Mitch Hedberg, now there’s a man who knows his toast. He’s renowned for his off-the- wall observational humor and uncanny ability to jump between subject matters. His stoner drawl is syncopated with his amazing penchant for saying man and totally. Poignant insights, such as, "I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later,” deem him the epitome of laid-back. His sly sense of humor blended with an unassuming delivery earned him a reputation as a regular on “ Letterman,” and “ Conan O’Brien.” TIME magazine even included him as one of the next generation of comedy stars. Just about everyone who has heard of him owns a copy of his CD’s, “Strategic Grill Locations” and “Mitch All Together,” People eagerly hunt down copies of his independent feature film “Los Enchiladas!” which he wrote, directed and starred in.
He is currently co-headlining an extension of his national theater tour with Steven Lynch, paving their way through 44 cities. When he isn’t releasing CD’s, appearing in “Almost Famous,” gracing TIME Magazine, or co-headlining national theater tours he’s just… Mitch.
When he landed at The Egg in Albany on the 13th, we decided to hook up with him.
JLH: First of all, how do you feel about being interviewed?
MITCH: You know being interviewed is kinda fun after a while. I think your first reaction to it is a bit of closed off and maybe, ah, talking about yourself can be hard. I’ve always been the type of person who tries not to talk too much, and talk people’s ears off about my life and stuff. So you know in an interview situation you have to talk about yourself. After a while, it becomes very therapeutic. All and all, I like being interviewed.
JLH: What about the questions out there that you’re dreading I’ll ask, one’s you’re probably incredibly sick of answering?
MITCH: Well, sure, I try to have a good attitude about that, because I know what someone has asked me million times are questions people want to know. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be asking it a million times. I think you gotta have a good attitude about that, but sure, there are many questions I’ve heard but you know what’s the deal. I always try to come up with an answer that’s the true answer, but yet has a different take. So what happens is after a while when someone asks questions you’ve heard before you just try to make sure that you throw in something new about it. You know. But yeah, people ask me where you started comedy a lot and I’ll say, "Hey I started in Fort Lauderdale, Florida." Then they’ll go, "how’d you get into it?" And I’ll say, "well, because I had nothing else going on." I mean, put it this way man, I was talking to my wife about this, if I had an interview and the person only asked me crazy questions, no one would get any idea of who I was, you know what I mean. So that’s what I think is the purpose of questions like that.
JLH: All right, as a comedian, do people sometimes find it hard to take you seriously?
MITCH: Mmm, That’s a great question, I like that. I would say, um, I don’t think they do. But I think they do, the reason is that sometimes I’ll say something and I’ll be totally serious and people won’t believe you. And you’ll be like, "no I’m serious man." I don’t have a jockey persona off stage; I don’t try to nail or hit people over the head with jokes off stage. So I’m pretty serious, my demeanor is relatively serious, maybe a little too serious at times. I think for the most part onstage you can say something totally true that kinda happened to you that was crazy or something, and people will not believe you. I realized that about being onstage is no one takes you seriously, everyone thinks that everything you say is untrue like if I say, "my sister has cancer," and I go on to tell a joke about it. I mean not that that’s a great joke area. Then I get off stage and I’ll say, "yeah my sister has cancer" and they’ll say "were you serious?!" and I’ll go "Yeah man. I was." You know, for the most part everything’s cool.
MITCH: Hey what’s going on behind you?
JLH: Oh it’s my editor, he’s on the phone.
MITCH: Well tell him to get lost… just kidding.
JLH: What kind of creative process is involved when it comes to composing your material?
MITCH: Well, the creative process is very simple. I’ve tried to analyze it. I would say it’s daydreaming, it’s daydreaming with a – say, I go off into my head for a while. I just go through the catalogue of events and moments in my life and try to piece them together. I just write something down. The creative process is sitting on the bed with a Coca-Cola or something beside you, maybe an orange, and having a notebook and you just daydream, talk with someone and latch onto a joke. It’s kinda like fishing in your head and writing it down. The process is simple, it’s not sitting down to write jokes its sitting down to put your mind in a frame where you can catch jokes easier, you know what I mean?
JLH: When onstage, how much of your material is actually written down as opposed to how much of it is improvised?
MITCH: Well, the majority- the bulk of the act is written down stuff, but the more improvised stuff I can get in there the better, as far as I’m concerned. I mean so I’ll go onstage usually when I start talking I don’t just yell out a joke right away, I’ll start- and if I can keep that going, spontaneous, if I can keep that going for the whole show I would. What happens is, after a while you’d be talking and you’re doing so loose stuff and people will stop laughing and, you go "well, I need to do something else" so you start telling your jokes and you kinda get caught up in that. So if I could do and entire spontaneous show I would, I just don’t think the laughs will be enough. So I try to do as much as possible. The majority of it is written stuff. I would say its 75: 25.
