You’re like the epitome of the type of person Norm would talk about in his book, where he got all this praise for being so funny and how all these people wanted to meet him, then he’d go out on the road and nobody would show up 💀
Knowing what we now know, that Norm was already suffering from cancer during this interview, which is one of the best of his life, talking so eloquently about death, reminds us of the sheer power of the mind that was Norm. A legend. A true star. He will not be forgotten. We are ALL Norm.
Norm telling us that he gambled because it let him worry about losing money rather than ruminating on death was pretty deep. At the time I didn't think it was very big deal but in hindsight Norm worried about dying for ten years before he passed.
@@Wallyworld30 he worried a lot longer than that! He also had cancer (stomach cancer) in his 20s which almost killed him then. So even before the second diagnosis he was already obsessing over death and his health.
Yes we do! Norm and so many other great comedians deserve so much more love. Keeping his name alive by watching and sharing his work is an expression of that
I like to watch movies...and the movies I like best are porno. And did you know they've got this thing called "gay porn?" It's terrible! It's all guys! Guys having sex with each other! No women anywhere!
Norm always had a problem with handsome people? WTF! Sad he never realized he was a super handsome dude, classically good looking, dimples, tall and striking blue eyes. Even as a mature man, with some padding, he was attractive, always good humoured and hilarious, of course. He had a curious mixture of innocence and sophistication that made him endearing. Child and cantankerous, old man at the same time is not easy to pull off, but it was not a persona, it was just the uniqueness of Norm. Maybe his physical insecurities informed his comedy in a way confidence or arrogance would have erased, but it’s a shame he did not realize women found him very appealing. Can’t think of any other comic where I laugh and swoon at the same time. Funny to the core and master of his craft.
Norm in middle age when slimmer reminded me of an old school movie star. He had an appearance on letterman, the one when he talked about golfing with a guy who knew john fogerty, he was so handsome with that twinkle in his blue eyes. Also a very sharp dresser when he wanted to. He was always tall dark and handsome, but that was my favorite look with norm. He waa adorable as a child too. ❤❤❤
Norm is the only person I've heard that can tell the same story or joke on different shows & podcasts & still make it funny & interesting. I must've heard some of these stories 3 or 4 times already but I'm still entertained. How does he do it? Is it because he's just so genuine, funny, & interesting himself?
He talks about the wisdom and lightness of all the old people he grew up around and how he wished he could have that immediately without having to live life first. I suspect that the act he puts on that we all love and that has made him famous is just him acting like an old person and the timing and everything is so finely crafted because he spent his entire youth surrounded by old people. The old person he's acting like has all the good traits and comedic timing of the old people he had observed his entire life. This might not be it but I only say this because I also grew up around old people and death and in my experience, what he says about their attitudes is true and I also feel like my personality was influenced by my desire to have the carefree wisdom that I saw in all these old dying people who you would think should be full of dread. Of course a part of them dreads what their future holds but maybe they've come to the conclusion that ruminating over things you can't control doesn't help anything and you might as well just do you best to spread joy and relief in this horrible joke of a world we live in. Like Norm said, flipping that switch of positivity that Marc hates to hear about does in fact work in acting and comedy. It also works in real life and it's pretty much the only thing you really have control over in this hellish facade of an existence so why not try to help yourself and everyone around you instead of complaining about how tragic reality is since that's abundantly clear to everyone already.
Wow, what a great conversation. I only discovered Norm as a comedian shortly before he died, guess he's not that famous outside the greatest country on earth and all that. But now he is without a doubt my favourite comedian ever and here he is so real as a person. This podcast is just a beautiful spontaneous honest flow, thank you.
@@16MXD So happy to say Patrice's memory is still alive. Danimations has made some great animations of his work that are spreading his gospel to the new generation. There will always be an audience for Patrice because he's a truth teller in a fake world
I can just picture how uncomfortable Norm probably looked when Marc started ranting about politicians. Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation, just being scared of spiders and shit.
