Mark Normand is obsessed with ‘comedy!’

If you haven’t heard of Mark Normand, its not from a lack of trying. 

With touring around the US nearly every single week for 16 years, four comedy specials, 10-plus late night spots on shows like Colbert, Conan, and the Tonight Show, as well as two weekly podcasts, he’s arguably the hardest working comedian in the game right now. 

So if you haven’t heard of Mark Normand, you’re probably just not that big a fan of stand up comedy. 

Normand doesn’t like to take the foot off the gas at any capacity when it comes to comedy, and his brand-new Netflix special is a glowing reminder of exactly that. In Soup to Nuts (released July 25th), he covers everything under the sun that’s made him laugh since his breakout hit YouTube special from May of 2020.

“I couldn’t sell a ticket, I couldn’t get on Netflix or HBO.”

MN

After pitching and being turned down by the big streamers, Normand took his career into his own hands and posted Out to Lunch to YouTube; garnering him a whopping 12 million views since its release- and causing the suits at Netflix to take a well deserved second-look. 

Again, this powerful pandemic Cinderella story comes as no surprise to the real comedy fans.

Being one of the few comics to get approval from GOAT Jerry Seinfeld, he’s what is known as a comic’s comic; The comedians love him for his rock solid punchlines, and the crowd clearly does too. 

I take pleasure in picturing the ironically bashful comedian’s reaction to this article, as the humble-to-a-fault powerhouse will only take praise if it comes in the form of a laugh. 

I learnt this as Normand quickly turned his cellphone camera onto his giant Maine Coon cat at the first possible threat of a genuine compliment. 

But now seems good a time as ever to give it up to Mark Normand.

Read our full conversation with the man himself below. 

Mark Normand sits down with Esquire Middle East

You’re all around the place all the time- You’re just coming off the fully loaded tour, and you did a show in Nashville and Boston before you came back to New York and then did four shows at the cellar. Do you ever take a break Mark? Why is it important for you to work as hard as you do as a stand up?

MN: Wow you know my schedule so well, you know me better than my father.

I just like to work, but I always forget about the little things you know? People say, “You want to do Nashville?” I go “I’d love to do Nashville! I love Nashville, I love the club, I love comedy”. But then you forget that it requires packing a bag, getting an Uber, going to the airport, flying there, landing, getting another Uber, and I always forget about that part. I just say yes to everything, and then I realize, “Oh my God, I want to kill myself. I’m hungover and now I’m at baggage claim and I want to vomit on the floor”. 

But I still get to do the Nashville show- It’s kind of like a lady. You’re like, “Oh, I’d love to sleep with this lady”. Then you realize you gotta meet her parents and get married, and you have a kid and you know… you want to kill yourself!

What does Mark Normand do on his day off?

MN: I’d kill for a day off. Well, I actually like stand up. I would try to chill out all day- I’m a big walk guy. I think walking is highly underrated. So I would walk around the city with a podcast going, maybe do a couple pull ups on some scaffolding. Have a nice lunch with the wife, and then write some jokes, and go do some comedy!

So you’re obsessed with comedy. Is it almost like a drug to you?

MN: I just think my life was kind of empty and boring. It’s such a gift I used to be a janitor for Christ sake. I’m from Louisiana, I’m nothing special. So comedy is like a cool way to get to do what you love and be somebody. You get to make a room full of strangers laugh. I mean, what’s better than that? 

 A lot of guys are like, “You’re working tonight? Take a night off!” I’m actually sadder on a night off. I like to work, I don’t consider it work, it’s fun. The travel is work. 

You’re a joke machine on stage or on podcasts you don’t ever turn it off even in four hour conversations. Are you able to turn off that comedy brain of “being on” in your regular personal life or is that in itself something you have to fight? 

