Norm Macdonald - Post SNL Projects

Post SNL Projects

Soon after leaving Saturday Night Live, Macdonald co-wrote and starred in the "revenge comedy" Dirty Work (1998), with Jack Warden, Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, Chris Farley, Artie Lange and Adam Sandler. Later that year, Macdonald voiced the character of Lucky the dog in the Eddie Murphy remake of Dr. Dolittle. He reprised the role in both Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) and Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006). Macdonald voiced the character of Death on an episode of Family Guy. Due to a conflict with his stand-up comedy schedule, he was unavailable to voice the character for his next appearance; Death has since been voiced by Adam Carolla. In 1999, Macdonald starred in the sitcom The Norm Show (later renamed Norm), co-starring Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange and Ian Gomez. It ran for three seasons on ABC. Macdonald voiced Hardee's restaurants' (Carl's Jr. on the U.S. west coast) costumed mascot, the Hardee's star in advertisements. Macdonald also appeared on several Miller Lite commercials that year. He appeared on the September 1999 Saturday Night Live primetime special celebrating the program's 25th year on the air. Macdonald was one of only three former Weekend Update anchors to introduce a retrospective on the segment (the others being Chevy Chase and Dennis Miller).

Macdonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23, 1999 show. In his opening monologue, he expressed resentment at having been fired, then concluded that the only reason he was asked to host was because "the show has gotten really bad" since he left. The next episode, airing November 6, 1999 and hosted by Dylan McDermott, featured a sketch where Chris Kattan, as the androgynous character Mango, is opening letters from celebrity admirers and, after opening the last one, says " Norm Macdonald, who is that?" Also in 1999, Macdonald made a cameo appearance in the Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. When Michael Richards refused to portray himself in the scene re-enacting the famous Fridays incident where Kaufman throws water in his face, Macdonald stepped in to play Richards, although he is never referred to by name.

On Macdonald's first appearance on The Daily Show after Jon Stewart took over, he caused controversy when he said "I'm really glad to see you're hosting the show, man. I hated that other guy." In a previous interview, Macdonald retorted: "I hate that . . . 'Daily Show.' I know you critics love it, but it just seems like the most obvious type of comedy." After Jon Stewart got the job he explained his previous comments. "I was joking," he contended. "I love 'The Daily Show.' And I love Jon Stewart. But in print, you can't italicize irony, know what I mean? It's all just words. A guy could say right now: 'I hate David Letterman. I really hate him.' And you could print that. But don't print it."

In 2000, Macdonald starred in his second motion picture, Screwed, which, like Dirty Work, fared poorly at the box office.

On November 12, 2000, Macdonald appeared on the Celebrity Edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? winning $500,000.00 for Paul Newman's Charity Camp. Macdonald could have won a million dollars, but admitted he was too nervous to go for it. Had he done so, his initial guess at the million dollar question (The Greenbrier) would have been correct. Prior to entering the Hot Seat, he got his own personalized Fastest Finger question, which asked him to "Put the following letters in order to spell a popular man's name", with the four answers being all four letters in his name, spelled out in order as the correct order.

Macdonald continued to make appearances on television shows and in films, including Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and The Animal, all of which starred fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Rob Schneider and were produced by Adam Sandler. In 2003 he played the title character in the Fox sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper, which was canceled after six episodes.

In 2005, Macdonald signed a deal with Comedy Central to create a new sketch comedy pilot called Back to Norm, which debuted that May. The pilot was never turned into a series. Its infamous cold opening parodied the suicide of Budd Dwyer, a Pennsylvania politician who, facing decades of incarceration, committed suicide on live television in 1987. Rob Schneider appeared in the pilot. Also in 2005, Macdonald performed as a voice actor, portraying a genie named Norm, on two episodes of the cartoon series The Fairly Odd Parents. But he could not return for the third episode, "Fairy Idol", due to a scheduling conflict. In 2006, Macdonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for Canadian cellphone services provider Bell Mobility, as the voice of "Frank the Beaver". The campaign had a commercial tie-in with the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and with the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The ads ran heavily on CBC during the Olympics and throughout the National Hockey League's postseason. Due to its success, the campaign was extended throughout 2006, 2007 and into 2008 to promote offerings from other Bell Canada divisions such as Bell Sympatico Internet provider and Bell TV satellite service. In August 2008, the new management at Bell decided that they would go in a different direction with advertising, and would no longer be using the beavers.

