Mitch Hedberg - Strategic Grill Locations (Dig)

What makes Mitch Hedberg's performance so endearing is his intense selfconsciousness and the way he incorporates the crowd into the recording of the CD. He draws the audience in and really explains the process he is going through by telling oneliners and throwing out off hand comments. "I wrote a list of jokes to go on the CD. These are the CD jokes. I may add jokes to the set in a moment of spontaneity which you will be unable to detect," he explains with his recognizable delivery. Mitch Hedberg openly mocks his own jokes and apologising for telling the same joke with different ingredients which adds to his cool but confused stage presence.

Like a simplified and meditative George Carlin he examines the language saying, "I didn't sleep for 10 days because that would be too long" and "My friend said, ‘I hear music' as if there was any other way you could take it in". Strategic Grill Locations captures Mitch Hedberg as a kind of Reverend Jim Ignatowski / Rodney Dangerfield highbred. The contrabass that plays throughout the set adds to the beatnik coffee house vibe that suits his comedy so well.