Mitch Hedberg lives on in comedy album
Ben Marxer
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Throughout his career, Mitch had become a regular face on "The Late Show," "The Howard Stern Show" and Comedy Central. He had two well-received comedy albums, landed movie and sitcom appearances, amassed a legion of fans, and was even being called "The Next Seinfeld" by The New York Times. Despite all of this, Mitch still had a shy stage presence, hiding from eye contact with the audience with long hair and sunglasses and chastising himself when a joke didn't go over well.
However, the lines at the beginning of this article are also a metaphor for the life of Mitch himself. Mitch died on March 29, 2005, at the age of 37. To the fans that Mitch left behind, all are appreciative of all the work he put into his career. Yet, for a career that ended so abruptly, a career that was so quickly on the rise, I think we all felt like it ended when it was only halfway there, leaving us all missing out on the second half.
Mitch's comedic style was full of word play, surrealist observations, and non-sequiturs in the form of segue-less one-liners, all marked by his distinctive delivery style. This all makes his jokes very repeatable; his slow stoner/Northern accent is easy to impersonate. So, even if you've never been exposed to Hedberg, chances are you've got a friend who saw him on TV, or heard one of his albums and spent the next week dropping some of his famous lines into conversation every chance they got. Classic routines like, "I saw this wino; he was eating grapes. I was like, 'Dude, you have to wait,'" or "You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later," or "I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."
"Do you believe in Gosh?" was recorded in Ontario during what would be his last tour, two months before his death. According to his website, the material recorded was jokes Mitch was working on perfecting for his upcoming third album. As a result, some of the material is a little rough. At one point, he stops a story in the middle and says, "Anyway, I need to work on that joke, but trust me, it's hilarious. Go into my head, then come back out and tell me that I'm wrong." That's in keeping with Hedberg's off-the-cuff comedy style. "Do you believe in Gosh?" is 40 minutes of brand-new material with a new set repeatable one-liners like, "I had a piece of Carefree sugarless gum, and I was still worried. It never kicked in," and "I bought a jump rope. Man, that thing's just a rope--you have to make the jump part happen." For fans of Hedberg, ownership of this album is a must.
In what is easily the high point of my journalistic career, I got to interview Mitch Hedberg for the pages of this very publication. It was January of 2005, two months before his death. I got the interview when Mitch was doing a show in St. Louis. By lying to his agent and telling him that I was from a St. Louis area college and that it would be a good promotion for the show, I got Mitch's cell phone number, as well as a date and time to call. Despite it being his tenth interview of the day, and his day off, Mitch was friendly, patient, and funny. I kept his number programmed into my cell phone even after he died.
Below is an arrow exclusive interview with Hedberg, by Ben Marxer. Marxer grills Mitch about internet theft, otters versus badgers and Googling himself.
Ben Marxer: You've been touring with Stephen Lynch through 2004, and you've just extended your current tour into February. Are you going to keep on touring after that, or is Mitch Hedberg scheduled for some R&R?
Mitch Hedberg: I need the R&R, man, but I think I've got some club bookings up until June, so I'll go back to the clubs and tour those for three or four months. And then the R&R will definitely kick in 'cause I need a break; I've been burning out lately. Not to the point that the shows are affected, but yeah, I need some R&R.
BM: What do you do in your spare time?
MH: That's the thing, I'm so used to doing the grind of comedy that I haven't had much spare time. Most of my spare time is spent sitting and relaxing. I want to go scuba diving, I wanna do stuff like that, I wanna fly a kite, I gotta go to an island or something. Doing comedy is a fun job and I love it, but I've been on the road for so long that I've lost the ability to get some hobbies and shit, so I think after the tour I'll spend some time relearning that.
BM: With all the places you have been on tour, are there any cities where you especially enjoy performing?
MH: I love Vegas and Atlantic City 'cause I'm a big time gambler. I'm not high stakes or anything like that, but I love gambling. I'm a big time fan of Texas for some reason, and I have a good time in New York. In Florida I have too much of a good time and 'cause its such a decadent place you end up going astray. If I had to list a top three favorite cities, Id have to say, Houston, Vegas, and probably Pittsburg.
BM: You've made quite a living off your comedic stylings. Do you write "comedian" as your occupation when you file your taxes?
MH: That's a good question, man. Actually, I don't file my own income taxes. But when someone has me fill something out that asks for your occupation, I generally will put "Entertainer" because putting comedian will fuck you up. Like say you're going to Canada and you have to fill something out, if you put comedian they might do all they can to keep you out of there, which is ironic cause you'd figure they'd want people up there making people laugh. So I put "entertainer," and if they ask me what kind of entertainer I put "porn star."
BM: Where do you think you would be and what would you be doing if not for your comedy career?
MH: I think I would be either acting or playing music. It would have to be some sort of performance art, man. I don't know if I would be any good at either of those. But it would definitely be in the arts. I've always enjoyed performing in front of people
BM: Are your parents supportive of your comedy career? Or did they want you to be a lawyer or something?
