I met him once and got a chance to have lunch with him. Great guy. Very funny. The report sounds a bit fishy to me. His GF was making breakfast and he goes in to shower and shoots himself in the face?
This is from his website: A statement from his family
The truth is: earlier this year Richard Jeni was diagnosed with severe clinical depression coupled with bouts of psychotic paranoia. One only needs to have a family member or friend with a mental illness to understand that there is nothing rational, predictable, or fair about these diseases. Mental illness is as serious as any physical affliction and can be just as devastating.
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After a while, most standups start to hate doing stand up.
My guess is that he didn't want to be stand up anymore, but needed to do it to pay the bills. He finally said fvck this, and ended it all.