Posted on 04/12/2019 3:41:43 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – "Imagine if I died in front of you lot here," veteran comic Ian Cognito told the crowd during a set Thursday in the English town of Bicester. A few minutes later, the 60-year-old did, in fact, die in front of the crowd, reports the BBC. For a few minutes, everybody thought it was part of the act and laughed along when Cognito sat down on a stool and went silent. After all, he had just joked about what it would be like to have a stroke and wake up speaking Welsh. But eventually, the emcee at the Atic bar went onstage and realized something was seriously wrong.
"Everyone in the crowd, me included, thought he was joking," said the emcee, Andrew Bird. He said Cognito had not been feeling well but decided to go on anyway. "He was like his old self, his voice was loud," said Bird. "I was thinking, 'He's having such a good gig.'" A paramedic who happened to be in the audience began performing CPR, but Cognito was pronounced dead at the scene when an ambulance arrived, reports CNN. "Died with his boots on," tweeted fellow comic Jimmy Carr, adding, "I'll never forget his kindness when I started out."
Then there was the Dick Cavett show.
(No actual media...)
Only if you get the punchline out before you go.
I know for sure that it happened to Dick Shawn. He was pretending to fake a heart attack, had a real one, fell to the stage and got a big 2 min laugh....until they saw he wasn’t moving.
Wasn’t there a famous comedian in the US that did that? Died on stage during his monologue?
Tiny Tim actuall died like that. Hart.
When comedian Pinky Lee had a heart attack onstage in 1955, no one came to his aid because everyone thought that his contortions and pleas for help were part of his act. However, he survived and lived nearly four decades longer.
I recall the kid’s show on local TV in Southern California that he hosted beginning in 1962.
IIRC Eric Morecombe died on stage - or perhaps in the wings.
RIP.
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