Mitch Hedberg

To the surprise of no one, Mitch Hedberg's death early last year has been proven to be caused by a drug overdose. Mitch was always pretty open about his drug use in his stand-up. One of his oldest jokes was "I used to do drugs. I still do but I used to do them too."

I'm not going to launch into an anti-drug rant. I have too many fond memories of college for that. What really matters is what a brilliant comedian he was. He never really broke through into television or movies (aside for a few bit parts) but his observational laid back style made him my generation's Steven Wright, if not as well known. At least he made two albums before he left. I just picked up the second.

One of the biggest regrets of my life was not seeing this guy perform. Caroline's is directly between the office and the subway so I pass the display where comics have posted dates. It's worked out well since that's how we saw Gilbert Gottfried last month. Last year I saw Mitch's name up there and thought it would be great to see him 'next time'. There was no next time. I'm gonna have to learn to stop saying that.