Maron's political rambling is the most juvenile form of punditry. I've heard him go through these same rants dozens of times before and it never goes beyond just hacky, childish ranting. I sometimes wonder if he really knows anything about politics at all.
Gotta love how Norm's beliefs stand the test of time and Mark's, even though I often find him insightful, are the kind that lead to the downfall of civilizations.
Too bad Mark interrupted him when he was just about to tell something interesting about Patrice. An interesting interview but an interviewer should never, never, continually interrupt the conversation. I must say that Norm handles it very well
I have to admit - the entire conversation got far more interesting as it went on. Actually touched on some meaningful and quasi-intellectual subject matter towards the end...
That was a very enjoyable interview. Marc and Norm seem to see many things from the same perspective. Pleasantly surprised at how relaxed and interesting their conversation was. Kudos Marc!!
it seems pretty backhanded. he learned that a comedians success isnt based on the quality of their writing or how funny their jokes are. sinbad taught him that those things arent even necessary lol
Pharmaceuticals -- it seems he consumed them throughout his adult life. Wikipedia says he died from a disease known to be caused by some sort of cancer treatment..."but in early 2020, Macdonald developed treatment-associated myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer that often develops into acute leukemia."
Shannon Campbell I understand what they mean though. There’s a difference between the shy handsome mysterious wallflower type and the popular center of attention guy who gets dates easily based on his looks. I can see norm being the former and jay mohr being the latter.
1:15:55 Crazy how he just slips out his sickness here. It's interesting to speculate on how his illness probably informed his life which in turn affected his stand up and general outlook on life.
When he talks about naming things for the blind guy he's describing therapy. Naming objects we see around us is an anti anxiety thing. That's a really cool insight into nine year old Norm MACdonald.
I just randomly got turned on to Marc Maron through the show Glow and have been listing to his podcasts on RU-vid. This by far is is the funniest interview I have ever heard. I love the long format. Talk shows are always selling something and we get 2 minutes with the guest. Keep up the good work Mark.
+artimus And you sound like a finished donnybrook clone/clown...enjoying the rapidly accelerating donward spiral? It is so heartening to know that we have a mentally challenged Prezijoke...Mueller Ain't Going Away!!! Brace yourself for President Pencebot! (a funeral for every aborted fetus in every pot)
If you like this interview, check out Norm Macdonald's podcast. They recently took down the official videos from RU-vid & put them on Amazon Prime, but you can still find some copies on here if you don't have Prime.
And its interesting to note that those that know him professionally will in all seriousness describe him either as a serious atheist or passionate god fearing man.
I have no idea how I missed this interview. It’s incredible. Norm is spot on about every great author grappling with faith in the end. I hope Norm has found peace.
11+ minutes of Marc babbling and shilling before we can get to Norm is insufferable. Shout out to the hero in the comments who put the timestamp for the start of the actual interview. RIP, Norm.
Norm is very astute. His firing always bothered me, because if Lorne didnt want it to happen it wouldnt have happened. Not even the president of the network would have overridden Lorne's word on SNL. This is the first time Ive heard anyone mention that it wasnt due to Olmeyer, and it was Norm :)
*Eastside Low Bottoms shit !* Shout out to Norm for shouting out Patrice O'Neal. Norm's generation is whn i started watching SNL on a regular basis. It was probably my late teens. Him doing Update was funny to me because, even in the face of no laughter he pressed forward. Gotta love Norm !
I love Marc’s question at 17:21 - asking Norm to talk about himself instead of generalizing. Big pet peeve of mine is when I or others say “you” or “people” when they mean “me”
Norm actually says in this interview that he obsesses with worry about his upcoming illness and death. Of course, Marc Maron took that to mean the eventual mortality we all face, but Norm was hinting at what was really happening to him.
