Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special

source: Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special

It's norm. If you love norm you'll love this, if you don't, its norm, so you're most likely wrong. Great fun and old fella rambles on and it's very funny. Sucks that this is most likely his last special but it'll do! RIP Norm.

I personally don't think this needed an audience or a stage. Presentation doesn't matter only the material. And in my opinion the material is fantastic and had us laughing really hard.

It was fantastic to see the old chunk of coal's face come on the screen, to hear his voice and inflections. But fans of this would do well to go on youtube and listen to his old full set recordings (bootlegged by fans) : All of the material is years old & well road tested. There is nothing new about Nothing Special. That isn't a knock on Norm, The stupid plague robbed us (as Dave mention's in the commentary his Covid set a day before lockdown is incredible) and robbed Macdonald of the right setting & health to allow him to work out a proper special. This is like being in the writers room which is a cool insight. I can't imagine what it is like facing the end and wanting to get stuff done in your art (or craft as he would call it) but all the way until he couldn't he wanted to make people laugh. That makes it his richest special of the three he did.

There's no real way to organize this so I'm just gonna spitball a few things Norm in my opinion was always at his best when he was in a room with people who hate his guts. Many of these jokes were edgy enough to get him in trouble but not so edgy that it's hateful. I wish she had the time to perform the set live because it would be incredible with half of the audience booing him. Norm has always been the biggest clown in the room, but there's a brief moment where you see how serious he took his craft. About halfway through the special, one of his dogs starts barking for a moment. The character he creates would make you think that he would get distracted or make a mention about it, but for a brief moment he broke character. He was completely unfazed. For a few seconds we got to see that everything he's ever done on stage has been on purpose. I laughed a lot. It also made me sad. There are some moments he talked about things like mortality where you realize he understands his time is limited. Like I said I don't really have a format for this. I just know that I really enjoyed this and I will be watching it again.

I listened to Norm Macdonald clips pretty much every day on youtube for years before he died. A couple months ago I heard rumors that he had filmed a set to be released upon his death. This was clearly not that. This was a homevideo recording of Norm organizing his jokes for an upcoming live show. It was one take.. I'm sure one of many. If you expected any slip of the mask from Norm as he looks back in his final years, you'll be disappointed. It feels like Netflix bought all the videos Norm made while practicing his cadence and joke order, saw that one was 50 minutes long and said.. that'll pass as a special! They clearly knew this was unfinished raw footage because they paid celebrities to close out the special at the end... not one of them praised a single joke. They just shared memories, stories we've all already heard. The panel was made up of Conan, Spade, Sandler, Chapelle, Letterman and Shannon (probably just because they wanted a woman) Dave Chapelle had an interesting perspective but you could tell that he hadn't spoken to Norm in years. Molly Shannon might as well have not even been there, she added nothing. Notably absent: Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Adam Eget, Attie Lang, Nick Swardson, Rosanne Barr, Laurie Metcalf, Louie CK.

Well the old chunk of coal is back it again one last time. This special was certainly special for the fans and especially Norm as its a one-take stand-up special without an audience. The lack of an audience does make the rhythm unique as you don't hear any cheering or laughing to interrupt the flow. The material is a little rough in some spots but any fan of Norm can guess how the jokes could've turned out had Norm spent more time on it. But the jokes hold-up and the remembrance by some his friends at the end of movie make it so much more endearing as you can see how much he touched people. All in all, I would recommend this special for any fan of Norm as well as anyone who could use a mood lifter as the final discussion from Norm's friends make the tribute all the more delightful.

This was taped at home by Norm MacDonald during COVID in preparation for a, hopeful, eventual Live show. Unfortunately he did not survive the battle with cancer and this show never happened. It is interesting to watch him work out the process but not the same as Norm working with a crowd. I love Norm and this was bittersweet but not fun to watch. The post set panel discussion was better than the special.

Very rough and not very funny. Norm was about subtlety and getting his jokes across with a minimum of words. Sophisticated humour. Here he spends an hour whining and kvetching about a series of things and much of what he says is not very funny. The half formed jokes are often there but the nuances haven't been worked out yet. Maybe the people around Norm thought this was worth sharing with his die-hard fans. Or maybe someone wanted to get one last payday. If you need your Norm fix, there is a more or less unlimited amount of his work online, to choose from.

The only bad thing is this is the last set Norm has given us. Thank you Norm, what a parting gift. The realization that there is no longer a Norm Mcdonald in the world, the best comedian in my view, feels too grim a realization.