Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Norm Macdonald Live with Sarah Silverman and David Letterman

Norm's "new season" has dropped with David Letterman!  It's really an apparent continuation of season 3, which began with two episodes last September and then went on hiatus.  Anyhow, I decided to write up my reviews of the show so far.

Season 1
-26 March 2013 Super Dave Osborne -- classic; Bob Einstein is a comedy machine
-2 April 2013 Tom Green -- low-key and Green seems sad, but is quite engaging
-9 April 2013 Fred Stoller -- good stories; hilarious reactions to Adam Eget
-16 April 2013 Russell Brand -- can't watch him
-23 April 2013 Billy Bob Thornton -- Norm transforms a weird and uncomfortable guest into someone watchable
-30 April 2013 Larry King -- another classic; far more entertaining than I would have guessed
-7 May 2013 Kevin Nealon -- cool SNL stories; always a good guest
-14 May 2013 Simon Helberg -- haven't seen it
-21 May 2013 Nick Swardson -- filthy and great but seems a little too in awe of Norm; watch for his Mr. Furley imitation alone
-27 May 2013 Andy Dick -- another pleasant surprise; much less annoying than I would have predicted
-11 June 2013 Gilbert Gottfried -- hilarious, but we need less callbacks! The show's only an hour!

Season 2
This season was uniformly entertaining...
-12 May 2014 Ray Romano
-21 May 2014 Adam Sandler
-26 May 2014 David Spade
-2 June 2014 Carl Reiner
-9 June 2014 Fred Willard
-16 June 2014 Todd Glass -- lots of YT comments about how Norm spent the whole time messing with him; NO! Norm messes with everyone
-30 June 2014 Bob Saget
-7 July 2014 David Koechner -- some commenters feel that Norm was apathetic toward David Koechner, or that Koechner misunderstood Norm's jokes, but I disagree.  He was entertaining
-14 July 2014 Roseanne Barr -- surprisingly low-key; very entertaining; best death stare at Adam Eget since Super Dave
-21 July 2014 Marc Maron
-28 July 2014 Martin Mull -- good chat about his stand-up
-7 August 2014 Jack Carter -- I believe this was his last appearance anywhere

Season 3
-15 September 2016 Stephen Merchant -- Norm starts by imitating William F. Buckley, which is appropriate since this ends up feeling more like a UK v US political roundtable (at one point, Merchant even asks why Norm isn't asking for cool showbiz stories, like when Adam Sandler was the guest)
-26 September 2016 Bill Hader -- cool showbiz stories, but Hader seems really low-energy
-25 July 2017 David Letterman -- classic
-1 August 2017 Mike Tyson -- the only time Norm and the guest both seem to make eachother uncomfortable. Hilarious.
-8 August 2017 Bobby Lee -- funny but disturbing
-15 August 2017 Sarah Silverman [two episodes] -- classic
-22 August 2017 Dana Carvey -- classic; Carvey clearly has a lot of respect for Norm
-29 August 2017 Jerry Seinfeld -- I didn't know that Jerry was such a Norm fan! At the end, Norm says the show was "dream like"; I agree. This also includes a slew of excellent impressions from Norm
-5 September 2017 Caitlyn Jenner -- haven't seen it except for clips
-12 September 2017 Rich Little -- only watched part of it; Little has slowed down a bit
-19 September 2017 Margaret Cho -- funny but also informative
-26 September 2017 Tim Allen -- much better than expected; Allen was really "on" compared to some of his mainstream talk show appearances
-3 October 2017 Jim Carrey -- a perfect, anarchic last episode, just as it was when Carrey was the final guest on "Larry Sanders," 19 years earlier. Fitting.

{NOTE: this article originally ended with the listing for the David Letterman episode, and then the following upcoming guest info. It was updated June 25, 2023 with the remainder of season 3. Obviously, only a few of the upcoming guests actually made it onto the show... and I also recall Norm mentioning Jan Michael Vincent.}

Upcoming guests?
Sarah Silverman (see pic) and Caitlyn Jenner have apparently already been taped, and Norm seems to confirm, in this interview, that Mike Tyson and Jim Carrey are being taped soon.  (UPDATE: Jerry Seinfeld airs next week).
Other upcoming guests listed on Wikipedia include Dana Carvey, Judd Apatow, Margaret Cho, Jerry Mathers, Bobby Lee, Conan O'Brien, Bruce Vilanch, Artie Lange and Jon Hein.  Norm also mentioned in the above article that he's been trying to get O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake.