Darrell Hammondis reminiscing on what it was like to share a stage withNorm MacdonaldonSaturday Night Live.
Macdonald, best known for helmingSNL’s “Weekend Update"segment in the 1990s,diedTuesday at 61 following a nearly decade-long cancer battle.
Hammond, who overlapped with Macdonald on the sketch comedy series from 1995-1998, appeared on Wednesday’s episode of thePEOPLE Every Daypodcast and reflected on the unique comedic style of his late friend and costar.
Listen to Darrell Hammond’s interview withPEOPLE Every Day below:
“He was such a no-frills kind of a guy. He wasn’t seeking fame and he wasn’t seeking fortune or power. He just was living his life, trying to be funny,” Hammond said. “And so when you’re around him, it seemed so unremarkable at the time, it was just Norm being funny and being him — which was no filter between your brain and your mouth, and you say the thought that is formed on the way out.”
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Hammond, 65, also recalled Macdonald’s iconic impersonation ofBurt Reynoldson the “Celebrity Jeopardy!” segment.
“My favorite on-camera Norm moment was when he was doing Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy! and refused to answer to that name whenAlex Trebekreferred to him, because he had changed his name to Turd Ferguson,” he said. “I’ll put that up there with my favorite moments ever on stage atSNL.”
Hammond continued, “I mean, it was hard to stand next to him and not just become an audience member. That was sort of the way he was. You didn’t want to be in the sketch anymore — you wanted to watch the sketch, you wanted to watch him do his thing.”
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Hammond went on to describe Macdonald’s presence onSNLas “super low-key.”
“He was one of these guys that was just, it sounds banal, but he was utterly himself,” he added. “And he didn’t know how to be other than that.”
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The comic said the last time he talked to MacDonald “at real length” was when he took over Hammond’s role as KFC’s Colonel Sanders.
“It sounds paltry now, but it was a big job and I loved it, and KFC replaced me with him,” Hammond said. He added that while Macdonald “should have been on this big victory lap” when he landed the gig, he was more concerned about Hammond.
“He was going on the air and talking to people like KFC shouldn’t have replaced me because I was the best one … You can’t fake that, concern for your brother more than yourself, you can’t fake that stuff,” Hammond said, noting that Macdonald was “better” than him in the role.
“The truth is he was a great Colonel Sanders, as I knew he would be. He was really fun to watch,” he continued. “He was bringing the electricity.”
source: people.com
