There's More To Gallagher Than Smashing Watermelon

Concert preview

Gallagher, Paramount Theatre, 8 p.m. tomorrow; $19.50 and $22.50; 628-0888. -------------------------------------------------------------------

In the current world of comedy, no two comics seem to take more critical flak than Howie Mandel and Gallagher. With Mandel, it's pretty understandable. After all, how much mileage can you get out of a rubber glove and a slew of scatological one-liners? The man was much better off with "St. Elsewhere," or even that "Sea Monkey" show that swam around on Saturday mornings.

Gallagher, playing tomorrow at the Paramount Theatre, is a different story. True, he's made the better part of his name out of smashing watermelons - and other fruits and vegetables - with a huge mallet. He's hit them hard enough to drench the first few rows of his audience - better known as Death Row - in pink pulp and seeds. (Thank goodness Mandel doesn't do that with the favorite parts of his act.) Yes, if you want to be up front and center at a Gallagher show, bring plenty of plastic wrap, goggles and perhaps some galoshes.

But Gallagher tries to take it a little further than the typical food fight. There is always a topic that runs through his act, be it money, toys, possessions, political leaders or just his lack of hair. He may be a prop comic but his props are always bigger and often better than anyone else's, be they huge tricycles or boats made into cars (land yachts.)

He started as country singer Jim "Spiders and Snakes" Stafford's road manager in the mid-1970s before taking the stage on his own. He became a featured favorite at the Comedy Store and the Ice House in Los Angeles before taking his particular brand of prop-heavy humor on the road.

With the advent of cable TV, Gallagher hit his stride. Over the years he sewed up Showtime television with specials including "Mad As Hell," "Too Real," "Totally New," "That's Stupid," "Stuck in the '60s," "The Maddest," "Melon Crazy," "The Bookkeeper," "Over Your Head," "Overboard," "The Leap Year Marathon" and "We Need a Hero." Last Saturday VH-1 ran a 4 1/2-hour "Gallagher Marathon" and could have done double that. They don't call him "The King of Cable Comedy" for nothing.

And Gallagher isn't just a marathon man in the television sense, his live show is also a major endurance run. A Gallagher performance can easily run three hours with an intermission. Not that you'll need an intermission, at least not until the end if you're sitting in the first half-dozen rows. Then watch out. There won't be a dry hanky to be found.