The only place I could possibly start the Stuff I Like series is with my all-time favorite comic, Mitch Hedberg. Mitch is gone now, but I was lucky enough to see him several times at the height of his powers (he died of a drug overdose in 2005).
Even other comedians were in awe of Mitch. Says my current favorite working comic, Louis CK:
Years ago, Chris Rock and I were writing a shitty movie together. We were talking about comedians. We went to Mitch Hedberg’s site (this is before he died) and watched one of his Letterman sets. At the time, Chris and I were (and are) both wind-bag, stage-stalking, hammer a premise to the ground comics. We watched Mitch, who just fired beautiful fastballs one after the other. Joke joke joke. All solid. All amazing. Non-stop. Five minutes of it. We were in awe of it. Much respect to Mitch Hedberg.
Indeed. The single best comedy show I’ve ever been to was headlined by Mitch, back in 2000 or so. It was at the Comedy Underground, and he absolutely killed the room. It’s the only time I’ve come out of a club afterward with my side actually hurting and my head a little woozy from shortness of breath, all from laughing so hard.
Here he is killing his Comedy Central Presents special:
Through the miracles of modern technology, I can also direct you to one of my favorite of Mitch’s routines, The Dufrenes
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