Based On A True Story

Read Norm MacDonald's 2016 book, Based On A True Story: Not A Memoir.  Funny, outrageous, bizarre - just like Norm.  Some is true, some not, and some you just can't tell.  If you like Norm's comedy you'll like this, as I did.  If not, you won't get it.  Definitely written by him.  The style and rhythms are pure Norm and you can hear his voice in your head as you read (and he does the audio book version).

Not knowing much about his early career I was interested to see how much credit he gave to Adam Sandler, "Without Adam, no career".

As we now know (but didn't then), Norm had already been diagnosed with the leukemia that would kill him in 2021.  Amid the wild tales, there are a couple of moments, when it seems, in retrospect, he's reflecting on his diagnosis:

"The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast, and if you're not careful it's too late.  Of course, the young man will never understand this truth."

In the context of a hospital visit to a child who's been diagnosed with a fatal illness, most of which is very, very funny, he writes:

"Death is a funny thing.  Not funny haha, like a Woody Allen movie, but funny strange, like a Woody Allen marriage.  When it's unexpected, death comes fast like a ravenous wolf and tears open your throat with a merciful fury.  But when it's expected, it comes slow and patient like a snake, and the doctor tells you how far away it is and when, exactly, it will be at your door.  And when it will be at the foot of your bed.  And when it will be on your flesh."