Norm Macdonald reads The Final Chapter from his memoir, reflecting back on his life

I’ll never forget sitting a few rows from Norm Macdonald, almost exactly five years ago on September 22, 2016 at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., when he read from his memoir Based on a True Story. Now that we know he had cancer back then too, his reading of “The Final Chapter” might be the best way for us to understand what he went through, to celebrate his wit, melancholy, and kind heart.

He’s sitting next to journalist Geoff Edgers, who wrote the best-ever piece on Norm, then one more “final chapter” at The Washington Post.

Here, I’ve edited and upscaled from a low-resolution copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy into 4K using Topaz Video Enhance AI (Artemis Medium Quality v13 from 720p to 2160p), then I color graded using FilmConvert (FJ SuperX 400 emulsion simulation with 35mm film grain), and cleaned up the audio using iZotope RX 8 Advanced (Vocal Noise Reduction and Loudness Control). There are no cuts or edits to his original reading, just me leveraging the 4K upscale to occasionally punch in for shot diversity. It felt important to get this right, and it’s shared here in a spirit of fair use and tribute, in memoriam.