Mitch Hedberg

Mitch Hedberg has died at the age of 37.

Right now, Yahoo only has a link posted which will take you to the full story at TwinCities.com (Mitch was a native of St. Paul); if you look for the story directly at TwinCities, you'll have to register.

This is heartbreaking. I saw Mitch in concert last October. At the time, he was the only comedian I had ever seen in concert (along with his co-headliner, Stephen Lynch). The only other comedian I've ever seen in concert was George Carlin, a month later, which shows you how highly I regarded Mitch's comedy, the company I considered him a part of.

I spent a lot of time in my review of his show talking about how poorly the audience behaved, and not enough about how wonderful Mitch was despite that. He radiated goodwill and humor and positivity and charisma.

His death is also infuriating. If it's drug-related -- and really, a heart attack at 37, how could it not be? -- it's such a senseless waste of talent. Apparently, he was on the verge of making his first HBO Comedy Special, which means he was on the verge of becoming huge. I'm angry I'll never get to see that -- that he never got to see that. I'm heartbroken I'll never see him perform live again.

Rest in peace.