Gallagher, the uninhibited prop comic best known for pulverizing watermelons — and assorted other food stuff — with a sledgehammer he called a Sledge-O-Matic, has died. He was 76.
The comedian, whose first name was Leo, died Friday of organ failure in Palm Springs, his longtime manager, Craig Marquardo, said. He had been in hospice care.
Gallagher suffered a minor heart attack in Arizona on March 25, 2012, 11 days after he was hospitalized for a heart attack in Lewisville, Texas. In Texas, he reportedly was put in a medically induced coma for four days and had two coronary stents replaced. He also suffered a heart attack while on stage in a club in Minnesota in 2011.
The melon-smashing comedian, whose comedy specials became a staple on Showtime in the 1980s, was inspired to create his signature Sledge-O-Matic by the Veg-O-Matic manually operated food slicer seen in TV commercials (“It slices! It dices!”).
During his shows, the sledgehammer-wielding Gallagher might send mayonnaise, mustard, honey, chocolate syrup, grapes, olives, cottage cheese and eggs flying into the audience — not to mention “pound cake,” “cheeseburgers to go” and that “last dab of toothpaste.”
Indeed, the first 10 rows at a Gallagher show were known as Death Row.
Fans often came prepared for the onslaught, wearing old clothes and plastic rain ponchos; official Gallagher ponchos, naturally, also were on sale in the lobby.
