R.I.P. Mitch Hedberg
With all due respect to Frank Perdue, Johnnie Cochran and the Pope, the death that has made me especially sad is Mitch Hedberg's.
I saw Mitch tons of times on Comedy Central, and I'm sure they'll keep re-running his specials. The advantage of the TV specials is that you can remember his lines. When you saw him live -- and I saw him twice -- you couldn't remember because you were laughing too hard.
Mitch was a bit like Steven Wright in that he did a lot of one-line jokes that gave reality a slight twist, but there was something happier and more whimsical about him. As much as I like Wright, I couldn't imagine carrying on a conversation with him, and I'd have to assume his stage persona was an act. Mitch seemed like he'd be exactly the same offstage. His delivery was less detached than Wright's, as if he were the guy at a party who just kept coming up with great punchlines, perfectly delivered.
He never wanted anything more or less than to be a great standup comic. His filmography is quite sketchy, and I don't even remember seeing him in Almost Famous.
He came across as quite confident onstage, but he had a good self-deprecating wit as well. I remember him at the Improv turning around to look at the logo and saying he thought it was a message: "Improve."
If you want to meet me after the show, I'll be ... really surprised.
If you've never heard Mitch, check out a couple of quote compilations from the Pioneer Press (oppressive registration required) and, oddly, a Ben Folds message board.
The one quote I hadn't heard before that seems too ironically perfect:
I had a stick of Carefree gum, but it didn't work. It felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality.
The great thing about Mitch is that you didn't ponder your mortality. Too many comedians these days feel like they have to make a weak joke on 9/11, Iraq, racism, etc. Even the folks who do it well, like Jon Stewart, don't give you that momentary detachment from reality that we all need sometimes. Mitch did, and that's why we're much poorer without him.
I saw Mitch tons of times on Comedy Central, and I'm sure they'll keep re-running his specials. The advantage of the TV specials is that you can remember his lines. When you saw him live -- and I saw him twice -- you couldn't remember because you were laughing too hard.
Mitch was a bit like Steven Wright in that he did a lot of one-line jokes that gave reality a slight twist, but there was something happier and more whimsical about him. As much as I like Wright, I couldn't imagine carrying on a conversation with him, and I'd have to assume his stage persona was an act. Mitch seemed like he'd be exactly the same offstage. His delivery was less detached than Wright's, as if he were the guy at a party who just kept coming up with great punchlines, perfectly delivered.
He never wanted anything more or less than to be a great standup comic. His filmography is quite sketchy, and I don't even remember seeing him in Almost Famous.
He came across as quite confident onstage, but he had a good self-deprecating wit as well. I remember him at the Improv turning around to look at the logo and saying he thought it was a message: "Improve."
If you want to meet me after the show, I'll be ... really surprised.
If you've never heard Mitch, check out a couple of quote compilations from the Pioneer Press (oppressive registration required) and, oddly, a Ben Folds message board.
The one quote I hadn't heard before that seems too ironically perfect:
I had a stick of Carefree gum, but it didn't work. It felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality.
The great thing about Mitch is that you didn't ponder your mortality. Too many comedians these days feel like they have to make a weak joke on 9/11, Iraq, racism, etc. Even the folks who do it well, like Jon Stewart, don't give you that momentary detachment from reality that we all need sometimes. Mitch did, and that's why we're much poorer without him.
posted by bdure | 12:52 PM
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