When the pandemic started, most theater performances, workshops and other art-related gatherings stopped — including those at the UJAC. But Galligan, a Brooklyn-based comedian, performer and teaching artist, has been with the UJAC through it all. Galligan, a resident artist with UJAC, started leading creative retreats in the area with his theater collective “Slugfest” in 2019. Once the pandemic started, he was the videographer for the January Jams when they went virtual in 2021, and he started leading some workshops at the Recovery Lounge in summer 2021. It was during this time that he and “Banana” Director and Slugfest member Bailey Nassetta found a banana costume and began to meditate on what it means to be the world’s most popular fruit.

That mediation turned into an exploration of vulnerability, isolation and masculinity, which turned into Galligan’s new solo comedy show, “Banana.” This journey of mediation and self-discovery — sparked from an external source — is what Galligan has dubbed the “banana moment.”

Galligan gave two performances of “Banana” at the Recovery Lounge on Saturday, the beginning of a tour that includes stops in Portland, Maine and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in Scotland. The show is a “banana burlesque” of sorts, Galligan said, peeling away the exterior of the human experience.

On Sunday, more than a dozen locals came back to the Recovery Lounge to participate in a workshop led by Galligan, where he invited participants to find their own banana moment. One participant even brought a bunch of bananas as inspiration.

The Upper Jay Arts Center Recovery Lounge building is seen here on Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

“If there’s banana mush, sorry,” Galligan said to participants as they gathered around the Recovery Lounge’s stage, the site of Saturday’s “Banana” performances.

Gabrielle Shutz, who took over as the UJAC’s artistic director after the center’s founder and nearly 20-year director Scott Renderer stepped down this past September, was one of the workshop’s players on Sunday. Before they gathered to sway, mime and laugh together, Shutz said she was feeling good about where the UJAC is at right now. After a long pandemic pause, she said Galligan’s new show is one among many recent events at the center that have contributed to a feeling that the center’s activity is “ramping back up.”

Galligan said he’s working on developing the “banana theory” now — the idea that the popularity of bananas connects people because everyone has had an experience with the fruit. As his workshop progressed, the banana theory expanded to include more than fruit as people expressed universal emotions of desire, joy and fear.

After one workshop participant said she was worried that she wouldn’t be “funny” enough in the workshop, Galligan said it was OK. It’s not about being funny, he said — it’s about being yourself.

“Who knew that a banana could hold so much?” Nassetta said.

Michael Galligan, center, a Brooklyn-based comedian, performer and teaching artist, leads a workshop for a group of more than a dozen locals at the Upper Jay Arts Center Recovery Lounge on Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)