency to say exactly what was on his mind in the moment. And there’s a picture of me and him and the back of Chris Rock’s head — I put it in my special,” Chappelle said.

Norm Macdonald's passing left a massive hole in the comedy world, simply because no one could tell a joke in the same way Norm could.

“The hardest drug I ever did: LSD. I was told to be careful because in 20 years I can have a flashback. In order to prove to the court how much he loves his kids, OJ pointed out quote ‘Hey, they’re still alive, aren’t they?’” “He has the disease of alcoholism. “ID is a strange abbreviation. In an interview with Larry King, Norm revealed that he is deeply closeted but not gay. “I went to a hypnotist. Hang around my couch, watching the TV. Just too lazy. Here are 15 jokes from the king of comedy to prepare you for Norm's new hour, Nothing Special. That worries me because I'm afraid of dogs.” Norm’s friends in the audience know what’s going on, but the crowd thinks he’s lost his mind. Thankfully, our prayers have been answered and a NEW Norm Macdonald special is being released on Netflix May 30th, meaning we'll be able to have our hunger satiated one last time. It’s a Macdonald must-watch.

The revered comic, who died last year, recorded his last Netflix set at home in 2020. It has the feel of a wake, as fans including David Letterman pay ...

It suggests that the outpouring of affection that greeted Macdonald’s death may have been as much to do with his personal qualities – of kindness, empathy and loyalty – as his work. Then there’s the closing riff, which peters out joke unfinished, the gag having dissolved into a halting expression of his love for his mum. There aren’t many duds in his final set, although there are sections that might be designed to spook the faint of heart. Here, this most secretive of comics (not for him the trend for confessional comedy) waxes nostalgic for a time when people weren’t expected to have opinions – which in turn triggers a thoughtful riff on why we allow elections to be decided by the “I don’t knows”. Here too, several sections on death: how we can’t pretend not to see it coming (“I made your hair white,” God tells Norm: “What do you think that was about? (“When he smiles,” says Chappelle, “I can picture him as a child.”) It’s a face that forbids us ever to take him seriously, ever to forget that it’s comedy that’s happening, that even the bits that sound truest or most throwaway are ticklesome constructions designed to make us (or Macdonald) laugh. Like the set Maria Bamford performed to her parents alone, it’s one of those specials where the ringing silences are compellingly part of the point.

David Letterman, Dave Chappelle and Adam Sandler are among the comedians who sat down to watch and discuss "Norm MacDonald: Nothing Special"

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The group was filmed talking about Macdonald's legacy during an appearance at "Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival." Spade opened up about Macdonald filming the ...

He left this gift for all of us." "While this version of ‘Nothing Special’ was not originally meant to be the final product, COVID restrictions prevented him from filming in front of an audience. "He just said, ‘You know, I keep trying to do my set,’ and he was getting weaker, which we didn’t know," Spade recalled.

Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald died in September after a battle with Leukemia.

"Norm was working hard preparing material for his Netflix special — until COVID shut things down," a title card on the Netflix series explained. For most of the special, Macdonald sits in a desk chair with a single camera on him. While the dark jokes about death could be connected to his battle with leukemia, Macdonald didn't directly address his illness in the special.

Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special captures the late comedian's last great routine, before six of his famous friends share their fondest memories.

Many of his initial jokes deal with changing terminologies and a widening consciousness around gender and sexuality, and while Macdonald admits to being of a different generation, and a man who can’t possibly know it all, his punchlines all come from a place of attempting acceptance, and trying to understand as much as he can before the end. In that sense, it feels intimate, like a video message left to you personally from beyond the grave, in which otherwise light rambles about death and childhood are imbued, retrospectively, with a sense of gravity, now that we know more about the health issues he was dealing with at the time. He would live for another year and a half, but he seems to have intended for the special to be released after his impending passing, so it feels distinctly like the work of a man reckoning with his mortality.