Two Gallaghers: One a Fool, One a Philosopher : Comedian: It'll be penguin costumes for him and for kids this weekend at Knott's as he takes advantage of the lawsuit publicity.

By RICK VANDERKNYFF

Sept. 4, 1993 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

BUENA PARK — For Gallagher, there are two kinds of penguin suits.

There’s the legal kind, as in the recent highly publicized lawsuit that resulted when an Orange County woman alleged that she was injured by a penguin doll used in the comedian’s act. And there’s the kind he’ll be wearing during photo and autograph sessions today and Sunday at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Gallagher also has had 20 little penguin suits made for kids to wear during the sessions. And then there’ll be the live penguins he’s bringing in for the appearances, the giant inflatable penguins that will be at the park entrance, and the name of his current series of live shows: the Vicious Malicious Penguin Tour.

Hmmmm. Could it be that he’s taking advantage of the publicity the lawsuit generated? Gallagher?

The manic comic, best known for smashing a watermelon with a sledgehammer, will perform today and Sunday at 3 and 9 p.m. in Knott’s Calico Square, after the autograph and photo sessions, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days in the Good Time Theatre.

The kiddie penguin suits have pads on the bellies, so kids will be able to slide on the ice in the theater (usually home to an ice-skating show). That’s the kind of attention to detail that Gallagher brings not only to the props he designs for his live shows and TV specials but also, he says, to playtime with his own 5-year-old son, Barney.

During a telephone interview from his home in Agoura, the comic, who is divorced, talked about his day with his son. It had started with a bit of Peter Pan fun and games in the living room: Gallagher had suspended eight feet of bungee cord from the 13-foot ceiling, allowing Barney to dangle--and to decapitate his dolls with a plastic sword.

Later, they were planning to hit the 75 feet of Velcro on the slope in the backyard. Gallagher had installed it with thoughts of climbing but found it was more fun to wet it with a garden hose and then slide down on inflatable pool toys (“There’s all these people with ice plant on their hillsides,” he noted. “They’re really missing out”).

“I get all my ideas from my kids,” he said later. For instance, when daughter Amy went through a phase when she liked to jump on the couch, he had a big couch constructed for his stage act--with a built-in trampoline. “That’s the way I go in my act,” he said. “It’s the child in you I’m trying to entertain.”

His current obsession with penguins has its roots in a series of shows he did at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano in 1990 when there was a penguin in his act--a two-foot model with a fire extinguisher inside. Robin Vann of Rancho Santa Margarita was in the audience Sept. 29, and she claimed that Gallagher threw the penguin and hit her in the head, causing three years of headaches, neck stiffness and back pain.

Gallagher maintained that the penguin slipped from his hands and had fallen harmlessly on the table. Vann sued for lost wages, medical expenses and punitive damages. After a trial last month, a jury sided with Gallagher, deciding he was not responsible for the injuries. Vann has said she will appeal.

Gallagher says he offered Vann $22,000 to drop the suit (not in an admission of guilt but to avoid a trial) but that she turned it down. He went into the trial, he said, with no idea of the media circus it would become. “I didn’t figure anything was going to the come out of this. I didn’t call the media, (the plaintiff) did.”

In any case, he put on a stellar performance, bantering with the jury, answering questions from the plaintiff’s attorney sarcastically and even drawing chuckles from the judge. “I hadn’t hurt anybody and I wasn’t going to get railroaded,” he said this week. “They were painting this wrong picture of what occurred.”

He’s still incredulous over the whole episode. “I watch baseball games, and people get hit with foul balls. What world does she live in? I mean, get serious. I’m Gallagher--don’t they know what they’re in for?”

Still, he insists that had he had been responsible for any injuries, he would have paid for them. He is determined, though, not to let the suit interfere with his rambunctious stage manner (for the record, his own injuries have included two broken arms, a chipped tooth and a dislocated elbow).

“I’m mostly encouraged by the support I’ve gotten. . . . Most of my audience is my friends,” he said. “I’m not going to live my life afraid. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and this is my first lawsuit.”

He also is not going to let all that free exposure get away without taking some advantage of it, and he’s the first to admit that. He said he’s still trying to put his finger on just why the suit so captured the public imagination. “There was something about the idea of a penguin being malicious.”

During the interview, he spoke on one phone line and sent a stream of faxes on the other: T-shirt design drawings of himself holding back a chained and ferocious-looking penguin, and encyclopedia illustrations of all the penguin species. He said he has talked to officials of the Los Angeles Zoo about helping them expand their penguin exhibit.

“I’m running with this penguin idea,” he said, a bit of understatement.

* Gallagher will perform today and Sunday at 3 and 9 p.m. in Calico Square at Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, and will sign autographs both days from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Knott’s Good Time Theatre. Admission to the shows is included with regular park admission, $15.95 to $25.95. (714) 220-5200.