Mitch Hedberg, potential lunch winner
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Update: The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article about St. Paul-born Hedberg, who reporter Colin Covert writes died of heart failure.
The New York Times has an obituary here, and Hedberg's hometown newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, has a short piece on him here.
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I hope I'm not just perpetuating a false rumor, but word has it that comedian Mitch Hedberg died yesterday. There's also apparently a rumor out there that it was from a drug overdose, but that's completely unsubstantiated.
Mitch Hedberg was a great stand-up comedian whose deadpan, stoner observational humor was influenced by both Cheech & Chong and Steven Wright. I first saw him on Letterman and lost my mind; I think my favorite was a joke about how you get a receipt for everything these days, including donuts:
"I don't need a receipt for the donut, I give you money and you give me the donut, end of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario that I would have to prove that I bought a donut. To some skeptical friend, 'Don't even act like I didn't buy a donut, I've got the documentation right here. It's in my file at home. Under D'."
I thought I'd post a track from his record Mitch All Together, and I had a hard time choosing, but this is what I settled on:
Mitch Hedberg - Three Easy Payments and Sandwiches
Listen for the dry cleaner joke.
Anyway, assuming the news is true, it's a sad day. Hedberg wasn't as influential or original as Bill Hicks or Richard Pryor, but I thought he was part of a great new group of comics including Patton Oswalt, Margaret Cho and David Cross - all refreshing voices to the big fat warhorse that is stand-up comedy.
You can - and should - buy Mitch All Together here.