2024
THE SHOW WON’T GO ON: THE MOST SHOCKING, BIZARRE, AND HISTORIC DEATHS OF PERFORMERS ONSTAGE goes where no other has gone before; a highly-entertaining and thought-provoking work.
12 OCTOBER 2024: ASOKAN MUNIYANDY AKA “SINGAPORE SIVAJI” for his impersonations of Tamil screen legend Sivaji Ganesan, collapsed in Singapore during a Sivaji lip-synching show. He was sixty.
16 MAY 2024: Rapper and social media personality RYLO HUNCHO accidentally shot himself in the head while livestreaming on Instagram from his home in Suffolk, Virginia. He was seventeen.
22 JANUARY 2024: HARISH MEHTA was portraying Lord Hanuman in a Ramlila in Bhiwani, India, and was in the middle of a dance, when he dropped from a heart attack. He was sixty-three.
2023
21 DECEMBER 2023: A man dressed as Grandfather Frost - the Russian Santa Claus - fell 24 stories while attempting to scale down an apartment building to meet and greet children waiting by a Christmas tree.
28 NOVEMBER 2023: Malaysian singer, actress, and member of the M-Girls pop group QUEENZY CHENG was shooting a YouTube video when she began vomiting gastric acid. She was thirty-seven.
22 SEPTEMBER 2023: Argentine baritone ALEJANDRO MEERAPFEL suffered a heart attack while performing the oratorio “Dono della Vita Eterna” at the Ambronay Festival in France. He was fifty-four.
2024
THE SHOW WON’T GO ON audiobook, narrated by Michael Butler Murray, adds a new dimension to the extraordinary stories from all walks of entertainment and performers of all ages.
30 AUGUST 2024: Rapper FATMAN SCOOP urged the crowd to “make some noise” before dropping the mic and collapsing before a crowd at Town Center Park in Hamden. Connecticut. He was fifty-three.
12 MAY 2024: Popular TikToker NESAKU was smoking a cigarette and livestreaming outside his home in a slum of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when he was shot four times by “hitmen,” reportedly “settling a score.”
18 JANUARY 2024: In a grand entrance to a company party in Hyderabad, India, Illinois tech CEO SANJAY SHAH was descending to the stage in an iron cage— when the cable snapped. He was fifty-six.
2023
14 DECEMBER 2023: In a live-streamed parliament speech, Turkish politician HASAN BITMETZ said Israel “will not escape the wrath of Allah”; adding “I salute you all,” before his head hit the floor. He was fifty-four.
19 NOVEMBER 2023: Actress POLINA MENSHIKH was performing at a concert for Russian soldiers in the Moscow-occupied Donetesk region of Ukraine when a Ukrainian missile struck. She was forty.
19 SEPTEMBER 2023: Temple University acting president JOANNE A. EPPS slumped in her chair onstage during a memorial service at the school in Philadelphia. She was seventy-two.
2024
24 NOVEMBER 2024: Actor JULIEN ARNOLD collapsed while playing Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Canada. Arnold, who also played Marley in the show, was sixty.
14 JULY 2024: Chinese extreme eater PAN XIAOTING was hosting a “mukbang” livestream session, eating large quantities of food while interacting with the audience. She was twenty-four.’
12 APRIL 2024: A singer at a 90th birthday party at a retirement home in Chongqing, China, had sung two numbers when she tripped over her dress, fell and bashed her head on the stage. She was thirty-one.
13 JANUARY 2024: Grammy-winning Cajun and country music star JO-EL SONNIER suffered a heart attack after his encore at the Llano Country Opry in Llano, Texas. He was seventy-seven.
2023
13 DECEMBER 2023: Brazilian gospel singer PEDRO HENRIQUE was urging the crowd to sing along when he collapsed during a live-streamed performance in Feira de Santana, Bahia. He was thirty.
5 NOVEMBER 2023: Filipino radio journalist JUAN JUMALON, aka DJ JOHNNY WALKER, was shot in the face by a man who entered the booth during a live radio and Facebook broadcast. He was fifty-seven.
6 AUGUST 2023: Kathakali dancer RAGHUNATH MAHIPAL collapsed while performing at the Maruthorvattom Dhanwantari Temple in Alappuzha, southern India. He was twenty-five.
2024
13 OCTOBER 2024: British daredevil and social media influencer LEWIS STEVENSON fell 630 feet from the Castila-LaMancha bridge in Spain while filming his climb for social media. He was twenty-six.
