I Am Who I Pretend to Be
Gallagher
Uproar Entertainment
3937
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Remember Gallagher? The long-haired guy who dressed like a
cross between a mime and an audition for "Where's Waldo?" The dude
who used to smash watermelons with a sledgehammer? Gallagher was ubiquitous in
the 1980s and early 1990s, including on Showtime
and Comedy Central. Then his star faded
when he his act took turns some deemed racist, homophobic, and nationalistic. For
the record, some of his jokes could be viewed as sexist, crude, irreligious, and
mean to people with disabilities. Gallagher might be the Southern
rightwing-redneck-cracker his critics make him out to be for all I know, but
I've never felt that that Political Correctness had any place in comedy. Let's
face it, if nobody is insulted–even if a joke is self-deprecating–there is no
comedy. If your nose goes easily out of joint, stay out of comedy clubs. Tell
me that Richard Pryor wasn't also racist. Did you ever hear the recently
departed Joan Rivers light into a person who heckled her for being insensitive?
Comedians are supposed to make us uncomfortable. The real question is whether or
not the shtick is funny.
Funny or not? The jury has always been out on Leo Gallagher,
68, and now we're going to have some time to assess him. I Am Who I Pretend to Be looks like to be Gallagher's swan song.
It's a May 2014 live performance recorded at Sacramento's Ice House Comedy
Club. He has subsequently suffered his third heart attack and has announced
that his health won't allow him to tour any more. His latest (last?) album is a
mishmash of new routines, selected classic jokes, musings on life's
absurdities, and some poking around in the audience in search of cheap laughs.
That is to say, it's similar to what he's been doing for decades. One also
suspects that the title is also a backhanded slap at his brother Ron, who
appropriated a lot of older brother's act.
Gallagher's shtick can best be described as uneven. Like a
lot of comics, he is at his best when he takes logic and stretches it to its
social extremes. Why, he ponders, do new socks come with little plastic hangers
when no one hangs up their socks? If there is extraterrestrial life, why
haven't they contacted us? Gallagher suggests it's because "they can smell
stupid" and fly right on by. Don't get him started on sporks, the presence
of French in the English language, or people who refuse to look at evidence.
Other bits are simply dated. There are gems hiding amidst dross in his
observations of the battle of the sexes, the dross mostly being social views
about 30m years out of date. He has a routine about using handicapped bathrooms
that isn't as offensive as it is sophomoric. Throughout the concert he plays
the crank, sometimes with hilarious results and sometimes in the ways that make
you want to leave him to wallow in his own irritability.
Gallagher was reportedly very upset when Comedy Central
rated him just the 100th greatest stand-up comic of all-time. On all
such lists there are weird choices. Does anyone find Bobcat Goldthwait (#61)
Bernie Mac (#72), or Andrew Dice Clay (#95) funny? But let's be honest– Leo
Gallagher was always a second-tier guy, as the recent deaths of Rivers and
Robin Williams so poignantly remind us. I don't think it was Gallagher's bad
boy antics that pushed him down the ranks so much as the fact that his initial
rise was a zeitgeist thing. Smashing things appealed to a generation that used
to say, "tear down the walls" and mean it. His anarchic high-octane
energy resonated with Baby Boomers when they were still in their 30s and 40s.
When Gallagher's energy flagged, the zeitgeist shifted, and running across the
stage yielded to stand-up, some people were offended by what they heard and
others simply grew tired of same old/same old.
Is Gallagher's swan song worth caring about? I'll give it a
gentleman's B-. It has some very sharp and funny moments, but overall it does
not sparkle with transcendent wit, cleverness, or brilliance. Alas, it's also more
rant than frenetic anarchy.—Rob Weir
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2 comments:
Don't know Gallagher but I take issue over Pryor being racist when mostly his main topic was himself and the environment he was brought up in; i.e. one of racism: overt and covert and though I know these comments have been thrown his way before, as he was so much better than anyone else, I'll cut him some slack. Anyhow if you go that close to the line, you'll go over it on occasions.
Oh I think Pryor delighted in dancing on the razor's edge of race. I found some of the stuff he did on how to talk and walk white to be absolutely hysterical, but it was reverse racism to be sure. Again, I don't expect comedy to be kind or PC. But Richard Pryor did delight in a sort of white people are nuts routine. I happen to agree with his lampoon, but being black isn't a get-out-jail-free card for making racial comments. Those with thin skins were very offended by some of his routines. It didn't bother me one iota, but that was my point: comedy isn't about being nice. And we agree 100%--Gallagher wasn't in Pryor's league.
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