Mitch passed away on May 28, 2008 due to complications with his Diabetes. It was sudden and quite a shock to all that knew him. At the bottom of this blog, you’ll see that I’ve listed all of the major projects he’s worked on/been on, But before that, I want to tell you just one short story that, to me, defines who Mitch was as a person. Here goes…
About 10 years ago, I knew Mitch mostly though the LA clubs and we always got along and talked boxing. We didn’t hang much at that time but we were cool with each other. Mitch went through phases of either loving stand up or hating it - this was one of his "hating it times. He asked me how I was doing. I told him that it was kind of a rough time…haven’t booked a lot of shows and I was struggling a bit - the usual for any comic new to LA. No big deal….
Well, within 24 hours, Mitch had called his agent and booked a week in Vegas just so he could bring me to open for him. Remember, Mitch was in his phase of hating stand up at the time. I reminded him of this and he said, "It doesn’t matter, man. If we go together, I know we’ll have fun. The gig finally came up 3 weeks later and I couldn’t have been in more need of money. Mitch picked me up in his truck and we took off for Vegas. Mitch paid for every single thing under the sun; he wouldn’t allow me to even offer pitching in. He took care of gas, meals, drinks, tipping…everything. Mitch even paid me extra, under the table, to do more time on stage so he could do less at the end. We had a great time, too - we laughed, it seemed, the whole week. Mitch made me enough dough to pay my rent for 3 months. He saved me. We had been friends ever since.
Mitch and I exchanged a few e-mails just weeks before God took him away. He had written a book (Stranded at Almost, available at Amazon) and asked me if I’d give him a hand getting the word out.
To me, he’ll always be not only one of the funniest comedians, but one of the kindest people I’ve ever met in this town or anywhere else.
Thank you, Mitch. Thank you for being a friend when it counted the most. I’ll miss you.
Mitch Mullany’s career highlights:
The Wayans Brothers (’95-’96) as White Mike
Nick Freno - Licensed Teacher (’96) as Nick Freno
The Breaks (’99) as Derrick King
The Sweetest Thing (’02) as Craig
All American Girl (’03) as Host
Tonight Show with Jay Leno (’04) as Himself
If you are a comedian, you know of Mitch Mullany. If you are laymen, like most, you may or may not recognize him. If you have never seen him perform, all I can say is you haven’t laughed as much as you should have in your life. There was no, and I mean no comic, that killed like Mitch Mullany.
