Norm Macdonald is posthumously returning to the comedy scene. Before his death in September at the age of 61, the acclaimed Saturday Night Live actor-comedian privately shot a one-hour stand-up special titled Norm Macdonald: Nothing Serious, which is set to premiere on Netflix later this month.
The streamer announced the special Thursday just after Macdonald’s sister-in-law Joyce Napier revealed in a tribute to Macdonald for CTV News that the late comedian “left an hour of new material behind, recorded in his apartment during the lockdown.” According to CNN, Napier added that “it’ll be a Netflix comedy special soon. So, we have that. Which is precisely what Norm wanted.” Netflix confirmed the special just hours later, sharing that Norm Macdonald: Nothing Serious was recorded in the comedian’s living room when he was alone in just a single take, according to Entertainment Tonight. The special is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on Monday, May 30.
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“Norm worked so hard on a new hour of material and wanted it to be seen. While this version of Nothing Special was not originally meant to be the final product, COVID restrictions prevented him from filming in front of an audience,” Macdonald’s longtime producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra, said in a press release. “We want to make sure his fans see this very funny hour. He left this gift for all of us.”
Norm Macdonald: Nothing Serious will debut on Netflix eight months after Macdonald passed away on Sept. 14 following a private nine-year battle with cancer, his management team at Brillstein Entertainment confirmed the new at the time. Hoekstra, who was at his side at the time of his passing, explained that the former SNL star had been battling cancer for nearly a decade, though he chose to keep his health issues private because Macdonald “never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”
In addition to being well known for his time on Saturday Night Live, MacDonald had close ties to Roseanne, serving as executive producer on the original Roseanne and later as a consulting producer on the Roseanne 2018 revival. His other credits include his own comedy series, The Norm MacDonald Show, which aired from 1999 to 2001, as well as appearances on shows such as The Middle and frequent guest appearances on late-night television programs.
