Mitch Hedberg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006.
Mitch Hedberg

Mitch Hedberg
Born: February 24, 1968
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Died: March 29, 2005
Livingston, New Jersey
Occupation: Stand-up comedian
Spouse: Lynn Shawcroft
Website: http://www.mitchhedberg.net

Mitchell Hedberg (February 24, 1968 – March 29, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian known for his random subject matter, stylistic elocution and routines that often consisted of a string of one-line non sequiturs.


Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Hedberg was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was the son of Swedish immigrants Arne and Mary Hedberg, and was married to Canadian comedian Lynn Shawcroft on February 25, 1999. He graduated from Harding High School in Saint Paul.

[edit] Career

Hedberg performing stand-up
Hedberg performing stand-up

He began his career in 1989 playing open mic nights in south Florida. Two years later, in 1991, he moved to Seattle and began doing the same there, where his popularity increased. However, Hedberg did encounter some degree of difficulty. It took him more than a few years to come up with a good deal of material, and he also needed to conquer his stage fright, which was so intense that it left a mark on him throughout his career, sometimes even leading to him performing with his eyes closed, which he often incorporated into his jokes. He first began achieving national exposure with a special on Comedy Central. Hedberg appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman ten times and became one of the show's most successful American comedians. Mitch was also a three-time performer at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival.

[edit] Death

Late in the evening on March 29, 2005, Hedberg was found dead by his wife in a Livingston, New Jersey, hotel room. He was 37 years old. His death was first announced by Howard Stern on his morning talk show (on which Hedberg had appeared many times, including less than two weeks before his death) and later confirmed by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. Many people who learned of his death thought it to be an April Fool's joke, because it was announced April 1 on his official website. Hedberg had reportedly been preparing for his first HBO special, which was his main goal as a comedian. The high school he went to in St. Paul put his picture up in the student of the month column following his death, to show how greatly loved he was by the faculty that had taught him, and the many students that had seen him perform.

Hedberg was known to be a drug user. He even had jokes referencing his drug use ("I like the FedEx driver, because he's a drug dealer and he don't even know it," or "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.") In May 2003, he was arrested in Austin, Texas, for possession of heroin.

Hedberg was born with a heart defect for which he received extensive treatment as a child. Though this condition initially had been cited as a possible cause of death, in May 2005 the New Jersey medical examiner's office reported "multiple drug toxicity," including cocaine and heroin, as the official cause of death. [1]

Results of the autopsy and toxicology reports were first reported by journalist Peter Hyman in the January 2006 edition of Spin magazine.

Hedberg could be heard as the voice of Jimmy John's radio advertisements during the months leading up to and after his death. (Since his name was never used in the ads, the company likely felt there was no need to pull the ads after he died.) He also was the voice of the Atlanta Thrashers "Hockey Love" ad campaign in 2002-2003. Every performance of the Insomniac tour, headed by Hedberg friend and former tourmate Dave Attell, featured a toast to Hedberg at the end of the show.

[edit] Style

From memorial T-shirt www.mitchhedberg.net
From memorial T-shirt www.mitchhedberg.net

Hedberg was set apart from his stand-up comedy peers by many traits, including his unique pronunciations, his "abrupt" style of punchline delivery, and a curious stage presence that was professional-but-casual and confident-but-shy. Mitch's joke topics focused largely on deft wordplay, clever non sequiturs, innocent whimsy, and imaginative "object" observations, which rarely, if ever, treaded into smutty or contentious territory. Although his stand-up delivery occasionally contained so-called "four-letter words," such language was never central to Hedberg's jokes, instead being just exclamation/filler phrases during his stage discourse (his jokes rarely suffered when he performed them on television with the curses omitted).

Mitch's unique stage presence made every show unpredictable. He often performed with his head down and his long hair covering his face. It was not unusual for him to perform his entire routine with his back to the audience, or while lying on the floor.

His onstage persona, though slightly nervous, was always quite endearing. He would happily joke with the audience if they hadn't reacted particularly well to a joke: "That joke's better than you acted. Perhaps it's not, maybe it's dumb, it could be." He was happy to criticise his own weaker jokes, such as his statement on Strategic Grill Locations: "That joke was just a carbon copy of the previous joke." Sometimes he would just simply say "Alright" and the audience would laugh.

His jokes ranged from compact one- or two-liners ("I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.") to slightly longer material (usually with multiple punchlines) in which he would take everyday ideas or situations and pick out certain aspects at which to poke humor (the "Dufranes" joke is a good example of this).

During Strategic Grill Locations, Mitch had a bass player named Chuck play some smooth jazz progressions while Mitch performed. During that set, Mitch repeatedly referred to Chuck. Also on this CD, Mitch would mutter, "alright..." at the end of many jokes.

His style became an instant hit with audiences across America. People would often quote him at shows, yelling out punch lines before he could finish his jokes. He would sometimes take jabs at the audience for this. At a show in Chicago, he yelled out, "Bitch - that's the whole punchline. You fucked up the joke!"

His stylistic legacy is admired by many other comedians including Conan O'Brien and George Carlin.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Filmography

[edit] TV appearances

Mitch Hedberg voiced a character (right) on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers
Enlarge
Mitch Hedberg voiced a character (right) on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers

[edit] Quotations

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
  • "I was in a casino, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, 'You're gonna have to move. You're blocking a fire exit.' As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. Unless you're a table."
  • "An escalator can never break; it can only become stairs. You would never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order' sign, just 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.'"
  • "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. 'Damn it, Otto, you're an alcoholic.' 'Damn it, Otto, you have lupus.' One of those two doesn't sound right."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Susan Caseyn: "Report: Mitch Hedberg died of drug overdose.", USA TODAY, October 14, 2005

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Hedberg, Mitch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hedberg, Mitchell Lee
SHORT DESCRIPTION stand-up comedian
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH Livingston, New Jersey, United States of America
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/i/t/Mitch_Hedberg_ce2e.html"
In other languages