The late comedian Norm Macdonald said he “didn’t want to leave anything on the table” as he joked about mortality and death in his final stand-up special that has hit Netflix titled, “Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special.”
He had been “working hard preparing material for his Netflix special until COVID shut things down,” a message on the screen reads ahead of the show. It went on to say Macdonald was “scheduled to undergo a procedure” in the summer of 2020 following his lengthy private battle with leukemia.
He “didn’t want to leave anything on the table in case things went south,” it continued.
“At home, the night before going in, he shot this [stand-up] in one take,” the message added.
Macdonald died on September 14, 2021. He was 61.
The special starts with the “Billy Madison” star seen at his home holding a mic in front of a computer, before saying to the room with no audience, “Hey everybody, it’s Norm Macdonald and this is my comedy special.”
“Of course, I’m looking forward to getting back out there, seeing you folks in person,” Macdonald shared. “I love doing gigs and I miss it. My God, I miss it.”
In the nearly one-hour-long show, Macdonald jokes about his own death and mortality in general, the New York Post reported. The comedian said he didn’t want to get depressed before telling people how you “gotta get a living will,” as he joked about his family pulling the plug if he ever wound up in a coma.
Later, the late “Saturday Night Live” star, who was a Christian, joked about the afterlife, sharing that his “biggest fear” was that he picked “the wrong religion,” the outlet noted.
“Ahh, it’s you! I thought it was the other fella,” said Macdonald. “I should have been slaying apostates the entire time. Ah well, what are you gonna do?”
At one point, Macdonald even appeared to comment on transgender people. He cracked a joke about how his dad’s “good side” was fighting to liberate the world from Nazis, then said, “His evil side was this crazy idea he had that having a cock has something to do with being a boy.”