Norm Macdonald got the thrill of a lifetime when his comedy hero, Richard Pryor, agreed to work with him in 1999. After he was fired by Saturday Night Live the previous year, Macdonald was given his own short-lived sitcom on ABC called The Norm Show (the title was eventually changed to Norm in Season 2). He starred as an ex-hockey player forced to become a social worker after being kicked out of the NHL. For the second season of the newly rechristened Norm, Macdonald was eager to get Pryor to guest-star on the show.
Although Pryor had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis years earlier, Macdonald had seen him do stand-up at the Comedy Store and thought he was still at the top of his game. Unfortunately, as he told Howard Stern later on, Pryor’s condition had progressed significantly by the time he arrived on the set of Norm. By then, Pryor was in a wheelchair with spit coming out of his mouth and could barely talk. Macdonald quickly realized he’d made a big mistake asking the ailing comedian to make an appearance.
Pryor still supposedly wanted to do the show even after Macdonald attempted to call the whole thing off. He appears briefly at the beginning of the Season 2 episode “Norm vs. The Boxer,” as an unruly client of Norm’s who pretends to be disabled. It wound up being the 58-year-old Pryor’s final acting role. Have a look at his appearance in the video below.
Sad as it was for Macdonald to work with his idol in that state, the experience turned out to be fittingly humorous for a meeting of two comedy legends. At one point, Pryor’s wife encouraged Macdonald to show his husband some physical affection to ease his nerves. Macdonald was more than happy to fulfill her request and kissed Pryor, telling him how much she loved him. A little while later, a friend of Pryor’s came over to share some hilarious news with the star of the show: Due to Macdonald’s little moment of tenderness, Pryor was now firmly convinced that Macdonald was a homosexual.
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