Less than two months after a heart attack almost cost him his life, comedian and director Kevin Smith is calling the near-death experience "the best thing that ever happened to me."
Smith, the director behind cult-classic films such as "Clerks" and "Mallrats," told the "Today" show on Monday that he has been steadily recovering since having a "widow-maker" heart attack during a comedy special in February.
"Honestly, the heart attack was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Smith, who later noted that he was a "wake-and-baker" (a term for people smoke marijuana shortly after waking up) and felt great despite being awake since 5 a.m.
"It makes sense because I had 100 percent blockage in the LAD [left anterior descending], the big artery, the widow-maker," said Smith in his first television interview since the potentially deadly coronary.
"It didn't feel like I was having a heart attack. [I] didn't recognize it was happening. But as they went inside me, opened up that vein, suddenly I breathed and felt a world better," Smith went on to say.
In the days after the heart attack, Smith was advised by his general practitioner to lose 50 pounds and lower his cholesterol by following a plant-based diet. He says he has since lost 32 pounds and plans to lose more weight in the near future. He credits a potato-based diet touted in magician Penn Jillette's book "Presto!" for the weight loss.