Kliph Nesteroff Is Writing a Norm Macdonald Biography

First on LateNighter: Comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff is turning his attention to one of comedy’s most beloved—and most elusive—figures: Norm Macdonald.

Nesteroff tells us he’s at work on a full-life biography of Macdonald, the late Canadian stand-up, Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” anchor, Letterman favorite, and patron saint of the long pause, the shaggy-dog story, and the joke that somehow got funnier the less interested it seemed in pleasing anyone.

The book will be published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Nesteroff has made a career of digging through comedy’s half-buried histories. His previous books include The Comedians; We Had a Little Real Estate Problem; and Outrageous. His next book, Sorry, We’re Funny: How Canada Became a Comedy Powerhouse, arrives October 20, 2026, and helped lead him to Macdonald.

“There’s a section in my forthcoming book, Sorry, We’re Funny, that covers the original stand-up scene where Norm started—from amateur night in Ottawa to the rough road gigs he played across Canada in the 1980s,” Nesteroff tells LateNighter. “So, the book that follows, the Norm biography, is the natural extension of that.”

Nesteroff says Macdonald’s older brother, retired Canadian journalist Neil Macdonald, has already helped fill in “some remarkable details” about Macdonald’s early life, including his childhood, teen years, high school and college days, and his fluency in French.

“There is so much about Norm that we know so very little about,” he says. “He had a whole other life and personality during his first 30 years in Canada. Every new detail is a revelation.”

Macdonald, who died in 2021 at 61, spent five seasons at Saturday Night Live, where he became one of the show’s defining “Weekend Update” anchors. His larger career included Dirty Work, The Norm Show, Norm Macdonald Has a Show, a 2016 semi-fictional memoir, and a long run of late-night appearances that made him a favorite of David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and just about every comic who valued funny over frictionless.

Nesteroff says the biography will cover Macdonald’s life “from birth to death,” with a particular emphasis on separating the performer’s mythology from the man behind it.

“Norm is such a fascinating person, both onstage and off, and the most beloved comedian of his generation,” he says. “He liked to weave tall tales about his life so it’s an exciting task to finally separate fact from fiction.”

Nesteroff had his own overlapping history with Macdonald, who first stumbled across the writer through his blog, Classic Television Showbiz, which featured interviews with veteran comedians, including Jack Carter and Woody Woodbury.

“Norm was really into that stuff,” Nesteroff says. “He mentioned it once when he was doing press for a gig in Vancouver twenty years ago. That was how I learned he was reading my stuff.”

When Nesteroff published his first book, The Comedians, Macdonald supplied a cover blurb. Later, Macdonald reached out while preparing his final Letterman appearance, asking Nesteroff if he had footage of Letterman’s old stand-up act. Macdonald wanted to perform one of Letterman’s jokes as an homage. He ultimately chose Letterman’s bit about the garbage truck sign that says, “Please do not follow too closely.”

Asked to describe what’s misunderstood about Macdonald, Nesteroff’s answer is sweeping: “Nearly everything.”

“When people learn about his early years, it really will be revelatory,” he says. “There is a definite origin story that explains how his unique, off-kilter perspective came to be. If you’re a Norm fan, and I assume everyone is, you’re really going to love it. There’s just so much new information, none of it is on the internet. He was fascinating, fascinating, fascinating.”

Before the Macdonald biography, Nesteroff’s Sorry, We’re Funny arrives October 20, 2026. He also appears in You Had To Be There, Nick Davis’ upcoming documentary about the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell that brought together a startling roster of future comedy stars, including Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and musical director Paul Shaffer.