St. Paul-born comedian Mitch Hedberg dead; heart failure blamed

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:


St. Paul-born comedian Mitch Hedberg, whose skewed perspective on everyday life grew into a long career in nightclubs, college campuses, television, film and recording, died Wednesday. He was 37.

Hedberg died in Livingston, N.J., while traveling between shows. Pending the medical examiner's report, the cause of death appears to be heart failure, his mother, Mary Hedberg, said Thursday.

She said Hedberg was born with a heart defect and spent much of the first year of his life receiving treatment at the University of Minnesota. He frequently felt anxious about his condition and reported heart palpitations, she said, but "it was determined to be something that would be fine as long as he stayed within the reaches of normalcy."

She characterized speculation that his death was drug-related as "gossiping. We don't know that for a fact," but added, "It's not a secret Mitch used drugs. Whether that played a role in his death or not, we don't know."

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5323039.html

I had seen him on David Letterman's show.