MH: Well when I started my downward slide in high school they got disappointed because they did want me to go to college and become a professional in something respectful. When I started standup, they thought it was a flash in the pan idea and I was going to quit eventually. But they came down and saw me 6 months after I started and I was terrible, so they got really scared for me, and they didn't regain their confidence in me until I got the David Letterman show six years later. Once I got on TV they came around hard. I sell t-shirts on my website and my mom takes the orders and my dad packages them up. I only sell a few things and they'd like me to sell more. I know they want to run the Mitch Hedberg store, but I don't go that far.
BM: When you were starting out, what comedians did you get influence from?
MH: I liked Woody Allen a lot, and I was a huge fan of John Travolta. Do you remember when he did stand up?
BM: Uh, that's a little bit before my time
MH: Yeah he had an early album out during the Welcome Back Kotter Days. It was hilarious, man. I'm a big fan of Michael Keaton, but he didn't do much stand up either. Of course, Eddie Murphy, he was incredible. Sam Kennison. I love Kyle Cease, and a guy straight out of St. Louis named Billy Mardel. He's amazing man.
BM: Since you're a comedian by profession, do you feel pressure to be witty and funny in social situations?
MH: Yes I do and that's a horrible pressure to feel. People for the most part don't expect a comedian to be funny 24 hours a day. It's just something we do to make a living. I mean, who wants to hear jokes all day? So I try to hang out with people who don't expect you to be funny all the time. If I get into a situation where I know I'm with people who want me to be funny, I'll give it the old college try and try to crack them up a bit, but I'm not going to bust my ass for it. Hopefully people will have the common sense to realize that the jokes will come but maybe not as fast as they come on stage.
BM: People on talk shows make reference to receiving free stuff from advertisers for mentioning their products. Have you received anything from Pringles, Subway, or Yoplait?
MH: No not at all. That's the whole commercial side of it. I have a Pringles joke in my act as you mentioned, and I think that would make a great commercial. The only thing that's happened so far is I have a joke about Double Tree Hotels and I once had a box of chocolates sent me by a Double Tree manager.
BM: A lot of your comedy is self-deprecating in nature. Stand up comedy being a performance art, you open yourself up to scorn in rejection. Was it difficult for you in the beginning before you had made a name for yourself?
MH: Oh yes, it was hugely difficult. I had at least two years of shitty shows. They were horrible, and I had thin skin, I was sensitive, so it hurt me. But after a while you develop a name for yourself and people start coming up to see you and that's the best thing ever, 'cause the people are ready to like you.
BM: I know you don't do much in political comedy, but I've got to ask you, did you vote this past November?
MH: Unfortunately I didn't get to vote. I'm really disappointed. If I would have voted, I don't know who I would have voted for. I like the underdog story. Whoever loses I'm always like, man, I wish that guy would have won. So I guess under that situation I would have voted for Kerry. If Kerry would have won then I probably would have felt sorry for Bush an wished I'd voted for him. I think both candidates had theories that made sense and both had theories that didn't make sense. So you really can't win. But you've got to make a choice. If I'd had to make a choice, I probably would have voted for John Kerry. But I'm not like a hardcore Democratic or anything.
BM: The government has been cracking down on file sharing and illegal downloads. As someone who stands to lose money by having your CDs downloaded instead of purchased, what is your opinion on internet theft?
MH: That's a tricky question. I made a good chunk of money off my second CD, but the bulk of my money is made touring. And if someone downloads my CD for free it just means there's one more person getting the word out on me. So I guess until I'm a household name, I won't be mad. I'm selling enough CD's to be happy. I guess if someone told me I would have sold 300,000 more CD's if not for illegal downloading, maybe I'd freak out. But what you don't know doesn't hurt you.
BM: You're on tour like 400 days of the year, you've got your face on T-shirts and magazines, and Comedy Central replays your special now and again ... how often do you get recognized on the street?
MH: Not as much as I'd like to. Not that I'd really like a lot of recognition but it is cool when someone recognizes you. But I'm to the stage where people recognize me but don't say anything to me. Like some guy whispers to his friend, "I think that guy is a comedian over there," but they won't come up to me and say, "Hey are you a comedian?" But last night I ordered food from a take-out place and the lady on the phone was like, "Are you Mitch Hedberg the comedian?" So someone recognized me over the phone, which is hard to do. But it's nothing like Dave Attell, people recognize that fucker like no one's business.
BM: Do you ever google search yourself?
MH: Yeah, you've got to check it out. But I try not to, cause I'll google search myself and see something bad someone wrote about me on their site. There's a lot of good shit about me. But there are a couple bad things that I'll read and it will depress me and I'll act like I'm not depressed but I am.
BM: Ever find your name attached to anything really strange?
MH: Yeah, I found my name attached to the site of this band I really dig named Coheed & Cambria, which was one of my favorite bands of last year, and I was like, Man, do these guys know me or something? And I got excited. But I didn't go to the site so I don't know.
BM: Are your fans mostly as laid back as you are? Any run-ins with some creeps?