13 JULY 2024: Brazilian rocker AYERS SASAKI was playing a hotel in Silanipolis when a soaking wet fan jumped onstage and hugged him, causing a cable to deliver an eletrical charge. He was thirty-five.
28 JANUARY 2024: At the Pantnagar Poetry Festival in India, SUBHASH CHATURVEDI recited, “There is a time limit...The stage is a punishment, I will not miss the opportunity,” stuttered and dropped. He was sixty-eight.
12 JANUARY 2024: Agriculture expert DR. ANI S DAS collapasd from an apparent heart attack on live television during a discussion on the Krishi Darshan show in Karala, India. He was fifty-nine.
2023
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2 NOVEMBER 2023: Dutch actor BEN RAMAKER had finished filming most of his scenes when he was stricken on the set of Elixir, an eight-episode television series about Big Pharma. He was sixty-nine.
18 JUNE 2023: Pioneering Houston rapper BIG POKEY, microphone in hand, collapsed during an appearance at the Pour 09 Bar in Beaumont, Texas. Born Milton Powell, he was forty-five.
9 JUNE 2023: Guru SRI GANESAN collapsed while lighting a lamp onstage after a dance performance but before receiving an award at a festival in Bhubaneswar, India. He was about sixty.
26 MAY 2023: JUAN CARLOS FORMELL, bassist for the Cuban orchestra Los Van Van, collapsed from a heart attack while performing at the Lehman Center in New York City. He was fifty-nine.
10 MAY 2023: DILIP RAUTKA was performing a very vigorous dance onstage at a wedding in Chhattisgarh, India, when he sat down, smiled at the crowd, touched his mouth and fell back.
15 APRIL 2023: Acrobat SUN MOUMOU lost her grip and fell thirty feet to a hard stage during an aerial performance with her husband in Hougao, China. She’d refused to wear a safety line. Sun was thirty-seven.
11 MARCH 2023: South African rapper COSTA TITCH collapsed onstage at the Ultra Music Festival at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg. He got up, finished the song; fell again. He was twenty-eight.
2022
7 AUGUST 2022: RYAN FELLOWS, star of the Discovery television series, Street Outlaws: Fastest In America, lost control of his car while racing for the series outside Las Vegas. He was forty-one.
2 OCTOBER 2022: After singing at a Durga Puja celebration in Odisha, India, popular singer MURALI MOHAPATRA sat on a chair and was listening to other singers when he collapsed onstage. He was fifty-nine.
15 OCTOBER 2022: Haitian singer MICHAEL BENJAMIN, better known as MIKABEN, was performing in Paris with the konpa band CaRiMi when he collapsed from an apparent heart attack.. He was forty-one.
15 APRIL 2022: SUEL AMBROSE, a seminarian at Claratian University of Nigeria in Nekede, collapsed while playing St. Peter in an Easter Passion Play on Good Friday. He was twenty-five.
2021
22 FEBRUARY 2023: Singer ABDUL KABEER, a member of the All Kerala Wheelchair RIghts Federation, collapsed on his three-wheel scooter during a show in Kodungallur, India. He was forty-two.
4 JUNE 2022: Playback singer EDAVA BASHEER was onstage in Kerala, India, when he collapsed, dramatically, after singing the Hindi song, ‘Mano ho thum.’ He was seventy-eight.
SEPTEMBER 2022: GANESH GUPTA was dancing as the goddess Ma Parvati during a Ganesh Puja wedding ceremiony in Kothe Sainiya, India, when he suffered a heart attack and collapsed. He was twenty.
2 OCTOBER 2022: ANDRÉS PANCHO, singer for the Antihéroes Rock Band, suffered a heart attack on stage while performing at a private event at the Velá de San Miguel in Seville, Spain. He was fifty.
15 OCTOBER 2022: Spanish magician ARSENIO PURO collapsed during a show at the Houdini Room in Madrid, where he’d performed every week for the past for twenty-five years. He was forty-six..
5 FEBRUARY 2023: Magician SCOTT ALEXANDER suffered a stroke while performing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Known for his appearances on America’s Got Talent and Penn and Teller: Fool Us, he was fifty-two.
14 JUNE 2022: Harmonica player and singer MARK INFANTE was performing at the Petroleum Club in Bakersfield, California, when he smiled and fell backwards from his stool. He was sixty-nine.
12 SEPTEMBER 2022: Drag artist VALENCIA PRIME, “Philadelphia’s plus-size dancing diva,” collapsed during a performance at the Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar. The transgender woman was twenty-five.
