He passed out at his Blackburn home in January after inhaling the nitrous oxide from a canister, the inquest into his death was told.

The 42-year-old’s body was found by his family, who broke into his home after becoming worried they had not seen him several days.

Giving a verdict of death by misadventure, coroner Michael Singleton said the death must have been ‘terribly shocking’ to his relatives.

He said: ‘The injury causing death was asphyxia, due to nitrous oxide toxicity. There is no evidence that he intended to bring about his own demise.

‘The most likely explanation is that it was autoeroticism that had gone wrong and during the cause of that he had lost consciousness due to the nitrous oxide, which killed him.’

Cassidy, a divorcee whose real first name was Mark, had been watching ‘adult material’ on a laptop and was found surrounded by cans of nitrous oxide, which users take because it causes euphoria.

He started out on the north-west open mike circuit in around 1999, and made the final of the 2002 City Life Comedian Of The Year competition. He ran his own club in Blackburn, Lock n Load.