MHB

[Intro: Mitch Hedberg] "You know when you go to a concert, and it's like Punk rock music or somethin' And the kids get on stage, and they jump into the crowd It's called "stage diving", right? Some people think that's dangerous But not me because humans are made out of 95% percent water So the audience is 5% away from a pool" [Interview: Barry Farber & Mitch Hedberg] Hey, welcome back Uh, we're back with a comedian. Why? Because we need to laugh as much as we need to learn And we get a lot of stress, so this helps kind of, like, eliminate a lot of it And it's healthy for you, laughter's the best medicine Welcome Mitch Hedberg Hey, How you doin', Berry Good to see ya, Good to see you After that Letterman stint, uh I saw you a couple times on Letterman right? Yeah, I just did it for the third time a couple days ago Third time? Yeah Now let's talk about this, let me Take me through your background Where you kinda grew up and And what age 12 was your first Appearance in uh, on stage? I— Oh, on stage. Yeah, I was gonna say I appeared at zero, but, you know My first stage appearance was twelve, Man, but uh You know, when you were doin' that thing At the beginning at the show where You were talkin' about my story man It sounded, way more inspirational than I ever thought it was man I kinda got tears in my eye for a minute There I realized things are going pretty Good for me Well— you accomplished a lot You were—talk about when you were A cook for years, and, and How you made the transition Well, I used to be infatuated with The grill when I was a busboy I would watch these guys cook And you know, I finally achieved My dream of becoming a cook Which was really easy 'cause all I had to do was tell the manager "Hey man, do you mind if I cook?" And he said yeah, you know It was easy to achieve that dream And— (Laughs) No, no, that's really a good point Is that cool? But Yeah But, so I, I che— I actually thought You know cooking what, might be what I wanted to do for a while you know But then uh— since like you said at twelve I star— I was performing, I was acting a lot like uh We would take uh We would copy Saturday Night Live Skits and SCTV You know that show (yes, yes) Yeah man likeBob and Doug McKenzie Remember them characters? (Hmm) They had that great movie calledStrange Brew But we would just copy those skits And we would make our friends laugh And hey of course, there's nothing like Standing in front of uh People and making them laugh As long as you're trying to You know, I mean if they're laughing At you for the wrong reasons It kind of sucks (Laughs) But its okay Now this was in your basement Or was it with your Neighborhood friends right? Yeah, yeah in my parents' basement 'Cause my parents were the ones who Would always let the kids come over And mess up the house for the day And uh we would put on these skits And everyone was talented but Now no one does anything in the Talent industry except me I'm the only one who survived though the Years man, through the lean years You know they all gave it up when times Got tough they were like 15 and they said "No more of this" You know Tell me about that because every time I had, you know, you hadDon Rickles we had on we had uhh Different comedians from all different Backgrounds and they had many years Of adversity where they were not Making it they were getting rejected (Right) Why is that important to go Through that and what did you learn? Oh 'cause it it builds you, you know It— It makes your skin tough, you know And uh rejection is— is real tough at first But after a while you kind of thrive on it It's an energy in itself just to get rejected Talk about that Well 'cause you want— you want to Prove people that you know, they're Wrong man Like, like when I first started doing Comedy people would try to tell me How to dress and they would try to Tell me, kind of— What kind of jokes to do And they wanted me to go to like a— A standup comedy class and have Some other guy tell me how to be funny You know man (Hmm) And funny is natural, you know You don't— you can't learn How to be funny you know You can learn how to say a joke in A certain rhythm but you can't learn How to be funny and I knew that But these people were trying to tell me You got to come to class and we'll tell You how to present yourself And everything and all that so So— Go ahead So believing inside not letting Them trying to change the outside of you Right, right because this one lady At one point she gave me advice I got a lot of advice in the early days Of my comedy And one lady told me to wear A lot of jewelry on stage, you know 'Cause she thought like I wanted to attract The crowd, you know Just with my jewelry, you know They be so— they' be so excited that I had this like broche on or something They forget that I'm funny, you know 'Cause a lot— a lot of advice comes from People who aren't very funny They have they've adapted ways To like, remain working because They're real professional They always wear a suit and tie, you know (Hmm) So— so a lot of advice I was getting was From comics who weren't that good in it I never could take it You know what I'm saying? (Hmm) I know that I had like a— A different thing to say to him so I— I had to chill out and just ride out The bad times like that So but the— but you talk about Rejection being able to take what makes You stronger proving other people wrong That's the real important point A lot of people, that devastates them Yeah yeah yeah Have you every had a situation Where you just bombed? Where I bombed on stage? (Hmm) Oh many situations man Pluralize that immediately because I— I bombed endlessly, you know I use to tour Montana and Idaho And uh Oregon to these one nighter bars I'd go from bar to bar and I'd be the Opening actor of a two man show And the guy going on last would Always kill I would always bomb horribly Then the next guy would go on and he'd Have a lot of jokes about like genitalia And such which the crowds kind of Wanted to hear they like that stuff But I didn't have any of those jokes so I was bombing But the only good thing about that was Is a lot of times These towns would be loaded with Kind of like, scary looking women and— And the scary looking women would Always ask the funnier guy to dance So I never had to dance you cool There's always something good And something bad right? Yea, I just had to sit down 'Cause no they were too they didn't like Me 'cause I wasn't funny so They didn't want to dance with me Yeah so Now now now That adversity helped you I mean that's rejection That's falling it helps you kind of Come back stronger Do you focus do you learn Something from that? Oh uh Well you just learn that you got to Get the hell out of here and find Your right—you got to find Your audience man That adversity is like You got to keep searching for Your audience is what it does It just makes you search harder is What it does That's good Yeah When we come back I want to talk to you about about uh You know why you believe that Jumping in even though maybe You're not 100% prepared is More important than preparing And never doing anything obviously Oh it's so true man, yeah You got to like uh Learn while doing right? That's the only way to learn You got to books, tapes, all this stuff And people but once you do it yourself That's the real You can't have a good job in order To make it in stand up comedy You can't already have a good job That's the biggest downfall Really? Yeah 'cause you don't care then You just— you don't care about— You're already making enough money So the drive ain't there You gotta like Be in a job that's worse than anything You want that that'll keep you Wanting to do it, you know We'll come back