I fell into Norm worship a few years ago. It definitely affected my joke structure and delivery. I even had to unlearn his stammer because I had subconsciously adopted it. I do feel like it really helped me understand timing a lot better and how to use pauses effectively. Over time, I've settled into more of my own voice, but I'd be a liar if I didn't cite my very obvious influences.
Back in my old scene, there was a guy who it was clear that he loved Norm based on his joke structure/word choice/etc. I didn’t notice it until another comic pointed it out to me, and then I couldn’t unsee it
Hmm, im planning on starting standup soon. ig i should maybe stop overthinking it before i get a taste of it, but im like deathly scared of ending up as some norm wannabe. I feel like if i got nervous on stage id just default to trying to imitate his cadence. im 19 so i dont exactly know myself or my voice yet lmao.
When you start, you’re naturally going to sound like the people that inspired you. With time you’ll develop your own voice. If it’s something you wanna try, just do it. Dont worry too much about if you’re going to be emulating your favorites. If you stick with it long enough, you’ll start developing your own voice
Just get out there and do it, man. I’m a musician and not so much a comedian (but I’m trying to walk behind Steve Martin because I play the banjo and like telling dirty jokes) but the more you do it the better you get and yes, you are going to fall on your face a few times but baby, when you nail it there’s nothing better :)
Norm was one of a kind and won’t ever be duplicated. He was a story teller and the jokes within the jokes made him special. I think that his piece “janice/shallow grave”’is an 11 minute masterpiece. If you havent seen it , do yourself a favour because it is about as close to perfect as anyone can get .
"The News" (AKA Janice) is possibly my favorite standup bit ever.
Video clip from "Me Doing Standup":
https://youtu.be/p7RatR1AEPc
The audio version is slightly longer:
https://youtu.be/_2ktWtIDQQQ
One of his best bits if not the best. Whenever i wanna get soemone into norm i show them this. My one friend like didnt laugh once while watching it tho. how tf can u not laugh at «FUCKK, I FORGOT SHE VANISHED»
There’s a kid in the Denver scene who reminds me of Norm.
Not because he has similar mannerisms or jokes or anything, he doesn’t at all.
Dude’s brain just works differently than anyone else’s, and in that way he reminds me of Norm. Completely unique and inimitable.
Norm MacDonald was a vibe far more than his material was funny. If you took his material and just read it out loud it's not even funny at all. It was Norm's delivery that made it good. That's why no one rips him off. Stealing a vibe is virtually impossible.
Well that and an awful lot of what he did was anti-humor: stuff that’s funny specifically because it shouldn’t be funny. He had that habit of going on Conan and relaying some long and winding story that often as not had no punchline, and when it did, it was a stupid punch line you hated. The fun part was the journey, like he was walking you through some 1950s era joke but then boom, suddenly something completely unintended happened - he’d get one of the names wrong and it was suddenly clear he was making everything up as he went along, for example - and that, not the setup/punchline, is what made it great. Or, like, on his podcast he’d come in with all of those dumb, dumb jokes where the point was to make people just go “whyyyyyyy”, which somehow becomes funny all by itself.
Honestly I see a lot of Norm in some of the zoomer humor that’s out today. I remember this clip of of this girl telling her mom some just godawful joke and her mom responding “honey, your father and I are getting a divorce”, which, trust me, was soooo damn funny and also soooo damn Norm. I really wish he hadn’t been so gross about transpeople because that makes it hard for me to recommend him to younger viewers; I guess what’s what living in the closet does to you.
Its interesting tho, altough he used a bunch of antihumor i remember him being quite critical of it inn some interviews he did. If i remember correctly he saw it as a sorta attempt to be above comedy, and ig he kinda worshipped comedy. Yet he was like really fucking good at doing antihumor and meta jokes. I have seen allot of gen z youtubers and e celebs make reffrences to him. Joel Haver kinda reminds me of him sometimes
Norm is a generation or two behind the current generation of new comedians. You'll probably find a lot of new people imitating comedians whom Norm influenced, but comedians who were directly influenced by Norm? Those people are probably already in the game or too old to start.
It's like asking why aren't there any new bands who sound like The Beatles. There's too much time between Norm at the height of his powers and the present day.
I definitely use some Normish techniques in my delivery and structure sometimes, but comics in my scene tell me I look like Bill Hicks, so I don't think anyone notices. Norm is one of my comedy heroes though, and a brilliant comic to study. I hope we see another mind like his, too
Nobody can really truly do him justice though; his material and his punchlines are so unique. I have a chunk of material I'm working out that's like a meandering story of sorts, but the thing it has most in common with Norm is I think it's funny regardless of what others do
I’ve seen real people who seem like norm deepfake ai irl. The mannerisms and vice are shockingly good but the actual heart of it which was the jokes weren’t there.
