An Interview with Mitch Hedberg
by Brian Wehman

MH: Hey what’s up?

BW: Not much

MH: Alright you ready?

BW: Yeah, I’m ready, let’s do this. So how are things going on your tour with Stephen Lynch?

MH: To tell the truth, since this is the last weekend, it’s pretty sad. This tour uh..it’s my second time on a tour like this, I like it a lot, it’s going great

BW: Is this your last show, on Saturday, in Cleveland?

MH: Yep

BW: Is it really, wow…

MH: This is the last show of this tour

BW: Yeah, the Stephen Lynch tour..

MH: Next Thursday I’m to Cinncinati again, you know, right back in the clubs again.

BW: Speaking of clubs what do you like better, the large theater tours or the smaller comedy clubs with two or three hundred people?

MH: Well I guess since I have been doing clubs for so long, the theaters are probably what I prefer right now. It’s different, plus they got a lot of area where you can hang out and watch the show because sometimes at the clubs on a Friday or Saturday, it’s packed or whatever, it’s hard to watch the show because there is no place to hang out, you know..

BW: Which was better, or not better I guess they are both good, does one stand out – either the Lewis Black/Dave Attell tour or the Stephen Lynch tour?

MH: Well they’re both great for different reasons. On the Attell tour I was going on first every night, so I had a lot of time to do what I wanted, and the crowd was brand new by the time I went on stage. On this tour I get to go be the “cool” headliner, you know what I mean?

BW:( laughs) Do you find it harder, having the pressure on you being the headliner, versus being the opening act?

MH: Oh sure man, but it’s not the pressure that crushes you, it’s actually you got more time to get drunk, so that can screw some things up sometimes.

BW: Yeah, that’s true, it can. We run a website, there are around twenty or more of us, struggling locals and amateur comedians. I wanted to ask you a couple of basic questions for people who are just starting out. Do you remember your first time on stage, what it was like? Did you do an open mic or just end on stage while screwing around somewhere?

MH: It as an open mic at a comedy club, sort of like a strange comedy club, I think it was a gay bar, but it was also a comedy club. That didn’t really affect the clientele, the fact that it was a gay bar. It was pretty much, every type of person was there. I loved being on stage, it was like taking a drug or something, everything’s just goes by really fast, you can’t actually remember what it is like because it goes by so fucking fast. The laughs didn’t come like I thought they would come, so of course nervousness set in immediately, and basically I just couldn’t wait to get off stage, it was a mess. My second time on stage was a lot different though, my second time on stage I actually got laughs. Not for the jokes, but for some reason, I don’t know, people were laughing and that helps. Even though I didn’t have any jokes, people were still laughing.

BW: I imagine you had to work a while on the persona you have now on stage. Were you always kind of the slower, not looking at the audience style or did you start out like everyone does, just telling some basic jokes?

MH: Like I said that whole feeling of not being aware that I was on stage, I actually had to watch myself on video to see what I was doing up there, so I could remember and when I watched it on video it was horrible. My body parts were flying all over the place, my arms and stuff, I had no control over my arms. It was like I had some sort of medical problem. I would have to say that it took me a long time to get to the point where I was even able to relish in the moment of being on stage and after that is when I had to start working on how I wanted the delivery to be. At the beginning it was a lot different, it was crazy, if anyone saw some of those early tapes I would be embarrassed.

BW: Do you still watch yourself on video? Do you still critique yourself?

MH: No way man. I stopped watching myself on video and critiquing myself, I can’t do it man. That’s one of the hardest things. (laughs)

BW: Do you still have people who try and give you advice on your routine or do you feel because you have been doing this for such a long time, you can just go up and do your thing?

MH: I critique myself, but if someone else critiques me of course I get offended first, they think you should be doing something differently. But if someone says something I’ll listen, but I won’t let them know I am listening. I’ll act like I am not going to listen to them then I’ll think about what they said, alone, when I am away from them. I critique myself, I just don’t actually watch myself, I just kind of think about what I did and think maybe next time I should do this. It’s like I have a video tape in my head.

BW: What were some of your comedic inspirations. Do you want to be like someone else, or did you say I am going to be the first Mitch Hedberg?

MH: I liked all comics, I really did. Anyone who I saw doing standup on TV made me laugh. I went to a couple comedy clubs before I started and liked a lot of comics I saw there. I can remember seeing a comedian pointing at me, and using me to get some laughs from the crowd. It was something that later that I realized was “hacky” but at the time I thought it was hilarious. I guess my inspiration at the beginning was I wanted to take… like when I would go to a party with my friends and stuff, and I would make people laugh, I wanted to take that and try to bring that on stage. My inspiration was myself but since I was a green performer it was a bad place to be inspired by. I mean I was good at making people laugh at a party but not good at making people laugh on stage, it was only a half good thing to be inspired by, you know what I mean?

BW: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. How long did it take you before you finally walked up on stage, knew what you were doing, felt confident, and was like “here’s my act”?

MH: When I finally reached the point were I was real confident was, I think five years into it. I remember going to Colorado, a couple of comedy clubs, I had a half hour spot and I went up every night and I got laughs throughout the whole set. Some people were saying “man you’re really good” and things started to take. I think I actually hooked up with a girl that week. That was the first time I was funny enough to score girls and girls were starting..

BW: To pay attention to you?

MH: yeah, I would say five years into it..

