UK stand-up comedian Ian Cognito dies onstage during show, prompting eulogies from Jimmy Carr and Matt Lucas
- The 60-year-old, real name Paul Barbieri, had joked about having a stroke before sitting down onstage and dying
- Jimmy Carr called his death ‘commitment to comedy’ and recalled how Cognito’s ‘kindness’ in helping him when he started out as a stand-up
British stand-up comedian Ian Cognito has died on stage in the middle of a gig – mere moments after joking that he might have a stroke.
South Central Ambulance Service said doctors were called to a club in Bicester, in southern England, on Thursday night, and “sadly one patient passed away at the scene.” Police said the death was not suspicious.
Show organiser Andrew Bird, who runs Lone Wolf Comedy Club, told the BBC that shortly before his death, Cognito had joked: “Imagine if I died in front of you lot here.”
So when the 60-year-old Cognito sat down and fell silent during his session, Bird said, “everyone in the crowd, me included, thought he was joking. Even when I walked on stage and touched his arm I was expecting him to say ‘Boo’.”
“He was like his old self. His voice was loud,” Bird recalled. “I was thinking, ‘He’s having such a good gig.’”
He added that dying on stage would be how the comedian “would have wanted to go", “except he’d want more money and a bigger venue”.
It’s how he would have wanted to go, except he’d want more money and a bigger venue
Cognito, whose real name was Paul Barbieri, never achieved wide fame but was highly respected among fellow comedians.
Entertainer Jimmy Carr praised Cognito’s kindness toward him when he was starting out in the business, tweeting that he “Died with his boots on. That’s commitment to comedy. I’ll never forget his kindness when I started out & how god damn funny he was.”
Little Britain and Doctor Who 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.”
Jack Whitehall, star of Travels With My Father, tweeted: “Gigged with him when i first started out and he was always so much fun, had his own mythology on the circuit his exploits where legendary.
“A true maverick. Hope he’s found somewhere to hang his coat in heaven.”
And comedian and social commentator Mark Steele wrote: “Oh bless that Ian Cognito, who expired in his natural home last night, on stage. He was a difficult awkward hilarious troubled brilliant sort; a proper comic.”