2 OCTOBER 2022: The artist PATIRAM was in the role of Ravan during Durga Puja festivities in Uttar Pradesh, India when he complained of chest pains, clutched his chest and collapsed. He was sixty.
24 OCTOBER 2022: British radio presenter TIM GOUGH was about an hour into the breakfast show on GenX Radio when the song he was playing stopped midway through. He was fifty-five.
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22 JULY 2022: Austrian conductor STEFAN SOLTESZ collapsed at his podium while conducting the Richard Strauss opera “The Silent Woman” at the Bayerische Staatsopera in Munich. He was seventy-three.
1 OCTOBER 2022: RAM SWAROOP was playing the role of Hanuman in a Ramlila in Salempur village in Uttar Pradesh, India when, soon after his tail was set on fire, he suffered a heart attack. He was fifty.
14 OCTOBER 2022: High school senior DANIEL MOSHI passed out while singing a solo at the All State Honors Show Choir at Naperville North High School in Illinois.. He was seventeen.
4 NOVEMBER 2022: ERIC COUGRAND, drummer for the French blues band Smashing Burritos, collapsed at his kit after perfoming a solo at the Café de la Terrasse in Marseillette. He was fifty-eight.
20 DECEMBER 2021: QUINCY DAVIS, Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s popular DJ THRILLER, was on the second deck of a float in a Christmas parade when he hit his head on a tree and fell. He was thirty-six.
23 DECEMBER 2022: GURUVAPPA BAYARU collapsed while performing the role of Shishupala in the Trijanma Moksha Prasanga of Kateel Sri Durga Parameshwari Mela in Kateel, India. He was fifty-eight.
21 NOVEMBER 2021: Milwaukee Dancing Grannies VIRGINIA SORENSON, 79, LeANNA OWEN, 71 & TAMARA DURAND, 52, were struck by an SUV that tore through a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
5 NOVEMBER 2021: RAMAZAN GUNAY, one of the most popular names in Rumelia music, had a heart attack onstage in Zeytinburnu, Turkey, during a duet of the song “Oh Doctor.” He was seventy-one.
14 OCTOBER 2021: Actor RAJENDRA SINGH suffered a heart attack onstage in Hasanpur, India, while playing Lord Ram’s father, King Dashrath, in a Ramlila. He was sixty-two.
9 OCTOBER 2021: Bolshoi Theatre mime performer YEVGENY KULESH, was crushed by falling decor during a scenery change in the Rimsky-Korsakov opera, Sadko. He was thirty-seven.
30 JULY 2021: Actor and former soap opera star JAY PICKETT was sitting atop a horse on the set of the movie Treasure Valley in Idaho, ready to shoot a scene in which he ropes a steer. He was sixty.
20 JULY 2021: XIAO QIUMEI, a crane operator and social media influencer, was live-streaming from a crane cabin in Quzho, China, when she fell 160 feet with camera in her hand. She was twenty-three.
18 JULY 2021: Slovak comedian and author MILAN LASICA, performing with Bratislava Hot Serenaders in Bratislava, sang I Am an Optimist, bowed and slid down the stage. He was eighty-one.
8 JULY 2021: ZERAIL DIJON RIVERA, the rapper known as INDIAN RED BOY, was in his car in Hawthorne, California, talking on Instagram Live when he was shot on camera. He was twenty-one.
5 JULY 2021: RANDY CHANDLER was playing guitar with the Les Masters Band when he collapsed after the third song during a Battle of the Bands in Louisville, Kentucky. He was fifty-one.
2020
18 JANUARY 2020: Singer-songwriter DAVID OLNEY, onstage with Amy Rigby and Scott Miller at the 30A Songwriter Festival in South Walton, Florida, stopped in the middle of his third song, apologized, and closed his eyes. He was seventy-one.
5 SEPTEMBER 2020: Taiwanese folk music star YEN YUNG-NENG, lead singer of the band Takao Run, waved to the crowd and then collapsed face-first onto the stage during a performance at Daxian Temple in Wandan Township. He was fifty.
23 JANUARY 2020: Popular Dancehall dancer ROXANNE “BUMPA” EVANS broke her neck when another dancer fell on her head during a risky, acrobatic routine at a competition in Lucea, Jamaica. She was twenty-seven.
24 SEPTEMBER 2020: Indian actor ROCKLINE SUDHAKAR, famous for playing comic, villain and father roles, collapsed from cardiac arrest on the set of the Kannada film, Sugarless. Recently recovered from COVID-19, he was sixty-five.
