Gallagher recalls roller skating in Bradenton
A million watermelons have been crushed under his Sledge-O-Matic.
Big Macs, fried chicken, containers of cottage cheese, pound cakes and numerous other edible objects have suffered a similar fate.
But Gallagher’s act consists of more than just smashing stuff.
The signature sketch doesn’t come until the finale. Before bringing out the giant wooden mallet, the household-name comic entertains with self-penned jokes and props of his own strange design. The body language with which he sells his observations and objects has played an important role in making people laugh for four decades.
Gallagher attributes his winning stage presence to roller skating. It’s an activity he excelled at while growing up in Tampa and practicing in Manatee County.
“I used to roller skate in Bradenton on a concrete slab that Ellen Meade’s dad had made her,” Gallagher said during a recent phone interview. “I was a champion skater and feel I was able to go into comedy and have confidence because of it. Comedy is so much easier than doing a skating routine. You’re never nervous or unsure because you can’t fall down.”
Born Leo Gallagher in 1946, people called him Butch back in the early 1960s. This was so they wouldn’t confuse the teenager with Leo Gallagher Sr., owner of a roller skate rink on Armenia Avenue in Tampa. Meade and her brother, slow-pitch softball great Bruce Meade, met Gallagher while the three were in the Tampa Skating Club.
“Butch worked for my dad’s Meade House Moving as a carpenter,” Ellen recalled. “He was a few years older than us.”
Before being crowned Miss Florida in 1973, Ellen became the North American National Champion of roller skating at the age of 14. She currently owns and operates Ellen Meade Studios And School of Creative Learning in Bradenton. The rink where Gallagher and countless other area children once skated is now part of the campus on 63rd Avenue East.
“He was very good,” Ellen said of Gallagher. “He did dance, freestyle, he was a wonderful skater.”
The young man who answered to the name “Butch” apparently hasn’t changed much.
“He was always outgoing and boisterous,” she said. “When he walked through door you knew he was there. He’s still the same character. He used to stop in and see us. I would be teaching dance class and he would knock on the window and walk in and the kids would go ‘Oh my, look who’s here.’ ”
Gallagher, who graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in chemical engineering in 1970, has been one of the most recognizable comics alive for decades. His hit specials on Showtime were in heavy rotation for most of the 1980s and later resurfaced on Comedy Central. And when Gallagher performs at the Van Wezel performing Arts Hall in Sarasota on Friday, he’ll be implementing skills he honed on that concrete slab here in Bradenton four decades ago.
“Even though I’m talking on stage, I use my body in ways other comedians don’t,” Gallagher said. “I find I can communicate using my body as I talk. I got that from skating.”
Wade Tatangelo, features writer/columnist, can be reached at (941) 745-7057. Follow him on Twitter: @accentbradenton. His blog, Buzz Worthy, can be found at bradenton.com/blogs.
This story was originally published November 18, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Gallagher recalls roller skating in Bradenton."