Gallagher, hotel differ on slapstick show

Friday, June 3, 2005 | 8:18 a.m.

Gallagher, the comedian famous for smashing watermelons, has been 86ed from the Riverside Resort in Laughlin over a slapping incident last week.

"He will never work here again," entertainment director Roy Jernigan said Thursday.

Gallagher, who was scheduled to perform from May 25 through last Sunday, has had a couple of engagements a year at Riverside for the past 13 years.

That came to a screeching halt May 26 when he allegedly slapped a fan during a performance.

Gallagher says it was part of the show, that the fan was his guest and that it got laughs.

Jernigan said the slap to the head of William Edwin May III was no laughing matter and that about 40 of the more than 300 customers at the show walked out.

"Gallagher was always off the wall," Jernigan. "He was off the wall Wednesday (May 25) and then he was worse on Thursday (May 26).

"He was angry all week long."

Jernigan said the slap to May caused a bruised ear.

"He hit him hard," Jernigan said. "I have never known Gallagher to get physical. I think he needs help."

Jernigan said the employees at Riverside were happy to see Gallagher leave.

"He was very abusive to them," he said. "He went off on me for about 20 minutes.

"He is so arrogant to the customers, demaning to all of the employees."

Gallagher, during a telephone interview from his home in California, says the entire incident was blown out of proportion.

"It's the silliest thing ever," he said. "It's so frustrating for me to go there to have to work when Steve Wynn is doing a show that splashes people."

Gallagher was referring to the water show "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas, where he stayed during his gig at Laughlin, driving the 90 miles to perform each night.

"I was staying at the Wynn, which is why no one could find me," Gallagher said. "They hand out towels (in "Le Reve") and ask you if you mind getting splashed -- I invented this."

After his headline-making performance at Riverside, Gallagher says maybe its time he quit. He says he's tired of "(messing) around with people who are drinking -- after 30 years of smashing food, I'm tired of it."

He says he may move forward with a plan he has to develop a resort for family reunions.

"People (at shows) are getting worse in their behavior," Gallagher said. "There are no boundaries anymore. Security guards don't want to say anything. People are running around half-naked. I feel like the dad of the world.

"It's really ironic that I am smart and I would make up such a crazy routine to draw such stupid people."

Gallagher says the fan he allegedly assaulted had helped him out in the show with T-shirts and other chores and in exchange was given free tickets to the show the first two nights.

"He was my plant," Gallagher said.

He said May called him after the show and asked for tickets for the next night.

"He was going to work for me the third night," Gallagher said. "He's the only guy I ever asked to come back and help me a second night."

Gallagher denies 40 people left the show because of the incident says he believes the May's wife may have prompted him to complain about being injured.

"The slap didn't bother him," he said. "Look at his behavior. He stayed the rest of the show. He laughed the loudest -- then he got my T-shirts, and he was the last person to leave the showroom. He never mentioned a thing about the incident."

Gallagher says he was told by a doorman that May's wife seemed upset as they left the hotel.

"I think his wife said he should have been more upset," Gallagher said. "She must have got him riled up enough."

Gallagher said Jernigan was being disingenuous when Jernigan said the comedian wasn't drawing the large crowds he once drew.

"I had about 100 fans at the show, and there were 300 people who had played in the casino's slot tournament," Gallagher said. "They slot tournament players received free tickets as part of the package -- I wasn't there to entertain my fans. I was there so the slot players would have a show."

Gallagher said he was irritated by some of the crowd behavior and by a waitress, who was distracting his show by delivering a beer in the middle of his act.

"When a waitress stands in the spotlight and asks loudly, 'What do you want to drink?' and then people have to get their money out -- it's distracting," he said.

Gallagher says a lot of customers don't know how to show respect at a performance.

"I had three different people at three different times thrown out," he said. "You'd think the crowd would learn their lesson from that."

Gallagher said he was upset that people were yelling for waitresses to bring them drinks, and he had asked that drinks not be served during the last hour of his performance.

"But Roy Jernigan said he couldn't do that -- it was how the casino made money," Gallagher said. "But to allow my show to be interrupted so they can sell a beer is misplaced emphasis."

He said at one point he left the stage and walked to the back of the room to a guy who was yelling for the waitress to bring him a beer.

"I tell the audience, 'Let's all yell, "Where's his beer?" and we did," Gallagher said.

The waitress brought him a beer and Gallagher went back to the stage and then the waitress brought another beer, this one to May.

"I walk across a table -- I do that sometimes in my act -- and I get the beer ant take it back to him and give him a whack," Gallagher said.

Gallagher says the distractions finally got to him.

"I came offstage and said these people arent worth it," he said. "I wasn't nuts, just frustrated and disappointed."

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