22 FEBRUARY 2020: Daredevil and flat earth conspiracy theorist “MAD MIKE” HUGHES crashed his steam-powered rocket in Barstow, California, while filming a segment for the Science Channel series, Homemade Astronauts. He was sixty-four.
2 OCTOBER 2020: ARELEINE MARTINEZ of Chihuahua, Mexico was accidentally shot in the head while filming a “behind the scenes” TikTok video in which she and ten friends staged her kidnapping. She was twenty.
MID-MAY 2020: Uraguayan trapeze artist GUADALUPE VIDELA, trapped for weeks with Il Circo Italiano in Beasain, Spain because of the coronavirus crisis, fell five feet and smashed her skull during a rehearsal. She was twenty-nine.
2 DECEMBER 2020: VALENTINA 'VALYA' GRIGORYEVA was forced onto an outdoor balcony in subzero temperature as a stunt during her YouTuber boyfriend’s livestream show in Ivanovka, Russia. She was pregnant and twenty-eight.
2019
25 JANUARY 2019: DOUG “DJ” JAMES, drummer for the Rockin’ Hollywoods, slumped over his drum kit, drumsticks clutched in hands, before the band’s third set at Mancini’s Char House in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was sixty-five.
6 APRIL 2019: YU ZHAO GU, first violinist for the Symphony of Southeast Texas, died of a heart attack onstage at the Julie Rogers Theatre in Beaumont. His violinist wife was at his side when he collapsed. He was sixty.
11 APRIL 2019: Standup comedian IAN COGNITO sat down and died onstage at the Atic Bar's Lone Wolf Comedy Club in Bicester, England, shortly after joking about having a stroke "and waking up speaking Welsh.” He was sixty.
27 APRIL 2019: Runway model TALES SOARES made a swift turn on the catwalk, appeared to trip over his shoelaces and fell flat on his face during a Fashion Week show in Sao Paolo, Brasil. He was pronounced dead at twenty-six.
5 MAY 2019: ELMER HOPPER, a former lead singer for The Platters (1974-1995), was pronounced dead hours after collapsing onstage at the Cicada Club in Los Angeles. He had just sung ’Twilight Time.’ Hopper was seventy-six.
16 JUNE 2019: Indian magician CHANCHAL LAHIRI, aka JADUGAR MANDRAKE (The Wizard Mandrake), was lost in an escape attempt after being lowered by crane into the Hooghly River, bound in rope and steel chains. He was forty.
7 AUGUST 2019: Daredevil BASE jumper RUBEN CARBONELL was recording for his YouTube channel at one a.m.when he threw himself off a 150-foot chimney in Alicante, Spain. His parachute did not open. He was twenty-nine.
3 SEPTEMBER 2019: Popular Indian singer and composer JERRY BAJJODI suffered a heart attack while performing at a Ganeshotsava celebration in Bejai. Video of his fall from the stage quickly went viral. He was fifty-one.
12 OCTOBER 2019: GERRY McGEE, former lead guitarist for The Ventures, died after falling into a coma following a heart attack onstage while on a solo tour of Japan. He was eighty-one.
31 DECEMBER 2019: Brazilian country music star and Latin Grammy nominee JULIANO CEZAR died after collapsing onstage of a heart attack, midsong, in the city of Uniflor. He was fifty-eight.
NOT PERFORMERS, BUT THEY DIED ONSTAGE…
14 JANUARY 2019: PAWEL ADAMOWICZ, mayor of Gdansk, Poland, was stabbed to death by a mentally disturbed man during the finale of a children’s hospital charity event. He was fifty-three.
4 FEBRUARY 2020: JEREMIAH DICKEY was in a parked car in Brooklyn, NY, on Facebook Live, rapping along to 30 by Blizzy Banks, when he was shot in the head. He was nineteen.
12 NOVEMBER 2020: Broadway stagehand PETE WRIGHT was doing restore work in Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre when he fell from a raised platform to the stage. He was fifty-four.
17 OCTOBER 2021: MADELYN “MADIE” NICPON, a student-athlete at Tufts University in Massachusetts, choked while participating in a charity hot dog eating contest. She was twenty.
11 MAY 2019: Actor & professional wrestler CESAR BARRON, aka SILVER KING, suffered a heart attack and died in the ring during The Greatest Show of Lucha Libre at the Camden Roundhouse in London. He was fifty-one.
