R.I.P. Mitch Hedberg



We loved Hedberg's comedy. He had drug problems in the past -- whether they were major or minor was a matter of some dispute, apparently. He was found in a New Jersey hotel room dead. Heart attack is the word so far.

Noel did an interview with him for the Onion A.V. Club back in September of last year. I'm posting the parts of the interview that got cut before publication. A little tribute. Hope you enjoy it.

O: There’s a whole wave of comedians from your generation that have been putting out records in a different way, following the indie-rock model. David Cross, Eugene Mirman, yourself….

MH: Yeah, that’s the best format for comics: live, but not visual. I think it just sounds so cool, man. Just to hear those laughs when you hear someone say something. I think it really adds another layer to it all. Unless you’re huge with a certain market though, you’re not going to sell. They want comedians to sell as much as Nickelback or something, and that’s not easy for a comic. I’m on a smaller label called Comedy Central Records, and they do a good job I think. I think it’s a crime that audio comedy isn’t bigger. Most people when they’ve seen me, they’ve seen me seen me, you know what I mean? My problem is that if people don’t see me see me, they think I’m black. My CDs have made lots of people think I’m black. That’s a downside. [Laughs]

O: On your most recent disc, there’s a bonus DVD with your Comedy Central special in the original and unedited versions. The difference seems to be that in the unedited version, there’s no laughs.

MH: No, I know. That sucks. It’s true. They sweetened it. They tightened up the set. When I first taped my show for Comedy Central I was upset man, I was scared. The next day I was trying to have them bury it. I was like, “We can’t put this out.” And they said, “Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Then about a month later, after they tweaked it and edited it down, they showed it to me. And I thought, oh, that looks pretty good. But I also thought, at the same time, that maybe I heard it wrong the first time. The crowd was one of the hardest crowds ever. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was pretty rough. So I kind of kicked in and said fuck it, I’m going to some shit I wasn’t supposed to do. These guys wanted me to go on stage and do four different timed-out things and stop as though a commercial break was happening. I always thought if you wanted a commercial break you could just cut away, you know? They want us to freeze in the moment we’re in and stop. That’s a hard thing to do, and I couldn’t do it. I was using all new material, basically. And the crowd wasn’t laughing. The crowd was told they were going to see Chris Rock, and that was a lie. I was Chris Rock to them, you know what I mean? [The editors] changed a guy yelling, “You ain’t Chris Rock!” into “Encore! Encore!” That’s how bad it was. It was a weird experience. I wanted to bury that thing. But they sweetened it, made it look good, released it, and then three years later they re-released the real version. They fucked with me the whole way. [Laughs]

O: It can’t cost too much to record a comedy album, can it?

MH: I know, that’s the thing. The investment versus the return would seem to be pretty much a break-even-in-a-day affair. Also if a comic makes his own CD and sells it, the profit level is pretty good. But make sure there’s a place to sign it. People ask you to sign the CD, and if your cover is grey or something I don’t know. I can’t think of the worst color to sign over. It’s not grey, but anyway.

O: What are the politics these days of being a stand-up who performs on late night talk shows? Are there still booking blocks? Do you pretty much have to be an exclusive Letterman guy?

MH: I was for a while. I was pretty loyal, man. I was happy to do just his show. I didn’t need to do the other shows. But then there came a time when there was a lot of distance between them booking me, and I started getting nervous. And my manager said, “Do you want to do Conan?” The first time we had passed on Conan, said “Let’s tell Letterman we’re staying with him.” But then I did Conan, and it went great, and I said, “That’s cool. Now I gotta do another Letterman.” No more Letterman. No one’s giving me a Letterman. So we do a Kimmel. I do The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Next thing I know, no more calls from Letterman. You’ve got to be kidding me, man! Because I saw that guy who plays 007 on Letterman *and* Conan. Why can’t I be that way, man? It’s sad, you know? Comedians are the ones who need the most exposure. So I may have screwed it up over there at the Letterman show. I just talked to the booker who books the show and he said, “I tried to get a hold of you recently. I had a spot open.” He’s full of shit, man. There was no call to me, no spot open. So I don’t know man. I hope they don’t hate me over there because I love those guys. If they want me to publicly denounce my Kimmel and O’Brien appearances, I will do it.


Posted: Thu - March 31, 2005 at 09:06 PM         |

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