JLH: How do you keep the audience enthralled for so long?
MITCH: How do I get ‘em enthralled? You just hope that they are. I mean an hour is a long time to watch somebody; I’m surprised that people will sit through an entire comedy show. I mean, I will do it, I understand it, but the thing is, I think that’s a long time to ask people to watch you and listen to you. Say I’m onstage for an hour and 45 minutes into it somebody yells out something and I’ll say, "quiet down sir, you heard the rules, no heckling." I’m basically telling this guy that after 45 minutes of watching me he still can’t say anything, you know what I mean? And that’s kinda mean, so I’m grateful people watch people for an hour. As far as how I keep them enthralled, I dunno, I just keep doing what I’m doing. A lot of times I think I’m doing stuff that pushes an audience away and yet they’re still there, so it’s weird, it’s- I’m just happy, man. I mean, I’m just so blessed that they do stay with you.
JLH: If you could fake your death and collect the insurance money, where would you go and who would you become?
MITCH: I would definitely become a guy who hangs out on the beach, man. I want to have my moment in the sun, you know. Everyone fantasizes about the beach lifestyle, once it actually happens, once you get to the beach, you might you realize, hey its kind of sandy. It’s a little annoying and you get a little dirty but I want to find- If I was able to disappear, basically that’s what you’re saying, and with out anybody knowing where I was I would just lay low. On a Caribbean island or something, and just chill, because I’m really good at chillin'. I noticed that I can sit for hours. I’m really good at that. I think in life that there’s too much pressure to produce and have something to show for yourself. I would definitely put myself in a situation where I didn’t have to have a lot of productivity.
JLH: What is it that prompted you to take up a nomadic lifestyle in the first place?
MITCH: Well, I love traveling man, I love moving on. I think moving on gives you a fresh start everyday. And I think waking up someplace new is great. What I found when I left home, left behind my parents and my friends I found that it opened me up to being more of a social person and interact with people you find new experiences. I think that you can have a whole life going on and if you’re not happy pack up and go somewhere else man. I mean you can't do this your whole life, obviously. After a while, you might have to settle down and establish some roots. I just found that being able to split at a moment's notice and go somewhere else always kept things fresh. I love the nomadic lifestyle, I love hotels, camping, and I like sleeping on beaches, cars, whatever, you know. I’m into it, man; I’m into it.
JLH: I also asked a couple of friends if they’d like to ask you a few questions, and here they are:
Many comedians talk about their childhood being the start of their creativity as a means of getting attention from siblings and parents, was it the same for you?
MITCH: Absolutely, I remember trying to get my parents attention by putting on plays, and all that. Absolutely, it was definitely a means of trying to get attention from everyone. I used to try to get the whole neighborhood to come down and watch us do skits down in our basement. So, creativity is definitely a means to get attention. That’s a good point, whoever wrote that question was on to something there.
JLH: And here’s another one.
When you’re forced to play a venue that doesn’t lend themselves to your extra curricular activities, do you find that the shows tend to be more robotic? Just telling jokes that you’ve told before and not really flowing?
MITCH: It can be, it can be. You try not to, but yeah, that can happen, and it’s one of the worst things of all, when you’re doing a show that feels robotic. Yeah, that does happen, you try to make sure that you’re gonna be flexible and be able to be at ease at any situation. But yeah it happens and when it does, it sucks, there’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re just being robotic, you know.
Being in one of the few meaningful rock and roll movies, what was it like to play in Almost Famous and to work with Cameron Crowe?
MITCH: Well, you know, that was an amazing situation for me, I got to see top of the line actors, and I got to sit on the set for two days. My part was very small in film but I was in an integral scene. I got to watch Cameron Crowe and Billy Kriddup and Peter Frampton, for that matter, I dunno, I got to watch these people act and do their thing. I got to learn and I got to realize that acting is not as intense as I think it was, and it can be fun, and I was blown away man. I was blown away. Cameron Crowe is really a creative, cool, cute, guy and it was a mind-altering experience, I’m so glad that it came my way.
JLH: Well, last question; is there anything else that we haven’t covered that you’d like to discuss?
MITCH: Albany is a town that I’ve been coming to more and more lately. And that last time I was in Albany, was when Kid Rock was in to town, and I was hanging out with his bass player, I’m friends with his bass player. I think The Egg is a great venue. I think Kid Rock likes the Egg but he didn’t play The Egg. I think they have the weirdest hotel ever in Albany, I didn’t stay the last time I was there, but its right by the airport…
It’s got all these strange things in it. I think that Albany is a great city. And college is something is something I wish I went to, but I didn’t so I’m mad. Ids also want to say that the USA Today is America’s foremost newspaper.