Stand-up comedian Ian Cognito has died while on stage.
The comic was performing at the Lone Wolf Comedy Club in Bicester, Oxfordshire, on Thursday when he fell ill.
Speaking to the BBC, an audience member said Ian stopped mid-way through his performance but the crowd “thought Cognito was going to do something as part of the act, but after a while nothing happened”.
South Central Ambulance Service confirmed that Ian was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ian was known as one of the most outrageous and controversial comics on the stand-up scene, having never appeared on TV during his 30-year career.
For that reason, he would often declare himself the “undecorated hero of the British comedy frontline”, although he did win the Time Out Award for Stand-up Comedy in 1999.
Many comedians from the circuit were quick to pay tribute to Ian on social media, following the news of his death.
Former Celebrity Juice star Rufus Hound said comedy had “lost one of the greats”, while I’m A Celebrity star Shappi Khorsandi called him “one of the people who made this job brilliant from the very beginning”.