Alison Zeidman presents Ready to Die? A Comedy Show About Dead Parents & DIY End-of-Life Planning

The joke’s on you

The show, Zeidman says, is inspired by her experience in losing both of her parents and the absurdity that comes along with death. She was 26 when her father passed, at a young 55. “He’d been sick for a long time, but we didn’t really talk about death. It felt shocking how unprepared we were, emotionally, logistically—in a lot of ways.” Then, “My mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's not long after my dad died.” Zeidman had to think ahead about end-of-life care, and also how she should be putting all these things in place for herself. “And then repeatedly putting it off,” she laughed.

The universe had one more twist to offer. The show itself was postponed this past February, as Zeidman’s mother-in-law died unexpectedly around that time. “It [already] feels like the show does not need to go on when the show is about death—and then there’s a literal death.” But perhaps that’s telling that the show must go on.

Education or conversation around death and dying is scarce, despite the inevitable fate facing every single one of us. But Zeidman, with words threaded with levity, encouraged that “with some preparation, you can ensure that it sucks a little less for the people you're leaving behind. It’s like a little gift you give to the people in your life.” Funeral and burial costs can easily climb into tens of thousands. Debts and other finances fall onto the next of kin whether they’re ready or not. The show will hold space for a DIY end-of-life planning paperwork party, replacing legal documents with real talk to understand things like healthcare proxies, wills, and powers of attorney.

Laughing through the end

Comedy, for Zeidman, has been an inherent and intuitive avenue for processing and catharsis. “I’ve always had a dark sense of humor, and to crack a joke is a knee jerk response for me.” She added, “It was our dad’s sense of humor. I didn’t start writing explicitly dark comedy until my dad died.”

Zeidman is an Emmy-nominated and WGA award-winning comedy writer who got started right in here in Philly and up the turnpike in NYC. She’s written for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Archer (whose sharp, twisted comedy personally helped me process early stages of grief), and Adam Ruins Everything. She spoke of a moment on the set of Adam Ruins Everything where an actor rolled their eyes at the idea of another take (which Zeidman encouraged) on a comedic death scene. He said “who knows what death looks like anyway?”, and she noted that it took everything in her power to not curse him out. “I fucking do!”

“I hope that people learn something,” Zeidman concluded in the interview. “I hope that it’s cathartic for other people who have lost someone close to them.” Ready to Die? looks to demystify end-of-life planning and death and dying, treating them with jokes and an approachable workshop. Do your best to stay alive until then.

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