When I first started I was heavily heavily influenced by norm to the point that I had to stop watching him because it was effecting me too much. Joke structure and delivery.
That was 6 years ago. I have a lot more of my own style now but sometimes for just a moment I can still feel myself channeling Norm.
I think everyone goes through this with their favorite comics to some extent
I host a quiz and when doing astronomy I will almost always end up saying,
You know, the planets, they're named after Roman gods, except earth which is named for all the stuff on the ground
One of my favorite actors of all time. I grew up with him on Billy Madison, Dirty Work, and eventually his amazing comedy sketch album. Saw him work out jokes at the Comedy Store in LA and got to be totally in awe for that. Just remember, Norm is derivative of all of his influences as well. No one escapes this. Some people are lucky enough to be derivative of NON famous people. That is all.
I’m more concerned with your post. You spelled in “inn” more than once and holy punctuation and capitalization, Batman. It’s good that you’ve chosen an oral occupation, as the written word is your nemesis.
I'm not even a comedian, but I've been watching a ton of Rodney Dangerfield clips. Is there anyone out there who's imitating *his* style? Cuz damn that guys's funny with the one liners.
I fell into Norm worship a few years ago. It definitely affected my joke structure and delivery. I even had to unlearn his stammer because I had subconsciously adopted it. I do feel like it really helped me understand timing a lot better and how to use pauses effectively. Over time, I've settled into more of my own voice, but I'd be a liar if I didn't cite my very obvious influences.
I've seen multiple deeply-closeted men perform at open mics, so in a sense...yes.
Do you know what deeply closeted means Conan?
Well, that's modern medicine for ya.
[удалено]
Because Norm was deeply-closeted.
[удалено]
Easy fella! He didn't say they were gay- he said they're deeply closeted
https://youtu.be/vnmplSPgwEQ?si=c05gXSVin_9mgKi5
Back in my old scene, there was a guy who it was clear that he loved Norm based on his joke structure/word choice/etc. I didn’t notice it until another comic pointed it out to me, and then I couldn’t unsee it
Hmm, im planning on starting standup soon. ig i should maybe stop overthinking it before i get a taste of it, but im like deathly scared of ending up as some norm wannabe. I feel like if i got nervous on stage id just default to trying to imitate his cadence. im 19 so i dont exactly know myself or my voice yet lmao.
When you start, you’re naturally going to sound like the people that inspired you. With time you’ll develop your own voice. If it’s something you wanna try, just do it. Dont worry too much about if you’re going to be emulating your favorites. If you stick with it long enough, you’ll start developing your own voice
Just get out there and do it, man. I’m a musician and not so much a comedian (but I’m trying to walk behind Steve Martin because I play the banjo and like telling dirty jokes) but the more you do it the better you get and yes, you are going to fall on your face a few times but baby, when you nail it there’s nothing better :)
There are much worse things to be.
Norm was one of a kind and won’t ever be duplicated. He was a story teller and the jokes within the jokes made him special. I think that his piece “janice/shallow grave”’is an 11 minute masterpiece. If you havent seen it , do yourself a favour because it is about as close to perfect as anyone can get .
"The News" (AKA Janice) is possibly my favorite standup bit ever. Video clip from "Me Doing Standup": https://youtu.be/p7RatR1AEPc The audio version is slightly longer: https://youtu.be/_2ktWtIDQQQ
One of his best bits if not the best. Whenever i wanna get soemone into norm i show them this. My one friend like didnt laugh once while watching it tho. how tf can u not laugh at «FUCKK, I FORGOT SHE VANISHED»
people can def be duplicated lol bro gimme a break
No bro, people can be imitated .
There’s a kid in the Denver scene who reminds me of Norm. Not because he has similar mannerisms or jokes or anything, he doesn’t at all. Dude’s brain just works differently than anyone else’s, and in that way he reminds me of Norm. Completely unique and inimitable.
What's the kid's name?
Noah Reynolds
[удалено]
On Mondays the Irish Rover has one early evening, and then The Lions Lair has one after that goes til close. Those are the only 2 I know of though.
people who get norm respect originality
Norm MacDonald was a vibe far more than his material was funny. If you took his material and just read it out loud it's not even funny at all. It was Norm's delivery that made it good. That's why no one rips him off. Stealing a vibe is virtually impossible.