In September 2006, Macdonald's sketch comedy album, Ridiculous, was released by Comedy Central Records. It features appearances by Will Ferrell, Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon and Artie Lange. On September 14, 2006, Macdonald appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote Ridiculous. During the appearance, Macdonald made some jokes about the recent death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Stewart, holding back laughter, asked Norm to change the subject, but he kept going and Stewart kept trying to hold back the laughter. Macdonald was a guest character on My Name Is Earl in the episode "Two Balls, Two Strikes" as "Lil Chubby", the son of "Chubby" (played by Burt Reynolds), similar to Macdonald's portrayals of Reynolds on SNL.

In the 2007 World Series of Poker, he came in 20th place out of 827 entrants in the $3,000 No Limit Texas Hold 'em event, winning $14,608. He also made it to round two of the $5,000 World Championship of Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em. On the comedy website, Super Deluxe, he has created an animated series entitled "The Fake News". Norm has filled in during Dennis Miller's weekly O'Reilly Factor "Miller Time" segment on January 2, 2008, and guest-hosted Dennis Miller's radio show on January 3, 2008. Norm had also been a regular contributor on Miller's show every Friday, prior to an unexplained absence that left Miller wondering on-air if the show had somehow miffed Norm. Macdonald returned after many months on May 30, 2008, but not before missing a scheduled appearance the day before. He also hosted Miller's radio show for the second time on July 16, 2008, along with friend Stevie Ray Fromstein.

On June 19, 2008, Macdonald was a celebrity panelist on two episodes of a revived version of the popular game show Match Game, which was taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles. The new version featured the same set used in the early years of the 1970s version and also starred comedienne Sarah Silverman as a fellow celebrity panelist. On August 17, 2008, Norm was a participant in the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, performing intentionally cheesy and G-rated material that contrasted greatly with the raunchy performances of the other roasters. In AT&T commercials around Christmas 2007 and 2008, Macdonald voiced a gingerbread boy wanting a prepaid mobile phone from his dad (voiced by Steve Buscemi), who repeatedly rebuilds his house because "people won't stop eating it". The ad was for AT&T's GoPhone. Norm is working on a program for the FX network called The Norm Macdonald Reality Show, in which he plays a fictional, down-on-his-luck version of himself. On the May 16, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live, Macdonald reappeared as Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy!. He also appeared in another sketch later on playing the guitar. On May 31, 2009, he appeared on Million Dollar Password.

Macdonald became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien during its 2009 and 2010 run. Norm was among the first guests on O'Brien's Tonight Show, and appeared also during the show's final week. Initially, The Tonight Show faced network opposition to bringing Norm on so early in the show's run, and Norm having nothing but local stand-up appearances to promote on-air. Despite this, O'Brien's insistence prevailed and Norm's first and subsequent appearances were highlights of O'Brien's brief Tonight Show run. Norm was a guest on Conan's new TBS show, Conan on May 17, 2011. Macdonald has also made frequent appearances on the internet talk show Tom Green's House Tonight, and on May 20, 2010, he guest hosted the show.

In September 2010, it was reported that Macdonald was developing a new series for Comedy Central that he described as a sports version of The Daily Show. As of April 2011, the show was titled Sports Show with Norm Macdonald and premiered on April 12 on Comedy Central. The Sports Show was not renewed, reportedly due to low ratings, after all nine ordered episodes were broadcast. Macdonald's first stand-up special, Me Doing Stand-Up, aired on Comedy Central on March 26. On May 23, 2011 Comedy Central announced the release an audio CD and DVD of the special on June 14 on Comedy Central Records, and Home Entertainment. It will be also be made available as a digital download. Both releases will contain uncensored and unseen material from the special, and the DVD features will include the sitcom pilot Back To Norm, an animated featurette The Twelve Days Of Christmas, and Norm's appearance on The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget.

Macdonald is currently the commentator and co-host of the seventh season of High Stakes Poker on Game Show Network along with Kara Scott.

In June 2012, Norm Macdonald became the spokesperson for Safe Auto Insurance Company. Along with television and radio commercials, web banners and outdoor boards, the effort will also include a series of made-for-web videos. As part of the campaign, the state minimum auto insurance company is introducing a new tagline, “Drive Safe, Spend Less."