Mitchell Lee Hedberg was an Americanstand-up comedian known for his surreal humor and deadpan delivery. His comedy typically featured short, sometimes one-line jokes mixed with absurd elements and non sequiturs. Hedberg's comedy and onstage persona gained him a cult following, with audience members sometimes shouting out the punchlines to his jokes before he could finish them. He died of a cocaine and heroindrug overdose in 2005, but a heart defect may have contributed to his death.
Early life
Hedberg was born on February 24, 1968, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the son of Mary and Arne Hedberg. He was of Swedish, Czech, and German descent. Hedberg attended Harding High School in Saint Paul. He admitted to having no interest in school and barely graduated.
Career
Hedberg began his stand-up career in Florida, and after a period of honing his skills, he moved to Seattle and began to tour. He soon appeared on MTV's Comikaze, followed by a 1996 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman that brought him his big break. He won the 1997 grand prize at the Seattle Comedy Competition. The next year he appeared in an episode of Fox's series That '70s Show. In 1999, he completed his own independent feature film, Los Enchiladas!, which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. He recorded three comedy CDs: Strategic Grill Locations, Mitch All Together, and Do You Believe in Gosh?, the last released posthumously. He also appeared at the MontrealJust for Laughs comedy festival in 1998, 2001, and 2004. Concurrent with his rising fame in the entertainment industry, Hedberg appeared on Letterman nine more times, signed a half-million dollar deal with Fox for a television sitcom, and was dubbed "the next Seinfeld" by Time magazine. George Carlin, Dave Chappelle, Mike Birbiglia and Lewis Black were among his comedian fans.
Style
Hedberg's standup comedy was distinguished by the unique manner of speech he adopted later in his career, his abrupt delivery, and his unusual stage presence. His material depended heavily on wordplay, non sequiturs, paraprosdokians, and object observations. His act usually consisted equally of compact one- or two-liners and longer routines, often with each line as a punchline. Many of his jokes were inspired by everyday thoughts or situations. Hedberg suffered from stage fright throughout his career; he often performed in sunglasses, with his head down and his hair in his face or his eyes closed, and sometimes stood upstage or with his back to the audience, constantly moving in place. At times, he nervously shook his microphone unconsciously. Hedberg occasionally added disclaimers to the end of a joke if it was not sufficiently well received, frequently variations on "that joke's dumb, I'm aware of that." During recordings for CDs, he would often say that he would find a way to edit a failed gag to make it seem well-received, for example by "adding laughter" to a failed joke containing arithmetic. Following such a failure on Strategic Grill Locations, Hedberg suggested, "All right... that joke is going to be good because I'm going to take all the words out and add new words. That joke will be fixed." Comedy Central Records released an album, Do You Believe in Gosh? on September 9, 2008, that contained material Hedberg recorded at The Improv in Ontario, California in January 2005. His wife, Lynn, wrote in the introduction that the performance had been in preparation for a year-end CD recording.
Quotations
"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."
"You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later."
"An escalator cannot break. It can only become stairs."
"Rice is great if you're really hungry and you want 2000 of something."
"I think Bigfoot is blurry. That's the problem. It's not the photographer's fault. Bigfoot is blurry and that's extra scary to me. There's a large, out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside. Run! He's fuzzy! Get out of here!"
"My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana. I said 'No, but I want a regular banana later. So, yeah.'"
“I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too.”
"I haven't slept for ten days; because that would be too long."
Personal life
Hedberg was married to Canadian comedian Lynn Shawcroft from 1999 until his death in 2005. Hedberg was a frequent recreational drug user, mentioning it in some of his jokes. In May 2003, he was arrested in Austin, Texas for heroin possession.
Death
On March 30, 2005, Hedberg was found dead in a hotel room at The Westminster Hotel in Livingston, New Jersey. The New Jersey medical examiner's office reported "multiple drug toxicity" in the form of cocaine and heroin as the cause. Hedberg's death was formally announced on April 1, 2005, leading some to believe it was an April Fools' Day joke. His funeral was held at St. Ambrose of Woodbury Church inMinnesota. Hedberg had been interviewed by Jonathan Davis in the December 2001 issue of Penthouse. In the interview, published three years before his death, he was asked, "If you could choose, how would you end your life?" His response: "First, I'd want to get famous, and then I'd overdose. If I overdosed at this stage in my career, I would be lucky if it made the back pages." On October 12, 2004, Hedberg sat in on the news with Robin Quivers on The Howard Stern Show. He appeared on the show again on March 17, 2005, and briefly discussed his drug use, saying, "Well, you know, I got the drugs under control now." Stern asked, "Do you? You know how to take them responsibly?" Hedberg replied, "Yeah, you know, just for the creative side of it."
