Updated
British stand-up comedian Ian Cognito has died onstage during a gig, only minutes after joking about having a stroke.
Key points:
- Mr Cognito had joked before his death saying: “Imagine if I died in front of you lot here.”
- One audience member said they left feeling sick, after the crowd assumed it was part of the show and kept laughing
- Fellow comedians took to twitter to send their condolences
The 60-year-old sat down on a stool while breathing heavily in the middle of his set, before dying.
South Central Ambulance Service said medics were called to a club in southern England but “sadly one patient passed away at the scene”.
Show organiser Andrew Bird told the BBC the crowd at the Atic bar in Bicester had thought it was a joke, and continued to laugh.
When Cognito sat down and fell silent, “everyone in the crowd, me included, thought he was joking”, he said.
“He was like his old self, his voice was loud. I was thinking, ‘He’s having such a good gig’.”
Mr Bird said Cognito had even joked about his health during his set, telling the audience: “Imagine if I died in front of you lot here.”
Audience member John Ostojak told the BBC: “Only 10 minutes before he sat down he joked about having a stroke.”
“He said, ‘Imagine having a stroke and waking up speaking Welsh’.
“We came out feeling really sick, we just sat there for five minutes watching him, laughing at him.”
Cognito, whose real name was Paul Barbieri, never achieved wide fame but was highly respected among fellow comedians.
Entertainer Jimmy Carr tweeted of Cognito’s onstage death: “That’s commitment to comedy.”
Little Britain star Matt Lucas tweeted: “He was always kind to me when I started out, and brilliant and provocative and entirely original onstage. What a loss.”
Cognito was based in Bristol and won the Time Out Award for stand-up comedy in 1999.
Police said the death was not suspicious.
AP
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