What Is the Word for ‘Gallagher en espan~ol’?

The idea first came to Gallagher last winter in Puerto Rico. Or maybe it was Aruba. Well, it doesn’t really matter; from inside a hotel room, they look pretty much the same anyway.

Besides, the important thing is that an idea came. When you make your living smashing overripe fruit with a 16-pound mallet, you take your revelations when and where you can get them.

“I thought to myself, ‘These aren’t foreign countries,’ ” the melon-mashing comedian recounts. “It’s more of America, just outside the country. I said, ‘I can work in these places.’

“I mean, I smack food and tell jokes. Why can’t I work everywhere?”

The real stumbling block keeping Gallagher from a hemisphere-wide tour, however, was language. Most of the people in the region speak Spanish and he didn’t.

“This was crazy. Here I am flying away from 10-11 million people to find an audience of 2,000 in some little town in the Midwest,” says Gallagher, who lives in Agoura Hills and has averaged more than 100 shows a year, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast, during the past two decades. “If I could speak Spanish, I could work near the house. I’ve got a son who’s 10 years old; I’m getting tired of telling him I have to go to Wyoming to get a couple of bucks.

“If all I have to do is learn a few words of Spanish, I’ll do it. What’s the big problem?”

So Gallagher spent the last month teaching himself Spanish, translating his act and recruiting Spanish-speaking comedians Dyana Ortelli and Vic Dunlop and the Miami-based rock en espanol band Fulano de Tal to fill out the bill. The results of that effort go on display for the first time Thursday and July 2 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and July 3 in Escondido as “Gallagher en espanol: La Fiesta Grande.”

“Gallagher is committed to being the first one to cross over into the Spanish market,” Dunlop says. “These few shows are a testing ground. He may lose money on these three ventures. I just like the fact that Gallagher has the [guts] to try this.”

Dunlop, who is helping Gallagher write the show, says choosing which jokes to translate has proven a challenge.

“It has to translate so that it’s understood and funny in both languages,” he says. “We can’t do wordplay. We’re going for colorful. Gallagher is very visual.”

For his part, Gallagher insists the crossover is not a career move but “an adventure.”

“I already have an audience that supports my lifestyle quite well,” he says. “I don’t care about the money. What you look for in life is a mountain you can climb and something you can get involved with. And this is what I’ve found. I love it when people tell me I can’t do something.”

Not everyone agrees the motive was simply personal growth, however. One comedy industry source says that although Gallagher continues to sell out tiny concert halls and civic auditoriums in places like Toledo, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Charlotte, N.C., his traditional audience may have tired of his shtick, leaving him searching for new fans.

“After the success of Ricky Martin, [entertainers] should be trying to translate their act into Spanish or simply labeling themselves as Latino even if they’re Jewish,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. “There’s a void there.”

Indeed, there are just a handful of comics--Paul Rodriguez and L.A. character actor and stand-up comic Brandon Scott--who work in Spanish in the U.S.

“All these Spanish comics work in English,” Gallagher observes. “Why are they called Latino comedians if they’re not speaking in Spanish?”

An interview with Gallagher quickly becomes more audition than inquiry, with the comedian bouncing away on stream-of-consciousness tangents about people who wear socks with sandals, a satellite telescope that was shot into orbit out of focus and the origin of the term “lap dance.”

“Here, let me try this one on you,” he says. Then, in rudimentary Spanish, he launches into a tirade about people who buy home gyms to build muscles but store them in garages with electric doors.

Gallagher’s Spanish is still very much a work in progress. His accent can be difficult to understand, he repeatedly stresses the wrong syllable and occasionally uses feminine nouns with masculine articles. But, he insists, all that simply adds to the act.

“I think that when I do get better at this, I’ll lose my charm,” he says. Yet he does intend to get better. Though the early ticket sales were anything but brisk, if next week’s shows do well there are plans to take the act to Corpus Christi, Texas, in August and to Latin America beyond that.

* “Gallagher en espanol: La Fiesta Grande,” Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. Thursday and July 2, 8 p.m. $21.50-$26.50. (562) 916-8500; California Center for the Arts-Escondido, 340 N. Escondido, July 3, 8 p.m. $21-$26. (800) 988-4253.