Mitch Hedberg, 1968-2005

All you have to do is put a year after the hyphen, and you've said a lot.

I first found out that Mitch Hedberg had died when I went to the Improv web site, looking to see what's going on next week in Hollywood. What I found instead, on their front page, was a picture of Mitch Hedberg. Beneath his picture was the tell-tale year following the hyphen.

He was 37 years old.

You just never know.

Stephanie and I planned on going to see him last year. I can't remember why we didn't go to the show. It doesn't matter, I suppose. Just the usual human stuff. One excuse or another. Or maybe we actually did have something else going on.

Anyway, what I do remember was thinking, "We'll see him next time he's in town".

You just never know.

I was telling Autumn about a couple of other comics who died in their thirties: Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks. There have surely been others. But it's eery how the unique ones seem to leave us at such a young age. "The brightest candles burn the fastest." I know it's nothing new. Rock and Roll lost its share of young stars back in the sixties: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin. Actors: Marilyn Monroe, James Dean.

The list goes on.

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
-- John Lennon, 1940-1980.

You just never know.