BW: Some comedians like to write every day, they lock themselves in their room at 1:00pm and write, and some just write whenever it hits them. Where would you put yourself when it comes to writing material?

MH: Whenever it hits me, but sometimes I’ll sit down and work on stuff that I have been neglecting but basically whenever it hits me.

BW: Do you take notes on ideas and then expand upon it, or do you find yourself having to work the punchline that is in your head and you try to make the setup for it?

MH: It’s more of the setup I’m thinking of “now”, and I write down that. Sometimes I come up with a good joke, and when that happens it’s beautiful. But usually I’ll have a setup I’ll come up with, then I’ll go on stage and say it, and the punchline comes to me on stage more often, not right away necessarily, but after a couple attempts it will pretty much be ready. I think of the setup, I usually know the punchline but I don’t have the right words, the words come to me on stage.

BW: Is it fair to say that every Mitch Hedberg show is a little bit different then?

MH: Yeah, I went through phases where I did all my jokes in the exact same order and I told them the exact same way, but since a lot of the show is jokes I’ve said before, I try to at least say them like I am saying them for the first time. I think every show is a little bit different. Some of it’s the same, but I think there is enough that’s different that people who might see me twice won’t be too mad.

BW: Do you have a “hell gig” you want to share, that gig that you just wish you could forget?

MH: I went to Guam and had to open for Tommy Chong and I didn’t know that Tommy Chong was the kind of guy that didn’t come to the show until he felt like it, so I had to go up on stage and stay up there till he came to the show (laughs). I was on stage and I didn’t have enough material and all these stoned people want Tommy Chong and my nose was really red because Guam is right by the Equator and I wasn’t wearing any sunscreen so I got a really burnt nose. So it was all these stoners getting mad at this… really red-nosed guy who didn’t have enough material.

BW: Do you have a favorite gig that stands out from the rest? Where you walked off stage and were like “Damn that was good!”

MH: A couple of them. I’ve been doing these college shows that have been really sweet. They’re being held in the basketball arena and there are like 4,000 kids in this arena, and I’m underneath the scoreboard, and all these kids are going crazy. These college shows have been just amazing; pretty much every one I’ve done lately. When I first started colleges, six, seven, maybe eight years ago, I didn’t get anything, but now I go to the colleges and it’s awesome. All college shows have been really, really, great.

BW: Do you find it a little odd, that as you get older the college crowds are connecting with you more? The stay the same age, you get older, yet somehow you are huge on the college circuit right now

MH: You almost wonder if they know how old you are. I mean it’s like “I’m glad you’re really digging me, but you do you know that I am quite a bit older then you”. Not that it matters, but when I was a comic in my mid 20’s, around their age, they didn’t want anything to do with me. It’s almost like they want their teachers and their talent to be older then them I guess (laughs). I don’t know what it is. But they always want you to come back and hang out with them but I’m like “there may be too much of a generation gap”

BW: Let me ask something a lot of amateur comedians probably ask, what kind of advice do you have for up-and-comers, for the new comic on the block?

MH: Probably the same stuff you already heard, but the best advice, and this is just coming from what I did – you got to get on stage as much as possible, you have to not worry about money in the early days. You have to do that 14 hour drive, those make no money gigs, you have to do that. You have to be willing to go anywhere for a show no matter how far. If you are in front of a crowd that’s going to laugh harder at shit you don’t want to do, make sure you stick to the stuff you do, don’t just give them the stuff they want. Because if you can make a crowd that doesn’t like you laugh at something, you know that if you get in front of a crowd that likes you, you can really make them laugh. Because it doesn’t matter, most of your early gigs, at the bars and stuff they don’t matter, so use that time to master your craft. You don’t have to worry about being booked back at a fucking bar in Montana. So I would say use those early gigs as a training ground, worry about yourself more then the crowd, then after you do that, the crowd will come to you.

BW: I read that you are really into music, what are listening to right now?

MH: Right now, so many people are involved in music, that I am having a hard time deciphering what I like. Ah man, I don’t know..

BW: What’s in Mitch’s CD player right now?

MH: Coheed & Cambria do you know who that is?

BW: No, I have never heard of them

MH: You know Interpol? I like Interpol..

BW: Yeah I know Interpol..

MH: I still like David Lee Roth, but he hasn’t released anything..

BW: Yeah I think it’s been a long time. So you like bands similar to Interpol, like Radiohead or Coldplay?

MH: yeah they’re good, but I also like pop stuff. I like happy music, that makes you feel happy. Like if The Cars came out with an album today, I’m also looking to the new album from Alien Ant Farm.

BW: What’s next for you? You have had a couple of TV and movie spots, anything big like that coming up?

MH: I think that there might be a video coming. I heard that they sent some cameras on the road to tape us for a possible show. Other then that I am hopefully going do another special for Comedy Central and release another CD, and then get back on the road, man. That’s where I make my living and pretty much that’s where I spend 95% of my time.

BW: If you weren’t in standup what do you think you would do? Do you have something else you always wanted to try?

MH: I would like to have a magazine out there, I would love to be the editor of magazine.

BW: Using another avenue to share your thoughts and opinions?

MH: yeah, exactly..

BW: Well thank you very much for your time, I appreciate it. I’ll be at the show on Saturday

MH: Awesome man, I’ll see you there.

Mitch Hedberg and Stephen Lynch will be appearing at Lakewood Civic Auditorium Saturday February 12th.

Visit our show listings for details.

Mitch's website: www.mitchhedberg.net.

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