Ottawa Valley’s Norm Macdonald became famous in a comedic institution where many Canadians got a break: the TV show Saturday Night Live. He hosted Weekend Update, starred in movies including Dirty Work and Billy Madison and, more recently, the TV series Sunnyside — he also does a mean stand-up and has a video podcast. His memoir Based On A True Story, is out Sept. 20; here’s a preview.

People often ask how many jokes I contributed to Weekend Update. The answer can be a whole bunch or one, depending on how you look at it. I pitched it during that first meeting. “David Hasselhoff is a major recording star in Germany, where his two shows, Baywatch and Knight Rider, are huge hits. Which all goes to prove my theory, Germans love David Hasselhoff.” No one laughed.

Jim said, “You can do it, Norm, but non sequiturs have to be done often to have any chance to work.”

“Okay, Professor,” I sneered, “what’s a non sequitur?”

“It’s a joke that makes no sense. It’s structured like a joke but has no content.”

Jim was really starting to get on my nerves. That was no non sequitur. It was a real joke.

The meeting had held such promise, but it was turning bad quickly, and I sensed that two camps were forming: the camp I was in and the camp everyone else was in. I knew where I was needed. I quickly excused myself and went to meet with Wally Feresten to discuss the size of the cue cards.

The new incarnation of Weekend Update premiered in the fall of 1994 and was an instant hit. The New York Times hailed it “punk rock comedy,” which is what I had been intending for them to notice from the beginning. Frank and Ross wrote all day, every day, on Update, and by week’s end they had generated maybe two thousand jokes. We’d cut it down to thirty for dress and to about a dozen for air. By that time the jokes would be bulletproof, exactly like one of those punk-rock songs.

We also filled the time with features, of course, and it was so fun to have Sandler do his Hanukkah song or Farley do anything at all, really. Later, guys like Jim Breuer and Colin Quinn came along and were perfect for features because they came from stand-up and knew how to perform directly into camera. And I got to sit right beside them and watch, and, when the camera wasn’t on me, I could swig warm bourbon from a flask.

I knew Weekend Update was becoming popular, because my influence at the show began to build. I was a natural at reading cue cards that were held two feet from my face. I noticed that my power on the show was directly related to the size of the cue cards. I kept demanding larger and larger cue cards, until mine were over four times as big as any other cast member’s. I even negotiated for Wally to get his own personal trainer, who would work with him during the week, since the weight of the giant cue cards was beginning to prove too much for him.

We were having a great time at Weekend Update until the grumbling began. I had heard things, but I just chalked it up to general grumbling. But it was not. It was grumbling that was specific to Weekend Update and specific to me.

But I never worried. Weekend Update was the funniest it had ever been, and when you are that funny, you can be sure that you will not be fired.

Excerpt from Based on a True Story: A Memoir by Norm Macdonald © 2016. Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.