Norm MacDonald secretly taped one last special before his death last September. The comic, who died at age 61 after a private, nine-year cancer battle, filmed himself performing stand-up in his living room, and the footage will now be released as an hour-long Netflix special, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
MacDonald filmed the special, titled Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special‚ in one take. He recorded himself in the summer of 2020 when he had to be hospitalized for his illness, according to THR. The comic filmed the special to have on hand if “things went south” with his health, Macdonald’s producing partner, Lori Jo Hoekstra, told THR.
“His test results were not good, so during the heart of COVID-19 pandemic and literally the night before going in for a procedure, he wanted to get this on tape just in case — as he put it — things went south,” Hoekstra said. “It was his intention to have a special to share if something happened.”
When MacDonald’s health took a turn one year after he filmed the special, he was unable to perform his material in front of an audience, Hoekstra told THR.
“He ended up getting sicker last August and September, and he remembered he had shot this and asked me to find it so he could watch it,” Hoekstra said. “He ended up watching it before he passed away.”
David Spade said he had seen MacDonald’s final special at a memorial for the late comic, telling listeners on his Fly on the Wall podcast with Dana Carvey that the footage shows MacDonald performing alone while in lockdown.
“He just said ‘You know, I keep trying to do my set.’ And he was getting weaker, which we didn’t know. And they keep shutting down theaters, and they wouldn’t let him go. And then he goes, ‘I’m just gonna run it once, just kind of say it out loud,’ and then he never got to shoot it,” Spade said.
“I definitely cried,” he added, describing Nothing Special as “classic Norm stuff” that “was smoother than my special.”
Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special will premiere on Netflix May 30.
