Jim Norton is in the middle of a promotional frenzy.
“I landed yesterday at 4 o’clock and I went directly to do Joe Rogan’s podcast,” he says, his voice edged with the ghostly echo of his speakerphone during a rare moment of downtime during a recent trip to Los Angeles. “From there, I did another podcast. I checked into the hotel at midnight and then got up at six this morning to do radio. I literally haven’t showered since I got here. My asshole smells like a sub sandwich.”
This is the life of a modern stand-up comedian. Always on the move and filling nearly every hour of the day with projects, podcast appearances, and TV and radio spots. Somewhere in there they find the time to log some stage time, trying out new material and honing bits that they’ll take on the road and eventually record for posterity. Then all that stuff gets thrown out and they start all over again.
It is, as Norton refers to it, a tap dance. And he’s hoofing harder than ever these days. Outside of his notable guest spots on Louie and his frequent appearances on talk shows, the 46-year-old comic spends most mornings as the co-host of Opie with Jim Norton (formerly The Opie and Anthony Show, about which more later), the Sirius XM radio show he has been a part of for over a decade. And, of course, he spends his evenings plying his trade as a stand-up, both in and around his hometown of New York City and at headlining dates throughout the U.S.
If you know anything about his satellite radio work or his stand-up sets, you likely know more about Norton’s life and inner workings than you do some of your closest relatives. He’s a self-proclaimed deviant, unashamed of his sexual proclivities and quite comfortable sharing them in a room of 300 ticket holders or a nationwide audience of radio listeners. He’s also unafraid to state his unfiltered opinions to anyone who listens, exposing his own weaknesses and failings with the same volume that he uses to highlight the hypocrisies of the world and defend free speech.
That’s why Norton’s become the go-to guy for the media to call on for comment when someone in the comedy world gets in trouble for saying something unpleasant in a public forum. He’s the one that W. Kamau Bell tapped to defend Daniel Tosh and rape jokes in a debate with feminist critic Lindy West on Totally Biased. More recently, Time Magazine called on Norton to write an op-ed about Trevor Noah in the wake of the “kerfuffle” regarding the future Daily Show host’s unsavory tweets.
“They know they’re going to get a real opinion from me that’s at least thought out,” Norton says of his role as cultural commentator. “I may be right or I may be wrong. Like every other dumbbell in the country, I bat about .500. Half the time, I make great sense. Half the time, I’m just a pontificating asshole.”
Currently, Norton’s a pontificating asshole with a comedy special to promote. Contextually Inadequate, his current hour-long stand-up showcase, hits Epix this week. In it, he balances his time throwing himself under the bus with commentary on his weight loss and with a particularly raw bit involving himself and a prostitute wearing a strap-on and offering up his opinions on a pair of scandals that broke right before he was set to tape the show: the many rape allegations involving Bill Cosby and Sirius XM’s dismissal of Norton’s former radio co-host Anthony Cumia.