ICYMI: Norm Macdonald had one last secret
It includes footage of a group of friends and admirers – David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O’Brien, David Spade, Adam Sandler – discussing the comedian on camera after watching his final creation together.Article content
“I wasn’t sure which cameras we were going to use or where it would be shot,” she says now. “At first, I think we had him set up sitting on a chair like a little far away. And then we decided to move, for lighting and just to get closer. That’s why we shot it where we did.” The rounds of chemotherapy in 2013 led to neuropathy that left him with constant pain in his feet, so bad that he described it as walking on shards of glass or through fire. It’s why Macdonald, who loved to play tennis and golf, went through long bouts of inactivity. It’s also why he wasn’t always just being flaky when he bailed on social commitments.
“Nothing was important to him except for his stand-up,” she says. “Obviously, he had serious things in his life he was also dealing with, meaning the illness. But professionally and in life, it was all about the comedy.”Article content “She became Norm’s sort of gal Friday and manager,” says Downey, the longtime “SNL” writer. “He just couldn’t have done it without her.”Article content
In July, Macdonald went in for what would normally be an outpatient round of chemotherapy. But because of the pandemic, the doctors wanted him to stay overnight. That’s when he somehow got an infection. He would not leave the City of Hope again, spending his last six weeks there.