This month will mark the 2 year passing of Mitch Hedberg’s death. Rather than delve on the details of his death, I’d rather introduce his work for some that may not have heard him before, or share in his art with those that already do.

Who is Mitch Hedberg

For anyone that may not know, Mitch Hedberg was a standup comedian - an extremely talented stand up comedian. A comic that was just short of reaching potential super-stardom at the time of his death. He had become a regular and recognizable guest on both David Letterman and Conan O’Brien. He had very well received “Comedy Central” presents episode as well as a new CD / DVD set currently in stores called “Mitch All Together.” He had just wrapped up a successful tour with Stephen Lynch and was again on the “Improv” franchise and college circuit. At any moment, the right movie roll, T.V. pilot, or cable special was bound to make its way into his hands. But this was, unfortunately, not meant to be. But what marks Mitch Hedberg did make on this path will last forever with his fans and bring new people into his realm of humor for years to come.

Mitch’s Style of Humor

Mitch’s style of humor was definitely unique. In fact, so unique that 1: putting in test does not do it justice, and 2: everyone I’ve ever heard repeating one of his jokes do not do them justice. Mitch’s standup was predominately jokes. 1, 2 or 3 line jokes that mostly involved an abstract and humorous take on an otherwise normal event. He has a few jokes that you might consider stories, but the jokes always stuck with you.

The best way to explain Mitch’s humor is to just let him do it him self. Here a montage of Mitch Hedberg himself doing what he did best:

Mitch on Stage

Mitch rarely EVER appeared comfortable on stage. His eyes were closed longer than they were open, there were long, self deprecating pauses when a joke didn’t work, and he wasn’t shy about stopping a joke when it seemed to him it was going no where. But all of this just made him much more endearing to any fan. Stage Fright, a bit of self doubt, and nervousness – all things anyone can relate too.

But when the show worked, he was an enthusiastic, energetic, and extremely electric person to be at the center of attention. The better he got, the better of the audience got, and the better he got, etc.

There was nothing like seeing Mitch live. I’m happy there’s a fair amount of video and audio recordings that will forever circulate through pop culture, but I will always cherish the times I saw him live.

The Last time I saw Mitch, or “So long, and thanks for all the soap”.

Dec 11th, 2004 - one day after my birthday. That was my birthday present. Second row center tickets to the Mitch Hedberg / Stephen Lynch show at the Orlando Hard Rock Live. I didn’t care about Stephen Lynch – If you ever see him live once, you’ll never have to see him live again, the show hasn’t changed any of the times I’ve seen him – even when there was a 4 year break between shows. I was there to see Mitch, period – end of discussion. He was supposed to be the closing act, but after the warm up act, Mitch was introduced. He came out on stage holding some industrial sized 10 pack of bar soap that he swiped from god knows where. The first line of the act was this: “I gotta tell ya something. I’m fucked!” So, that pretty much set the tone for the show. He was, at the very least, drunk. I heard a few new jokes, but most of the show was split between jokes I heard before, and him just doing comic riffs about what was going on there on the stage, the soap, the spot light – a lot of really, really funny stuff in a format I hadn’t heard from him before. I laughed the whole time he was stage, while the couple beside me were just appalled that this “person” would be on tour with Steven Lynch. Well, guess what – as “fucked” as he was, he was still funnier, (and fresher) than Steven Lynch.

At the end of the show, he broke open the soap and starred throw the individual bars into the audience. One of which, I caught. Not so much as to get hands on a souvenir, more out of self preservation. In his state, Mitch was literally throwing the soap, not lobbing them gently. Had I not caught the soap, I would only have one eye right now.

We held on to the soap – Mitch was to appear at the Orlando Improv that following May. We were going to take in and ask for his autograph on the box. But of course, that never happened. The box of soap remains on a book shelf in our guest room.

Getting the news

Like much other Mitch Hedberg fans, I didn’t believe the new when I first heard about his death, then second, had a hard time confirming it.

This is the sequence of events leading to the confirmation of Mitch Hedberg’s death (time’s are approximate)

8:15am – My wife and are both now awake and getting ready for work. As every other day, we woke up to Howard Stern. I was in the master closet getting dressed; my wife was in the master bath brushing her hair. Howard Stern is on the radio in the master bedroom. I can hear Howard Stern’s voice, but I’m not paying attention to what he’s saying. Suddenly, my wife asks, “did he just say Mitch Hedberg’s dead?” “What?!” is my naturally response. “I think he just said ‘so and so is healthy, but Mitch Hedberg’s dead.’”, she replied.

8:20am – We rush to the computer and check CNN, MSNBC, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Mitchhedberg.net, every site we can think of that would report Mitch’s death and found nothing. We go to howardstern.com and find a small picture of Mitch with the statement “The Howard Stern show would like to sadly report the passing for Mitch Hedberg…”

9:00am – I arrive at work, my co-worker Susie immediately tells me that her husband had also heard about Mitch Hedberg’s death on another radio show separate from the Howard Stern show. I checked the usual new sources and well as search engines and still can’t find anything about his death.

10:00am –  Blogs, bulletin boards, and fan site are starting to repeat this news, but still no confirmation from any main stream news source. Speculation begins that with the approaching April fools day, this may be an elaborate joke of some sort with the punch line to be revealed a couple of days.

10:30am – Mitch Hedberg.net is in accessible, bandwidth limits had been exceeded and the site is off-line.

11:50am – The Pioneer Press finally reports that Mitch Hedberg was found dead in a New Jersey hotel room – no details are given on the cause of death

3:15pm – CNN, MTV, and the Associated Press have all reported Mitch Hedberg’s death.

5:30pm – I drive home listening to “Strategic Grill Locations”.

6:45pm - Once home, I open a bottle Stone Brewery Ruination IPA and watch the entire Mitch All Together DVD.