...thanks to Doug Stanhope. Watch it here

Rare footage of late American stand-up Mitch Hedberg has resurfaced – thanks to fellow comic Doug Stanhope.

Stanhope has posted to YouTube a half-hour pilot that Hedberg recorded for MTV in 2001, which he discovered on an old VHS in his home’s crawl space.

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It features lots of stand-up footage from the surreal one-liner comic, who died of a drug overdoes in 2005 at the age of 37, as well as his friend and support act  Eddie ‘The Possum Man’ Carnavale.

The show – which never aired –  was filmed during a seven-day comedy tour around California and also includes Hedberg’s wife Lynn Shawcroft, who is also a comedian, as well as an MC called Rico and bass player, Chuck, who were all part of the tour.

At one point, Stanhope  pranks Carnavale by pretending to be a talent agent – at Hedberg’s instruction.  

Stanhope has also pasted a Hedberg home movie called This on his Patreon page,

Separately, film director Jeff Siegel has been working on a comprehensive documentary chronicling Hedberg’s life, conducting more than 100 interviews over five years.   

Published: 2 Jun 2025