Mitch Hedberg Album Review

[DanWilbur]

Hey all,

I got the honor of listening to "Do You Believe in Gosh," Mitch Hedberg's posthumous album, and reviewed it for The Apiary. Check it out!

http://www.theapiary.org/archives/20...s_apprais.html

Dan

[Cameron]

This just leaked.

I'm still at the beginning, but I'm alread in love. I don't think I realized how amazing it's going to be to have new Mitch jokes until I just put it on.

I probably just woke up my neighbors laughing at the Improv Fairy Tale.

[pauliophonic]

I just bought this off of iTunes.

Wow. It's really funny.

Man, I miss that guy.

[Cankerblossom]

Really, really funny. So glad to hear new Mitch material. All the stuff with Phil was absolutely brilliant.

(I'm gonna go cry for a while)

[daveunfun]

He's so much more fluid and charismatic on this than the other albums (which are great in their own right).

[insert burn out vs. fade away cliche here]

[bombshell]

just as good as you think it's gonna be.

it's so hard to listen to without getting a little sad every couple of jokes.

[Brian J.]

I ordered it yesterday on Amazon. (as well as The Big Lebowski to get that super saver shipping) I can't wait!

I hope it's a mixture of things I haven't heard before plus some good/classic bits that weren't on his previous albums.

[pg13]

There are times when it's annoying to hear "great minds think alike" when you find out that another comic, especially one much more famous than you are, is telling a joke that is similar (or the same) as a joke that you're doing.

...however, when that comic is Mitch Hedberg...it's kind of cool.

The joke in question is the "forget everything you know about slipcovers" joke from this album. We must have seen the same commercial and thought the same thing. I remember I did a weird act-out with my eyes...and I remember asking people if it was too subtle for audiences to get.

I dropped the bit after a month or two...and I'd forgotten all about it until I listened to this album today...and hearing Mitch make the same observation made me smile a broad, if bittersweet, smile.

I'd have given up my entire act if it meant getting a few more years of Mitch.

...and this album is as close as we'll come to that.

pg--I think I also tried to do a call back where a story joke I told ended with me needing to describe a slip cover...without, obviously, saying the word "slip covers" (as I'd forgotten everything I ever knew about them.) Man, I forgot everything I ever knew about my joke about forgetting everything I knew about slip covers.--seattle

[st.raw]

forget everything you know about message board posting!

[In Taintbows]

forget everything you know about message board posting!

Done.

[I love nny]

First of all let me start by saying despite this being my first post this thread was not the reason i joined. (not sure why i think this is relevant but whatever)
I just got this album and truth be told i thought is was really only ok. Now before i get slaughtered for this i must say i love Mitch's stuff and one of the first fond memories of my father as i entered adulthood was us laughing our asses off at his Comedy Central Presents. That being said this album only felt half way done, almost like he was simply just work shopping some of those jokes. I understand that this being after his death it wasn't as though they could wait for him to develop those into gold.

I will end by saying that even if this is Mitch at 50% it is still better then most comedians.

[pg13]

That being said this album only felt half way done, almost like he was simply just work shopping some of those jokes. I understand that this being after his death it wasn't as though they could wait for him to develop those into gold.

Hmmmm...you probably think that way because the album WAS half way done (or, more accurately, it wasn't intended to be an album...but was intended, eventually, to have become another special)...and he WAS simply just work shopping some of those jokes...

But, also...to anyone who saw Mitch live, part of the fun was seeing Mitch wander down blind alleys and then to laugh at himself when he recognized that something was just weird or wasn't really coming together as a joke.

It showed that comedy doesn't have to be perfect to be funny...

And you should have known this going into checking out this recording--this is a documentation of something that might have been...not something that is what it was intended to be.

...and it's still damn good.

i love Mitch's stuff and one of the first fond memories of my father as i entered adulthood was us laughing our asses off at his Comedy Central Presents.

Have you seen the unedited version of that CCP (available on the DVD you get with Mitch All Together)? That audience didn't really get Mitch...at all...and in order to get enough material for his special, Mitch had to do basically two full sets--and then it was up to the editors at ComedyCentral to smash and sweeten the hell out of it to make the special you saw on tv.

It's eye-opening stuff--especially because ALL of the stuff that Mitch was doing on that stage was rock solid...and to watch as the crowd doesn't give Mitch the love he deserved for it...and to see him just go on and on...dipping into classic stuff that he hadn't planned on putting in the special they were recording.

