Prop comic smashed his way into hearts
GALLAGHER 1946-2022
NEW YORK • Gallagher, the long-haired, smash-’em-up comedian who left a trail of laughter, anger and shattered watermelons over a decades-long career, has died at age 76.
Craig Marquardo, in a statement identifying himself as Gallagher’s “longtime former manager,” said that he died Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif., after a brief illness. Gallagher had numerous heart attacks over the years, including one right before a scheduled show in Texas in 2012.
With a beret on his head and a few simple props, from a can of oil to a bull whip, the man born Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. built a nationwide following in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson and starring in numerous Showtime specials. His act included observational humour, political commentary (“They don’t call a tax a tax. They call it a revenue enhancer”), invented sports (synchronized Ping-pong) and his trademark Sledge-omatic destruction.
“The amazing Master Tool Corporation, a subsidiary of Fly-by-night Industries, has entrusted who? Me! To show you! The handiest and the dandiest kitchen tool you’ve ever seen,” he would call out in his best rapid-fire impersonation of a late-night TV pitchman.
Sledgehammer in hand, he would then apply his full muscle to apples, grapes, lettuce and other produce, most famously the inevitable watermelon, with audience members in front showered in food bits.
Gallagher was a Fort Bragg, N.C., native who started out in 1960 as road manager for the comedian/ musician Jim Stafford and soon began performing himself. He was not the only funnyman in the family: His younger brother Ron became a comedian, received Leo’s initial blessing and looked and acted enough like his better-known sibling that some audiences were unsure who they had come to see. Leo Gallagher eventually secured a court injunction barring his brother from using his routines.
The elder Gallagher became increasingly controversial in recent years, chastised for racist and homophobic remarks. Gallagher even cut short an interview in 2011 with Marc Maron after the WTF podcast host confronted him about his statements.
“I’m the problem?!” Gallagher said at one point. “Do you think when I’m dead, gays will finally have an opportunity in America? Have I really been holding them down?”