13 JULY 2019: Popular DJ ALF NGUYEN suffered cardiac arrest while performing at the Tokyo Sing Song Club in Sydney, Australia. An autopsy revealed he was in advanced stages of ischemic heart disease. He was forty-two.
23 AUGUST 2019: MASON SWEARINGEN, singer and bassist of Chicago tribute band Beginnings, suffered a fatal heart attack onstage during a concert at Newbridge Road Park in Bellmore, L.I., N.Y. He was fifty-one.
4 SEPTEMBER 2019: “Groove is everything” were the last words of Grammy-winning guitarist DAN WARNER before a heart attack at the bar of Fat Cat’s in Fort Lauderdale, moments after playing a set. He was forty-nine.
23 NOVEMBER 2019: Juno Award-winning musician GERRY ATWELL died after collapsing from a heart attack at his keyboard, onstage with Hit Boss at the Pony Corral in Winnipeg, Canada. He was sixty.
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17 NOVEMBER 2019: CHEN PEIWEN, chairman of a health company, collapsed from a heart attack in Zhangzhou, China, while giving a speech on longevity. He was sixty-five.
30 AUGUST 2020: REV. FATHER JUDE, spiritual director of the Catholic Men Association in Douala, Cameroon, was wearing a coronavirus mask and preaching a homily when he fell back from the pulpit of his church.
19 NOVEMBER 2020: MICHAEL PAREDES, a contestant on the TBS game show Wipeout, the day after he collapsed on set and suffered cardiac arrest after completing an obstacle course challenge. He was thirty-eight.
20 MAY 2019: New Jersey rocker BOB CAMPANELL (formerly of Jersey shore favorites, The Shakes) was stricken onstage at JD’s Pub in Galloway, New Jersey while playing a benefit show for his pal Ernie Trionfo. He was sixty-seven.
19 JULY 2019: Standup comedian MANJUNATH NAIDU had a heart attack onstage at the Signature Hotel in Al Barsha, Dubai. He’d been talking about his anxiety; the audience thought he was acting out a scene. He was thirty-six.
24 AUGUST 2019: TIM CURRIE, drummer and leader of Tim Currie’s Motown Review Band, had a heart attack while performing on the Green in Norwalk, Connecticut. He also led 60s tribute group, Tumblin’ Dice Band. He was sixty-six.
12 SEPTEMBER 2019: South African singing star THAMI SHOBEDE, a runner-up on the reality series Idols SA, died in a Pretoria hospital after collapsing onstage days earlier. He was thirty-one and had survived a road rage shooting in 2017.
27 NOVEMBER 2019: Actor and model GODFREY GAO suffered a heart attack while competing on the Chinese sports reality show Chase On. His last words were, “I can’t carry on!” He was thirty-five.
19 NOVEMBER 2019: DR. FRITZ von WEIZSACKER, son of a former German president, was delivering a medical lecture when a man jumped onstage and stabbed him in the neck. He was fifty-nine.
2 SEPTEMBER 2020: PAOLA DE SIMONE, world history professor at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aires, collapsed during a Zoom lecture. She’d had COVID-19 symptoms. She was forty-six.
5 FEBRUARY 2021: TIMOTHY WILKS was wielding a butcher knife in a parking lot in Nashville, filming a robbery “prank” for a YouTube channel, when a man shot him. He was twenty.
26 MAY 2019: P. VISHNUPRASAD of Kerala, India, collapsed onstage on the eve of his daughter’s wedding, while performing 'Raakili Ponmagale' - sung by a father for his daughter in the hit Malayalam film ‘Amaram.’ He was fifty-five.
20 JULY 2019: Chinese video blogger SUN collapsed and died in his flat during a live-stream session in which he ate live poisonous geckos and centipedes. He used a spinning wheel to determine what he ate. He was thirty-five.
1 SEPTEMBER 2019: JOANA SAINZ GARCIA, singer and dancer with Orquesta Super Hollywood, was onstage in Las Berlanas, Spain when a pyrotechnic rocket hit her in the abdomen and exploded. She was thirty.
17 SEPTEMBER 2019: Actor KUNDAN LAL died shortly after his character Dasharatha’s death scene in a Ramleela play in Juhnjuhnu, India. His brother died in a similar fashion, in the same role, several years earlier. Lal was sixty-five.
29 DECEMBER 2019: Brazilian singer-songwriter and pop star ANDREIA RIBEIRO suddenly became ill and collapsed onstage during a concert and in Jose de Freitas in the state of Piauí. She was twenty-four.