American comic Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr., identified by his stage identifyGallagher, has died from organ failure, his household advised NBC Information. He was 76.
His longtime and former supervisor, Craig Marquardo, additionally confirmed the information to HuffPost.
The funnyman and sledgehammer fanatic handed away Friday whereas in hospice care in his Palm Springs, California, house, his son-in-law advised NBC. Earlier than his demise, he had spent years preventing critical well being circumstances, together with a number of coronary heart assaults.
Gallagher turned a family identify in 1980 along with his comedy particular “An Uncensored Night,” directed by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees fame, Marquardo advised HuffPost in an emailed assertion. “This was the primary comedy stand-up particular ever to air on cable tv.”
The prop comic deployed his observational humor in a number of HBO specials and 14 specials that aired on Showtime and MTV. In accordance with his web site, he was the top-rated comic in ticket gross sales and scores for 15 years and carried out 3,500 dwell exhibits all through his decades-long profession.
Towards the top of his profession, the comic starred in his first film, “The E book of Daniel,” and had a collection of very applicable Geico business s.
Gallagher was greatest identified for his signature comedy bit, “Sledge-O-Matic,” wherein he’d take a big mallet and launch his anger by smashing numerous meals and objects. He’d typically goal his props bits towards a dwell viewers — forcing them to protect themselves with plastic and goggles.
Though Gallagher shattered all the pieces from pound cake (heh) to a newspaper merchandising machine, his followers had been most captivated with his love for obliterating watermelons.
Marquardo advised HuffPost that Gallagher toured for his loyal viewers steadily till the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gallagher’s humorousness stopped resonating with youthful audiences in his later years. A 2011 overview of a present he did in Florida by the Miami New Occasions described the comic as “getting older, confused, defensive, [and] barely bigoted.”
“Although it’d be kind of pompous to name Gallagher an precise bigot, let’s simply say, it was greater than a problem for me to even get his knocks on gays, Blacks, Mexicans, Jews, and ladies,” the reviewer wrote.
Lindy West of Seattle’s “The Stranger” expressed the same opinion in a 2011 overview of one in all his gigs in Washington state. West described being shocked to find that Gallagher was “a paranoid, delusional, right-wing non secular maniac” after a joke he made about former President Barack Obama’s pores and skin tone.
“Gallagher was identified for his edgy fashion, good wordplay, and creative props,” Marquardo advised HuffPost.
“Whereas Gallagher had his detractors, he was an plain expertise and an American success story.”
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