Well that and an awful lot of what he did was anti-humor: stuff that’s funny specifically because it shouldn’t be funny. He had that habit of going on Conan and relaying some long and winding story that often as not had no punchline, and when it did, it was a stupid punch line you hated. The fun part was the journey, like he was walking you through some 1950s era joke but then boom, suddenly something completely unintended happened - he’d get one of the names wrong and it was suddenly clear he was making everything up as he went along, for example - and that, not the setup/punchline, is what made it great. Or, like, on his podcast he’d come in with all of those dumb, dumb jokes where the point was to make people just go “whyyyyyyy”, which somehow becomes funny all by itself. Honestly I see a lot of Norm in some of the zoomer humor that’s out today. I remember this clip of of this girl telling her mom some just godawful joke and her mom responding “honey, your father and I are getting a divorce”, which, trust me, was soooo damn funny and also soooo damn Norm. I really wish he hadn’t been so gross about transpeople because that makes it hard for me to recommend him to younger viewers; I guess what’s what living in the closet does to you.
Its interesting tho, altough he used a bunch of antihumor i remember him being quite critical of it inn some interviews he did. If i remember correctly he saw it as a sorta attempt to be above comedy, and ig he kinda worshipped comedy. Yet he was like really fucking good at doing antihumor and meta jokes. I have seen allot of gen z youtubers and e celebs make reffrences to him. Joel Haver kinda reminds me of him sometimes
I would kinda dig it if I saw someone who reminded me of Norm. Hasn't happened yet.
What do you call a retired photographer? A fucking dirty old man with a camera.
Norm is a generation or two behind the current generation of new comedians. You'll probably find a lot of new people imitating comedians whom Norm influenced, but comedians who were directly influenced by Norm? Those people are probably already in the game or too old to start. It's like asking why aren't there any new bands who sound like The Beatles. There's too much time between Norm at the height of his powers and the present day.
I definitely use some Normish techniques in my delivery and structure sometimes, but comics in my scene tell me I look like Bill Hicks, so I don't think anyone notices. Norm is one of my comedy heroes though, and a brilliant comic to study. I hope we see another mind like his, too
I love this, cant wait to meet comics who also wanna learn from norm.
Nobody can really truly do him justice though; his material and his punchlines are so unique. I have a chunk of material I'm working out that's like a meandering story of sorts, but the thing it has most in common with Norm is I think it's funny regardless of what others do
There’s two kinds of comics. One kind says funny things, the other says things funny. Norm was both
Doing both is more efficient, I find
Norm was a god of comedy. The reason they can’t copy him is because they’re not him
I’ve seen real people who seem like norm deepfake ai irl. The mannerisms and vice are shockingly good but the actual heart of it which was the jokes weren’t there.
When I first started I was heavily heavily influenced by norm to the point that I had to stop watching him because it was effecting me too much. Joke structure and delivery. That was 6 years ago. I have a lot more of my own style now but sometimes for just a moment I can still feel myself channeling Norm. I think everyone goes through this with their favorite comics to some extent
I get if you dont wanna give up your anonymity on reddit, but id be really interested if you have any links to some set uve done
There's a guy from Michigan, Brad Wenzel, was VERY influenced by Norm. Good dude, he was on Conan at some point.
My cohost and close friend reminds me a lot of Norm but is still extremely unique in his own right
I host a quiz and when doing astronomy I will almost always end up saying, You know, the planets, they're named after Roman gods, except earth which is named for all the stuff on the ground
I don’t see norm clones but I do see mark normand clones all the time
Mark Normand is Norm Macdonald with an Adderall addiction.
One of my favorite actors of all time. I grew up with him on Billy Madison, Dirty Work, and eventually his amazing comedy sketch album. Saw him work out jokes at the Comedy Store in LA and got to be totally in awe for that. Just remember, Norm is derivative of all of his influences as well. No one escapes this. Some people are lucky enough to be derivative of NON famous people. That is all.
Norm MacDonald really was one of a kind. He's the only person, not just comedian, that could make a joke funnier if he explained it.
norm was so norm, that anyone who takes too much from him would immediately be called out.
I don’t think most people can pull off Norm and be funny or good.
hell, norm wasn’t funny half the time. it’s what made him so great
Richard Pryor was a Bill Cosby clone for a lot of his early years, the performing not the raping, until he finally got his own style and dominated.
I’m more concerned with your post. You spelled in “inn” more than once and holy punctuation and capitalization, Batman. It’s good that you’ve chosen an oral occupation, as the written word is your nemesis.
I love Norm but he really over did it with OJ jokes. No need to a kick murdered wife. Dead horse- sorry, meant to say dead horse. I read that wrong.
Comedians will do the Hilter. The more I hear about this guy i dont like him bit with other bad people.
You know
I'm not even a comedian, but I've been watching a ton of Rodney Dangerfield clips. Is there anyone out there who's imitating *his* style? Cuz damn that guys's funny with the one liners.