WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:11.000 Kalaroga Shark Media. Hello, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily 2 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.919 comedy news. There's been talk of the Hebburg Gassans had 3 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:17.640 burchase Sons. Anyway, Mitch Hedberg's name has been around a 4 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:19.559 lot more lately than it had been in the past 5 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:21.960 few years, so I thought I would do today is 6 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.679 just off if you listen to all fifteen sixteen hundred 7 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:27.879 episodes of this podcast, this is for you as a rerun. 8 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:31.039 But you know, new listeners come and old listeners go. 9 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:33.479 So what I've done here is over the years, I've 10 00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:36.520 sold a few lengthy Mitch Hedberg related anecdotes and I've 11 00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:39.000 put them together to make it today's episode, which is 12 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.920 all about Mitch Hebburg. So one thing I can tell 13 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.679 you is I know exactly where I was on March 14 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:48.479 thirty first, two thousand and five. Here's why. I was 15 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:51.719 at the New York City Javit Center doing an episode 16 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.880 of Jim Brewers radio show for Sirius XAM. We were 17 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.479 broadcasting from the car Show and Jim was in a 18 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:01.600 bad mood because the night before Jim was doing a 19 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:04.959 concert with Mitch Hedburg and Mitch did not show up, 20 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.879 and Jim was kind of annoyed because he had to 21 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:10.359 stretch and fill because the other comedian didn't show up, 22 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:12.640 and Jim wound up doing an extra forty minutes or 23 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:14.799 an hour or whatever was the story there. Jim was 24 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:17.159 quite upset about it. As we were doing the broadcast 25 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.840 from the car show, we got word there was a 26 00:01:19.879 --> 00:01:22.560 reason Mitch Hedberg didn't show up for that show. He 27 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.799 had passed away the night before. Mitch Hedberg passed away 28 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.599 March thirty, two thousand and five in Livingston, New Jersey, 29 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.560 not far from where I live, So we were like, oh, 30 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.200 that kind of changed the mood several ways. One, we 31 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.719 felt like we were being a bunch of jerks for 32 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:37.840 being mad at the guy not showing. Two, we all 33 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:40.760 love Mitch Hedburg, and holy cow, he had passed away. 34 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.959 From personal experience. I knew at the radio station that 35 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:47.519 I wanted to do a tribute to Mitch Hedburg, but 36 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:51.000 I don't like being a vulture, so I didn't want to, 37 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:52.400 like the next day be like, oh, wait, I do 38 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.640 a Mitch Hedberg tribute, because then we make it about us. 39 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:58.400 So we waited, and I eventually reached out to Mitch's wife, 40 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.480 Lynn Shawcroft, and I'm like, hey, would love to do 41 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:03.599 a tribute to Mitch. Would you be into that? She 42 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:05.560 was into it. She came by. I got to know 43 00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:09.639 Lynn reasonably well, and when she came up, she had 44 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.759 Mitch's notebooks with some jokes and a bunch of I 45 00:02:13.800 --> 00:02:16.840 think they were cassettes. They might have been CDs, but 46 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:21.479 they were live shows recorded late in Mitch's career. And 47 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:23.680 I was sitting there with Lynn and she hadn't heard 48 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:25.639 them in a while, and they sounded great, and I 49 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.479 said to her, you know, you've got another album here. 50 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:31.759 That album became the posthumous Mitch Hedberg album that do 51 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:34.319 you Believe? In Gosh? I had nothing to do with 52 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.400 making the album, other than possibly perhaps putting the thought 53 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:40.319 in Lynn's brain. I'm glad that that album was released. 54 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:45.000 From a twenty thirteen article in GQ, GQ wrote, Mitch 55 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:48.120 Hedberg was Twitter before Twitter. His jokes were short, inane, 56 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.800 and timeless. It was on the road doing stand up 57 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:53.280 three hundred nights a year, living off vending machines, writing 58 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.560 constantly about the world he saw around him. Mike Birbigley 59 00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:58.199 said Mitch wrote some of the best jokes at the 60 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:01.960 last three decades. He's one comedian who all comedians agree 61 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:05.039 is great. Mitch was never without a pen and never 62 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.560 threw away a notebook. Lynn Shawcroft kept most of the 63 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:11.520 notebook's private, but back in twenty thirteen, she opened them 64 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.039 up to g QGQ wrote the results a masterclass in comedy. 65 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:17.800 There was only one time Mitch ever lost a notebook. 66 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:19.879 He and Lynn were in Chicago that had gotten back 67 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:22.240 to their hotel. When Mitch noticed it was missing, he 68 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.360 tore through the hotel room looking for it. Lynn said 69 00:03:24.360 --> 00:03:25.800 it was one of the only times I saw him 70 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.479 really visibly upset about something. Finally, after a while, he 71 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:30.879 started telling himself, it's fine, everything'll be fine. That's when 72 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:33.360 the phone rang. It was a kid at a frat party. 73 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:36.039 Apparently Mitch had left the notebook on stage. Somehow it 74 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:38.120 ended up in the hands of a college age fan 75 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.520 who wanted to give it back. Mitch and Lynn headed 76 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:42.199 to the party to meet the kid. When they got there, 77 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.719 or relieve, Mitch pulled out a lot of cash tried 78 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:47.039 hand to the kid. The kid didn't want any money, 79 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:48.680 He just wanted Mitch to call him to hang out 80 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:50.680 next time he was in town. But by then it 81 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:52.560 was already five or six in the morning, and Mitch 82 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:54.879 hated to feel indebted to people. He finally looked at 83 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:57.199 the kid and said, just take the f and money man. 84 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:00.759 Lynn says, Mitch's jokes were about our life. He wrote 85 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.120 about what he liked, so his jokes were about sandwiches 86 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.479 and carrots and staying in hotels and the weird ways language works. 87 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:09.199 Now this next thing. I remember Lynn telling this to 88 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.400 me when we were listening to the tapes I referred 89 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:13.439 to earlier. We were in one of the smaller studios 90 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:16.360 at Sirius, and she pointed out during Mitch's stand up, 91 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.920 people would call out the endings before he could finish them. 92 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:22.279 He was having a tough time touring because of that, 93 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:24.319 so Lynn says later in his career he had to 94 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:28.560 write jokes that were even shorter and faster. Examples, when 95 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:30.519 someone tries to hand me out of flyer, it's just 96 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.319 like saying here, you throw this away, or a turtlenecks, 97 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:36.800 like being strangled by a really weak guy. All day, 98 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.120 Mitch knew what else connected with his audience. Drug jokes. 99 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:43.240 There were dozens. I like the FedEx driver because he's 100 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.519 a drug dealer. He doesn't even know it. He's always 101 00:04:45.560 --> 00:04:48.879 on time. People associate long hair with drug use. I 102 00:04:48.920 --> 00:04:51.439 wish long hair was associated with something other than drug use, 103 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:54.920 like an extreme longing for cake. That strangers would see 104 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:57.120 a long haired guy and say that guy eats cake. 105 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:01.399 He's on putt cake. To say another daughters, don't bring 106 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.639 the cake eater over here anymore. He smells like flower. 107 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:06.040 See how excited he got when he found out your 108 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:09.399 birthday was fast approaching. At one point, Mitch started writing 109 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:13.000 companies he liked looking for sponsorships. In addition to gold Bond, 110 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.040 he wrote a uniball to say the jokes he wrote 111 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.519 with their pens were funnier. Eventually, Jimmy Johns the Sandwich 112 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.480 Makers signed on to sponsor Mitch Hedburg from the Guardian 113 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.920 in twenty fifteen. Mitch Hedburg a sly alchemist who turned 114 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:28.920 sentences into comedy. Gold from behind sunglasses and bound head, 115 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:32.120 Mitch Hedberg delivered concise gags that open up the mundane 116 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.079 world and showed anyone could be a comedian. If you're 117 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.879 flappable and have legs, you're never blocking a fire exit. 118 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:39.759 That's the line that got the writer hooked on. Mitch Hedburg. 119 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.000 A man standing still on a stage with his eyes shut, 120 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:44.800 Mike in the stand reciting a list of staccato jokes 121 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:47.879 with a percussive rhythm seemed odd. I'd never heard one 122 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:50.600 liners before which had no hint of pun slinging or wordplay, 123 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:54.399 just funny sentences. I guess the writer hadn't heard Stephen Wright. 124 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:57.720 Believe me, I'm a huge Mitch Hedberg fan, but there's 125 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.160 surely some Steven Wright influence in there. Mitch was a 126 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.279 drug user or something, which caused his death in two 127 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.399 thousand and five, but listening to him didn't sound like 128 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:07.680 the ramlies of a typical stoner, but instead the thoughts 129 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:10.800 of someone unencumbered by the conventional logic that gradually takes 130 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:13.959 us over so we succumb to adulthood. Watching Mitch allow 131 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:16.079 you to feel like a child again. And although kats 132 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:19.240 and Hamburgers aren't important, finding humor in the mundane is 133 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:22.519 Jokes such as if you live with a muster, you'd 134 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.360 never get the hiccups require a sense of thought, But 135 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:27.639 having been in his presence for two minutes allowed you 136 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:30.759 to think with the Hedbergian that logic or is it Hedbergian? 137 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.240 How would you pronounce that word I'm going with Hedbergian 138 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:36.959 sounds cooler Hedbergie in that logic that guide you seamlessly 139 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.160 to the funny. The joke is just ten words long, 140 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:41.120 but ten words was enough for Hedberg to paint a 141 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:43.720 hilarious and detailed picture that most people couldn't paint with 142 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.319 one hundred. However, the audience aren't just laughing at the painting, 143 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.480 but the man with the brush, and their own incredulity 144 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:52.519 that a single person is able to have all these 145 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:54.600 thoughts which don't make you just say, I've never thought 146 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:56.519 of that in a way before, but instead, I've never 147 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:59.839 thought about anything like that ever. His long hair often 148 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:03.480 of skirt, his bowed sunglass face, he never showed dominance 149 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.759 over the stage by pacing His hands would often be 150 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:08.839 held still behind his back. He seemed shy, but this 151 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.639 made him far more relatable than any confident comedian who 152 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.120 chats to audiences with the unfettered glances of an old mate. 153 00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:18.000 Most audience members know they don't possess the requisite skills 154 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.120 to talk on a stage as confidently, such as greats 155 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:23.279 like Steve Martin or Sarah Silverman. So Mitch Hedberg's demeanor 156 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:25.759 made him far more human to many people. He made 157 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:28.480 me realize you don't need great performance skills and ability 158 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:30.600 to write seamless segues to be a comedian. If the 159 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.720 sentence you're saying are funny, people will laugh. As untimely 160 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:36.079 passing means we'll never know what one of the most 161 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:39.199 inventive and prolific writers in comedy could have eventually achieved. 162 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:41.759 But watching a handful of his YouTube clips makes it 163 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:44.319 clear he created more laughs and jokes in his one 164 00:07:44.360 --> 00:07:46.759 short life than many other comedians could hope to create 165 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:50.279 in two. In twenty eleven, dead Spin wrote, by all accounts, 166 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:52.319 Mitch Hepburgh was a pretty regular guy. He grew up 167 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.839 in Saint Pame, Minnesota, before he ditched the suburbs, literally 168 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:58.120 leaving his parents home without telling them after high school 169 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:00.279 graduation because he didn't know how to tell them he 170 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:02.920 was going. I met Mitch's parents at the Las Vegas 171 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.800 Comedy Festival. Oh, it's got to be fifteen years ago now. 172 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:09.800 They were so nice. Mitch eventually surfaced in Fort Lauderdale, 173 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:13.199 eventually taking up kitchen work and trying his hand unsuccessfully 174 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:16.079 at opened My Comedy Nights in the area. He begged 175 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.759 his way onto MTV's short lived comic Kazi. I didn't 176 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:21.839 know that, And even though the show didn't last, Hepburg 177 00:08:21.959 --> 00:08:23.639 was on his way. In ninety six, he appeared on 178 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:27.600 Letterman Wow That Long Ago Wow. Ninety seven, he won 179 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:30.839 the grand prize at the Seattle Comedy Competition. In ninety eight, 180 00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:32.919 he stole the show at the Just for Last Festival 181 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:37.120 in Montreal. Heedburg developed a style of awkward, scattershot observational 182 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.720 jokes that weren't exactly one liners. He was a minimalist, sure, 183 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:42.440 but he was working on another level, and say Henny Youngman, 184 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.279 his jokes weren't just riffs on existing tropes. The only 185 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.080 norm hebburger here, too, was that there weren't any norms. 186 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:50.480 His humor never met you halfway. He pulled listeners into 187 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:53.200 his own head. His delivery was as off putting as 188 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.919 his material. His was the sort of art that elicits 189 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:58.960 a huh wow as opposed to a wow huh. That 190 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:03.120 was his brilliance. The obvious point of comparison is with 191 00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:05.799 Stephen Wright, and again, on paper, the two comics seem 192 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:07.960 to share a lot in common, but where Wright was 193 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.360 a comic Gollum, an android programmed to tell off putting jokes. 194 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:15.279 Hebburg was in an odd way, emotionally accessible as offbeat. 195 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:17.440 As much as his jokes were, they presented in the 196 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:19.519 manner of an odd ball childhood friend you hadn't seen 197 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:22.360 in years. Though dressed in the garb of turn of 198 00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:26.480 the century hipster, Hedberg's jokes were decisively unironic. He wasn't 199 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:29.200 engaging in social commentary or rye negativity as much as 200 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.399 he was bearing his weirdo soul. The stoner labels inaccurate, 201 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:35.799 but even the occasional drug user could identify Hepburg was 202 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:39.960 you high, thinking you're funny, but actually being funny. That's 203 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.120 how he won us over. The way he stood on stage, 204 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:46.399 eyes closed, sunglasses on, bangs over his face, halfway trembling. 205 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:49.440 He told joel Stein in nineteen ninety eight, I don't 206 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:51.000 like to connect with the crowd. I find if you 207 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.519 look at people's faces, you see a disappointed face. He said. 208 00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:55.919 Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think of 209 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.879 something that's funny, I go get a pen write it down, 210 00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:59.799 or if the pen's too far away, I had to 211 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:02.720 vinced myself that what I thought of ain't funny. He 212 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:05.480 broke the fourth wall repeatedly in an attempt to reposition 213 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:08.000 himself from alone on stage to seated among the audience. 214 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.720 That's like a carbon copy of the previous joke, but 215 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:12.919 with different ingredients. I don't know what I was trying 216 00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:15.320 to pull off there, that joke, maybe laugh where I 217 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.519 could finish it, which is good because it's no ending, 218 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:22.600 all right. Oh, he was so good once when being 219 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.960 handed a drink mid joke, a joke that was foundering anyway, 220 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.200 he just cut the joke off and said that up 221 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.960 a joke, a joke about FFing up, an fed up joke. 222 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.559 After he broke out it just for laughs. Edburgh got 223 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.519 a five hundred thousand dollars development deal with Fox. He 224 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.679 appeared on Letterman a few more times. He financed his 225 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:43.200 own movie, a subtle tribute to his restaurant days, called 226 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:46.639 Los Enchiladas. His next paragraph has a couple jokes that 227 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:50.919 I don't remember hearing dead smend rights with disarming subtlety. 