STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Gallagher

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Gallagher’s comedy career. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

As long as I’ve loved comedy (which is just shy of thirty years), I’ve loved Gallagher. Yes, I openly admit that I’ve been a huge fan of the prop comic, having grown up on his comedy and being able to have enjoyed it into adulthood. Hell, I’ve even gotten some watermelon on me a couple of times in my life. So while it saddened me to hear of the legendary comedian’s retirement this year, I was delighted to learn that he wasn’t leaving without one last hurrah. Gallagher’s second and final comedy CD, I Am Who I Pretend To Be (via Uproar Entertainment)  is a stand-up only, no-holds-barred grand finale that only he could pull off.

Taped at the Ice House in Pasadena, I Am Who I Pretend To Be may not include any fruit-smashing (which would be pointless anyway, as it’s a CD), but it’s a nonstop hour of shameless, cutting humor that fans have come to love from the comedian. Fitting for a final performance, Gallagher infuses newer humor with older themes to point out the absurdity in humankind. No one is spared from Gallagher’s sharp tongue: men, women, heterosexual couples, the French (the French aren’t spared anything as Gallagher lambasts our usage of their vocabulary).

Here’s where I would normally point out things that could have  been done differently or improved upon, but we’re talking about Gallagher here. In the world of stand-up comedy, Gallagher is pretty much in his own class. It’s also his last performance before he hangs up his hat, so really, there’s no point in nit-picking (even if I don’t think he needs to explain why Jesus would have loved Twitter).

Before he closes his last show, Gallagher treats his audience to some pearls of wisdom, with the delightful accompaniment from a sitar: “They say that cleanliness is next to godliness,” he muses. “But I looked it up. Goggles is next to godliness.”

If you’re half the Gallagher fan that I am, you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of I Am Who I Pretend To Be as soon as possible. It will be one of the most hilarious ways you’ll spend an hour. Pre-order it today at Amazon.

GRADE: A

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