Gallagher Wife, Cause of Death, Children, Net Worth
Who was Comedian Gallagher?
Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. was a comedian known for smashing watermelons as his signature. He was widely known during the 1980s for his prop and observational style of comedy.
Comedian Gallagher’s Cause of Death
Gallagher died on November 11 2022 after he succumbed to organ failure. He was in hospice care in Palm Springs at the time of his death. He was 76 years old.
Health Issues
Gallagher fell on stage holding his chest on March 10, 2011, after a concert in Rochester, Minnesota. He was transported to Saint Marys Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a mild heart attack.
The comedian began experiencing significant chest symptoms a year later, on March 14, 2012, right before a performance in Lewisville, Texas. Gallagher’s manager stated that the comedian suffered a “mild to major” heart attack and was placed in a medically induced coma as doctors attempted to figure out what was wrong with his heart.
On March 18, 2012, physicians gradually pulled him out of his coma after replacing two coronary stents. He immediately healed and began communicating with his relatives.
Was Gallagher Married?
Gallagher was never married. However, he has two children his daughter Aimee and his son Barnaby.
Comedian Gallagher Career
Gallagher began working as a comedian after college, earning his big break when he appeared on Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight Show in 1975, displaying his prop comedy, and swiftly became one of America’s most successful and known comedians.
His signature routine was the “Sledge-O-Matic,” in which he used a giant mallet to damage a variety of meals and items, usually ending with a watermelon. While it began as a spoof of the Veg-O-Matic advertisements, it would become what millions of people would remember him for.
Gallagher has subsequently become a pop cultural phenomenon, with his act being imitated and referenced over the years, most recently by fellow comedian Paul F. Tompkins in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
The comedian has had 17 specials throughout the course of his career, with his first, “An Uncensored Evening,” appearing in 1980. He appeared on “Hollywood Squares,” “WTF with Marc Maron,” “Tosh.0,” and “Celebrity Big Brother” episodes.
https://youtu.be/x4ltZRK7BvQ
His Sledge-O-Matic Act Opening Speech
Most of the comedian’s performances began with the following opening act;
“Ladies and gentlemen! I did not come here tonight just to make you laugh. I came here to sell you something and I want you to pay particular attention!
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. And don’t you wanna know how it works!?
Well, first you get out an ordinary apple. You place the apple between the patented pans. Then you reach for the tool that is not a slicer, is not a dicer, is not a chopper in a hopper! What in the hell could it possibly be?! The Sledge-O-Matic!”
Gallagher would then take a big, generally wooden, mallet the size of a sledgehammer and slam it down on the apples, throwing bits of product into the audience.
Tarps and raincoats were typically worn by those in the first few rows, and many comedy clubs went to considerable lengths to cover and protect their interiors with tarps and plastic sheeting.