MN: Oh, well, it’s two things. One, I’m constantly uncomfortable all the time. I’m anxious, I’m nervous, I feel like everybody hates me, I feel like I’m boring. So I think if I make a joke, it comforts me. It’s not me being, “I gotta be funny right now’, it’s more like “Oh God, I’m uncomfortable, make a joke”. 

Also my brain works analogously- I don’t think people understand what I’m talking about a lot, so I make analogies and I think I got good at it over the years because it was all I had for people to get me. So now I just tend to do it naturally. 

You say something to somebody, and they’re like, “wait, what?” and you go, “it’s kind of like this” and they go, “Oh, I get it”. I do it in my act a lot.  

What do you think you’d be today if not a comedian? 

MN: I thought copywriter would be kind of cool. I remember seeing a billboard for a Scotch called J and B when I was a kid and it said, “You can’t have Christmas without J and B”, and it said “ingle ells” like jingle bells; that just blew my mind.

It was basically a joke. I was six and didn’t know what scotch was but I remember thinking that is so cool. It was like a little magic trick in words.

“Comics want to be musicians and musicians want to be comedians”. Does that ring true for you at all? 

MN: I’ve heard that a million times and I have zero desire to be a musician. I don’t want to be some chooch in leather pants up on stage with a guitar strumming about his ex girlfriend. I’d way rather be a comedian, I don’t have that at all. But everybody’s like, “Oh, I want to get up there and shred on a guitar or play the drums or rap. I have zero desire to do that. I’m too stiff, I can’t be vulnerable. So no thank you I’ll stick with the zingers.

Growing up in a dilapidated mansion that would often get broken into, I’m sure you learnt pretty quickly both how to think on your feet, and keep your cool in stressful situation. You know, Bombing on stage doesn’t really hold a candle to walking into a robbery as a child right?

MN: Maybe you’re right, I never thought of it like that. I was just terrified as a kid. Bombing on stage sucks but it’s got nothing on seeing a crime happening in your home. I will say, when I’m bombing, it does trigger those old feelings of “Oh my god, I’m so scared right now”.

You’re really neurotic about certain things. Does that specificity help with finding observational bits in the world? 

MN: Probably, because I’ll just analyze the s**t out of everything.  I’m like, “Was that stupid? Why do we do this? That’s weird. How come that’s like that?”. So I think that does lead to a lot of comedy. I’m always thinking about stuff, and then I’m always worried I’m doing it wrong. So when you’re worried, you tend to think and fester on something and then you’re like, well, that’s kind of funny.

And now here we are writing a bit about comparing pet shops to strip clubs.

Being all over the place and being at this for years, you have a considerable fan base that you come face to face with on a weekly basis. Can you tell me about any fan interactions that made you feel the weight of how beloved you are? Has that happened for you? 

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MN: I am not good at absorbing that stuff, I gotta get better at that. Also, I have a fear that if I let that sink in, I’ll stop being funny. So when someones gushing, I kind of put the kibosh on. I don’t wanna get a big head, you know? a lot of these comics, they get a big head, and then before you know it, they’re less funny. I’m not gonna name names, but I don’t want to be that guy. 

I have seen it and I get a lot of messages, and it’s super nice. But again, you gotta take it with a grain of salt and keep moving baby.

So obviously the thing about being funny to me, the attempt in itself comes with an attempt at being liked. With the huge views, praise from your peers, top streamers wanting to work with you, and the loyal fan base, has that cup sort of been filled for you? 

MN: Well, the thing with the with the cup is that it’s got a hole in it. So even when I fill it, and it’s all the way to the top, there’s a tiny little pin prick in the bottom and it’ll eventually drip out. So then you’re right back to zero again after like, a day. So it’ll fill up and it’ll go back down.

See? I just did another analogy.

Do you feel like you’ve made it? If so, when was that realization for you?

MN: I finally feel like I’ve made it but here’s why the brain is so f**king evil- is I finally feel like I made it, and now that’s a new problem. Now I’m like, “I gotta keep it. I gotta hold on to it. Oh, my God. It could go away at any moment!”. So again, I always find the negative I’m a cynical son of an onion. 

