Who is this Mitch Hedberg fellow, and should I see him in Kansas City tomorrow? At this point, I assume that a Little Nephew recommendation is one strike against him...
I saw Mitch Hedberg last week here in Columbus and it was HORRIBLE. One of the opening acts, some small woman from Canada, was heckled to the point of leaving stage after about five minutes, which was pretty much a buzzkill. Hedberg comes out and is really mad at the treatment given to the woman and spends the first few minutes of his set asking security to eject "that guy" who keeps yelling out. Bear in mind that this show was on a college campus and the hall was filled with guys who'd yell out random stuff, but security still found a stooge to bounce. Mitch never quite regained focus and he kind of stumbled through a lackluster set.
It turns out the woman is Mitch's wife.
I've seen him before and when he's on, he's VERY funny. Last week was not one of those nights, however, and he aborted about two dozen jokes about three words in. He'd say "I was at the...(pause)...no I wasn't" and then sit on his stool for a few minutes as he thought about another funny joke. Near the end of his set, he made no secret of pulling out a pipe and lighting up on stage. Granted, it was a regular, Grandpa-style pipe and not a "FOR TOBACCO USE ONLY" pipe you'd get from Import House, but still.
The really funny jokes never came.