George Lopez had a scary New Year’s Eve when he fell ill during the middle of his set in his comedy show. The comedian, 60, walked off the stage during his show Friday afternoon at Muckleshoot Casino Resort in Auburn, Washington, where an ambulance arrived shortly after, TMZ reports. It’s unclear what kind of treatment Lopez received or if he was transported to a hospital.
TMZ reports that Lopez began sweating and asking for water around 30 to 45 minutes into his set. In a video clip published by the outlet, he appeared to be in distress as he apologized to the audience. “You could tell something was wrong, but it was not clear what was wrong,” Sabrina Alvarez, who was in attendance at the show, told the outlet.
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The casino canceled his second show of the day for later that evening and rescheduled it for March 18. “It is with sincere apologies that we must announce the cancellation of tonight’s 8 pm performance by George Lopez,” the casino announced on Twitter. Lopez has been quiet on social media since the incident, tweeting a simple “thank you” to Alaska Airlines on Saturday.
In 2005, Lopez underwent a successful kidney transplant due to a genetic condition that caused his kidneys to deteriorate. His then-wife, Ann Serrano Lopez, with whom he shares 25-year-old daughter Mayan, served as his kidney donor. The health scare inspired an episode of his ABC sitcom George Lopez in which his character’s son Max is diagnosed with a similar illness that requires emergency surgery after he kept wetting the bed.
It has been an eventful few weeks for Lopez, who was performing in San Antonio, Texas in early December when someone at the theater experienced medical distress. A mid-age man sitting in the upper balcony level of the Majestic Theatre fell unconscious and others in the crowd sought help. Once they were able to alert the staff to the situation, the man was carried out of the venue and taken away by ambulance. The San Antonio Fire Department later confirmed that the man regained consciousness and that he was in “stable” condition after seeking treatment.
Lopez was criticized by some people for not stopping his show. As the house lights were eventually turned on amid the chaos, Lopez reportedly incorporated the situation into his jokes. He did stress, after a member of the audience yelled out to him, that he didn’t know what was going on and that he couldn’t see the commotion that was taking place in the upper level.
