posted 11-08-2001 11:58 PM            

Soon as the Florida Theatre doors opened, I made a beeline for the souvenir table and blew $45 on two Gallagher tapes (Smashing Cheeseheads and Sledge-O-Matic Dot Com (WHOO-HOO!!)) and something for my keychain.

Gallagher was signing autographs at another table and posing for pictures with people. I asked a woman if she could use my camera for a picture of me with Gallagher. It was done, and I just hope that picture turns out nicely because that will be one I will share on these boards.

He started the show by making his way to the stage and throwing candy at the audience. Some candy he hit with a tennis racket! He didn't use a ton of props like he did before and he didn't start out squirting water and other stuff at the audience.

He had a lot of people from the audience on stage helping him out, and I knew why. Not only is he 55 years old, I forgot to mention that about a year and a half ago, he had a heart attack and he had to go through bypass surgery. Therefore, those two things have weakened him considerably. I knew this stuff from the E! True Hollywood Story I taped months ago.

Tally of things smashed, first the things that weren't in pie pans:

3 cakes (1 carrot, 1 coconut, 1 red velvet)
3 whole watermelons (he had them sliced in halves lengthwise, so that's really 6 things smashed)
1 head of lettuce
1 grapefruit
1 gallon bottle of fruit punch

12 so far

The pans with different combinations:

1 bunch of apple slices
1 cottage cheese
1 strawberry syrup
1 creamed corn
1 sweet corn with baby corncobs
1 honey
1 collard greens
1 Where's Waldo? pasta
1 mustard
1 mayonnaise
1 cream of mushroom soup with spaghetti and meatballs
1 huge pan filled with egg and marshmallows
1 large pan with the inside of a diaper and pickle juice
1 pickle relish with pickle slices
1 beets
1 Spam
1 dog food with Pepto-Bismol
1 baked beans
1 rice with water
1 diced tomatoes
1 cranberry sauce and chop suey (it looked like that to me)
1 peanut butter (creamy)

Total: 34 things smashed

Looks like me and Nick were the closest.

All things considered, the show was nicely done. I just wish I was one of those saps in the orchestra pit because they got the worst of it. I got a bit of sticky stuff on my right arm because I didn't raise the plastic fast enough. *goofy grin*

posted 11-09-2001 11:15 PM            

The other things smashed that I forgot to mention:

1 sauerkraut (in a pie pan)
1 container of cole slaw (I HATE cole slaw)
1 pie pan full of jello

So overall, he really smashed 37 things and Lotus was the closest with her prediction. I'm such a dork!

Some of the stuff really flew well - I think the cottage cheese (or maybe it was the cole slaw) hit the front of the balcony.

I'm also kicking myself for not getting on stage when the opportunity arose at the end - there was room for one more to kneel around the table as he smashed the cakes. Those who did got to help out with smashing stuff. Damn!

posted 11-10-2001 11:04 PM            

The thing is, the picture of me with Gallagher before the show has about half of my head out of the picture, and a little bit of Gallagher's head out as well, but otherwise the picture is pretty good. Any problem there? Just want to know...

Almost no blurry pics and there's one that shows him doing Sledge-o-matic that turned out nicely. Soon as I find a place to get the pics scanned and placed on a CD, I'll do what I can when time permits.

posted 11-16-2001 09:24 PM            

But not to worry, I found a place that will get it done in an hour (I hope so, or there's gonna be problems).

posted 11-17-2001 08:51 AM         

And quite possibly a few "thermals" and coats and boots and gloves and scarves and...

posted 11-17-2001 09:09 AM            

Not ever having seen/heard of him before, I was wondering exactly what type of comedy act required the first two rows of audience to be covered in a plastic sheet before it started.

posted 11-17-2001 11:44 PM            

There are some people I know at work who think his act of smashing food products isn't funny. One of my uncles hates his act because he sees it as a waste of food.

In fact, his Sledge-o-matic bit was something that didn't get rave reviews at the onset. One time, he did his Sledge-o-matic thing at a strip club in Tampa long ago, and the owner's wife didn't like it. The owner of that club didn't hesitate to tell him to get lost.

It only became a real mainstay for him when, at a New Year's Eve party at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles many years ago, he smashed a watermelon for the first time. People never laughed so hard in their lives.

About a day or so later, Gallagher got a call from the owner of the Comedy Store asking him if he was going to smash a watermelon again. He said, "No, it was just for New Year's Eve." The owner responded, "But you have to! Your next two shows are sold out!" He had to go out and scrounge up a few watermelons. (Source: E! True Hollywood Story on Gallagher, which I taped months ago)

I never heard of him until about 10 years ago, when VH-1 did a marathon of his shows the day after Thanksgiving (before the advent of Comedy Central). I was trying to enjoy a new gaming system I bought (a Super NES), and it was getting on my nerves whenever my dad called for me and told me I have to see this. It got to the point I stomped into the living room and shouted in an exasperated tone, "What is it this time?!" I watched Gallagher do Sledge-o-matic a couple of times, and the rest is history. It wasn't until recently that I understood some of the things he said. You have to look at it from different angles and points of view.

I shouldn't expect Gallagher to do his act much longer, partially because of his age and partially because of that heart attack he had about a year and a half ago.

posted 11-18-2001 05:44 PM            

I uploaded the pics onto a GeoCities page like I did before with the Weird Al pics, but when I try to post the pictures here, I get nothing.

I followed the appropriate UBB protocol on posting pictures to the letter, and I still get nothing. It's driving me crazy!

posted 11-18-2001 09:52 PM            

quote:

---

To keep our Yahoo! GeoCities a nice place to visit for the whole family, we ask that you respect our content guidelines. In a nutshell, they are:

-- No nudity or pornography
-- No outside sponsorship or signposts (redirecting users to another host)
-- No storing files for the purpose of linking to them from outside of the Yahoo! network

---

The impression I got was posting pictures from a Geocities web page onto this site is out of the question. AAARRRGGH! Talk about wasted time!

It seems to me the only way I can share the pictures is by e-mail, unless anyone has a different suggestion.

posted 11-19-2001 01:49 AM         

Alternately...Nick might be able to help for the cost of a virtual bottle of sour-mash whisky!

posted 11-19-2001 10:04 PM            

Another possibility could be if anyone is interested in seeing the pics, they can drop me an e-mail and I'll send them as fast as I can - depends on how busy I am at work, mind you.

posted 11-20-2001 01:38 AM            

Just throw me the pic at

[email protected]

posted 11-20-2001 07:32 AM            

I'll get it done as fast as I can...gotta get ready for work now. I'll do it later.