Jim Norton at home and away on podcast – Lehigh Valley Press

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Jim Norton at home and away on podcast

Jim Norton is living in domestic bliss. The comedian, radio host, best-selling author and occasional actor (“The Irishman,” “Inside Amy Schumer”) has been cohabitating with his romantic partner for a little more than one year.

Domestic bliss might be a stretch as there have been some concessions ceded to a woman who is fond of pink walls and leopard prints.

Norton is returning to the Lehigh Valley with a performance, 8 p.m. May 19, Musikfest Café, ArtsQuest Center, SteelStacks, Bethlehem.

“I hate sharing space; I hate having to explain why I want to hang 1977 KISS posters on the wall so there’s a lot to get used to because I’ve never lived with anybody before,” Norton says during a recent phone interview.

“It’s funny, the hardest part is the fact that I like to sleep with it [the bedroom] freezing and she likes to sleep with it hot,” he continues. “So, the other day she gets a spray tan and she didn’t want to ruin the sheets [in the bedroom]. I have an office. We just threw down some old sheets on this pull-out queen bed in the office.”

“She slept in the office and it’s the first time I’ve slept away from her in a long time,” he says, “Oh my God, it was the best! The room was freezing, I had a fan and two other air purifiers going. It was amazing, I love sleeping by myself!

“It’s really good,” he says regarding their joint living arrangements, “except for the fact that we’re better off sleeping in different locations.

“She actually likes [us] sleeping together, and I like it, too. She understands that I’m a bad sleeper. She understands that I’m a difficult guy to sleep with. I’m always sniffling. I’m probably not a delight to sleep with.”

As for the décor, Norton is open to compromise. “I let her weigh in, and I weigh in. She does want to paint some rooms pink and I’m going to have to let her because I do have enough of my stuff hanging on the walls, I have to concede a little bit. It’s not a dictatorship, unfortunately.”

Norton, a prolific stand-up, can regularly be seen fine-tuning his material at New York City’s famed Comedy Cellar. He is co-host of the drivetime “Jim and Sam” show, available on the Sirius-XM FactionTalk channel (new episodes air live 8 a.m.-noon Monday-Thursday with a “best of” compilation of the week’s episodes airing in the Friday time slot).

Norton is a regular guest commentator on the FOX News late-night talker, “Gutfeld,” which has ranked on average as the highest-rated show in its timeslot, regularly besting the likes of Jimmys Kimmel and Fallon, as well as Stephen Colbert.

Longtime fans know him best as the third mic on the now-defunct “Opie and Anthony” (featuring Gregg “Opie” Hughes and Anthony Cumia) shock-jock radio show which last aired on XM radio in 2014. The show was canceled and restructured after the July 2014 firing of Cumia.

Anthony Cumia went on to create Compound Media, a popular subscription-based streaming network. Norton was on the satellite radio show in Cumia’s place as second mic with Hughes until September 2016.

Norton, like a cat tossed off a roof, was able to land on his feet and find continued success in the coveted morning timeslot with Sam Roberts, a former “Opie and Anthony” Intern turned producer graduating to the big leagues once he was paired up as co-host with Norton.

Norton hosts the long-running podcast, “The Chip Chipperson Podacast,” and is a co-host of “UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton & Matt Serra.”

Lately, there has been a steady rise in streaming podcasts hosted by and centered around comedians, replete with their own wacky fan base and petty feuds that recall the heydays of the shock-jock radio wars.

“Sam [Roberts], my co-host, he loves podcast fights. He’ll go down a podcast fight rabbit hole. Some people just enjoy it,” he says.

“I’ve been in so many radio fights in my life. I’ve been in online message board fights over 20 years ago. In 2000, I used to fight online. And I’ve found that after awhile the energy I have to dedicate to staying caught up, so I know how to respond feels worse than it feels good, even if I win the response.

“I’m used to being trashed online. I’ve been trashed online since 2000, so you get used to it and you know what it is.

“I guess I’ve been in enough of those fights,” he says, “and I did enjoy them when I was in them, but I’ve done it already, I’ve done a lot of debating and a lot of arguing and at [age] 54, I don’t feel like putting in that time anymore.

“Most of those guys [message-board commenters], the ones that I’ve met one-on-one, have all been fine.

“Some people get so crazy [about] people saying bad things about them.

“I’m also in a place where I’ve said a lot of bad things about people, too, so I’m pretty practical, I can’t all of a sudden think I’m above it or immune from people [dunking] on me, like who the [heck] am I? I have the right to [dunk] on people and I understand it comes back. That’s how it is.”

Tickets: ArtsQuest box office, ArtsQuest Center, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem; 610-297-7100; https://www.steelstacks.org