It's probably just the fumes from a career in overdrive.
This year alone, Hedberg has wowed audiences at Montreal's prestigious
Just For Laughs Festival; schmoozed with Letterman on the Late
Night couch; had Sundance Film Festival accept a film (Los
Enchiladas!, which he wrote, directed and starred in); and scored a
sitcom development deal with Fox.
He explains the effects of his newfound supersuccess only half
jokingly: "It used to be like you went on stage, and you were all drunk,
and you fucked around a lot, and I'd get yelled at or something ... But
now they put up with it."
Hedberg's act is actually low-key. Deemed the next Seinfeld by
Time, he gets laughs with witty and offbeat observations about,
well, nothing. He thinks that "Pringles' initial intention was to make
tennis balls" and that "Bigfoot is blurry." He hates turtlenecks ("It's
like being strangled by a really weak guy -- all day") and switched
from buying M&Ms to carrying aspirin, because "if you give your friend
two aspirin, he doesn't think you're being selfish."
Hedberg laughs off the compliment, saying that he's not really like
Seinfeld -- except that he would love to have a show on the air for nine
years. Lots of comics, including Hedberg's Houston performing partner Tom
Rhodes (remember NBC's one-season wonder, Mr. Rhodes?), fail in
their attempts to conquer TV. But Hedberg, in classic form, doesn't seem
too worried about his show, which will probably be based on his
independent film about a drifter who gets a job in a Midwestern Mexican
restaurant. "I'm just going to try my best to look good no matter what
happens with the show. So, therefore, if the show sucks, hopefully I'll
still not look like an asshole," he laughs. "I'll just jump to another
sitcom." 
