Based on a True Story, Norm Macdonald
Based on a True Story, Norm Macdonald
39 Rating(s)
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Based on a True Story
A Memoir

Bestseller

Author: Norm Macdonald

Narrator: Norm Macdonald, Tim O'Halloran

Unabridged: 7 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/20/2016

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Driving, wild and hilarious” (The Washington Post), here is the incredible “memoir” of the legendary actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran.

When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre “one step below instruction manuals.” Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he emerged he had under his arm a manuscript, a genre-smashing book about comedy, tragedy, love, loss, war, and redemption. When asked if this was the celebrity memoir, Norm replied, “Call it anything you damn like.”

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sean on December 07, 2016

A moth goes into a podiatrist’s office. The podiatrist says, “What’s the problem?” The moth says, “Where do I begin with my problems? Every day I go to work for Gregory Vassilievich, and all day long I toil. But what is my work? I am a bureaucrat, and so every day I joylessly move papers from one pl......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on July 09, 2020

"BEST COMEDIC AUTOBIO EVER!" would've been too generous a tagline (that one may belong to British funwit Russell Brand. Or maybe Kathy Griffin's). But it is not wholly untrue: it is the only of its kind that actually dabbles with the (capital L) Literary. Yes, it is THE Norm Macdonald autobio (& not......more

Goodreads review by Brian on March 10, 2023

Made up truth. “Based on a True Story” is my first experience with an audio book. Although I think that it was a good way to experience this text, I don’t imagine there are many audiobooks in my future. However, hearing Norm’s voice is the best part, as it really brings out the cadence in his writing......more

Goodreads review by Brandon on January 06, 2017

Based On A True Story is the autobiography of famed stand-up comedian Norm MacDonald - or so he would have you believe. Rather than tell you his real life story, Norm decided to write of his one-time plan to borrow millions of dollars from various casinos in Las Vegas, turn that money into millions......more

Goodreads review by Katie on February 13, 2019

Well, leave it to Norm Macdonald to have written the most unusual celeb memoir I have ever read. He does however give you fair warning that not everything in the book is true. Instead it's this weird mix of truth, things that are ridiculously false, and stuff that makes you wonder, is he pulling my......more

Quotes

“A driving, wild and hilarious ramble of a book, what might have happened had Hunter S. Thompson embedded himself in a network studio.”—The Washington Post

“Dostoyevsky by way of 30 Rockefeller Center . . . the best new book I’ve read this year or last.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“This book is absurd fiction. . . . Scathing and funny.”—The New York Times
 
“Hilarious and filled with turns of phrase and hidden beauty like only a collection of Norm Macdonald stories could be.”—Esquire
 
“Raucous . . . a hilarious, innovative work.”—A.V. Club

“Part personal history and part meta riff on celebrity memoirs, the book, it quickly becomes clear, is also just partly true (and all hilarious).”—Vulture

“My three favorite books:
1. The Bible, by Moses and other guys
2. The Art of the Deal, by President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump (a.k.a. President Trumpy)
3. Based on a True Story, by Norm Macdonald
 
I have not read the first two. I have read Based on a True Story, and I believe it to be largely bullshit, but it is very, very, very funny! Thanks, Norm, for letting me be part of this Booker Prize–for–literature–quality effort.”—David Letterman

“Norm is one of my all-time favorites, and this book was such a great read I forgot how lonely I was for a while.”—Amy Schumer
 
“I always thought Normie’s stand-up was the funniest thing there was. But this book gives it a run for its money.”—Adam Sandler
 
“Norm is one of the greatest stand-up comics who’s ever worked—a totally original voice. His sense of the ridiculous and his use of juxtaposition in his writing make him a comic’s comic. We all love Norm.”—Roseanne Barr
 
“Norm Macdonald makes me laugh my ass off. Who is funnier than Norm Macdonald? Nobody.”—Judd Apatow
 
“Norm Macdonald is more than a triple threat—he’s a septuple threat. He is smart, funny, wry, rakish, polite, rakish . . . no, wait. He is polite, insightful, and . . . aaaaah . . . warm. No. He’s exciting. Yeah. Exciting! You never know what he’ll do. Okay, then make that unpredictable. Add that up. He’s amazing.”—Alec Baldwin
 
“Norm only has to grunt to make me laugh. And this book is three hundred pages? Sign me up.”—Sophia Amoruso, author of #GIRLBOSS
 
“Norm is a double threat. His material and timing are both top-notch, which is unheard of. He is one of my favorites, both on- and off-stage.”—Dave Attell
 
“David Letterman said it best: There is no one funnier than Norm Macdonald.”—Rob Schneider

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