The comedian Gallagher is hospitalized and “slowly recovering” after suffering a heart attack — not his first — just before he was to go onstage at a Texas club Wednesday night.
His promotional manager Christine Scherrer said the 65-year-old prop comic, known for smashing watermelons and whatnot on stage with the “Sledge-o-Matic,” was sedated and stable in the Dallas area, telling CNN on Thursday, “We will not know the outcome until sometime tomorrow.”
Before paramedics arrived, CPR was performed on Gallagher by an employee of the club, Coach Joe’s Hat Tricks in Lewisville, manager Marc Cummins told the Associated Press.
The comic collapsed last year while smashing stuff during a show in Minnesota; the incident was later determined to be caused by a heart attack, Us Weekly said.
The comic, whose full name is Leo Anthony Gallagher, also ran for governor of California in the 2003 recall election, finishing 16th out of 135 candidates.