Gallagher dies: legendary prop comic was 76

Last Updated on November 14, 2022

If you’re of a certain age, you might remember a time when “prop” comedy wasn’t frowned upon. Long before the days of Carrot Top, a comedian named Gallagher made a fortune out of smashing watermelons with a mallet and sadly, the one-time headliner has passed away at seventy-six. If you’re a comedy fan, you’ll know that Gallagher’s reputation in recent years wasn’t sterling, with him having stormed out of an interview on Marc Maron‘s WTF podcast when challenged on some of his material (leading to one of the podcast’s greatest lines: “Oh, come on, Gallagher!”).

Leo Gallagher was all the rage in his younger days, having appeared on The Tonight Show several times, despite Johnny Carson’s rumoured aversion to prop humor. Later in his career, Gallagher ended up in a vicious legal battle with his brother, Ron Gallagher, who performed under the name “Gallagher Too.” The legit Gallagher initially allowed his brother to use his material, including the famed “Sledge-O-Matic” bit, but eventually, audiences were confused over who was the real deal, leading to a lawsuit. For the record, the “Sledge-O-Matic” routine involved Gallagher destroying watermelons with mallets. While not high art, audiences in the seventies and eighties found it hilarious. 

According to People, Gallagher had been in poor health recently and died of multiple organ failure. He had toured regularly until the pandemic, and Paul F. Thompkins memorably played him in the recent Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

While his sense of humor may seem a little old-fashioned, it can’t be denied that in his prime, he made a whole lot of people laugh. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 100th Greatest Comedian of All-Time. 

Do you have fond memories of Gallagher? Let us know in the comments!