Making us laugh at assistant crack whores all over again.

A lot of professionals will describe Norm MacDonald as a “comedian’s comedian.” What that means is that a guy is far too smart for the public to get him. Don’t front, either. We know Jeff Dunham’s puppet shows keep getting voted Comedy Central’s top stand-up special year after year.

In MacDonald’s case, sometimes the jokes get lost on all the wrong targets — like when NBC suit Don Ohlmeyer famously sided with a certain double-murderer over MacDonald and his relentless barrage of O.J. jokes on Weekend Update and got him booted from the gig even though Chevy Chase himself is reputed to have said Norm was the only other guy to get it right. Not that these kinds of things seem to bother MacDonald. In fact, nothing seems to bother him. Bone-dry and bemused seem to be more than just the cornerstones of his act — they seem to be a way of life.

He went on from Saturday Night Live (where he did what may be the greatest sketch in the show’s history) to do Dirty Work, A Minute With Stan Hooper and The Norm Show. His fans border on the obsessed, leaving a wealth of Norm-related media around the internet.

MacDonald is at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay at 8 p.m. We caught up to talk about the Juice, the roast and Henny Youngman’s material on the economy. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone