Thursday, March 31, 2005

Mitch Hedberg to farm: I'm here to buy you
Mitch Hedberg, the most promising genius of our generation, has died. It is a sad day.

The pope is going to die pretty soon too ... But I couldn't give less of a shit about that if you paid me.

EDIT:
Damn subscription website. The internet is free assholes. Here's me reprinting your stupid story without your permission. Eat a dick.

St. Paul-born comedian Mitch Hedberg is dead at 37
Colin Covert, Star Tribune
March 31, 2005 HEDBERG0401

St. Paul comedian Mitch Hedberg, a cult favorite on college campuses, died Wednesday while traveling on the East Coast between shows.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but Hedberg's troubles with drugs were a staple of his act and he took a several-month hiatus from performing after a May 2003 arrest in Austin, Texas, for felony possession of heroin.

His busy touring schedule had become erratic. In mid-March, Hedberg's performance at the University of Maryland was described in the school newspaper as "unprepared and rushed," with Hedberg reading his act from notes onstage. A week later he failed to appear for a five-day engagement at Richmond, Va.'s Funny Bones comedy club, calling night after night to cancel each performance, according to the club's spokesperson, Jessi Plucknett.

A hit on "The Late Show With David Letterman," on which he appeared 10 times, and "The Howard Stern Show," Hedberg once was dubbed "the next Seinfeld" by Time magazine. But TV-series fame eluded him because his unique style of mumbled one-liners didn't lend itself to the sitcom format. His rambling, non-sequitur style often drew comparisons to Steven Wright, but Hedberg disagreed.

"If I made potato chips and put them in a can, people would say I was ripping off Pringles," he said. "But what if I put them in a bag?"

Still, he had two popular comedy CDs, "Strategic Grill Locations" and "Mitch All Together," acted in Cameron Crowe's movie "Almost Famous" -- smoking fake pot with Peter Frampton -- and appeared on Fox's hit series "That '70s Show."

Drawing on his experiences in kitchen jobs he held before becoming a performer, he wrote, directed, produced and acted in the slacker comedy "Los Enchiladas," filmed at St. Paul's Boca Chica restaurant and the Maplewood Mall. The film was featured at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.

He was held in high regard among his peers. "He was the greatest comedian ever," said his close friend, Doug Stanhope of cable TV's "The Man Show," who recently opened for Hedberg.

Hedberg's act often alluded to drinking and drug use.

"I used to do drugs. I still do drugs. But I used to, too," he often said, adding, "Alcoholism is the only disease you can get yelled at for having."

Comedian Scott Hansen, a former club owner who gave Hedberg his first booking at the St. Paul Comedy Gallery, said he often smelled liquor and pot on the comedian.

Louis Lee, owner of Minneapolis's Acme Comedy Co. said he had seen deterioration in Hedberg's work in recent years. At the 2004 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, "he just destroyed the audience at the 8 p.m. show," Lee said. "Then at the midnight show, he had completely lost his timing. A genius like him can destroy himself so easily."

Painfully shy onstage, Hedberg hid behind a curtain of long hair. He wore dark glasses and kept his eyes closed while performing.

Dave Mordal of Elk River, a finalist on the broadcast-TV reality show "Last Comic Standing," said that Hedberg was clearly struggling with "demons" on the occasions they worked together.

"He wouldn't communicate," Mordal said. "He pulled into himself, and the more successful he became, the more he pulled in."

Hedberg, 37, attended St. Paul's Johnson High School and graduated from Harding High School -- "the Loser School," he called it, according to Hansen, "but he would always go back there and they would point to him as someone who came out of there and really did something with his life."

Discussing his heroin arrest in an October interview with Las Vegas Weekly, Hedberg said, "As far as what I've learned, I guess it's to stay as far under the radar as possible. I mean, I've definitely learned over the years that you can't do copious amounts of drugs and stay alive. That's not going to happen."

He is survived by his wife, comedian Lynn Shawcroft. The couple has no children.