I was able to see a performance by Gallagher at his nearly catastrophic show in Sacramento on February 8th, 2003, and I would just like to say that Gallagher has gotten the Sledge-O-Matic down to an art. Watching these old videos really shows me how much better he has gotten at it over the years. He had a whole array of different things to smash at his show that I went to this month, and the splatter flew further than I've ever seen it go in his older videos. One of the few things that I didn't like about Gallagher: Over Your Head was the way he threw a couple of things over his shoulder rather than smashed them. Granted, I think he only did this with a couple of items (a cantaloupe and a pineapple, if I remember correctly), but I just didn't see why he would do that instead of smashing them. That's what people want to see!
This show was also slowed down a little bit by The River Poem, which is certainly something that makes a great comment about the environment and shows how concerned Gallagher is with it, but I was a little put off by it simply because the comedy in the rest of the show was so side-splitting that I didn't want him to take a break from it. There was also a tap-dance routine that didn't fit too well with the rest of the show, and which was followed by Gallagher having a guest on stage to hand him items to smash with the Sledge-O-Matic, and I just prefer to see him do it all himself. I guess I've been spoiled a little by Gallagher: The Maddest, inarguably his best video ever, but even with small shortcomings like these, Gallagher: Over Your Head is another great dose of the brilliant comedy that he always delivers.
