British stand-up comedian Ian Cognito died on stage while performing a show in Bicester, southern England on Thursday.
According to reports, the 60-year-old comedian said he wasn’t feeling good before going on stage, but insisted on performing. During the performance, the comic sat down on a stool while breathing heavily, before falling silent for five minutes, the show’s host Andrew Bird reportedly said, while talking to a leading media organisation.
He added that the crowd had thought it was a joke, and continued to laugh, unaware something was wrong. Soon, two off-duty A&E nurses and a police officer tried chest compressions and an ambulance was called. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
About a few minutes before he passed away, Cognito also reportedly joked about ‘dying in front of the crowd’. He was based in Bristol, and also won the Time Out Award for stand-up comedy in 1999.