MH: A lot of them are really laid back and a lot of them are really cool, and I like that. But every once in a while I run into someone who's actually like nervous to talk to me and that's ridiculous. But it's funny, man. It's funny to see someone act like you're something great and I'm like, What do you take me for? It's almost like they're playing a game with me or something. Like I've been Punkd or something.
BM: You seem pretty approachable ... do you always get people wanting to hang out with you after the show?
MH: Yeah, oh yeah. Very much so. It's kinda cool. I'll see some people after the show and they'll be like, "Hey lets go to a bar, drinks on me." Or I was just talking to a guy who was like, "Hey I've got a record store in Columbus, Ohio; come on down and hang out man." People invite you all the time to things. Sometimes it's hard to get to all of them, but when you do it's cool to see how nice people can be. I think that's the best way to meet people, to be an entertainer. It's wild.
BM: With your unique delivery style and mode of speaking you have a very recognizable voice. Do you have to deal with a lot of people coming up and doing impressions of you?
MH: Oh tons man, tons. It's flattering at first, but when someone is coming up and they're talking like me for too long, it gets awkward. People will be like, "My friend Bill does an impression of you," and they'll be like, "Bill do it." And he'll do it. It's funny and it will be really flattering, man I love it. But every once and a while there's that one guy who just won't stop talking like me when he's talking and I'm like, Fuck man, now you're making it awkward. Some people have it down too; I've heard some really good impressions of me.
BM: You did a lot of work with Brendon Small and Jon Benjamin and the guys at "Home Movies," the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim cartoon where you played several characters including Mitch the 6th Grader, Dr. Fizzle the anger management counselor and a police officer. How did he get started with those guys?
MH: Jon Benjamin worked on a show called Dr. Katz and I did an episode and he really liked me and liked my style. Later I saw him and he said, "We've got this show called 'Home Movies' we're working on." So they brought me up to do that, and man, it was a blast. "Home Movies" was one of the best experiences of my life and I really think that show was under appreciated.
BM: Did you enjoy doing voice acting work? Something you may consider doing in the future?
MH: Oh yeah, I would do as much as I can. I'd rather do acting or animation much more than selling products. But lately I've been having a couple of companies come to me, like Jimmy John's submarine sandwiches, wanting me to do some commercials for them. And that's fun too. But it's definitely a lot more fun when you're not having to sell something.
BM: A good amount of the dialogue on that show was adlibbed. Did you get a chance to do any improv work in the episodes you were in?
MH: Oh yeah, they make you. Basically they have a very loose script, so they tell you what the situation is and you've just gotta start talking. The guys who have been doing it for a while are really really good at it - they're fucking amazing. So it's hard to keep up with them. But sometimes we'll get on a roll and those guys aren't afraid to laugh during recording to let you know things are going good. And the hardest part of doing voice over versus stand up is sometimes when you're saying something funny, no one will laugh even though they probably still like it. But you don't get that immediate reaction.
BM: Now that you have some animation work on your resume, what is the next step? Disney feature films? What sort of animated anthropomorphic animal would Mitch Hedberg be?
MH: That's funny man, that's a good question. Let's see. I think I could maybe be a Badger, or an Otter; I'd like to be an Otter maybe. No wait, that was in "Ice Age." Elephant! I think I could be a good elephant. Or a Deer. Yeah a Deer. Hell yeah. Maybe even a Doe or a Fawn. But if it were in the sea, I think I could be a sea horse. But I definitely would like to do a Disney movie or a Pixar animation movie. I'm chomping at the bit to do that. I hope something like that comes my way. BM: You've done Letterman, had parts in television shows, cameos in movies, a directorial credit, a comedy central special, two well received CD's and a cult following of college students and urban hipsters. What is next for Mitch Hedberg?
MH: That's the golden question. I was supposed to do an HBO special, but so far I haven't heard anything. But I definitely want to get another CD out there. I want to tour with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. I wouldn't mind having a reoccurring role on a Sitcom. Maybe I'll write a script or a book.
BM: It always seems that the next step for stand up comedians is to have your own sitcom. Is there pressure on you to take that route, or is there any interest for you in TV?
MH: I've already been around that block trying to get a sitcom for me. Comedy Central sent out a camera crew to film me on tour, kind of a "Day in the Life of Mitch Hedberg" type of thing, and apparently there is a pilot episode of that floating around Comedy Central. Maybe that will get picked up. But for the most part I look at it like, guys like Ray Romano or Jerry Seinfeld didn't get on their sitcoms till their late thirties, so that could still come my way.
BM: Any advice for the collegiate twenty-somethings of America?
MH: Yeah I do man. This might sound like cliché shit, but if you're trying to do something that is a stretch, or something that the people around you like your parents and friends don't see as a reachable goal, then you have to get away from them. If your parents are discouraged by what you're doing, you've got to disown them. If it's your friends, you've got to get rid of them. And always make sure you have a passport so that you can leave the country at any time. Whether it be for legal reasons or fun.
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