I think the big break for me was I did Out to Lunch when I couldn’t sell a ticket, I couldn’t get on Netflix or HBO. 

And it did so well on YouTube with the numbers that people were like, “Oh, okay wow, this guy actually proved himself a little bit”. I think you gotta prove yourself- everybody wants some big break, but you gotta to earn it. 

You’re not going to just step on stage and have a fat guy with a cigar and a suit on go “You’re in kid, I’m gonna make you a star!”. You make yourself a star. 

You blew up in a huge way with your YouTube special that’s at over 12 million views. Did you know that betting on yourself would pay off like that? I feel like you really started the trend in YouTube specials.

MN:  I did not think it would pay. I really saw it as a failure. Nobody would buy it. I put it on YouTube, this free platform that nobody respects, as like a last ditch effort and it just popped. 

Hey, a view is a view. Who cares where it’s from? 

I know you used to tell your dad you’d be a mailman or a bellhop as a rudderless college kid. Now that you’ve made it, do the parents give it up?

MN: You gotta realize they don’t know comedy. So you go, “I got into the comedy cellar!”, and they’re like, “Who? What? A cellar? What does that mean?” And so those little milestones mean nothing to them. And that’s not their fault, they don’t know what the f**k that is.  

 But I got on Conan, and that was a thing because now it’s like a TV show with a celebrity on it. 

So when Seinfeld shouted me out, that’s when they were really like, “Holy moly. This guy is making some waves. We know who that is. He’s a big deal!” With the Netflix special, now they’re super supportive and they’re on board. But took a minute.

You’re famously one of the few young comedians to get a co-sign from Seinfeld himself. Who’s some of the comedians that you’d recommend to people that you feel like we’re missing out on if you don’t watch? 

MN: I love this question because I love giving some love to these killers up there who are not as big as they should be. Write these down kids.

Sean Patton– I started with him in Louisiana. He’s a little older than me, but he is just one of these lightning in a bottle kind of comics. He’s wacky and all over the place. Interesting, original, unpredictable, and just kills.

Then there’s a guy Chad Daniels. He was number one on Pandora for a while but he is so good. He did the Fully Loaded festival and he was killing every night in these arenas with brilliant stuff.  

Dina Hashem has great jokes and I think she’s coming out with a special soon, Anthony DeVito is a funny comedian in New York who I think has got an album out, Ian Lara is really funny, he’s got an HBO thing that nobody saw. Jessica Kirson is funny. I’m blanking on more but yeah, check those people out. 

Oh! Sean Murphy, check him out he’s got an album out too.

How’d it feel to get that nod of approval from Seinfeld? Did he call? Do you guys keep in touch?

MN: It was surreal to say the least. It still blows my mind that I have his phone number, and that we’ve met. But that’s the beautiful thing about comedy, is there’s less pretension. Mick Jagger is never gonna meet this bar-ballroom guitar playing musician. 

He’s off at the O2 arena. This ballroom musician is just in some rinky-dink bar somewhere in Cleveland, and he’s brilliant and killing. But he’ll never meet Mick Jagger. I got to meet Seinfeld, because he saw me on The Tonight Show or he saw me at a comedy club. And that’s what’s so cool. 

We’re just both comics. So that was so big for me. I mean, it doesn’t seem like life is long enough that you could watch this guy in your living room with your parents on TV, and then one day know him. So it’s all very bananas, and I don’t want to text him too much and bother him.

You really seem to be living the dream. What about the other side though, what’s the worst part about being a comic?

MN: I’m a sensitive queef you know? Those negative comments, they hurt my feelings and I need to get over that. The hard part really, is the coming up with the material. You’re laying in bed going, “Oh, my God, I just put out a new hour, I have nothing”. Then to work out new material is so embarrassing and people come out to see you because they want you to be funny. But they don’t want you to do the old stuff so you have to work out new material in front of them. It’s a nightmare. That part is really hard just coming up with content, not just content, but good content, quick. So that is very daunting.

