Norm Macdonald on Jay Leno & Jerry Seinfeld

Larry King: As a comedian, how do you work past the idea that when you’re on tour and oyu’re telling the same jokes night after night, do you still get the same kick out of it?

Norm Macdonald: Yeah. Well I don’t tell the same jokes night after night.

Larry King: You change.

Norm Macdonald: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I haven’t done very many, I’ve only done one stand-up special. Now other guys have done fifty. But um, I was influenced in this by Jay Leno, who when I started was the top-rated.

Larry King: Great stand-up.

Norm Macdonald: Like Elvis, you know?

Larry King: Jay Leno.

Norm Macdonald: He never did a stand-up special. There is no HBO special of Jay Leno, which is surprising. But he explained to me why, cause he had his jokes and he had advertised it out, that his jokes were worth so much you know, a piece over a year, you know? 50,000 to 100,000.

Larry King: But he…

Norm Macdonald: And he wasn’t going to do a special.

Larry King: When you see him in person though, he’s a great monologist. Television confined him. He stalks the stage, he runs his hands through his hair.

Norm Macdonald: Yeah.

Larry King: And he’s funny.

Norm Macdonald: Very funny. And I’ve seen at the improv, you know like uh, Jerry Seinfeld will come in. Get huge applause, he always gets five minutes applause before they speak, and then he does his stand-up and he does okay, you know what I mean? But he just stands there. But then like you say Leno will come in and he’s like Bruce Springsteen.

Larry King: Yeah, oh.

Norm Macdonald: Yeah he gives it all

Larry King: Rapid fire, too.

Norm Macdonald: Yeah so funny, and so giving to the audience. And you talk about humility, there’s a guy with grand humility for having possessed such a high job.

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