Unappreciated brilliance...and proof that sometimes the audience is simply just wrong...

pg--I had chances to see Mitch more times than I actually did...and I really wish I'd have taken advantage of them when I could. I think any fan of comedy feels similarly.--seattle

[mcpiranhas]

Yeah, nobody can save a bad joke like Hedberg. I love the moments on the new album where he tells a 3rd grader joke, and then laughs himself off. He's so damn charming, it's impossible for him to fail.

This album was great, and it's so odd and lovely to have a new collection of nuggets. I already think of him several times a week when I come across some product or situation he had a matching one-liner for, and now there's even more to remind me. Soup of the day, hot air balloons, slip covers, belt loops, Texas Toast, Venice...

[Brian J.]

There are times when it's annoying to hear "great minds think alike" when you find out that another comic, especially one much more famous than you are, is telling a joke that is similar (or the same) as a joke that you're doing.

...however, when that comic is Mitch Hedberg...it's kind of cool.

I've had that happen with a lot of other comedians. A few from Carlin, Wright, Demetri Martin and others.

But I've only had one joke that was similar to one of hedberg's and i was glad to cross it out of my joke book. It was a joke on strategic grill locations about getting his palm read.

My version was: I went to get my palm read and she told me I was going to make a lot of money, because that's what I wrote on my palm.


Amazon still hasn't send my G.D. c.d. I'm getting pissed, I can't wait.

[I love nny]

Have you seen the unedited version of that CCP (available on the DVD you get with Mitch All Together)? That audience didn't really get Mitch...at all...and in order to get enough material for his special, Mitch had to do basically two full sets--and then it was up to the editors at ComedyCentral to smash and sweeten the hell out of it to make the special you saw on tv.

I have seen it and you are right it wasn't hitting home with the audience. Also im not really saying i disliked the most recent release but more that what was released was a shadow of his previous releases.
and so for ME it is my least favorite of his albums. Mitch's comedy is like ice cream even when it's not good it's better then pickled beets.

I saw him perform live with Stephen Lynch (they were on the same bill not sharing the stage) and he was super drunk and really could only swear and giggle to him self. about half way through he threw the mic stand into the crowd and started making out with a middle aged woman. As we were leaving my thoughts were "He needs some help or he is going to end up burning out" This was about a month or month and a half before he died.

[strangeinterlude]

way to use almost every form of the word release in one sentence.

[I love nny]

way to use almost every form of the word release in one sentence.

not sure if you were being factious, but i will take that as a compliment.

[KevinLee]

I saw him perform live with Stephen Lynch (they were on the same bill not sharing the stage) and he was super drunk and really could only swear and giggle to him self. about half way through he threw the mic stand into the crowd and started making out with a middle aged woman. As we were leaving my thoughts were "He needs some help or he is going to end up burning out" This was about a month or month and a half before he died.

What a crazy story. I had no idea. Where was he performing?

I worked at a comedy club in Indianapolis and after about three months there I found this secret stash of comedian promo tapes. It was a room full of the VHS tapes comedians would send to clubs to get work or whatever. Just shelves and shelves. I found one of Mitch and borrowed a friends VCR. It was short tape. Grafalo was hosting and if I had HBO I probably would've seen it by then. But felt cool. I wish I coulda seen him live.

Did anyone else get a chance to see him before he passed?

[extrafacelol]

What a crazy story. I had no idea. Where was he performing?

I worked at a comedy club in Indianapolis and after about three months there I found this secret stash of comedian promo tapes. It was a room full of the VHS tapes comedians would send to clubs to get work or whatever. Just shelves and shelves. I found one of Mitch and borrowed a friends VCR. It was short tape. Grafalo was hosting and if I had HBO I probably would've seen it by then. But felt cool. I wish I coulda seen him live.

Did anyone else get a chance to see him before he passed?

Was this from the Comedy Central show Comedy Product by any chance? I have a clip of Mitch's appearance on that show that I stole from Youtube during Viacom's inital big crackdown.

I saw Mitch live in late 2003, doing a big tour with Lewis Black and Dave Attell. That's really the only stand-up show I've ever been to and Mitch is my favorite stand-up ever, man I am soooooo fucking lucky to have seen him live.

I remember him staggering into the curtain behind the stage and riffing about there being another audience on the other side waiting to see a show. I also remember him launching into his Pineapple Life-Saver joke, and giving up on it mid-sentence after he fucked it up.

[scamboogah]

not sure if you were being factious, but i will take that as a compliment.

Fact-ious is a complement in itself, like truthiness.