Comedian who died on stage ... as the audience kept on laughing
‘Provocative and entirely original’
A COMEDIAN died on stage during a gig minutes after joking about having a stroke, leaving the audience thinking it was part of his act.
Ian Cognito reportedly had a heart attack while performing and is said to have sat on a chair and ‘laid back for five minutes’ before anyone realised something was wrong.
Audience members unaware that he was seriously ill thought the long silence was part of his routine and continued to laugh, witnesses said.
Paramedics were called but the 60year-old comedian was pronounced dead at the scene, the Atic Bar in Bicester, Oxfordshire, where the Lone Wolf Comedy Club was being held on Thursday.
John Ostojak, 58, who was at the gig with some colleagues, said that Cognito, who was the third and final act of the evening in the intimate venue, had put on a ‘really funny and energetic performance’ before he collapsed.
‘He was a very energetic performer and had been coming out into the audience with a drink in his hand and had been using this chair as a prop throughout the gig,’ said the sales manager, from Oxfordshire.
‘He put his drink down, sat down quite normally and gently while still telling jokes and then he just leaned back. We all just thought it was part of the act and carried on laughing and applauding.
‘We thought he would suddenly just jump back up but then his arms fell by his sides and he just lay there for about five minutes. There were shouts from people in the audience like “give him a prod” and two girls behind me said they were off to the toilet because he was taking so long.
‘We didn’t realise he was unwell until the compere came out and shouted his name, then pulled him off his chair, and he and some others started performing CPR right there on the stage.
‘He hadn’t shown any signs of ill health before then, quite the opposite, and had even cracked a joke about being in a coma then waking up speaking Welsh just minutes before.
‘It really left us numb, to go from enjoying a comedy routine to seeing the poor man dying in front of us. I couldn’t remember his final joke. But he was a terrific performer; they say “leave them laughing” and he really did.’
Cognito’s death has haunting parallels with that of legendary comedian Tommy Cooper, who also fell fatally ill on-stage in front of an oblivious audience who continued to laugh and applaud.
Cooper collapsed during a broadcast of variety show Live From Her Majesty’s on ITV on April 15, 1984. The curtain was brought down and the programme cut to a commercial break.
Ian Cognito, whose real name was Paul Barbieri, was known for his unpredictable behaviour and once claimed that he had been banned from more comedy clubs than anyone else in the country. He never achieved mainstream success but he enjoyed cult status among comedy fans and was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, many of whom paid tribute to him last night.
Actor and comedian Rufus Hound said comedy had lost ‘one of the greats’, adding on social media: ‘ Ian Cognito has died. That might not mean much to you if your knowledge of stand-up only extends to a screen but for anyone who ever sat down in a comedy club and saw him on a stage – this is a hard one.’
Jimmy Carr tweeted: ‘ Veteran standup comedian Ian Cognito has died onstage – literally. The audience thought it was part of the act. Died with his boots on. That’s commitment to comedy. I’ll never forget his kindness when I started out and how goddam funny he was.’
Matt Lucas wrote that he was ‘in shock at the news’, and described Cognito as ‘brilliant and provocative and entirely original on stage’.
The London-born comedian, who latterly lived on a narrowboat in Bristol, would often begin his act by hammering a nail into the wall behind him then hanging his coat on it.
One of his favourite jokes was: ‘ How many comedians does it take to change a light bulb? Comedians have never changed anything.’