Leo Gallagher

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Gallagher during the '80s

Gallagher (born Leo Anthony Gallagher on July 24, 1947 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina) is an American comedian and prop comic, most popularly known for smashing watermelons as part of his act.

1 Overview
2 The "Gallagher Too" controversy
3 The Oregonian interview
4 The 2006 WGFX 104.5 "The Wake Up Zone" radio interview
5 Trivia
6 Specials
7 External links

[edit] Overview

After graduating from the University of South Florida with an engineering degree in 1970, Gallagher began working as comic/musician Jim Stafford's road manager. Stafford and Gallagher went out to California in 1979 and Gallagher decided to take the stage himself. He began honing his own comedy act while hanging out at both The Comedy Store and the Ice House.

Gallagher was one of the most popular and recognizable American comedians during the 80s. He produced at least one special a year from 1981 to 1987, all of which were carried by Showtime cable network, and all of which were re-broadcast numerous times throughout the year. To date he has done sixteen specials.

His signature schtick is the "Sledge-O-Matic," a large wooden mallet that Gallagher uses to smash a variety of objects, including computer keyboards, containers of cottage cheese, cartons of chocolate milk, tubes of toothpaste, poundcakes, Big Macs, and, most famously, watermelons. Given the messy nature of this portion of his act, it is usually saved for the finale of his shows. Show attendees in the first two or three rows are usually provided with plastic sheeting for protection, and many fans bring their own additional protection (raincoats, umbrellas, and so on).

In addition to the Sledge-O-Matic, Gallagher's act features a variety of props, including a large trampoline designed to look like a couch, an adult sized Big Wheel, and a cap with a fringe of hair attached to the back. However, unlike fellow prop comic Carrot Top, Gallagher does not rely exclusively on props for his comedy. Large portions of his shows feature Gallagher simply speaking to the audience on a variety of topics, displaying a wry observational wit and sharply pointed social commentary.

The Sledge-O-Matic in action

In particular, while the Sledge-O-Matic act works as an example of physical prop comedy, Gallagher frequently uses this portion of his act as a subtle (or overt) criticism of America's consumer culture. The act itself is a parody of the hype-filled, low-budget ads for kitchen gadgets such as Ginsu knives that permeated the American television airwaves during non-primetime hours in the late 70s. (See Quotes section below for the traditional introduction to the Sledge-O-Matic sequence.)

Gallagher writes all of his own material, runs his own operation, and does more than 100 concerts a year, selling out the majority of them. All of Gallagher's affairs are handled exclusively by his companies, Sold Out Shows and Fun Fun Fun. Gallagher is a self-contained touring business with an agent, promoter and road manager all in-house. For the last eighteen years, Ruth Ann Hoffman has booked and promoted all of Gallagher's dates across the country. Gallagher calls Hoffman his "Personal Promoter."

[edit] The "Gallagher Too" controversy

At some point during the early 90s, Gallagher's younger brother Ron Gallagher asked Gallagher for permission to perform shows using Gallagher's old routines, and also using Gallagher's trademark Sledge-O-Matic routine. The idea was that Ron Gallagher, who was unemployed, would tour the country working small venues that couldn't afford a show put on by Gallagher himself. Since Ron bears a strong familial resemblance to his older brother, the show would be almost like having a real Gallagher show.

Gallagher granted his blessing to his younger brother on the condition that Ron and his manager would make it clear in their promotional materials that it was Ron Gallagher, not Gallagher himself, that was putting on the show.

After a few years of complying with Gallagher's conditions, Ron began subtly blurring the line between his act and that of his brother. He would often promote his act as "Gallagher Too," a moniker Gallagher felt was insufficiently informative. In some instances, Ron's act was promoted in a way that provided no clue to prospective attendees that they were seeing someone other than Gallagher himself.

Gallagher initially attempted to get his brother to stop these activities by requesting that he stop using Gallagher's well-known Sledge-O-Matic routine. These efforts proved fruitless, and Ron kept touring as "Gallagher Too" while using the Sledge-O-Matic routine his older brother had made famous. Consequently, in August 2000, Gallagher sued his brother for trademark violations and false advertising. The courts ultimately sided with Leo Gallagher, and an injunction was granted prohibiting Ron from performing any act that impersonates his brother in small clubs and venues.

During the lawsuit, all of Gallagher's immediate family sided with Ron over the controversy. As a consequence, Gallagher is now estranged from his parents and siblings.

[edit] The Oregonian interview

In January of 2005, the Oregonian's entertainment section printed a short interview with Gallagher where he gave scathing reviews about many of the top comedic performers in America. Among the criticisms were the low quality of stand-up performances by David Letterman, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton. Gallagher expressed frustration over Hanks and Keaton's success, remarking that they were millionaires and someone with his skills and ability was reduced to renting a condo. While criticising Jay Leno and David Letterman, he expressed surprise that they never invited him to appear in their shows, citing that Johnny Carson never liked him, but still booked him often.

