Comedian and actor Norm Macdonald’s much-anticipated memoir, “Based on a True Story,” will be released Sept. 20 through Random House.

And on that same night, he’ll be appearing on stage at the historic Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts to talk all about it, according to the theater website.

Macdonald is best known for his five seasons on Saturday Night Live, three of which he anchored Weekend Update before an unceremonious split with the show in 1998.



He also closed out the Late Show with David Letterman in June of 2015, to much fanfare.

He’ll be taking to the main stage at 7:30 p.m. in Patchogue that Tuesday night, for an event called A Conversation with Norm Macdonald.

Tickets are $40 for priority seating (first 10 rows), with attendees also receiving a hardcover copy of the book for Macdonald to sign. Tickets for the rest of the theater are $20 each.

In an interview with The Washington Post in December, Macdonald said his upcoming book, based on his life, will talk about how “things actually work on ‘Saturday Night Live’ rather than the mythologized way.”

“The most important thing to me is that it’s a funny book,” he told The Post.

“What’s so exciting about Norm Macdonald coming to Patchogue is that people don’t have to take a train or a long drive into Manhattan to see an A-list celebrity,” said Bernie Fabig, a theater spokesperson.

“They can stay right here in their hometown.”

about the book

As its title suggests, Macdonald tells the story of his life—more or less—from his origins in a rural small town in the-back-of-beyond Canada to a disastrous appearance on Star Search, to his possibly incredible account of auditioning for Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live to his dangerous obsession with sports gambling.

But “Based on a True Story” is much more than a memoir, it’s a hilarious, very meta imagining of his life peppered with classic jokes and long mythologized Hollywood stories—with appearances from Chris Farley, Rodney Dangerfield, Sarah Silverman and Sam Kinison.

This wildly adventurous, tense, totally unique, and funny memoir turns the conventional “comic’s memoir” on its head and gives the reader an exclusive pass into the mad, glorious mind of Norm Macdonald.

excerpt

“I quickly developed a cult following. That sounds pretty good, but the truth is it’s the last thing you want to develop. The only time having a cult following is a great thing is when you are actually in a cult. Then you get be a cult leader and life is milk and honey… everyone thinks you are God… you get to lie down with all the ladies from the cult… In a short matter of time, you become drunk with power and begin to lie down with the men also, not because you want to, but just because you can. Yes, being a cult leader with a cult following is fine work if you can find it. However, being a stand-up comedian with a cult following just means that most folks hate your guts.”

courtesy of Random House