Norm and Farley were too good for this world. Both devoted their lives to Comedy. Out of respect for Norm, I wouldn't want to see or hear anything he didn't make public, but I love hearing about his opinions on other entertainers, especially because the two of them (In the superior opinion of MifflinStHODL) could not have had two different comedic styles. But they were masters of making anyone laugh and never allowing a room to get too serious. I learned in that VICE show that Farley tried stand-up a few times before Second City, because he knew Comedy was his calling. Nothing will help to reset your perspective on life and help you understand what is truly important in than laughter, and the two of them knew that. Well... laughter or getting gang r@ped by a bunch of well-endowed fellas that are great at dunking basketballs.
Maron just can't keep politics out of his stuff. It's held him back more than he knows. Your job is to be entertaining, thought provoking, funny, ect...It is NOT to be a demagogue. Norm understood this in a way Maron never will.
Norm would need benzos to deal with laughing hysteria? He’d laugh to the point of needing meds? I guess that explains why he explored every dark corner of jokes and found some of the funniest angles on things. Gift and a curse in a way. Truly fascinating. This is one of the most honest interviews I’ve heard him give.
Genius interview uncovers all? Macdonald: “…(I have no faith because)..I think I’m not deep enough!” Does Macdonald reveal his entire persona in that single sentence? As a child, Norm Macdonald was extraordinarily fearful. (Perhaps poverty and lack of peers, etc.). Then one day as a child, Norm must take a blind man to the market: An overwhelmingly frightful prospect. But suddenly, in a flash he finds solace and refuge from his fear: He disconnects or disassociates from the environment. Unexpectedly, the fright evaporates and is replaced by laughter! Macdonald says in the interview he is frightened of nothing - Except death: the one thing he can’t escape by a process of mental gymnastics. Ironically, it is Macdonald’s dismissive style that makes his comedy so appealing to audiences. Years ago, I wrote a medical text on psychological pathologies and treatments. To write it I did a great deal of research including an examination of dissociative disorder: a condition arising as a solution to profound fear. In the most extraordinary & extreme cases, CIA spooks would electroshock a victim. Normally, as a matter of protection, a person undergoing such torture would pass-out. Our clever CIA men would drug the victims with an elixir that prevented them from passing out. What the CIA men discovered was their victims would ‘disconnect’ from the environment; and, yet remain awake. The victim would be there physically, but mentally as a means of survival, they had mentally disconnected from the pain: entering into a condition of abrupt dissociative or psychogenic fugue. Under these extraordinary circumstances, the CIA men could in some cases forge an entirely new persona into the victim. They could ‘autosuggest’ to the victim that their name was, “Mr. Brown”; they could convince the victim that he would escape pain anytime when he heard a particular phrase, (such as ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ - apparently a CIA favorite); and, this artificially produced victims’ persona would be extraordinarily suggestable. In some cases, they could induce this ‘Mr. Brown’ to go and assassinate so-and-so. On the day of the ‘hit’, the CIA would induce upon the victim by some phrase the appearance of Mr. Brown; together with the ‘kill instructions’. After the hit, the victim (the killer) wouldn’t remember a thing! This CIA derived example is an extraordinary case. However, it shows us how the human mind, under extraordinary fear, can undergo a dissociative or psychogenic fugue as a means of coping and survival. For many years I have come to examine many patients who learned to cope in life by performing a type of mental calculus whereby they mentally dissociate or disconnect from the environment as a means of safety. In nearly all cases, the patient was chronically suffering tremendous fear in childhood. Under those conditions the patient ‘learned’ this means of survival: they have disconnected psychologically in a way for which they are insulated from fear. My hypothesis about Norm Macdonald is based upon my intimate knowledge of dissociative disorders and Macdonald’s interview: His sudden & immediate mental transformation as a terribly frightened child to one who merely laughs it off; a lack of substantive fear in nearly all circumstances (such as being on stage); his abrupt, sudden and overwhelming emotional collapse over symbolism (eg, the 16th century painting of the beautiful woman); apathy over loss of father; inordinate reluctance to watch himself on TV; and, greatly fearing the loss of emotional control due to laughter (perhaps fearing at times that he can’t fully control the very dissociative mechanisms that shields him from a deeply rooted & profound fear of his environment). Perhaps