Gallagher Friday 5/23/08 10:30 Show
Stress Factory
90 Church St.
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
732 545-4242

I have to admit when I heard Gallagher was coming to New Brunswick, I was incredibly excited. As a child of the 1970’s I vividly remember him and his sledge-o-matic my misspent youth of endless TV watching. As an adult of the 21st century and student of pop culture, I simply HAD to see the man live in person regardless if I get hit in the face with flying chunks of watermelon. Still, when given the opportunity to see HIGH ENERGY PROP COMEDY, I am all over that like Carrot Top on a syringe full of either botox or anabolic steroids.

Gallagher doesn’t use an opening act. He wanders through the crowd handing out Hershey’s miniatures and posing for photos with fans. When he gets on stage, he’s tossing out oranges within minutes and batting them back with an aluminum bat from the audience’s pitching staff. He assumes everyone knows what his act consists of (most did) and if you don’t he lets you know, “Everyone who splashes you, owes me money.” While his material is a little dated….Barney the Dinosaur, Jeffrey Dahmer, Lewinski & Clinton, maxipads with wings, his stage presences is effortlessly confident. The first stand up set was basically 45 minutes of testosterone charged red neck republican
rhetoric. You’re not going to find any biting political satire or stream of consciousness improvisation here. However, about half way through the 2 hour show, Gallagher steps out of that and starts engaging with the audience flawlessly. It’s this part of the show where he’s a master at what he does. Even more impressive, he does this by acting out
a joke with several audience members who aren’t bright enough to know that getting on stage with Gallagher is
guaranteed to make you look like a complete and total retard. The payoff of this bit is tired old hack punchline centered around a bear shitting in the woods and wiping it off on a bunny, but because of the way Gallagher uses his foils onstage, it’s really enjoyable to watch. At this point in the set Gallagher seemed to turn a little more arrogant than he previously had been, his routine gets a little more personal with the retelling of his son’s birth, but between his frustration with the audience’s energy level the meandering story, the room started to feel like a deflated balloon. Finally, as if he were approaching a duty or chore, he grabbed the sledgehammer and started to smash the shit out of
assorted concoctions as the audience ate it up, quite literally, The first five rows were covered in spam, dog food, creamed corn, and other assorted flavors of garbage juice.

And then came the watermelons. At this point about 7 audience members got in line to take their turn smashing watermelons as Gallagher coached them in the fine art of pounding shit with a blunt object. Okay, so it’s not exactly highbrow, but it was quite a show, and what I mean by “quite a show” is that it was really long. However, Gallagher’s crowd work was incredibly enjoyable to watch. He’s just so damn good at it and seems so incredibly at ease and relaxed. He’s an icon. Go see him.