"Norm Macdonald Has a Secret" (doc)

Norm Macdonald Had a Secret (documentary)

(Styrofoam Bonfire, 4/29/22) This is a documentary about Norm, his incident in Iowa, his philosophies, and his battles with cancer. It tries to condense what is lovable about Macdonald into this tribute.

There are a lot of people we trust to make us laugh, but with Norm it’s almost like there’s also an element of joy to get beyond just humor -- joy from his demeanor and originality, even if the joke flops.

Hopefully I didn't misrepresent any of his thoughts or events, just trying to spread this guy far and wide and add to all the awesome content out there! It’s weird feeling a connection with somebody you’ve never met, and like many others have said: It was the first “celebrity” death I’ve felt any emotion with.

But I think this was part of Norm’s genius: He didn't see value in posturing, possessions, or regarding himself above others, as is the default in Hollywood, He was just a guy, just an ol’ chunk of coal. And it's very refreshing that his life exists as this beacon.

• Thanks to r/NormMacdonald which led me to many useful links/articles/clips. Revisions:
• On graduating at 14…someone brought up a good point I didn’t put together. Norm used to lie about his age, ha ha, so it’s possible graduating at 14 was just a confusion with his actual birthdate and he’s just really bright, but not a savant. Hard to find anything on this. I saw somewhere else that he “skipped the last two years” of high school (and Norm would always lie and tell people he dropped out).
• It’s *possible* Regis was genuinely concerned about Norm “losing” the $500,000 for charity. Reportedly he doesn’t know the answers beforehand. I could have been more objective there.
• Also, I think it's important to mention Norm discussing not disclosing cancer is in a "show business" sense. I could have provided more context. Personally, I don't take his message as "You should hide cancer from your family." He probably knew that if he told any more than a few people, word would get out, and his comedic work would be tarnished with pity.
• (Typo) Comedian Lara Ray should be “Lara Rae”
• The music got much louder than I wanted in some parts. I will be sure to listen to the final draft on both headphones and my phone before uploading in the future. Follow progress on my current projects: https://twitter.com/brianthepyro https://myspace.com/styrofoambonfire
• Podcast episode sources: WTF Marc Maron: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6c4O...
• Comedy Album Bookclub: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fpZ...
• Theo Von/Jim Breuer (Iowa Story): https://open.spotify.com/episode/18GD...
• Conan O'Brien: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PRd...
• All 45 Full Norm Macdonald Live Video Podcast episodes are available for free viewing/download on the Internet Archive,
• There's a real jerk of a channel on YouTube that is trying to charge people for them: https://archive.org/details/Norm_Macd...
• I uploaded all the newspaper clippings I found using a newspaper archive site here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...
• #normmacdonald