Adam Kay used to be a doctor. Now he’s a comedian who uses the stories from his time on the labour wards in the UK. He’s joining a bunch of funny people at Perth Comedy Festival in April and May.
By Ara Jansen
Comedian Adam Kay says he’ll talk about anything on stage that gets a reaction – whether it’s a laugh, a squirm or a vomit.
“A particular favourite story of mine is about a degloving injury,” he says. “Hearing a thousand people gasp at exactly the same time is something that will never stop being fun for me.”
The 43-year-old British writer and comic was a doctor between 2004-2010, who trained in obstetrics and gynaecology before quitting to write.
“I couldn’t think of anything else,” says Adam about why he ended up in comedy. “I left medicine suddenly, after a really bad day at work and realised I didn’t actually have any transferrable skills. The only thing that vaguely approached a monetisable ability was the fact that when I was at medical school, I used to take part in various comedy sketches, so I decided to give that a whirl.”
That really bad day that caused him to leave with symptoms of PTSD was after a patient’s caesarean section was complicated by an undiagnosed case of placenta praevia. The expectant mother was taken to intensive care and the baby was delivered stillborn.
Based on his book of the same name, his show This is Going to Hurt is about Adam’s time on the UK labour wards. The stories come from diary entries he kept. He says while most of it leans into the silly or the disgusting, the stories don’t shy away from the harsher realities of being a doctor.
He’s appearing at this year’s Perth Comedy Festival as part of a line-up of dozens of funny people including Felicity Ward, Melanie Bracewell, Nazeem Hussain, Peter Helliar, Stephen K. Amos and former fellow doctor Jason Leong.
“I love the direct connection with an audience, something I never get through writing books or TV shows. Although, I once sat through a seven-hour flight next to someone who was reading one of my books and spent the entire-time turning the pages, stony-faced. I decided not to introduce myself.”
Since leaving medicine, Adam has done a wide variety of creative work: writing medical textbooks, founding a musical comedy group which recorded a single, writing books for children and adults as well as writing for television.
“I keep myself interested in my job by making sure I chop and change. It’s a varied diet of TV writing, performing and writing books.
“The part I enjoy the most is the feedback – I’ve had hundreds of messages from doctors all round the world saying that my stories have resonated with them or have helped them realise they weren’t alone in struggling in their jobs. I’ve also had quite a few furious messages from parents saying that I’ve put their kids off studying medicine!”
While he’s all about the laughs on stage, Adam says he a different person in real life. His friends and family tend to find out quite major facts about him by reading his books because he finds it much easier to write things down than to actually talk to people.
“I get invited to lots of fancy parties by people who’ve seen me on stage and think I’m funny and then they’re disappointed in real life that I’m just a quiet man who stands in the corner checking his phone.”
He and television executive husband James Farrell are busy dads to Ziggy (10 months), Ruby (14 months) and a dog. When Adam does find some spare time, he likes playing the piano and watching terrible television.
One of his favourite medical quips is: “Here’s a diary entry I quite like from Christmas 2004: Full marks to the anaesthetist wearing a badge that says, ‘He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake’.”
Perth Comedy Festival runs from April 22 to May 19. See www.perthcomedyfestival.com for program and tickets.