Mitch Hedberg Believed This Was the Secret to Comedy
By 31-year-old comic Mitch Hedberg’s estimation, only about 10 percent of Americans knew who he was in 1999 — so what chance did he have to kill at a comedy festival in Kilkenny, Ireland? But he figured out a secret to making any audience laugh, he told Kevin Nealon at the time.
“I started to delete shit, is what it comes down to,” Hedberg revealed. “I have jokes that have maybe three — or four at the most — punchlines, but I started to make it come down. I figured out that one or two is the best. You know, the second punchline or the first punchline works better than the third and the fourth.”
While Hedberg had scored with a Comedy Central special in the U.S., he was an unknown in Ireland. An added degree of difficulty: Many of his punchlines were loaded with cultural references that were unlikely to make sense in another country. And yet, Nealon marveled at how Hedberg’s Subway jokes, for example, still landed.
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“I got a lot of food product jokes that I do. I know that some of the food products don’t translate and I’m to the point now where I’ll still do them regardless,” Hedberg laughed. “(Audiences) just have to be really hip to understand a food product that is several thousand miles away from them. If they only know their local food restaurants, you know, fuck them.”
Hedberg’s devil-may-care attitude on the Irish stage was no doubt helped by Kilkenny’s casual views on inebriation. “They don’t hinder you, you know, no matter how many drinks you have,” the comic said.
“They don't even know,” agreed Nealon.
“Exactly. It’s not about ‘he was too drunk,’” Hedberg said. “It will never be ‘he was too drunk on stage’ here.”
Despite the cultural challenges, Hedberg appreciated working on stages where he was mostly unknown. “I’m working very hard to get recognition. It takes so long, man. I got like a small percentage of recognition in the States, but I decided to say, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to Ireland where I have no percentage,’” he said. “I like the fact that I basically go back to zero in a way. It humbles you. It’s like all I can do is impress them.”
The best way to impress in unknown territory was Hedberg’s addition by subtraction theory. “Each show is getting slightly better because I’m deleting the shit they don’t understand,” he explained to Nealon. “Each show is getting better, and I will play all the countries as long as they fuckin’ give me a chance to get better. The first show will suck but the seventh show will be sweet, you know, that’s the bottom line.”