Gallagher reserved special wrath for Comedy Central's list of the greatest 100 stand-up comedians, where he was listed as #100, just below Janeane Garofalo. To counter this, he ran his own top comedians vote at his website where he was voted the #1 comedian.

In the summer 2005, release of the movie The Aristocrats, Gallagher was not one of the over 100 comedians selected to comment on the movie topic of the old joke of the same name. Several of the comedians jokingly expressed negative opinions of Gallagher's comedy routines.

[edit] The 2006 WGFX 104.5 "The Wake Up Zone" radio interview

In April of 2006, Gallagher appeared on the morning show of Nashville station 104.5 The Zone. There to promote a stop at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville, Gallagher was apparently not in a laughing mood. Known for smashing watermelons and Jell-O, one of the show's co-hosts Mark Howard asked Gallagher how he got into smashing watermelons. Gallagher responded by accusing Howard of not doing his research and the question was on par with what a high school reporter would have asked. He explained that his real fans know that he no longer does such low brow comedy. He demanded an answer as to why he would ask about something that isn't in the show. In fact, the show that Gallagher had advertised and was promoting specificially stated there would be "No Melon Smashing". Apparently, Mark Howard was not aware of this or chose to ignore the fact.

The interview proceeded to spiral downwards. Howard and his co-host Kevin Ingram, keeping their cool, allowed Gallagher to go on a tirade attacking them for the next 20 minutes.

"I basically let the guy beat me up for 20 minutes," Howard said. "We were sponsoring his deal (with Zanies), so I wasn't going to go on the attack. At one point he said, 'Who paired you two guys up?' intimating that we were just awful.

The next day Gallagher returned to the station requesting a meeting with the station manager. Nashville Citadel Market Manager Dave Kelly said in an interview with The Tennessean, "He wanted people fired, and he was very upset. Apparently, he is a comedian who likes to pick on people but doesn't like to be picked on himself. He was in my office about 30 minutes, making it clear that he does not want to be known as the guy who smashes watermelons."

No action was taken against either host, and Gallagher's website (www.gallaghersmash.com) continues to prominently display a watermelon motif, including a "Watermelon Mart" section, complete with watermelon-related links and recipes. This is due to the fact that Gallagher does continue to smash watermelons and other items in his recent shows, just not in the show he was promoting on WGFX.

[edit] Trivia

Gallagher was featured on the E! television channel's E! True Hollywood Story.
In June of 2000, Gallagher suffered a mild heart attack despite no previous history of heart problems.
In 2000, Gallagher was honored by the University of South Florida as one of its famous alumni and by Florida Living Magazine as one of the top "100 Legends" of Florida.

Gallagher on the 2003 campaign trail

Gallagher was a candidate for governor in the 2003 California recall election. He placed 16th in a field of 135 candidates with 5,466 votes (see results of the 2003 California recall). Earlier in his career he opined that "California is like a bowl of granola; full of fruits, nuts, and flakes."
In 2004, Dave Chappelle parodied his Sledge-O-Matic routine by doing a "Black Gallagher" sketch on his Chappelle's Show. The sketch featured Chappelle using a handgun as opposed to the Sledge-O-Matic.
He is number 100 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time.
On the Simpsons episode, "Marge vs. the Monorail", Gallagher is mentioned as the celebrity on the maiden voyage of the North Haverbrook Monorail. According to Sebastien Cobb, things went badly from the start.
On The Simpsons episode, "Worst Episode Ever", Homer remembers his first lifetime ban when he takes and starts to eat Gallagher's watermelon, causing him to get hit in the head with the mallet head bouncing back at him.
On the episode of Family Guy "Stuck Together, Torn Apart" while the family is shopping he can be seen at CostMart, stocking up on watermelons. After he smashes one a bystander comments "Is it 1981?" pointing out that Gallagher's peak popularity was some time ago.
Disney/Pixar pay tribute to Gallagher near the end of the 2001 film Monsters Inc. Monster George Sanderson is seen walking to his door holding a hammer and a watermelon and humming to himself.
Named daughter Amy as a contributing writer to his act (with her allowance paid out of his salary) for business purposes, when she was still a preschooler. Their talks as father and daughter provided endless raw material, as Gallagher tried to answer Amy's questions about life, so the arrangement made sense.
At a 2005 show in Logan, UT he had asked a young teenage boy on the first row to join him onstage as he often does with audience members. The boy refused. Not noticing the crutches sitting next to the boy he asked the boy jokingly, "What are you, crippled?" To cries of shock and embarrassment from the crowd, the boy picked up his crutches and made his way onto the stage. In fact the boy had a disease that left him with minimal use of his legs.