Thursday, July 07, 2005
Mitch Hedberg
I listened to Mitch Hedberg for the first time on the bus to work today. This leads me to think of many worse ways to get to work, because that guy is funny.
"I saw this wino the other day, and he was eating grapes. I said 'Dude, you have to wait!'"
His humor reminds me a lot of Seinfeld; it relies primarily on stating the obvious. Things like why ant farms don't farm things, that X is a seldom-used letter, and why you never have two easy payments of $19.95 with one complicated payment of $19.95. But while Seinfeld is all "Didja ever notice this? Didja ever notice that? What's the deal with stuff?", Mitch Hedberg just outs and says it. All his jokes are straight to the point and the longest ones are only ever 4-5 lines long, which makes for a very modular stand-up routine. The CD is just as funny played straight through as it is on shuffle, and if you didn't know otherwise, you probably wouldn't even tell the difference.
"I like to drink red wine. This girl asked me once if red wine gave me a headache. I said, 'Sure, eventually, but the first and middle parts are amazing!' I'm not going to give up on something because of what it does eventually. It's like getting an apple and going 'Whoa, stop! That's going to be a core eventually!'"
It's really too bad that Mitch died earlier this year. Like Bill Hicks, this guy was far too funny to go so early. I kind of feel bad that I'm only hearing about him now, when there's no new material to look forward to, but what he did give us is comedy gold, and I'm glad for it. Highly recommended. ¶ 6:12 p.m.
I listened to Mitch Hedberg for the first time on the bus to work today. This leads me to think of many worse ways to get to work, because that guy is funny.
"I saw this wino the other day, and he was eating grapes. I said 'Dude, you have to wait!'"
His humor reminds me a lot of Seinfeld; it relies primarily on stating the obvious. Things like why ant farms don't farm things, that X is a seldom-used letter, and why you never have two easy payments of $19.95 with one complicated payment of $19.95. But while Seinfeld is all "Didja ever notice this? Didja ever notice that? What's the deal with stuff?", Mitch Hedberg just outs and says it. All his jokes are straight to the point and the longest ones are only ever 4-5 lines long, which makes for a very modular stand-up routine. The CD is just as funny played straight through as it is on shuffle, and if you didn't know otherwise, you probably wouldn't even tell the difference.
"I like to drink red wine. This girl asked me once if red wine gave me a headache. I said, 'Sure, eventually, but the first and middle parts are amazing!' I'm not going to give up on something because of what it does eventually. It's like getting an apple and going 'Whoa, stop! That's going to be a core eventually!'"
It's really too bad that Mitch died earlier this year. Like Bill Hicks, this guy was far too funny to go so early. I kind of feel bad that I'm only hearing about him now, when there's no new material to look forward to, but what he did give us is comedy gold, and I'm glad for it. Highly recommended. ¶ 6:12 p.m.
