mitch hedberg

this is very, very sad. the rumor's been going around for a couple of days, but it looks like mitch hedberg did in fact pass away the other day. the rumor about him overdosing on heroin is unconfirmed at this point. apparently he had some kind of heart condition his whole life, so that may have been the cause. we won't know for some time.

i was a big fan of his. there was so much to love about him- his death-grip on word play, his abstract genius, and his infectious silliness to name a few, but what i liked best about mitch hedberg was the way he simply didn't fit into the hollywood rinse cycle that starts with a stand up and eventually spits out a sitcom. he was a pure stand up comic, and his sets were the closest thing to a natural evolution of vaudevillian comedy as you could hope to see. never pretentious, never sedate, never grandiose, he simply lived to tell jokes, and there is something so admirable about that.

i had the pleasure of seeing him twice, and of introducing him to several friends (via comedy central and his own CDs) who became fans almost instantly. if you didn't know of his material, or if you just want to revel in some of his finest moments, check out the wiki quote archive of mitch one-liners, and you can also visit his official site for audio clips and such (just know the site's buckling under the traffic caused by his death and may not be up)

news link via sbindependant.org