228 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:53.639 He deconstructed the stand up form by ticking on hackneyed 229 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:56.320 subjects and turning them on their head, or by bombing 230 00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:00.600 deliberately halfway sports. No. I don't want the f Remember 231 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:02.600 that show My Three Sons. It'd be funny if it 232 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:05.320 was called My One Dad. Wait what, I just bought 233 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:07.360 a two bedroom house, But I think I get to 234 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:09.559 decide how many bedrooms there are. I hohtsh you. In 235 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:13.440 the context of tripping non sequitors about koala infestations potato chips, 236 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:16.320 this came off as subversive. He was blowing himself up 237 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.279 along with everyone in the room. The self destruction extended 238 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.360 to his personal life. At first, it seemed div Hedberg's 239 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:24.000 riffing on his drug use was more of a dig 240 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.600 atous stage persona. My manager saw me backstage and said, Mitch, 241 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:29.480 don't use liquor as a crutch. I can't use liquor 242 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:31.639 as a crutch because a crutch helps me walk. A 243 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.679 liquor severely f's up the way I walk. Some people 244 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:36.679 think I'm high on stage. I would never get high 245 00:11:36.759 --> 00:11:38.440 before show because when I'm high, I don't want to 246 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:39.960 stand in front of a bunch of people I don't 247 00:11:40.039 --> 00:11:43.480 know for stretches. He lived off the grid, living out 248 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:45.440 of hotels or out of the RV he bought with 249 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:48.960 Lynn Shawcroft in May two thousand and three, after showing 250 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:52.200 Austin Mitch was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. 251 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.759 He spent two and a half days in jail, followed 252 00:11:54.799 --> 00:11:57.559 by six months in a hospital, supposedly for the treatment 253 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.960 of a leg badly mangled by heroin injections. Through the 254 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:02.679 end of his life, he'd walked on stage with two 255 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:05.519 plastic cups that were widely known to contain alcohol, and 256 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:08.759 at least one specifically identified as screwdrivers. Hebburg had kill 257 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:11.840 her sets and less successful sets. Some lack verves, some 258 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:14.480 lack directions. Sometimes he couldn't remember the jokes at all. 259 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:16.759 Sometimes his fans would holler out the jokes who was 260 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:19.120 trying to tell to help him out. It was interactive 261 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.080 stand up. Even on the good nights, people sung along 262 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:25.240 to the choruses that often step on his punchlines. Hebburg 263 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:28.039 had so fully seduced his fans the division between stage 264 00:12:28.039 --> 00:12:31.440 and seats fell away. Didn't you ever hear of dramatic pause? Hid, 265 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:34.639 sometimes grouch, But that was the point. His fans weren't 266 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:36.759 attuned to the artifice of performance so much as they 267 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:41.000 were there for communion. Lynn Shawcroft is Missus Mitch Hedburg, 268 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:44.039 and she had some really interesting tweets. Lynn tweeted, what 269 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.240 Mitch Hedburg achieved in stand up comedy is nothing short 270 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:50.039 of astonishing. The way he did it, almost one fan 271 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.559 at a time, is crazy yet admirable. He had several 272 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:57.320 appearances on late night television and one low rent Comedy 273 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.240 Central special. That's it. The Comedy Central was fun by 274 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.840 low Rent. I'm referring to the audience that was papered. 275 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:05.720 They weren't fans per se, never heard of the comedians. 276 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:08.440 I think Mark Maron taped a special the same day 277 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:11.960 slash same audience. I could be wrong. Norm MacDonald was 278 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:15.480 there a tell two. Mitch didn't have an online presence 279 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:17.639 or platform. He wasn't on a TV show with a 280 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:21.399 built in audience. I remember club after club packed. He 281 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:23.480 worked too much. He had a hard time saying no. 282 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:27.320 So after Lynn wrote all that, I love this tweet 283 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:30.440 reply from Toby Welch. So Lynn writes all that about Mitch, 284 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:34.279 and Toby Welch tweets, Yeah, that's nice, but what happened 285 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:40.799 to the defriines. This next section is from two episodes. 