too this would explain his apathy at three times losing the entirety of his wealth. In fact, he felt that ‘losing-it-all’ gave him a sense of well-being, levity, and a freedom from concern over the fundamental matters of survival: By losing all his wealth he felt blissfully disconnected from ‘life’s concerns’. Comedy saves us from a great many difficult things in life. It can be used as a shield. Maybe Norm Macdonald’s apathetic comedic style might be explained by my theory. Macdonald: “…(I have no faith because)..I think I’m not deep enough!” It might be too frightening for Macdonald to open up to vulnerability. It might just be too painful to immerse himself into the emotional void or to let-go and trust in ‘faith’. As a child, he learned and continues to disconnect from all things as a way to overcome social anxiety and fear. If this is true, then only a Super Human journey - Such as that illustrated in Joseph Campbell’s, “The Hero of a Thousand Faces” - can bring him out into the open and ultimately a cure. Many mythologies across time speak of how to treat this dilemma. There is a wonderful episode of the early 1970s TV series Kung Foo called, “One Step into Darkness”. In this episode Master Po tells Bruce Carradine’s character (Shalon Monk Kwai Chang Caine), "To run from your demon is to have him pursue you. Better to advance to meet your demon in his world than have him pursue you into yours." To be sure, we must all come out from behind our mother’s skirt, and face our demons. If you have enough faith to trust in the Universe, you will rise to the challenge; evolve; and, become one of the Hero’s of a Thousand Faces. If we refuse that journey, great anxieties will develop. Big pharma will profit wildly by selling us benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines act as a torniquet around nerve bundles in the brain. In the short term this can lessen the pain of anxiety and so on. However, over the long term it causes large swaths of the brain to die. Soon the victim of long-term benzodiazepines becomes more and more weak-minded. As more and more of their brain dies, it becomes weaker and weaker. In time the typical patient will start abusing alcohol, opioids, etc., in an attempt to prop up their weakened emotional stability. Hundreds of celebrities over time have suffered and/or died as a direct and proximate result of Benzo’s: Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Simon & Brittany Monjack, Paris Hilton, Courtney Love, Howard Hughes, Stevie Nicks, Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Judy Garland, Lucile Ball, Tennessee Williams, DJ AM (Adam Goldstein), Brittney Murphy, Mike Starr (Alice in Chains), Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Tyler, Tara Connor (Miss USA), Kurt Cobain, Keith Moon, River Phoenix, Chris Benoit, Edward Fatu (aka Umaga), Karen Carpenter, Andy Irons, Janis Joplin, Natalie Woods, Billy Mays, Corey Haim, Maryland Chambers, Amanda Peterson, Misty Upham, American author David Foster Wallace, Carrie Fisher, Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Plato, Stephan Paul “Elliot” Smith, Prince, Don Cornelius, Sinead O'Connor, Heath Ledger, Robin Williams, Mary Anissa Jones, Elvis Presley, “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, James Sullivan, Elisa Lam, Jimi Hendrix, Junior Seau, Elisa Bridges, Paula Yates, Amy Winehouse, Liz Taylor, tennis champion Boris Becker, singers Marc Almond, Liza Minnelli, comedian Freddie Starr, all-pro football star Junior Seau, comedian Sam Kinison, comedian Chris Farley, comedian John Belushi, comedian Phil Hartman’s wife Brynn, Marlon Brando’s daughter Cheyenne, Paul Newman’s son Scott, author Iris Chang, Larry Kings wife, Elisa Bridges (former Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 1994 who died of Xanax), creative director of fashion giant Dior, John Galliano, Ex-WWE Superstar Ashley Massaro & Chyna (born Joan Marie Laurer - Benzo’s and Z-drugs), and many more. The fact is that benzodiazepine drugs have been known to cause continual brain damage for over the last 30 years. Therefore, since the early 1980s, their long-term use has been banned in many Western countries. Meanwhile, in the USA, their use is never-ending as the manufacturer enjoys a several hundred percent markup over the international generic equivalent. However, it is just as likely that I am entirely wrong in my uninformed analysis of Norm Macdonald. No one in my position could possibly know for certain. My prejudgment’s here were merely meant to illustrate dissociative disorders, the profound dangers of social anxiety and long-term use of benzo’s, and to spark discussion. It is more likely that Norm Macdonald is not only an extraordinary comedian, he is extremely well-balanced. And people feel great comfort in the quiet reassured confidence, poise, and light-hearted nature of his comedic persona. I am far from perfect and continue to evolve as I embrace and work-through my own (many) imperfections. It is a wonderful thing - a reviving & saving grace - to benefit from the marvelous comedy of Norm Macdonald and Marc Maron! Humor saves us!
