The Washington Post has a fantastic profile of Norm Macdonald, who is, without hyperbole, one of the funniest people alive. Just ask David Letterman. He glowed, “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.” Even Norm knows he’s the best. He turned down a stand-up performance at the Comedy Store with Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Louis C.K. because “the only thing that would happen is I would destroy. Which leads to nothing.”
That same feeling of resignation is also why Macdonald doesn’t have a series of his own, which Comedy Central President Kent Alterman calls “one of the great injustices in the world.” He pitched a fake reality show to FX, which the network liked, but things fell apart due to some self-sabotage on his part.
[FX] wanted him to get a writing partner. So Macdonald recruited [Simpsons co-creator Sam] Simon, a friend. They signed a development deal and wrote a script. The network loved it and was about to order a season. Except Macdonald hated the script.
“Just a bunch of nonsense,” he says now, “and Sam was in it more than me, which I didn’t expect at all.” (Via)
Macdonald secretly wrote another script on his own, and sent both copies to FX. “I lied. I said, ‘We can’t decide which is better.’ An hour later, they phoned back,” he explained to the Post. “They loved mine. So I told them that was mine.” When Simon found out, he was furious. The gamble ended their professional relationship and friendship, and Macdonald’s deal with FX. But maybe he was onto something. “I do remember reading both scripts,” Macdonald’s manager Marc Gurvitz said, “and Norm’s script was funnier.”
I believe it.
(Via the Washington Post)
