Norm Macdonald is widely regarded as one of the funniest standups working today, but he’s never had much luck when it comes to starring in a TV show of his own. That’s the focus of a fantastic new profile at The Washington Post today titled “Will Somebody Please Give Norm Macdonald Another TV Show?” In the piece, Macdonald candidly reflects on standup, SNL, Russian literature, his various TV projects over the years, his upcoming book, and more. The profile also includes interview excerpts with some of Macdonald’s friends, colleagues, and fellow comedians, like David Letterman:
“If we could have, we would have had Norm on every damn week. He is funny in a way that some people inhale and exhale. With others, you can tell the comedy, the humor is considered. With Norm, he exudes it. It’s sort of a furnace in him because he’s so effortless. The combination of the delivery and his appearance and his intelligence. There may be people as funny as Norm, but I don’t know anybody who is funnier.”
Conan O’Brien:
“Part of what makes him so compelling and so fun to watch is that he defies categorization. He doesn’t fit into any piece of the puzzle, and I think that might have something to do with why no one has said he’s perfect to host a show.”
And Comedy Central president Kent Alterman:
That’s not to say Macdonald hasn’t tried to go along. Like in 2011, when Comedy Central created The Sports Show With Norm Macdonald. He thought doing sports would limit his audience to men. Comedy Central said not to worry. The show died after one season. Alterman, the Comedy Central president, calls it one of “my greatest failures and successes. With Norm, I felt like I prevailed by getting him a show, but then I let him down because I couldn’t crack the code.”
Read the whole thing over at The Washington Post. The profile also includes hilarious text message exchanges between Macdonald and writer Geoff Edgers that include Macdonald retelling a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol called “The Overcoat” plus telling some jokes, over text, to Edgers’s 5-year-old daughter.
