Carey Marx: Intensive Carey

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The news that Carey Marx had suffered a heart attack last May stunned the comedy world. Intensive Carey tells the story of what happened. It's not pretty and it may make you consider private healthcare. Marx is pretty sanguine about his experience, as any good comic would want to be, but his casual air nearly cost him his life at the time.

Already capable of adopting a smilingly bleak world view for his comedy, he found this experience gave him more material than he ever could have wanted: the medical treatment that involved drugs apparently more dangerous than the attack itself; sharing a ward with unhinged and close-to-death patients; and some bedside manner that left much to be desired. It's true that some of the details can leave one queasy, but, though shocking, there's inherent comedy in, for example, being mistaken for a drunk because of the side effects of his pills, and the trial of morphine-assisted ablutions.

Marx makes this difficult time sound more comfortable than it would seem the hospital made him, but the constant threat of a relapse gives the story even more peril, were it needed. The support he receives from the comedy community provides its own ending, one that avoids mawkishness and one that doesn't provide for some kind of Damascene change in Marx's world view. Happily it's not just the experience and endeavour to come back from it that merit acclaim here. Comedy at its best should be a learning experience, and this walk around the mortal coil gives due cause for reflection and relief.