Punter calls police after comic's slap

A comedy fan has called police after a stand-up slapped him in the head during a show.

American comic Gallagher, who is best known for smashing watermelons with a sledgehammer, insisted he was only joking when he gave front-row fan William Edwin May III a playful slap on the side of the head

But the 40-year-old fan filed a report with Las Vegas police, saying: “It was a helluva lot more than a smack.”

Gallagher, 58, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was just joshing with May, who was talking to a waitress instead of concentrating on Tuesday night's show.

He said: "It got a laugh, and that's what this is about.

 "I don't think I hit him very hard. He stayed and laughed for 45 minutes. ... He was among the loudest laughers."

He added that his performance had been blighted by repeated interruptions from rowdy hecklers when he intervened to stop May’s conversation.

"It's a difficult situation because the ones in the front are dumb and stupid, and they'd been drinking.  

“When the waitress comes to the front and steals the spotlight, it's extremely distracting to the magical moments I'm trying to create."

Roy Jernigan of the Don Laughlin's Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino. where the incident happened, said the audience were offended by Gallagher's insults to the waitress.

"The customers were scared," he said. "About 40 people got up and left immediately" after the incident. "The waitress started crying. He [Gallagher] was totally out of control."

Waitress service is the norm in US comedy clubs, which tend not to operate with an interval as they do in the UK.

Published: 2 Jun 2005