Mitch Hedberg always looked like he'd just happily stepped out of a tour bus in the early 1970s, with his tinted aviator sunglasses, his affinity for plaid shirts and his long, shaggy brown hair. The beloved comedian, who performed ten times on "Letterman" and was once dubbed the next Jerry Seinfeld by Time magazine, would step onstage, look down at his shoes, and launch into his legendary one-liners with an inimitable non-sequitur, slacker style, seemingly lost in his own world that nobody else quite understood.
Hedberg's life was cut short in 2005 when he died of a heart attack resulting from "multiple drug toxicity," including cocaine and heroin, which may have been further aggravated by a previously diagnosed heart defect.
With his death, he left behind legions of adoring fans -- Lewis Black, Conan O'Brien, and David Letterman are among the many renowned comics who have publicly sung his praises -- as well as three now classic comedy albums, 1999's Strategic Grill Locations, 2003's Mitch All Together, and the posthumously released 2008 album, Do You Believe In Gosh?
"Last week I helped my friend stay put. It's a lot easier than helpin' him move. I just went over to his house and made sure that he did not start to load shit into a truck." -- Mitch Hedberg
Hedberg was always open about his rampant drug use, but he left behind a private life shrouded in mystery.
"I actually think there's nothing anyone really knows about him outside of his jokes," said Lynn Shawcroft, Hedberg's widow, in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. "I think people get a lot out of his comedy. But there's nothing online about him just, like, eating a hamburger. People didn't really know who he was, I don't think."
Shawcroft is trying to change that with the relaunch of Hedberg's website, Mitchhedberg.net. For the past year, she has been working "really, really, really hard," as she puts it, to give fans a closer look at Hedberg's life. The site will launch May 17, accompanied by a benefit performance at the Steve Allen Theater, where Shawcroft and some of the country's best alternative stand-up comics and performers will honor Hedberg's legacy. The proceeds will go to the Innocence Project, a non-profit dedicated to acquitting those wrongfully accused of crimes.
Nick Thune, a comedian set to perform at the benefit, said he was honored to see his name on the poster.
"Mitch Hedberg made me want to be a comedian," Thune said. "Every joke on every CD of his makes me laugh." He also noted, "a unique thing about Mitch is that all comics are fans. Alternative or mainstream."
"Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat 2,000 of something." -- Mitch Hedberg
The benefit is part of a long-term project of Shawcroft's to release years of journals, notebooks, scribbles, videos, audio tapes and general memorabilia Hedberg left behind.
Spokesperson for the dead is a funny position to find oneself in, Shawcroft said. "When you're married to someone and they die, you're suddenly responsible for their work. You're making decisions for someone who's no longer here."
She mentioned how strange it was to watch Hedberg's fans deal with his death at the same time she was privately trying to understand it herself.
"I have to spend so much of my time thinking about someone who has this incredible fan base, but who I was also married to and bought a house with," she said. "It's all very hard, sometimes."
Shawcroft was understandably conflicted at first: how to best represent a comedy legend who she also happened to love? How to know what he'd have wanted to say? "After he died I think I just spent a lot of time daydreaming," she said, "Not really wanting to do anything."
But this year, along with her decision to revisit the things he left behind, she took on the site relaunch project. And delving back into Hedberg's life has proved inspiring.
"It's all just reminded me how fun he was," Shawcroft said. "When someone dies and there are drugs involved, it becomes so serious all the time. He gets compared to [Kurt] Cobain a lot because of the long hair and the drugs, but Mitch was this really funny, driven, positive person."
Shawcroft tells the story of how she and Mitch originally hit it off in Toronto, where she was living and Mitch was touring, and fell into a passionate, long distance love affair. "We were phoning each other all the time," she said. And one day, "Mitch was like, meet me at LAX at this terminal on this date. And I did and I met him and we were never really separated after that."
They bought a motor home, traveled to gigs constantly, and were married a few months later. They bought a cabin near Big Bear in California. They got a mortgage.
"I want to hang a map of the world in my house, and then I’m gonna put pins into all the locations that I’ve traveled to. But first I’m gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won’t fall down." -- Mitch Hedberg
Some of Shawcroft's favorite things are the letters Hedberg wrote in his early days as a struggling stand-up, requesting that companies make him the spokesman for their obscure product.
"Hey I'm Mitch Hedberg, and I'm gonna be a famous stand-up one day," Hedberg wrote in one letter addressed to Gold Bond Powder. "Your powder made me really funny onstage."
"There's also just endless strings of thoughts," Shawcroft said. "He wrote endlessly."
Shawcroft said that she thinks Hedberg would have been interested in helping other young comics. "I know he loved being a comedian and felt lucky to be able to have such a cool job, and I think he would be happy to help others follow their dreams," she wrote, further suggesting she might consider starting a scholarship in his name.
She hopes to continue performing stand-up, herself, though her career has taken a backseat to the "Mitch projects," as she refers to them.
"For now, he is my major focus," Shawcroft said.
Check out the re-launched site on May 17. And click here for information on the upcoming benefit in LA.