Mischievous MacDonald enjoys creating a sense of comedic danger

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As anyone who's ever seen him perform standup comedy or read the fake news on Saturday Night Live can attest, Norm Macdonald expects a bit more from his audiences than the usual knee-jerk knee-slapping laughter.

The sometimes-controversial Canadian comic is equally interested in exploring other emotions and reactions -- shock, irritation, outrage and discomfort, for instance -- as he delivers his trademark blend of mirth and mischief.

"When I watch comedy, if it's wall-to-wall laughs, it's the dullest thing I've ever seen," Macdonald said in a recent telephone interview. "I think the audience and I should have a shared experience -- it doesn't have to just be me saying things I think are funny and them agreeing; they should be more a part of it than that. I can play the fool if it makes them feel better ... but I know how to play the silences and the noise of the audience. I like to use the audience as sort of a mixing board, where I can take them up and down and up again. There's a rhythm to it.

"I think I allow moments to happen that some other people don't allow. I enjoy the silences or pauses, because it creates a sense of danger or unpredictability or whatever it is that people feel."

For the second time in three years, the Quebec-City-born funnyman will be offering Winnipeg comedy fans a soft-seat theatre version of the aforementioned Norm Macdonald experience, bringing his standup act to the Burton Cummings Theatre for a single show this Friday at 8 p.m. (tickets $47.70 and $58.20 at Ticketmaster).

His last appearance here, in 2010, was a sellout, and Macdonald recalls the evening as a success on all levels.

"It was fun," Macdonald said. "I like doing the big theatres, because I can do a longer set, and people don't feel gypped. I do as long as I can in clubs, too, but because they usually have another show, they have to get people out quickly.

"And (in a theatre) people aren't drinking, so you don't get those eight or nine people who are really drunk. Not that I've got anything against drunk people -- I've been drunk -- but it's a different atmosphere."

Given Macdonald's perspective on constructing a comedy act, there's very little chance folks who attended his last show here will experience any feelings of déja vu if they turn up for this week's performance.

"If you've done a bit so often that people know it, you shouldn't be doing it anymore," he said. "I did a bunch of standup on Letterman and Leno when I was younger, and I don't do that stuff anymore. I did a DVD last year that wasn't anything that I'd done before. There's no way the audience would know my 'greatest hits,' because I don't keep doing them.

"They could see my last standup special and then yell out for me to do something from it, but I wouldn't do it. I'd be like, 'What the (expletive) are you talking about? You're an idiot if you're doing bits they already know the answer to.'

"You're like, 'You know the funny thing about answering machines?', and they're like, 'Yes, we do, because we've heard you say that before.'"

Another thing Macdonald won't be doing in Friday's show is much in the way of political humour, despite the deeply troubling/amusing state of electoral affairs as our neighbours to the south head toward a fall election.

"If you're doing a standup show, it has to be really funny; that political stuff, like Mitt Romney and all that, is just gossip-column stuff. It's not very funny," he said. "It's pointless to try to do political humour, because you have to go one way or the other -- conservative or liberal -- which means that immediately, you've lost half the audience. To me, political humour is the worst -- I mean, you might as well try to do Roman Catholic humour."

Away from the standup-comedy stage, Macdonald's list of showbiz credits includes a four-year stint on SNL, a couple of sitcom-starring efforts (The Norm Show, A Minute with Stan Hooper), several feature-film appearances (including Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Grown Ups and Jack and Jill), acting as host/commentator on GSN's High Stakes Poker and, more recently, starring in the short-lived Comedy series Sports Show with Norm Macdonald.

Macdonald has also carved out a reputation as a never-less-than-intriguing talk-show guest, contributing offbeat stories and out-of-left-field observations that have made him a favourite of several late-night hosts, including David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.

"The thing about talk shows is that you have to speak in the first person, and you have to be yourself," he explained. "That's why actors are so bad at talk shows -- because they have to have stuff written for them to say. ... It's not hard to be a talk-show guest if you're good at talking.

"Letterman is the biggest challenge, because he's the funniest guy and you want to be in top form to go up against him. It's hard, because he's funnier than you are. ... With Conan, he started doing his (NBC) show the same year I started doing Saturday Night Live, and early on, when he was having trouble getting guests, I was up on the 17th floor and he was on the eighth floor, so he would call and say, 'Our guest dropped out; can you come in?'

"It wasn't like other talk-show hosts, where I was a fan; he was just another guy from around the building, so I would just say anything, like if we were talking in the hallway. And because he would just call me that day, I was never prepared, so I'd just talk, which was a lot more fun. I have a special relationship with Conan where we're just two idiots who started out at the same time."

Through it all, however, Macdonald has maintained an abiding affection for standup, performing before live audiences as often as his schedule allows.

"I've never stopped doing standup," he said. "I think the least I've done standup is about 20 weeks a year. Usually, I'm at about 40 to 45 weeks a year. It's not a matter of getting back to it, because I've never left it. It's the only thing I really like doing. I don't really like doing any of that other stuff."

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

COMEDY PREVIEW

Norm MacDonald

With special guest Josh Gardner

Friday at 8 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre

Tickets $47.70 and $58.20 at Ticketmaster

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 9, 2012 D3