Norm Macdonald may have titled his final stand-up set Nothing Special, but it’s clear that, to his longtime friends, that certainly wasn’t true.
In a post-special featurette added to the upcoming release, David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler and David Spade react to Macdonald’s set and reminisce about their longtime friend. It’s heartfelt and deeply personal, with each of the participants sharing stories about what Macdonald meant to them.
O’Brien, for instance, says that Macdonald had “the best word choice of any comedian I’ve ever seen,” adding that he saw a clear love for Mark Twain in Macdonald’s work. He jokes that Macdonald was born either “300 years too late or 300 years too early.” He says that one of his favorite things about the comedian (who passed away in 2021 at age 61 from leukemia) was how he could plant the seed of a joke, appear to head off in another direction and then circle back around for a big payoff a while later. O’Brien adds that when Macdonald would come on his late-night show, the host would “be laughing before he did anything,” remarking that Macdonald is the only person he can say that about.
Letterman admired the way Macdonald could tell a story, even if it wasn’t true, telling the others, “I can remember reading his autobiography and enjoying it but being disappointed about 10 pages in when I realized it was all fantasy.”
Chappelle tells an especially poignant story about Macdonald, saying that he didn’t know him well in the ’90s when he signed on to be in a movie together. Chappelle’s dad died right before filming was set to begin, and he tried to get out of the role but just couldn’t. It turned out OK, though, Chappelle says, because “working with [Norm] was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me.” Calling Macdonald the “right guy at the right time,” Chappelle says the late comedian went out of his way just to make him laugh, seemingly because he knew Chappelle was dealing with a fresh loss. “It seemed very thoughtful and disarmingly empathetic,” Chappelle says.
Both Shannon and Sandler seemed touched by that story, because, as Shannon puts it, Macdonald always “wanted to make you feel so good.” Sandler and Spade remark that Macdonald was an especially good laugher, something that’s not always common amongst comedians. They tell a very sweet story about how, on their last tour with Macdonald before COVID, he bought a cowboy hat and wore it the whole time they were on the road. They both say Macdonald got emotional and expressed his love for his friends a lot on that tour, possibly because he knew that his time on this earth was limited.
There’s a sense among the comedians — none of whom knew that Macdonald was sick before he passed — that he’d have been “grossed out,” as Sandler put it, if his diagnosis had become public and he’d been subjected to old friends telling him what he meant to them. Not that Macdonald didn’t make a point to tell his friends how he felt, though. Shannon says she last saw him at the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary party, and, as soon as he saw her, he said, “I love you, Molly.” She continues, “I could feel that he had this kind of urgency to say exactly what was on his mind in the moment, because maybe he’d never have that moment again.”
There’s much more in the featurette, including a very funny story from Sandler about Macdonald’s eccentric gambling proclivities, Spade’s thoughts about the last couple of years of Macdonald’s life and some interesting insights into Macdonald’s love of books and his family.
Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special will be available to stream May 30.
