Footage posted online

The moment American comedian Gallagher collapsed on stage last night was captured on camera.

An audience member was filming the show on his mobile phone when the 64-year-old comic fell to the ground after his trademark routine of smashing a watermelon with a mallet.

The footage has now been passed to celebrity website TMZ.com, which has posted it online here.

At the show in Rochester, Minnesota, Gallagher fell backwards, shaking and clutching his chest. Club owner Todd Powers told the local paper that Gallagher had complained of pain in his left arm and shortness of breath earlier in the evening.

Doctors in the audience at the Whiskey Bones Roadhouse attended to him until paramedics arrived. Witnesses say the prop comic was responsive when emergency crews took him out of the club.

Gallagher was one of the biggest American comedians of the 1980s, with an unmatched 16 TV specials to his name.

Published: 11 Mar 2011