Posted on 03/31/2005 11:38:25 AM PST by Constitution Day
Comedian Mitch Hedberg dead at 37
BY MATT PEIKEN
Pioneer Press
Even family and close friends had a hard time understanding Mitch Hedberg, a St. Paul native who ran away from home and, despite living a scattershot life, became a runaway success as a standup comic.
Hedberg, whose space-case persona was as much part of his soul as it was his act, died early Wednesday morning in a New Jersey hotel room. He was 37. A medical examiner hasn't issued findings, but Hedberg's family is told he suffered a heart attack. His wife was with him.
After graduating St. Paul's Harding High School, Hedberg rose through the ranks at Minneapolis' Acme Comedy Co., and caught his big break through a Comedy Central special. He made several appearances on David Letterman's and Conan O'Brien's shows, made more Comedy Central appearances and produced two comedy CDs. His big dream, to have an HBO comedy special, was in the works.
Hedberg's one-liners, dished off in a spacy staccato, were based on absurdist, random observations. His long, dirty blond hair harkened to the image of a 1970s stoner, and his success occurred in light of, in spite of and even because of his quarter-century affair with drugs and alcohol.
"I'd probably be living in Costa Rica, eating oranges on the beach, if I wasn't doing comedy," he told the Pioneer Press last September.
"There's no two ways about — having a son in entertainment industry is challenging," his mother, Mary Hedberg, said Thursday.
She recalls being at work when her oldest daughter called in a panic to tell her Mitch had packed some brown paper bags and left home. Mary Hedberg couldn't get home in time to either see him off or talk him out of it.
"That was heartbreaking for us, but he kept in contact with us. He called as soon as the car broke down," she said. "You know, it was like putting him through college, even though he wasn't at college. But when he got his first break, we were just so thrilled for him, because we wanted him to know he was O.K., and to have that self-confidence that he could do what he wanted to do."
Louis Lee, owner of the Acme, said Hedberg not only became the Twin Cities' first breakout comedian of the 1990s but, along with Lewis Black, helped shape a national resurgence in standup comedy.
"It's very difficult for one-liner comedians to get an audience going, but when Mitch worked here, you could see the kids call out the punchline," Lee said. "Mitch made the whole comedy community realize how important good writing is. It's a huge loss."
Unlike many comics, Hedberg was demonstrably thankful to his fans. Not long ago, a group of college students in Florida, speaking with Hedberg backstage after a show, mentioned how hot their dorm room was. Hedberg surprised them the next morning by showing up to their dorm with a new air conditioner.
"Mitch presented a lot of challenges, but a lot of opportunities for traveling that we wouldn't have otherwise had, and he had a heart of gold," his mother said. "He was a brilliant comic and a wonderful person."
Dates haven't been set, but eventual visitation and services will be at Wulff Family Services, Woodlane Mortuary, in Woodbury.
I've seen Mitch on comedy central. Far out man...
"The Ice Cream truck in my neighborhood plays 'Helter Skelter.'"
Crap, he was hilarious!
I loved his stuff, a rising star.
damn
Never heard of him. So who cares? Hundreds, if not thousands of people died the same day he did in the United States and he gets press?
Some people, entertainment freaks and those that cover them and those that read it, need to rethink their priorities in life.
Eddie Izzard's Death Star employee lunchroom bit is a classic.
Yawn. I'm off to bed.
But thanks for bumping my thread so MORE Freepers would see it!
I like your tagline.
Regards,
CD
Yeah, its sad to see how the first time the conservatives mettle was tested, they folded like a cheap suit.
For what it's worth:
Not all of us felt that way.
I know, thank God.
Nor have I ever heard a Britney Spears or a 50 Cent song. No, I do not care about the marriage of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez breaking up. And I think the Royal Family of England are a bunch of dysfunctional imbred idiots.
Now this here "Mitch Hedburg" comedian might have been a decent guy and maybe he was the kind of person who would stop on the side of the road to fix somebody's flat tire. Perhaps he once bought a book from a struggling author or maybe he engaged in a conversation with a lonely person on an airplane during a long trans-Atlantic flight. It's too bad that he's dead. He should have lived longer. But I still do not know who he is.
But I do know that he told a pretty good joke about an escalator breaking down thanks to other replies on this thread. I did not know of this joke when he was alive but now that he's dead, I will probably start using it for myself, since obviously he has no further use for it.
I always liked his take on the British Empire, more specifically having to give it back.
ping
That's kind of them. With all the "noise" out there---and all the foul language---even though every once in a while he'd utter a profanity, it wasn't a staple of his act. I liked him a lot.
Dang Sam, now I know why I like ya!
Fine, then why waste a post, and out time blathering about how you don't know who he is. I don't spam up a thread whenever some Nascar guy dies that I've never heard of. The posters here that are familiar with Mitch's comedy are pretty bummed out, he was a rising star and funny as hell.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effect Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Prayers for his family. I've never heard of him though.
Are you thinking of Stephen Wright? It sounds like this guys style was similar to Wright, one of my all-time favorites.
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