Before smashing success, there was Vegas

By Jerry Fink

Friday, June 19, 2009 | 2 a.m.

It’s been almost five years since Gallagher smashed a watermelon in Las Vegas.

The 62-year-old prop comic brings his Sledge-O-Matic to Boulder Station on Saturday.

Fresh out of college in 1970, Leo Anthony Gallagher came to Las Vegas, worked as a busboy and studied local comedians. He forged a friendship with comic musician Jim Stafford.

“After the show I went up to him and said ‘I think I can write some jokes for you,’ ” Gallagher says. “He said, ‘Are you a comedy writer?’ I said, ‘No, I’m a chemist.’ ”

They worked together for five years.

Gallagher is credited with being the first entertainer to four-wall in Las Vegas — renting a room at the Sands in the mid-’70s.

After his last local engagement — four-walling at the Tuscany in 2005 — Gallagher made news in Laughlin by slapping a fan and settling the lawsuit for $5,000.

Gallagher is nothing if not eccentric. He ran for California governor and battled his brother over his act. And he’s full of ideas — toilets that won’t overflow, a shower head that shuts off when you step away, a solar-powered Coke machine and a patent pending for video hardware for slots.

“I believe the kids playing video games today are not going to put up with grandma’s slot machines,” Gallagher says.