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Rising comic Mitch Hedberg wants the
whole enchilada
Bankrate: How many copies did you sell of the
first one?
Mitch Hedberg: I've sold 10,000 so far. I could
have sold more if I wasn't as lazy. I hate standing in the back
of the club and hawking merchandise after a show. I just don't feel
right doing it. So my wife will help me out with that, or I'll hire
someone at the club to do it. If I was one of those more aggressive
sales types, I would have sold twice as many or three times as many
by now because people buy stuff. Even if you're a comedian who's
a hack, if you sell something after the show, people will buy it.
I don't know what the magic is, but there's something about when
people are walking by you, and you're the comedian, and you're selling
something, people will buy it.
Bankrate: So for that 10,000 copies, you got
all the money.
Mitch Hedberg: Oh yeah. It's pretty much all
profit, minus a couple of expenses. I sell them on my Web site mitchhedberg.net,
and we finally got credit card capability. For over a year we were
selling them through the mail for check or money order, but now,
once I got the credit card capability, our sales, as you can imagine,
are times 10 now. So we were missing out.
Bankrate: For the Comedy Central deal, did
you get any money upfront?
Mitch Hedberg: There's some kind of advance,
like a $10,000 advance or something, I don't know, but it's something
they're going to recoup as they start to sell it, and then I'll
start making one or two bucks a CD or something like that.
Bankrate: Did you have any qualms about doing
that because it sounds like you could make a lot less money on this
one than the one you sell on your own?
Mitch Hedberg: Oh yeah, that's what I think.
The thing could sell a lot. Maybe the stores will give it the capability
of selling a lot more, I don't know. I'll have to wait and see.
But definitely, if I put out my own CD all by myself, I would sell
so many right away, it would be crazy. So I am losing out in that
way.
Bankrate: Is being a touring comic at your
level lucrative?
Mitch Hedberg: Oh yeah, definitely lucrative
now, man. It's pretty crazy, man. I can't believe it. I knew the
money would come. I just didn't actually sit down and think about
when it would come and how much it would be.
Bankrate: How much do you get to headline?
Mitch Hedberg: Headliners start at $1,500 a
week. Now, it's a lot more than that. I put it in the area of $7,000
to $15,000 a week. It's pretty crazy. One time I did a theater show
with Lewis Black, and the check was so big I showed my dad, and
I don't know if that was the best idea because now he wonders what
I do with the money.
Bankrate: So what do you do with it?
Mitch Hedberg: I have a money manager. I've
been saving some money. I bought a house, which I'm happy with.
I'm just going to keep saving and keep working. Now's a good time
to save up some money and stuff.
Bankrate: Are you investing, like, stocks and
bonds and stuff?
Mitch Hedberg: I don't know what he does with
it. My guy in New York, I put all my trust in him. He's a great
guy. He's got some big-time people he works with, like Harrison
Ford and Eddie Murphy, so my income is in the low regions of his
work. I trust him.
Larry Getlen is a freelance journalist
and comedian in New York.
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