The first I saw him was on a game show called Make Me Laugh where comedians would try to make contestants laugh and it seems strange to say now, but Gallagher was the best one. He was huge in his day. A prop comic. Had several specials on Showtime. His thing was smashing food with a sledge hammer. I don't know if that became a millstone around his neck but he couldn't escape it.
He walked out of an interview with Marc Maron and I watched a video of him being kicked off a radio show somewhere. He turned crabby as he got older. Like some comedians, he was never funny in interviews.
Gallagher made a fortune on tour, but Maron thought that was what hurt is career, that touring was a dead end. It was one reason he didn't end up with a sit-com or a talk show.
Fellow prop comic Joel Hodgeson from Mystery Science Theater once caught Gallagher backstage rummaging through his props. I don't remember their exchange but he didn't like him after that.
There are advantages and disadvantages to being easily imitated.
Reportedly, Gallagher's agent started representing Carrot Top as well. Gallagher thought he was being edged out by the new prop comic, so he got his brother, Ron Gallagher, to perform his act as Gallagher Two or Gallagher Too. His brother looked and sounded just like him apparently and Gallagher thought that two of him could overwhelm the competition. Eventually, Leo Gallagher wanted Ron to stop performing his act, but Ron kept doing it, so Gallagher sued him which resulted in his (Leo Gallagher's) alienation from his family. I don't know why this happened. Maybe his brother had given up some other career to help him compete with Carrot Top and if he didn't continue to perform, he'd be left without an income. No telling who the bad guy is here.
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