Yesterday we reported that produce smashing comedian Leo Anthony Gallagher suffered a heart attack at Hat Trick, a club in Texas that he was scheduled to perform at later that night. This is not the retro comedian’s first heart attack and his latest impairment may have been brought on by mounting stressors in his life.
Gallagher suffered a heart attack almost exactly one year ago at a club in Minnesota while he was on stage; this shocked and frightened the audience.
Gallagher’s manager said that the heart attack was mild to serious and that the star will remain in a Dallas hospital for a few days.
The comedian continues to sell out performances but he has been taking a lot of flack for jesting at homosexuals. Gallagher agreed to appear on WTF with Marc Maron and was badgered until he walked out of the interview. Maron was relentless in suggesting that Gallagher had made a living by degrading homosexuals. Throughout the entire segment Gallagher sounded tense and ready to scream. YouTube users commented on the WTF video that Maron was unreasonable and slanted in his approach.
Another stressor that Gallagher has been living with for years is his problematic relationship with his younger brother Ron. In the early nineties, Leo Gallagher was on top of the world, an internationally recognized comedian with an ever expanding fan base thanks to his Sledge-O-Matic routine. At the same time his brother, Ron Gallagher, was unemployed and down on his luck. The two brothers came to an arrangement. Ron would begin performing Leo’s routine, adopting Leo’s onstage persona as his own. The brothers looked so much alike you would think they were twins. Ron would work the small clubs and out-of-the-way venues that Leo was too big and too busy to perform at. But Ron became greedy and took his impersonations too far- attempting to take away some of Leo’s business and key performances. He started calling his act Gallagher Two and audience members began to think they were seeing Leo, when it was actually Ron; Gallagher fired back and sued him.
At 65 years old this funny man might be in need of some serious R&R. He was scheduled to perform tonight but those appearances are being postponed.
Gallagher became famous after making several appearances on The Tonight Show while host Johnny Carson was absent.