Comedian Gallagher Dead at 76 When I was in my teens, in the late 80's and early 90's, I saw him perform live a bunch of times. He was really funny back then. (Sadly, he turned into something of a hateful guy in his later years.) I hadn't thought about him in a long while, until I watched the new Weird Al movie, where Gallagher is briefly portrayed (by Paul F. Tompkins.) Anyway, RIP Gallagher. I will have some watermelon today in his honor.
He was so huge and then everyone just stopped caring. I think it made him really bitter. His aborted interview with Marc Maron is probably the last memory I have of him in the modern era. Some of his bits were truly inspired. There’s good material in his old specials. RIP
One of the great left-brainers from my cable-tv-obsessed youth. He had a gleeful smirk that could deliver a line like a rod & reel...and hook you on the first cast. Get your VHS tapes out and look at those old Showtime gigs. His only downside was, his look was about as iconic as Marcel Marceau; once you got a quick peek of him onscreen, you could assume you knew the level of daffy that was coming. I hope he gets buried with a sledgehammer; St. Peter's bringin' a watermelon to choir practice this week!
He made his mark as a prop comic. Sledge O Matic was roll on the floor funny when I saw it on the Young Comedians show on HBO. He never really came up with a lot of new material, he just made his props bigger and smashed huge amounts of flora. Frankly it got old A "Gallagher" audience will get slopped on out front. The only comedy show you carried plastic sheeting.
Yeah, he seemed incredibly bitter that he was already a star when Leno and Letterman were coming up through the ranks and that not only that they surpassed him but (allegedly) looked down on his act when they had their own shows.
RIP Gallagher, sad news to read today...he was definitely funny and wonderful with props and he should have been carried by more in Comedy world, he was amazing Live and in-person on stage! Thank you Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. for all the artistic and creative gifts you carried through on stage and screen, should have been a Comedy Legend, and another Great talent gone too soon!
He was a staple on our TV growing up. I think he was the first comedian I was aware of and definitely compelled me to question things.
Funniest review I've read in a while. Had me laughing hard. == Comedy: Promoted for Latinos, Gallagher's pseudo-Spanish show is a litany of degrading stereotypes and insults. By ALISA VALDES-RODRIGUEZ, Times Staff Writer Hmm. How to put this delicately? We'll simplify: Mime-like, stringy-haired man in black hat smashes food with mallet on stage for living. Man, who no espeakey no Spanish, hears Spanish, thinks Spanish good, Spanish muy muy dinero. Man spends one month learning important Spanish words such as cerveza, caca and culo (butt). Man invents Spanish words, such as "sperm-o" and "embarazamante." Man decides this is enough Spanish to put on show for Latinos. Man smashes pinatas, wears giant sombrero and shakes keg-sized maracas. Man mocks Jews and gays and women and constipated old people. Man thinks he is muy funny comedian-o. Man hopes all Spanish-speakers agree. But wait. There's more. Mucho more. Man rents hall in Cerritos. Man advertises "Gallagher en espanol: La Fiesta Grande" on Spanish radio. Man hopes thousands will come. Two hundred come, many with children and babies and old (possibly constipated) people. Man babbles for three hours Thursday night in "language" neither English nor Spanish. Language heretofore known as Gallagher-bonics. Next day, executive director of Cerritos Center for Performing Arts issues statement stressing that "Gallagher show was a rental event and not produced or presented by the Cerritos Center." Man hires dance troupe to open show. Man performing for mostly Mexican American audience. Dance troupe, called Salsa Kids, performs Puerto Rican dance style. Male dancers wear guayaveras, the four-pocket shirts worn by old Cuban men in Miami. Mexican American audience appears unimpressed. Stone faces say: Ugh, bad medicine. "Is this like ballroom?" a woman in the audience asks. "My sister, she's taking that ballroom dancing." Show goes on. First nine rows of audience are in white plastic chairs. People in white plastic chairs equipped with clear plastic bag to wear over clothes because later mayonnaise and refried beans will spew over them. Signs warn: Cuidado, Piso Resbaloso. Wet floor. Man shoots water on audience from giant penguin after salsa dancers leave stage. Other man named Vic Dunlop, a comedian hired to help because he supposedly speaks Espanol, takes stage. Dunlop wears Mexican blanket, sombrero and glasses with eyes painted on them. Makes jokes about black people and blind people in bad Spanish. Says show is sponsored by Culo Cola, the soda with the taste of an expletive. In audience, Debra Garcia, 50, is bored and thinks the show immature and plans to leave early. Man appears with penguin and yells, "Como? Este hombre no esta en mi show. Vamanos." Second assistant "comedian" who actually does speak Spanish comes on stage. Her name is Dyana Ortelli and she is Mexican American and makes a living mocking Jennifer Lopez's bottom, stereotyping Chicanos, and wearing bad wig and no pants. Ortelli helps man throw chocolate at crowd. Man says: "Quien no tengo chocolate?" Translation: Who I don't have chocolate? No one sure what he is saying. Man introduces Chupacabras. Chupacabras is goat-sucking monster seen in Puerto Rico three years ago. Man in ape suit pretends to be goat-sucking monster. Man forces child onto stage with monster. Man asks: "Quien tiene mas pelo de Chupacabra?" Translation: Who has more hair of Chupacabras? Child makes disgusted face, jumps off stage. Ortelli looks sad. Man babbles about goat-sucker: "Es muy fuerze, es muy fuerza." Translation: Is very strength. No one laughs. Man frustrated. Tries to say "espectaculo," which means "show," but says "specta-culo," which sort of means butt-gazer. Man calls for rock band. Fulano de Tal, from Miami, plays well. Man wears giant parachute dress and dances. Man spray-paints a lie on the back wall: Yo No Soy Gringo. Man says in Spanish that he is a cowboy. Man says he is newborn Mexican and caresses his naked hairy belly. Man tells joke about bear and rabbit pooping. Man gathers audience volunteers for Mexican hat dance. Says "Tengo un muchacha" over and over. No one laughs. Man says "Culo, culito" until people laugh. Man says "moco" for extra humor. Man is tired of trying. Man says in English "I need a beer." Man curses under breath off mike, but audience hears anyway. Man begins dumping buckets of food onto plates. Man stops trying to speak Spanish. Man gives up and speaks English. Man says: "We were expecting a big crowd tonight and we're going to do a show for a big crowd anyway" because the crowd is small and shrinking. Man is booed again. Man yells: "It's the Fourth of July weekend, you don't got no place to go so just shut up." Man hits Pop Tarts with tennis racquet. Man says "Un muchacho quiero comer," which means "I want to eat a boy" and the boys look scared. Many people who paid between $21.50 and $26.50 per ticket walk out as man flashes white underpants and yells culo, culo, culo and cerveza. Man angry Latinos have no sense of humor. Man throws egg and marshmallows at old woman and baby as they waddle out of theater. Man calls old woman vulgar name in English. Man spits beer on children. Some in audience too polite to leave. Others impolite enough to boo. One courageous enough to hurl a lunchbox-sized chunk of watermelon at man's head. Man smashes food with 16-pound mallet. Man says, inexplicably, "Todo el mouthwash el hits me en el crotch-o." Man sings "La Cucaracha." Man smashes more food. Show over. Man bows. Man slips on floor.
I regularly rented his VHS specials from the local video store when I was a kid. I'd die laughing. The one line I remember which still tickles me - Sitting down on a chair, after becoming all introspective and thoughtful: "It makes me think about things. Things like, what would chairs look like if our knees bent the other way?" Like a lot of comics who got big during the 80's comedy club boom, he flamed out in the 90's. But he was great in his time.