Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke hopes to show dying can be a laughing matter when he makes his debut as a stand-up comic at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The controversial suspended doctor will perform with British comedian Mel Moon, who was seriously ill when they met at an Exit International workshop.
Nitschke told AAP that Moon approached him about doing a show together after reading the last line of his recent biography, which ruminated that "there are worse things than dying laughing".
After taking time off from her work, Moon planned to return to the stage in 2015 including her scheduled one-month booking at the Edinburgh festival in August.
They have been exchanging scripts and ideas and Nitschke hopes to bring the show to Australia if it's successful.
"They tell me that week one of the festival is when the media will turn up and you'll either die on the stage or you don't, so to speak."
Nitschke says the show will be an interchange between Moon, as a young consumer of medical services, and his take on the whole issue of medicine and the profession's difficulty in dealing with people taking control.
He says he has plenty of material, referring to the "many amusing things" that have come out of his workshops with elderly people.
Speaking about the lethal drug Nembutal, he told a workshop that to his knowledge it had only been provided by one Australian vet to a dying person.
This led to his being approached by the elderly wife of a dying man who told Nitschke she'd once had an affair with a vet.
He says his audience had a big laugh when he revealed her conclusion that "he owes me some bloody big favours and I'm going to call it in".
But he also says they will be sensitive and careful not to go for shock value, instead aiming at getting the audience to think seriously about the issues while being entertained.
Nitschke plans to challenge the Northern Territory Health Professional Review Tribunal's recent decision upholding his suspension by the Medical Board of Australia.
In July it ruled he posed "a serious risk to the health and safety of the public" following the suicide of a Perth man who attended an Exit International workshop.
Nitschke is also facing another hearing relating to 12 counts of professional misconduct.
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