Todd Gallagher

Todd Gallagher
Born Todd John Gallagher
Occupation author, filmmaker, comedian

Todd Gallagher is an American author, filmmaker, and comedian. He is best known for his comedic commentary and elaborate social experiments. He has worked with ESPN and is known for his book "Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports' Fans Burning Questions". His writing and comedy tend to be irreverent.

His experiments have been featured on and in a variety of outlets including The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, and Rolling Stone. Gallagher has appeared as a guest on numerous national radio[1][2][3][4][5][6] and television shows, including appearances on CNBC, Entertainment Tonight, MTV, Fox Sports, E!, and the BBC.

Contents

Early life

Gallagher was raised in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. At the age of 14 he won the grand prize twice on the ESPN quiz show Dream League.

Career

Early career

At age 21 he became the youngest coach and Director of Player Personnel in the history of pro basketball for the United States Basketball League's New Hampshire Thunder Loons. His basketball experience led to a series of writing assignments in Australia. He then returned to the United States where he wrote for ESPN, conducting interviews with people throughout the sports and entertainment world, including Ice Cube, Ludacris and Frankie Muniz.[7][8][9][10][11][12] As a television writer and producer he has sold, developed, and run various shows including an MTV special about the movie "Dodgeball" with stars Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn.[13]

Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan

Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions (Random House, 2007),[14] Gallagher's first book humorously answers some outlandish questions about sports, such as "Could a morbidly obese goalie shut out an NHL team?" (Chapter 1). A number of professional athletes including Andy Roddick,[15] Maurice Greene,[16] and the NHL's Washington Capitals,[17] participated in live events for the project. Gallagher states the athletes were not paid to participate and went along with the experiments because they were fascinated to find out the answers themselves. The book has been described as "a weird amalgam of serious inside-the-ropes research germane to the games and of ludicrous just-outside-the-asylum performance art."[18] Praise has come from the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times,[19] and Washington Post,[20][21][22] and the book has been excerpted by several publications. Commercially, the book has sold well, reaching number one amongst all sports books on Amazon.com.

Shaq Vs. Controversy

The Washington Post has pointed out similarities to the ABC show Shaq Vs. and Gallagher's book saying the book and the show have "precisely the same premise" and are that a TV show based on the book Gallagher was trying to sell was "the exact same show."[23]

Gallagher appears in both seasons as a producer of the show.

Playground Challenge

His "Phelps Challenge,"[24] where he challenged Michael Phelps on ESPN radio to a $50,000 bet that he could beat him in any event outside of the pool, was turned into the "Playground Challenge" by ESPN. In it, he takes on pro and Olympic athletes in playground events. In a challenge against former NFL player and MLB all-star Brian Jordan, Gallagher won in games of 1-on-1 basketball and whiffle ball yet lost the overall competition by a score of 4–2.[25]

Todd vs. High School

On "Good Day LA," Gallagher announced that for his latest experiment he was heading back to high school as a student in Pittsburgh in the fall of 2009 for a book and documentary called "Todd vs. High School." Despite being a National Merit Scholar and Mensa level genius, as a high school student Gallagher was kicked out of multiple schools and barely graduated because of his low GPA. His goal in going back to high school was to see if he could get a 4.0, succeed athletically, and get along with his teachers and his parents.

On an “Inside Edition” feature, Gallagher stated he finished with a 3.8 GPA and was transformed by the experience. A documentary film of Todd’s experience is set to be released in the fall of 2012. The film features a number of celebrities including Taylor Swift, Jason Segel, and Sidney Crosby.

References

  1. ^ "Todd Gallagher talks with KEX Sports Director Scott Lynn about the new book "Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan"". November 1, 2007. http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/PORTLAND-OR/KEX-AM/RoddickPanPodcast.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=PORTLAND-OR&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&SITE_ID=610&STATION_ID=KEX-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=Scott_Lynn&PCAST_CAT=Sports&PCAST_TITLE=Scott_Lynn's_Sports_Interviews. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  2. ^ First Light Radio Clip – October 16, 2007
  3. ^ "Armstrong and Getty radio show – Sound clip of interview with Todd Gallagher". October 10, 2007. http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SANFRANCISCO-CA/KNEW-AM/ang%204%20101007.mp3. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  4. ^ Nox Solutions (October 10, 2007). "Mancow's Morning Madhouse radio show – Link to sound clip of interview with Todd Gallagher". Mancow.com. http://www.mancow.com/show;jsessionid=F0EBC4F0904FDD3C9D43F203E41F5866?action=viewRadioShow&showID=514. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  5. ^ "South Florida's First News host Dave LaMont interviews Todd Gallagher about his book "Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions"". October 10, 2007. http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/MIAMI-FL/WIOD-AM/10-10%20%20TODD%20GALLAGHER%20-%20BOOK_1.mp3. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  6. ^ "Coast to Coast AM Bio of Todd with sound byte of radio segment". Coasttocoastam.com. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guests/1565.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  7. ^ Interview with Ice Cube
  8. ^ Interview with Ludacris
  9. ^ "Interview with Moochie Norris". ESPN. April 18, 2002. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/questions/moochie.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  10. ^ Interview with Shanna Moakler
  11. ^ "Interview with Frankie Muniz". ESPN. November 28, 2001. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/questions/muniz.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  12. ^ "Interview with Bill Bellamy". ESPN. http://espn.go.com/page2/s/questions/bellamy.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  13. ^ See IMDB link.
  14. ^ Dohrmann, George. "Andy Roddick Beat Me with a Frying Pan: Taking the Field with Pro Athletes and Olympic Legends to Answer Sports Fans' Burning Questions". Todd Gallagher: Books. ISBN 9780307352804. http://www.amazon.com/Andy-Roddick-Beat-Frying-Pan/dp/0307352803. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  15. ^ ""Andy Roddick could beat an average player with a frying pan" – Chapter Excerpt". ESPN. October 23, 2007. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=3073902. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  16. ^ "Maurice Greene Featured in New Book by Todd Gallagher". The Final Sprint article
  17. ^ Hughes, Robert J. (October 5, 2007). ""From Mr. Magoo to Baghdad"". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119153223734549348.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  18. ^ Clarey, Christopher (October 19, 2007). ""Book poses the sports questions that arise after a few cocktails; If Roddick were using only a frying pan, could you beat him?"". International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/19/sports/arena.php. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  19. ^ "Answers in form of questions" Los Angeles Times October 16, 2007
  20. ^ ""Gene Voted Sexiest Man Alive: We'd tell you the truth, but you can't handle the truth"". Washington Post. October 14, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101001587.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  21. ^ ""Chatological Humor aka Tuesdays with Moron"". Washington Post. October 2, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/09/25/DI2007092501188.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  22. ^ ""Oh, Shoot: A free-throw contest gives Gene that sinking feeling"". Washington Post. March 4, 2007. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022701476.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  23. ^ Steinberg, Dan (July 27, 2009). ""Shaq Denied Entrance to White House"". Washington Post. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/07/shaq_denied_entrance_by_the_wh.html. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  24. ^ "Appearance on ESPN Radio". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/player?id=3565873. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 
  25. ^ By Todd GallagherSpecial to Page 2 (Archive) (March 26, 2009). "Todd Gallagher vs. Brian Jordan". ESPN. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=gallagher/090324. Retrieved December 31, 2011. 

External links