Comedian Mitch Hedberg

Some call comedian Mitch Hedberg a genius. Some feel he's an idiot. Few however, would say he's not funny.

The St. Paul, Minn., born comedian makes comedy seem like child's play. His one-liners dive into serious topics like sandwiches, arrows and how sesame seeds never get a chance to grow up.

"What's a sesame seed grow into?" Hedberg asks on his new live album, Mitch All Together. "I don't know. We never give them a chance. What the fuck is a ses-a-me? It's a street."

Frankly, Hedberg makes it seem that if anyone spent five minutes staring at a lampshade, they'd have a pretty good lampshade joke.

"A lot of people say that – man, I think that's a compliment, I like that," Hedberg told Recoil, adding it's not that easy. "I've been doing this like fifteen years and I've only got two and a half hours worth of material."

Hedberg phoned Recoil on a day he was forced into a hotel because his hillside home outside of Los Angeles was in danger of being swallowed by the mudslides that ravaged the area for a week in January. Fortunately, his home wasn't damaged, and he and his wife Lynn found themselves at a Double Tree Hotel. Hedberg faithfuls know the hotel as one of his favorite places to lodge; in fact, hotel life is a recurrent theme in his comedy and life. He said they were a favorite part of boyhood family vacations.

"When I got out of my folks' house, and moved out and stuff and didn't have enough money for hotels, I would just walk by them and be like, 'Man, I'd love to be in there right now.'"

"I finally moved into a hotel when I was in New York, and I lived there for like a year and it was awesome," he said.

It's clear after just a few minutes on the phone that there is a difference between Mitch Hedberg the comedian and Mitch Hedberg the normal married guy with a career. On stage, the audience rarely sees his eyes past the bangs of his shoulder-length light brown hair. He doesn't move around much, and seems to have the speaking confidence of a shy adolescent boy telling a joke to his father. Hedberg said that he likes to keep things loose and informal on stage.

"I work real hard at it," he said. "And whatever the appearance is, I'm a hard-working dude. I mean it ain't easy being on the road all the time. If it seems like I'm being lazy or something, on the other side of things I'm working real hard."

After moves to Florida, Seattle and New York, Hedberg's hard work finally began paying off in 1996 after a performance at the prestigious Just For Laughs Montreal International Comedy Festival landed him a spot on The Late Show With David Letterman. Conan O'Brien called soon after, and within a few years he was doing guest shots on television sitcoms, and being praised in Time magazine. In fact, if his touring partner wasn't a Western Michigan University graduate, Hedberg would probably be the main draw to his Feb. 10 show with Stephen Lynch at the Kalamazoo State Theatre.

"Right now, I'm at a point where I'm working constantly, I make great money, and everything is fine," Hedberg said. "I live comfortably and if I live this way the rest of my life, I can't say that I'd be a failure. But yet you still feel like you can do more, so I don't know what that is. I guess I'd like to be a household name."

After spending an hour listening to Hedberg's material, it might seem like his "writing room" is stacked with a three-foot bong and lots of potato chips. However he said that most of his best jokes take concentration, and often three or four practice shows before being inserted into his set permanently. He can't just get in the right mood, look at the lampshade, and make a great joke.

"Sometimes it is [that easy]," he said, "but very rarely. When it is that simple, those are good days, man."

"The joke has to have substance. I've gone out there with shit that doesn't have substance, and there's a big difference. I think people are disillusioned thinking that I can just say something and get a laugh just because of the way I say it. It's fucking way harder than that."

Hedberg said the crowds have been pretty receptive to both he and Lynch, despite their differing comedy styles. In fact, even though the Kalamazoo State Theatre show is a homecoming of sorts for Lynch, it also has special meaning for Hedberg. About ten years ago he played his first theatre gig there, opening for Ellen Degeneres.

"I was really nervous because if the show went well, I was going to get to go on the road with Ellen. So, I flew down to Kalamazoo, I did the show, it went well and she took me on the road."

February 2005