Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Flatlife, plus Five More Minutes of Mitch

I stumbled across this by accident (isn't that how the Net usually works?) and just had to pass it along. Flatlife is a short animated film by one Jonas Geirnaert, who was 21 when he submitted it to Cannes as a lark and was as surprised as anyone when it won best short animated film. It's a charming slice-of-life in an apartment complex, cleverly conceived and beautifully executed.

Five More Minutes of Mitch features the brillliantly trippy comic Mitch Hedberg, whose wacked-out stoner observations always overlaid an essential sweetness. Hedberg died of a drug overdose a year ago March at the age of 37, which gives this clip a sad undercurrent.

His widow, comedian Lynn Shawcrowft, has a moving personal blog here.

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Hedbergisms

I like vending machines, because snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at the store oftentimes I will drop it, so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential.

I'm gonna fix that last joke by taking out all the words and adding new ones.


I like to hold the microphone cord like this, I pinch it together, then I let it go, then you hear a whole bunch of jokes at once.

This one guy said, "Look at that girl. She's got a nice butt." I said, "Yeah, I bet she can sit down excellently!"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mitch Hedberg rocked. I caught him on Comedy Central once a while back and loved it. If you don't have his two CD's, you should definitely check them out. "Strategic Grill Locations" and "Mitch All Together".

One of my favorite lines, from "Mitch All Together": "Mr. Pibb is a replica of Dr. Pepper, but it's a bullshit replica, 'cause dude didn't even get his degree! Why'd you have to drop out and start making pop so soon?"

Mitch had a really odd way of viewing the world, which gave his material a very surreal feeling to it, somewhat akin to Steven Wright, but definitely his own. Aside from the actual jokes, though, his delivery was a big part of what made him so funny. It's hard to describe, but if you've heard him, you know what I mean.

Thanks for that link -- I haven't seen that before.

-Jim

PeaceLove said...

I first heard Mitch All Together after he died, and I fell in love with his stuff. I was going to mention Steven Wright, who I've been a big fan of for, er, decades as an obvious antecedent. But where Wright is deadpan and strange ("It's a small world. But I wouldn't want to paint it."), Hedberg was unexpectedly loopy and sweet.

Really a tragic loss.

Bizzaro. said...

Yay Mitch!! I miss alla the greats Wolfberg, Kineson, and of course Reverend Bill Hicks.