“Comedy is the release of tension and aggression,” Gallagher was known to say when asked for his definition of his particular art, perhaps not all that surprising an answer for the comic best known for ending his act by taking a mallet to a watermelon, but one that appears to be increasingly revealing as Josh Forbes’ compelling biography of him wears on.
Forbes makes clear from the beginning of “Gallagher” he had something else in mind when first contacting the comedian to tell his life story, reaching out in 2017 to gauge his interest in being the subject of a career-spanning documentary. You see glimpses of that film captured with better quality camera equipment than the rest of “Gallagher” is – between the ensuing COVID lockdown and the number of bridges burnt, a number of interviews with others are audio only — but the comedian, in his seventies and playing small clubs to keep a roof over his head, can be heard a number of times declining to participate, first introduced in person in Florida after some failed negotiations over the phone sitting at a merch table for a gig in Florida where he answers an excited fan’s compliments with a pithy “You’re not getting a shirt?” Although it’s never clear what the arrangement was, Gallagher does take part in a few shoots, taking Forbes around his home town of Sarasota, before concluding “it isn’t funny” and abandoning the production.
In an access-driven era of biographies, this seems like the best thing that could’ve happened to Forbes, who appears to have been poised to make an overly reverential historical corrective for the much-maligned prop comic before actually meeting him, breathlessly calling him “A wordsmith, a poet and a visual absurdist” in the film’s opening minutes as he recalls watching the countless comedy specials he made in the early 1980s when they were on heavy rotation on cable. He actually does make an impressive case for Gallagher as both a kind of avant garde artist who inadvertently tapped into the zeitgeist, buffered by affirmations by fellow fans Bill Burr and Howie Mandel, and an innovative entrepreneur, uniquely suited with his visual brand of comedy to pioneer the TV standup special and plumbing data from the network to find where he could best sell out shows. However, when Gallagher cuts off any direct involvement in the project, the film may be rougher in every regard, but all the richer for it when Forbes is forced to look outside his main subject for perspective and ends up with a better view of someone who never could see himself clearly.
Whereas Gallagher was estranged from his family towards the end of his life in large part due to a lawsuit he filed against his brother Ron, who began impersonating him (at first with his permission) to play gigs under the Gallagher name, Forbes is able to include them all in the film in one way or another, seizing upon recordings made by his daughter Aimee from home videos to audio of his tumultuous final years that shed light on his deep discontent, even in times of success. At one point, Bobcat Goldthwait makes the keen observation that “trying to function as a normal human being the rest of the day is the hard part” for most comedians, and although the film can’t claim to be the first to observe that misery breeds comedy, it provocatively turns around Gallagher’s view of what comedy is for on himself, looking on as his contempt grows for an ever-shrinking audience and the creativity he once applied to real issues he had to turn them into jokes disappeared, leaving only bitter bromides as the spotlight moved away.
Whether one’s memory of Gallagher was at the height of his success or in his precipitous decline, either way reduced typically to a punchline for better or worse, the film proves rewarding for digging deeper, allowing for a real appreciation for what he was able to accomplish regardless of how you found his brand of humor and an understanding of the anger that could be used for fuel until it ultimately engulfed him. When the hammer comes down in “Gallagher,” you can really feel it.
“Gallagher” will be available to stream virtually via the DOC NYC online platform from November 15th through December 1st.