286 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.080 The first story is about the missing ten of minutes 287 00:13:43.159 --> 00:13:45.240 and then you oh, I'll hear my voice change. I 288 00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:47.039 was on my Twitter account and a friend of mine, 289 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:49.960 Brian Rich, he tweeted like a normal this is just 290 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.200 a normal guy tweeting, and he tweeted Tuesday night, I 291 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.799 bought it pie and thus I'm ready to watch the debate. 292 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.240 And when I read it, my brain did it in 293 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.399 Hebburg going, I bought a pie and that's I'm ready 294 00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:06.240 to watch the debate. That's ridiculous, which right, like, despite 295 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:08.759 my half ass impression, that's like a Mitch Hedberg joke. 296 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:12.919 So this article I found, it's really really great. Bradlaidman 297 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:17.039 dot com. Brad wrote the night I first saw Mitch, 298 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.840 my only whole show was not a great night for him. 299 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.720 Most of the people there had no idea who they 300 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:24.120 were going to see. I did. That's exactly why I 301 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:26.399 was there. They looked at him, like Bill Hicks said, 302 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.440 through the eyes of a dog that's just been shown 303 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:30.919 a card trick. They didn't try to get him, and 304 00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:34.279 they decided it was just funnier to keep buying him drinks. Sadly, 305 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:38.039 whether Mitch considered himself an alcoholic, he probably did. Doug 306 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:40.840 Stanhope once told me, that's Brad, that Mitch was so 307 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.679 nice that Mitch would never turn anyone away and would 308 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.159 never refuse a drink from anyone out of courtesy, fan 309 00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:49.600 or not. Lynn Shawcroft, to her credit, did eventually go 310 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:52.519 up on stage and stop Mitch from accepting free drinks. 311 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.639 After about fifteen minutes more of only a few people 312 00:14:55.720 --> 00:15:00.039 laughing at really good material delivered well, Lynn started I 313 00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:01.919 him to tell people about his great CD that was 314 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:05.000 available for purchase. Mitch ignored her for a long time 315 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:08.240 and then said something approximating this. I got to waste 316 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:11.240 my time for what like three people? Why would anyone 317 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:14.679 actually buy this crap? About three of us raised our 318 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:17.039 hand and I did purchase it that night. So when 319 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:19.159 it was released by Comedy Central in two thousand and three, 320 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:21.679 it had twenty one tracks and was fifty three minutes 321 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:25.120 and forty seven seconds long. My version, which is what 322 00:15:25.159 --> 00:15:27.639 I burned on on my computer, is one hour, three 323 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:30.679 minutes and four seconds. That's exactly how I want it 324 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.440 to be. I may have to reach out to this 325 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:34.360 guy and do an interview with him. I want to 326 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:37.480 know all about this alternate version of the CD that 327 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:41.759 he has. He writes it has no tracks, just one huge, 328 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:45.000 probably unedited chunk of the real show, which is why 329 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:46.559 I had to go to the internet first to find 330 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:48.879 my quote quickly. I should have just listened to the 331 00:15:48.919 --> 00:15:51.120 whole thing again, even though I was only making a 332 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.600 quick Facebook comment about Little League Baseball that I could 333 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:55.519 have spent two seconds on had I wanted to be 334 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:58.080 lazy and posted the meme from the Internet. I'm not 335 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.840 sure why or who edited out those ten minutes from 336 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:04.799 my original, but it was probably for idiotic reasons that 337 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.120 didn't get who Mitch was or the brilliance of Mitch 338 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:09.519 of guessing. For all I know, Mitch could have said, 339 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:12.080 take exactly these ten minutes out, but I would bet 340 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:15.360 my net worth that never happened. My suspicion is that 341 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:17.360 the business people thought those ten minutes didn't go over 342 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:19.159 well and were complete jokes. But if he saw him 343 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:21.399 that night or any night, you would know that he 344 