Norman Gene Macdonald [ i ] October 17, [ ii ] β September 14, was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose style was characterized by deadpan delivery, eccentric understatement, and the use of folksy, old-fashioned turns of phrase. Earlier in his career, Macdonald's first work on television included writing for comedies such as Roseanne and The Dennis Miller Show.
In , Macdonald was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live SNL , spending a total of five seasons on the series, which included anchoring the show's Weekend Update segment for three and a half seasons. Simpson during his murder trial , offending producer Don Ohlmeyer , who was a close friend of Simpson. Dolittle films. Between and , Macdonald hosted the talk shows Norm Macdonald Live a video podcast and Norm Macdonald Has a Show a Netflix series , on which he interviewed comedians and other celebrities.
In , he authored Based on a True Story , a novel that presented a heavily fictionalized account of his life. Norm Macdonald was born in Quebec City , Quebec. As a child, his father would not let him learn French, as he wanted the family to speak English. He claimed to have dropped out at 16, but in fact graduated at In between periods of school and before starting in comedy, he worked a variety of manual labour jobs, including as a chokerman for a logging company.
Macdonald's first performances in comedy were at stand-up clubs in Ottawa , regularly appearing on amateur nights at Yuk Yuk's in He did not appreciate how well his first performance at the club had gone, and he bolted out, saying he would never do it again. The club's owner, Howard Wagman, had to persuade him to come back for more. Eventually his confidence grew.
In August , year-old Macdonald made his U. Over the following seven months, he would go on to make five more appearances on the show. By , he performed as a contestant on Star Search. The following year, during the show's twentieth season , Macdonald began anchoring the news satire segment Weekend Update.
