Norm MacDonald sounds tired.

Perhaps it’s because he has just more than a week to prepare for the taping of a one-hour Comedy Central special, which takes place in two installments at The Fillmore in San Francisco on Jan. 14, and he hasn’t done anything more than perform some warm-up gigs. Maybe the stress is getting to him.

Something’s askew, because he said he didn’t even realize SF Sketchfest would be going on at the same time as his performances.

The 47-year-old Canadian comedian, best known for anchoring the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live” from 1994 to 1997, doesn’t like to put his comedy down on paper. But he said he’s trying to compile his best stand-up routines from the past few years for the special.

“Here’s the problem,” MacDonald told The Daily News on Tuesday. “I don’t know anything about time, how long (a routine) is, and I can never choose what to do. Like normally, I kind of figure it out on stage, but now I have to sit down and write it all down. … (and) I can’t do it, because I don’t have a good enough memory.

“Louis (C.K.) and Brian Regan are both very disciplined in that way; Chris Rock, too,” he added, sounding a bit jealous of three comics he admires. “I used to tape my act, but then I’d never listen to the f—ing tape.”

But MacDonald’s schtick doesn’t really jibe with good memory skills anyway. His fans adore him for his spontaneous style, filled with awkward pauses, as if he’s just emptying out the thoughts as they come into his head.

“It’s a more naturalistic way,” he said. “That’s what I do, because if I try to memorize it, it sounds real bad.

“I have a punch line I’m working toward (and) I’m making a lot of the surrounding stuff up. When I get close to (the punch line), I get relaxed and meander around for as long as I can.”

Things are looking good at the moment for the comedian, who has had his share of misfortune when it comes to television. Other than ABC’s “The Norm Show,” which lasted for three seasons, two series he starred in were quickly canceled — “Back to Norm” after the pilot aired. “A Minute with Stan Hooper” ran six episodes on Fox — just half of its 13 completed episodes.

“I never wanted to do a sitcom,” said MacDonald, who got his start in television writing for “The Dennis Miller Show” in 1994. “I never even wanted to do movies, but yeah, you may as well do it for the money, and be retarded.

“I took an acting class when I first went to L.A., that was 16 years ago. Me and a stand-up friend had been doing stand-up already, so we had money and everybody else in the class was broke. We were the worst actors by a million miles.”

Ironically, the same network that canned “Back to Norm” — Comedy Central — after one episode in 2005 may end up reinvigorating his TV career. MacDonald has been working with the network on a new series, “The Sports Show,” that places him behind a desk for the first time since “Weekend Update.” He’s already taped the pilot.

“Our show is ripped from the headlines, it’s like ‘The Daily Show’ of sports,” he said. “They’re going to decide on the 19th (of January). I think it’s going to happen.”

MacDonald said Comedy Central is giving him complete control over his one-hour stand-up special, which is being directed by his idol, David Steinberg. He plans to tape some sketches after his Jan. 14 performances to be added before it airs in March.

“I might do something at Alcatraz,” he said. “When I went there, the guy was telling me the coolest part was you can be in the hole and the guard would be raping you, and (the prisoners would) look out at San Francisco and hear the clinking of (champagne) glasses. I thought that would be a good place to do a skit.”

MacDonald is becoming something of a regular in the Bay Area. The Jan. 14 taping will mark his third appearance in San Francisco in just the past six months alone.

“That’s a bit much,” he admits, adding that he toured for 46 weeks last year. “I like San Francisco. I don’t drive a car, so I love ‘walking cities.’ I like to go down to the piers or the wharf to get my picture sketched.

“I have a collection of them at home from these bad sketch artists. I have too many now … I keep them in a closet.”

E-mail Kevin Kelly at kkelly@dailynewsgroup.com.