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:23.639 would always throw out a joke and then would immediately 345 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:25.799 say wasn't a complete thought or even a joke, and 346 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:27.879 his delivery of it and the reaction to it would 347 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:30.440 likely be the highlight of the entire show. Near the 348 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:32.919 end of the uncut version of especially says I'm a 349 00:16:32.919 --> 00:16:35.360 heroin addict I need to have sex with women who 350 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.240 saved someone's life, which would have been perfect had it 351 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.279 ended there, but it didn't, and because it didn't, it 352 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.600 became somehow more perfect. After some giggling and a small 353 00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.360 amount of applause, he starts again wondering about how it 354 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:49.159 be shown on television. When does it air? He looks 355 00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:51.759 at some of the crowd says, you're a good reaction guy. 356 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:53.759 Keep the camera on that guy. I want to tell 357 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:56.320 the people in the truck wherever you're cutting reaction shot 358 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.559 cut to him, because you're really could you very? You 359 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:02.240 laugh a lot man, very pleasurable to see. My special 360 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:03.519 is going to be all cut up. It's gonna be 361 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.759 very weird. It's not going to be seamless. I gotta 362 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:08.480 get out of here. They're going to get mad at me, 363 00:17:08.519 --> 00:17:10.880 and know it gonna get yelled at all right. I 364 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:13.839 love you guys, thanks for coming to my special. The 365 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:16.680 aired version ends with a different great joke and then 366 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:19.440 cuts right to I love you guys and to thank you. 367 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.599 The al right is gone, which may not seem to 368 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:25.759 matter much, but do some research about Jim Morrison hearing 369 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:28.359 Elvis throw the word all right, and how much it 370 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:31.640 mattered to him, and how much he did it too. 371 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:37.160 Isn't that amazing? The article also mentions when Mitch was 372 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:40.720 on Howard Stern late in Mitch's life, Stern asked Mitch 373 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:44.039 what Mitch would do if he knew that perhaps he 374 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:47.519 only had a few months to live. Creepy right. Mitch 375 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.799 thought about it a while and answered, I won't do 376 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.480 the impression here. Wow, that's a really hard question. I 377 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:56.559 do know that Bill Hicks knew that he was dying 378 00:17:56.839 --> 00:17:59.079 and did work really hard until the day he died, 379 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:01.720 like he went to Waco and stuff like that. Me 380 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:05.079 I sort of don't think I'm that important because most 381 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:07.720 of my jokes are about bananas and things like that. 382 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:11.440 And let's wrap with an album review from two thousand 383 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.039 and eight from the Washington Posts. This the review of 384 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:17.599 the posthumus Do You Believe In Gosh, a stand up 385 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:20.599 performance recorded two months before Hedberg's death. The album is 386 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:23.519 funny moments, but listeners familiar with the comedian's personal history 387 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:27.160 may find that Hebberg's troubled specter looms over the proceedings. 388 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:30.200 Do You Believe In Gosh does include bits on anchovies 389 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.799 and carrot juice, but Hebburg also delves into darker subject matter. 390 00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:37.359 He seems particularly fixated on missing body parts, with references 391 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:40.759 to amputation, a woman born without arms, and extended bit 392 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.240 on the Headless Horsemen. Granted the materials more silly than morbid. 393 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:48.039 I'd hate to be the headless Horseman's dentist. He wouldn't 394 00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:51.359 make very much money. He also delves into his professional life, 395 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.680 saying I got a door deal here. Tonight, I'm working 396 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:56.039 for fIF percent of the door. Then tomorrow I'm working 397 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:57.960 for fifth percent of the door, and then on Sunday, 398 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:01.559 I'm going to have a door. Since the album comprises 399 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:05.319 a seemingly unedited live show, the forty minute runtime includes 400 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.400 at least as much laughter and applause as it does 401 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:11.279