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Audiobook7 hours
Based on a True Story: A Memoir
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Narrated by Tim O'Halloran
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • "Driving, wild and hilarious" (The Washington Post), here is the incredible "memoir" of the actor, gambler, raconteur, and Saturday Night Live veteran.
Don't miss Norm's new Netflix special, Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Treachery!
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."
Praise for Based on a True Story
"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
"Very, very, very funny! Thanks, Norm, for letting me be part of this Booker Prize-for-literature-quality effort."-David Letterman
"Norm is brilliant and thoughtful and there is sensitivity and creative insight in his observations and stories. A lot of comics over the years have been compared to Mark Twain, but I think Norm is the only one who actually matches the guy in terms of his voice and ability. I seriously f**king love Norm Macdonald. Please buy his book. He probably needs the cash. He's really bad with money."-Louis C.K., from the foreword
"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 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
"Letterman said it best: There is no one funnier than Norm Macdonald."-Rob Schneider
Don't miss Norm's new Netflix special, Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Treachery!
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."
Praise for Based on a True Story
"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
"Very, very, very funny! Thanks, Norm, for letting me be part of this Booker Prize-for-literature-quality effort."-David Letterman
"Norm is brilliant and thoughtful and there is sensitivity and creative insight in his observations and stories. A lot of comics over the years have been compared to Mark Twain, but I think Norm is the only one who actually matches the guy in terms of his voice and ability. I seriously f**king love Norm Macdonald. Please buy his book. He probably needs the cash. He's really bad with money."-Louis C.K., from the foreword
"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 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
"Letterman said it best: There is no one funnier than Norm Macdonald."-Rob Schneider
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Reviews for Based on a True Story
Rating: 4.741935483870968 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
31 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stunning work of the highest caliber. Absolutely hilarious as well!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sooooo good! I wish I could recommend it to more people, but I know few who would appreciate it!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book reads Like Dostoevsky got in a scrap with Hunter Thompson and some smartass rube tried to break it up. It is wonderfully surprising and brilliant.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I like Norm MacDonald, but this wasn't quite as funny...or as true...as I thought it would be. I could do without it being as funny, as so many comedians seem to have a dark and sometimes depressing life, but he added a lot of fake stories that I think were supposed to be funny, but they just didn't come off that way.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow! A biography of a genius who loves to play the fool.
1 person found this helpful