Do you think we’ll see you perform in the UAE anytime soon?

MN: I’d love to go to Dubai. Just did Australia, New Zealand, I’m going to Berlin next month, I’m going to Lisbon and Dublin. So hell, let’s do Dubai! I don’t know if I’m big enough yet. You gotta be huge to do Dubai. That’s a big market. We’ll come there eventually.

I’d love to go and get a Bugatti, get some necklaces and an Armani suit, I’m in.

You’re also one of the few comedians in your generation that are real joke writers- I can watch your sets multiple times and still laugh and enjoy it like it’s the first time. How does it feel to perfect and crack a joke that you’ve been working on? Is there a moment where you know it’s finished?

MN: It’s a great feeling because you start with nothing. You start with an idea, and you have to make that idea into something people think is funny, give a s**t about, and can understand, which is a lot of stuff.  

It’s a lot of boxes to check but when you complete a joke, I mean it’s just the best feeling. It’s gotta be how a contractor feels when they step away and a house is finished. The plumbing, the wood, the floors, the stairwell, the roof. So much goes into it and you just step back and go, “Great, put a family in there, I. did this”. 

That’s how I feel with a joke. Obviously, it’s not as important as the house, but it was just an idea that came out of thin air, and then now it’s making some guy laugh in Cleveland. 

That’s really the key to happiness, I think. Everybody’s like, trying to take a pill or meditate but no, the key is satisfaction. Finish something. Do something challenging, and then complete it. Give yourself a goal and get to that goal, and then do it again and again. That’s really the key to happiness. It’s not really this “magic” feeling. No, you gotta go get it.

Do you have time to watch other comedians? What are your top three specials from this past year?

MN: I though Sam Morril’s Same Time Tomorrow was great. This might be two years ago, but I thought Louie’s Sorry was amazing. Mulaney’s Baby J was cool, it was a nice style change for him. 

What about top three specials of all time for you?

MN: Whew, I’m going to try to be objective cause some of these specials, they hit you at the right time, you’re young, they mean a lot to you, so I’m going to try to not go personal and emotional.

I think Louie’s second special, Chewed Up is like a masterpiece. That’s his top of the heap, masterpiece opus. Best work he’s ever done. 

Chris Rock’s Bring the Pain is pretty damn amazing. It’s raw, It’s dark, It’s funny, It’s silly, it’s got everything. It’s got crazy jokes where you’re like, “Oh my god. I can’t believe he’s saying that”, but it’s also really smart. Three is tough, there’s so many great specials. 

You can you can rattle them off. 

MN: I’m gonna rattle.

I love Seinfeld’s first one, I’m Telling You for the Last Time, that has so many great jokes in it; it’s just years of reps and doing work. I love these early specials because you can see how much time and effort people put into it.

Killin’ Them Softly by Dave Chappelle. That first one is incredible, top to bottom, the Sesame Street bit- that’s incredible.

Ellen’s first one Here and Now is really good. 

Richard Pryor obviously, Live in Concert might be the best comedy special ever made top to bottom. 

Gaffigan’s Beyond the Pale is great. 

Mulaney’s New in Town is still, I think his best work- killer. 

Nate Bargatze’s last special, put that on the list, that one was incredible. 

Bill Burr’s Why Do I Do This. I mean that hour blew my mind. 

Michelle Wolf’s first HBO special was incredible, check that out. 

You do recs on your podcast we might be drunk, do you have any recs for the Esquire audience? 

Comedy, check out those new people I mentioned. 

And, turn your phone off- there’s a rec. Turn your phone off, delete your social media and go get a smoothie. 

Find out if Mark Normand is coming to a city near you at marknormandcomedy.com