Norm MacDonald

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Biography

Fired in bitter haste from Saturday Night Live and following up with two career-crippling film credits, Norm Macdonald's career has been spiraling into disaster since 1997 -- "or so the Germans would have us believe." Though he began his career as a stand-up comedian in Ottawa, most people's familiarity with MacDonald derives from his three-year stint as Weekend Update anchor on the ever-enduring Saturday Night Live. Realizing that a change in location was the key to success, MacDonald packed his bags and took his routine to L.A, where he continued to refine his specific brand of acerbic wit through his stand-up act. In addition, MacDonald became a writer for the popular sitcom Roseanne, as well as The Dennis Miller Show.

It was a long road to following in the footsteps of Chevy Chase and Dennis Miller in dragging the current headlines through the mud (and a not so happy ending to cap it off). Beginning his SNL career as a bit player in the 1993, the torch was passed from Kevin Nealon to Norm MacDonald in the beginning of the show's 1994 season. After an exhausting barrage of O.J. Simpson and Frank Stallone jokes, however, NBC president Don Ohlmeyer pulled the plug on MacDonald's Weekend Update career, citing that the anchor was simply "not funny."

After taking small roles in Adam Sandler comedies and bit parts on The Drew Carey Show, MacDonald continued the cursed SNL tradition of tackling feature films. MacDonald's awkward attempts at feature-film stardom in Dirty Work and Screwed did little to please mainstream audiences (Screwed failed even to recuperate its 10-million-dollar production costs) but pleased his loyal fans nonetheless. In early 1999, Norm MacDonald became the star of his very own television sitcom, The Norm Show. Cast as a scheming ex-hockey star-turned-social worker who never fails to get himself into constant mischief, The Norm Show -- later shortened to just Norm) -- co-starred Laurie Metcalf, Ian Gomez, and former Dirty Work co-star Artie Lang. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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• Genres: Spoken Word

Biography

A muttering, slovenly, and acerbic standup comedian, actor, and writer known for his high-profile firing from Saturday Night Live, Norm MacDonald is a love-him-or-hate-him character. Born in Quebec City, Quebec, MacDonald started out performing in comedy clubs across Canada before he decided to pack his bags and move to Los Angeles. His wry style landed him gigs writing for the popular sitcom Roseanne along with The Dennis Miller Show, but a 1993 offer to write for SNL had him switching coasts and moving to New York City. A year later he was hosting the show's "Weekend Update" segment, delivering deadpan jokes about prison rape and crack whores that sometime received more gasps than laughs. Original "Weekend Update" host Chevy Chase declared him the best "fake anchor" he had ever seen, and while a cult of MacDonald fans was growing, the West Coast president of NBC, Don Ohlmeyer, was certainly not one of them. Ohlmeyer pressured Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to fire MacDonald on the grounds he was "not funny." MacDonald was off "Weekend Update" in 1997 and completely off the show in 1998, the same year he made his feature film debut with the genuine bomb Dirty Work.

In 1999 he landed a sitcom on ABC titled simply Norm. The show -- which featured his good friend and future Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange -- struggled for three years to find an audience before it was canceled. During this time he starred in another silver screen bomb, Screwed, which was released in 2000. In 2003 he was given another chance at sitcoms with the Fox project A Minute with Stan Hooper, which only lasted six episodes despite critics' praise. He kept a low profile for the next couple years with a few talk show appearances here and there, most of them on Stern's show, where MacDonald would discuss his beloved gambling. Standup appearances around the U.S. also kept him busy until 2006, when he finished his first album. Nine years in the making, Ridiculous bucked the unambitious trend most comedy albums were following -- being nothing more than the audio companions to live performance DVDs -- and presented 12 sketches with guests like Will Ferrell, Artie Lange, Tim Meadows, and Molly Shannon. The album was released by the Comedy Central label and produced by Brooks Arthur, the man behind Adam Sandler's successful series of sketch comedy albums. He followed it up in 2011 with his first-ever full-length standup album, the appropriately titled Me Doing Stand-Up. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi