UPDATE: Craig Marquardo, reportedly Gallagher's long-time manager, told The Huffington Post today that Gallagher exaggerated how broke he is in the interview above. After giving away most of his assets to his adult children, Marquardo said that Gallagher "chooses to stay in hotels," as opposed to his home in California, during his retirement as he travels to seek partners for his slot machine software patent.
"He's broke because he doesn't have $3 million anymore, and that's broke to him," Marquardo said. "Trust me, we'd all like to be as broke as Gallagher right now."
Marquardo said that Gallagher just finished shooting a Geico commercial that, "at the end of the day will be at or close to a 6-figure paycheck." He still receives royalties and is an aggressive day-trader, betting on upward trends in the markets, which as he describes in the interview above doesn't always work out.
"He has plenty but he just doesn't need it," Marquardo said. "He just doesn't care. He dresses like a hobo because that's how he dresses. He's a very unqiue bird."
Marquardo also said that he is in the process of getting Gallagher's license back after an unpaid ticket caused it to be suspended.
PREVIOUSLY: Leo Gallagher, the watermelon-smashing comedian who suffered a heart attack last March, revealed on a local Ohio radio show last week that he has lost most of his money, is living out of hotels and has had his drivers license suspended, among other hardships.
The 65-year-old comedian co-hosted the show, "Over Breakfast with Scott Spears & Company" on WDCM radio last week, as Laughspin reported. In a video clip posted today, he reveals to Spears the sad conditions of his post-heart attack life:
"Not only do I have no place to live -- I have a credit card and I can stay in hotels -- but I can’t drive, [...] California suspended my license," Gallagher said.
In the interview above, the iconic comedian goes on to explain how he lost it all "betting on America," first investing in a pharmaceutical company called Immtech that claimed to have a revolutionary new AIDS medication which led to his losing over half-a-million dollars. Then, in an attempt to recuperate his loss, he became even more aggressive with his bets, losing again and again, until "it was all gone."
When Spears asked how it feels to lose a fortune, Gallagher explained that it's ultimately what led to his heart attack:
"It's shocking. You're numb. You wander around and you don't want to tell your family. And you just figure, 'Oh well, I don't get to retire now, I'll have to keep working,' and so I did that until I finally had a heart attack. And that's where I'm at now."
Despite his losses -- Gallagher was worth $3 million after taxes at the height of his wealth in the 1980s -- Gallagher is still counting on an investment to reclaim his money.
"I've got a patent on the new software for slot machines and I think I could be rich all over, all over again," he said.
Gallagher has given most of his leftover assets to his children for fear that they would be left to deal with legal problems after his death. At one point, Spears reminds him that he's not dead yet, to which he flatly replies, "I died in March."
"I thought I was done," Gallagher said. "It's hard to get involved in life again; it's almost like losing all your money."
When asked if he still likes smashing watermelons to this day, Gallagher offered another melancholy response, saying he "doesn't care" and that he lets others do it, "because they need memories." He does, however, remember his entire Sledge-O-Matic bit from his early routine, reciting almost the entire tongue-twisting monologue at the end of the video above.
It's hard not to feel bad for the comedian as he describes his day-to-day routine of sleeping in a Super 8 motel, walking to a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and picking up discarded objects along the road. At one point he frames his hardships in an almost poetic manner, reflecting his disappointment with the American dream:
"I see things on the side of the road, which, of course, I’d never see if I just drove by. And I pick up these things, because, to me, it tells me about the society, and I find parts of cars and they’re important parts—and I wonder how the car is driving without that part now. It just seems odd to me. We’re known by the things we leave behind. It’s kind of like I’m an archeologist of the society now, instead of digging deep in the dirt. You don’t find shards of pots in America these days, but you do find car parts."
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