Manjunath Naidu, 36, an Indian expat and a rising comedian, passed away from a reported cardiac arrest on Friday, 19 July while performing to a fully packed show at Clavichord, Signature Hotel, in Barsha.
Naidu was a member of Dubai based stand-up comedy group V Desi Laughs. The group was performing their stand-up act 'Racey Desis' in Barsha hotel and Majunath was the last performer of the night.
Sana Topiwala, PR Manager told Connector, "The show began at 9.30pm and Manjunath came on around 11.20pm and was the last performer of the night. I was sitting in the front row. Fifteen minutes into the show, Manjunath started to pant and sat down on the bench to catch the breath, in few minutes, he collapsed on the stage."According to Topiwala, as he was making everyone laugh so hard, everyone thought this was part of his act, however, after few minutes of no movement, hotel staff, the guests and fellow team members rushed on the stage to check the comedian and tried to perform CPR."
"We later followed him to Al Zahra Hospital Barsha, where the staff informed us that he died of cardiac arrest", she added.
Manjunath Naidu, lovingly known as Mango, was passionate about performing arts and was part of many stand-up comedy shows around town. Naidu is survived by a brother who lives in Bangalore, India.