Based on a True Story

A Memoir

By: Norm Macdonald

Narrated by: Norm Macdonald, Tim O'Halloran

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.”

©2016 Norm Macdonald (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“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

couldn't stop listening

If you are a Norm fan, it is a must listen. I finished it in one day, it was excellent!

How to Club a Baby Seal

This book taught me what I wanted to know: how to club a baby seal. It also had other things in it.

Downright Absurd

This is a rather niche book. You'll either love it or find it insanely stupid. Or both. Anyone who is a fan of Norm already knows what they're getting into, reading this "memoir" of his life, which includes his time growing up on a 100 acre farm, wherein he forgot an entire 5 year swath of his life, up to hiring a hitman to kill Dave Attell, and cheering because a teenager was found slaughtered in a ravine.

I can't imagine just straight reading this, as Norms delivery makes it a thousand times better. With this book, he cements himself as the king of dry comedy.

Awesome memoir, the Norm MacDonald way

I expected a memoir, and got a Norm Macdonald memoir, it was great, funny and true to Norm. I am not sure how I feel, but it was worth the 7 hours and 1 credit. Thanks for the laughs and I will expect more!

listened to it 4 times

good thing in the beginning i wasn'tt sure of it's a biography or a novel. the 3rd time i could link everything together. i can't resist Norm Macdonald, i might be biased

Great book

Norm’s autobiography is a great and true work of art...or so the Germans would have you believe.

Norm Tells All (to stuff it)

Pure Norm McDonald'.
All true. Brilliant insights.
Gripping.
I laughed. I sighed. I pooped.
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

This guy is a real jerk!

listen here. I'll tell ya, let me tell ya, I'll tell ya, this here book....i says this here book.....oh man let me tell ya. i says; this book here, i say this book here! is totally not norm..

Norm a comic genius, good author & story teller

I really admire Norm Macdonald I think he is a comic genius. This book is a good look into the mind and life of Norm. I am sure many parts are not altogether true. Albeit his story and the characters are from real life. Norm makes me laugh and he makes me think, his way of looking at life and the world is totally funny and ironically funny. I put him in the class with W C Fields, if you know Fields and his humor and his way of seeing the world comes out in his humor. Two of the funniest men ever born.

The best book I’ve ever heard.

Norm is the funniest guy ever to have lived! If you disagree, you are wrong. Still, just read it or listen to it ASAP!