Appreciated this comment and did not know those terrifying things about jenzos having never taken them. But it does make me wonder if you have obliquely admitted a past crippling addiction to benzos or a previous period in life as an MK Ultra victim? Forgive my presumptiousness. You are likely a very well-adjusted historian of psychology! RIP Norm, brilliant and hilarious, he set the bar for future generations. Maron, not so much, but he's a decent interviewer.
@@LivingInTheKaliYogurt - There were some troubles in mental health care here where I live. So, I wrote a medical text on psychiatric care in an effort to improve things. To write the book I did a lot of research. I examined over 100 celebrities that died of benzos. I also investigated the CIA mind control programs in an effort to understand disassociation disorder. [Physicians frequently misdiagnose disassociation disorder as Asperger syndrome (AS).] A few notes about Benzos: How long can I safely use Benzos? A few weeks. Why can’t I use Benzo’s longer than that? With continued use they cause key areas of the brain to wither away; cause memory loss; sleep disturbances; and the inability to ‘lift’ the emotional challenges of day-to-day living. Symbolically: you could say that over time, with continued use of Benzo’s, your brain will need a wheel chair to get around! As a direct result, long term Benzo users find themselves being prescribed yet more and more benzos’; and when that fails, patients will often add alcohol and/or narcotics in an attempt to support their sagging mental structure.1 What is the purpose of Benzos? To anesthetize your brain from pain - Just like an aspirin or opium does for a headache, or musculoskeletal pain. If it’s so dangerous, why do physicians prescribe it for longer periods of time? Because they are really great for business! Drugs in the USA are over-priced - sometimes as much as several thousands of percent higher than the international generic drug equivalent - and that means big profits for the pharmaceutical companies! As you will note, government regulators are the same men that work for the pharmaceutical companies for which they are charged to protect us! Just think of all the additional medications and medical procedures that could be required after taking long-term benzo’s! It’s all great for business, but not for the patient. With continual use, you find your physician prescribing yet more and more benzo’s,2 and later Z-drugs to help you sleep, (Z-drugs like Ambien also erode brain matter), and so on. The longer you are on Benzo’s, the more disabled you become, all of which guarantees that you become a life-time patient! In fact, following an analysis of around 100 dead celebrities, from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson, it was discovered that long-term Benzo use led to their death!3 But I thought the doctor was trying to promote good mental health? Well, an uninformed physician might actually think he is trying to help. Many physicians just want to use your body like Energy Chattel. If it’s so dangerous, why haven’t I heard of this problem before? The rest of the world has been warned and has been instructed to avoid longer term use. Many countries like the UK, Germany, Holland, and others have long-standing policies against the long-term use of Benzos. US drug industry regulators also work for the very same corporations they are supposed to protect us from - As a direct result, USA medicine is ranked 72nd overall,4 and has the world’s most expensive pharmaceutical costs. For instance, in the USA the Benzo Xanax is priced 600,000% higher than the International Generic Drug Equivalent (alprazolam). So as you can see from the corporate share-holders point of view, it’s really great for business to keep you laid-out on Benzos! So, what is the actual cause of the mental health disorders they are treating? Science has deployed a whole collection of