Sad News

-After a lot of confusion and disbelief on some of the message boards I frequent, it was confirmed that comedian Mitch Hedberg passed away on Wednesday. He was 37. I didn't know Mitch personally, but he had a tremendous influence on a lot of comedians, both as a person and as an incredibly talented, creative comic. He will be missed.

-I'll be posting the March headLINES late next week along with my usual sporadic comments.

-Tuesday at Yuks was a good time as always. It was nice getting a chance to get some of TRAVIS ROBINSON's thoughts on how to develop my skills as a comic. Travis is a talented writer and his comedy is much cleaner than most--and very clever as well. J.P. FOURNIER was there and did some new jokes. I haven't seen that much energy from J.P. in a while, and the crowd gave him a great response. J.P. is also getting a mention in my next headLINES column on Saturday, as is TODD KREPAKAVITCH (unless they get edited out).

-Sunday at The Comic Strip I had a good talk with LARS. He's the kind of guy I should hate--he's good looking, talented, confident, charming AND funny--but he's such a good guy that I can't help but wish him the best. What I found most inspiring about our conversation is realizing that even the good-looking, talented, confident, charming, AND funniest of us run into setbacks now and then. But the best of us (and yeah, Lars is in this category too, darn him) manage to stay positive and remember that just being on stage is sometimes its own reward. If you've felt it, you're probably nodding along as you read, if you haven't then there's no way I can explain it.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Comedy:
Sunday, April 20, The Comic Strip (5 minute guest spot)
Wednesday, April 20, Yuk Yuks (10 minute spot--Extreme Comedy Challenge)
Tuesday, April, 26, Yuk Yuks (5 minute open mic spot)

Writing:
-Sundays through April in the Living section of the Edmonton Journal
-Dan Brodribb's headLINES feature runs every Saturday in the Journal's ed magazine