brand-new brain imaging methods to answer that question. These devices have allowed science to actually see inside of the brain and monitor its level of activity. Using these new imaging techniques scientists have discovered that key parts of the brain among patients with depression and anxiety are weak & underactive: Specific modules of the brain have simply withered away! It is little wonder the patient has a really tough time lifting the emotional requirements of daily life. It was appreciation of this fact that created a new paradigm shift in the understanding & treatment of these disorders: to strengthen the organic structures of the brain as if it were a muscle. Footnotes: 1 Jones CM, et al., Alcohol involvement in opioid pain reliever and benzodiazepine drug abuse-related emergency department visits and drug-related deaths - United States, 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014 Oct 10;63(40):881-5. 2 Morgan WW, Abuse liability of barbiturates and other sedative-hypnotics. Adv Alcohol Subst Abuse. 1990;9(1-2):67-82. 3 Ask for a free copy of my medical text, Treatment for Disorders of Affect, Anxiety, Attention, Addiction & Compulsion. See chapter 3, starting page 6 onward for analysis of coroner reports. 4 Medicine in the USA is ranked 72nd overall - Miles behind Cuba: To top off crappy health care, the US Medical industry is essentially an Insurance Company gulag financed by the Wall Street banking terrorist. www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications/Fund-Reports/2008/Jul/Why-Not- the-Best--Results-from-the-National-Scorecard-on-U-S--Health-System-Performance-- 2008.aspx Yes, Stephen Paddock Was Prescribed Valium. And it very well could have led to his shooting spree! themindunleashed.com/2017/10/yes-stephen-paddock-prescribed-valium-no- might-not-explain-massacring-59-people.html
Not sure if you are aware, but Norm wrote a book that was part memoir part fictional comedy. One chapter is devoted to his being molested by a man who had been taken in by his family. The next chapter which supposedly covers the 5 years during which that took place is summed up in one sentence: I forget. Obviously, there is nothing comical about those chapters, so it seems it must be true.
@@motleysue8171 - Wow! I did not know that. I only knew of Norm from this interview and took a guess. I figured I was correct or really off base. That is why I wrote, "However, it is just as likely that I am entirely wrong in my uninformed analysis of Norm Macdonald. No one in my position could possibly know for certain." Dissociative Disorder secondary to trauma is quite common in the USA. I believe this is because the USA has been at continual war for all but 17 years since its inception in 1776. VETS come back with broken minds - which in turn infect and radicalize the culture. One scary aspect in dealing with people with dissociative disorder is that you have no idea what is hidden behind the mask - the artificial persona they create for themselves.
Wow. Norm and I share the ability to laugh at everything. Although I've never had a panic attack because I laughed too hard. Almost died after 3-hours of laughter once. As I recovered I thought, "This is how I want to go out."
Stendhal Syndrome is supposed to refer to Stendhal's visit to Florence, if I recall correctly. He was overwhelmed by the old church and fainted (according to his later account anyway)
@@bofeity apparently his friends didn’t even know he was sick and he just died from cancer he had for awhile just can’t believe it it’s still so sad 😞 I miss his comedy and everything he did I’m a huge fan it’s just heartbreaking 💔 just can’t believe he’s gone doesn’t seem real I don’t get it sucks 😢
55:05 This made me burst out laughing when I was alone in public🙊 ...I know for sure that it scared a few old people walking ahead of me lmao I love the voice he imitates for this joke Ps. Thank you dave lynch👍
