{"id":1827,"date":"2009-07-29T00:12:29","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T04:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2009-07-28T23:13:34","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T03:13:34","slug":"excerpt-from-the-chris-farley-show-a-biography-in-three-acts-by-tom-farley-jr-and-tanner-colby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts<\/em> and will have the review up soon.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s mostly comprised of interviews with the friends, family and co-workers of Chris.\u00c2\u00a0 Below is Chapter 6 from the book and is a good example of the format used to tell the story of Chris Farley.\u00c2\u00a0 (Thanks to FSB Associates<\/a> for providing the excerpt.)<\/p>\n

Super Fan
\nby Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby,
\nAuthors of The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

CONAN O’ BRIEN<\/strong>, writer:<\/em>
\nWhen Chris first got to the show, I met him hanging out in the\u00c2\u00a0conference room outside Lorne’s office. He was dressed kind of like a\u00c2\u00a0kid going to a job interview. We chatted for a bit. I liked him right\u00c2\u00a0away.<\/p>\n

I came in and out of that conference room several times during the\u00c2\u00a0day, and Chris was still waiting. Lorne would do that to you, make you\u00c2\u00a0wait a long time. At the end of the day, I was feeling bad for him, so\u00c2\u00a0I said, “Hey, kid. I’ll show you around the studio,” and I led him on\u00c2\u00a0kind of a mock tour where I pretended to be in charge of everyone.\u00c2\u00a0Chris fell in and started playing along with me. After that I left and\u00c2\u00a0went home. I came back to work the next day, and Chris was still\u00c2\u00a0waiting outside Lorne’s office.<\/p>\n

He had this energy, even when he was sitting there waiting for his\u00c2\u00a0meeting, rocking back and forth in his ill-fitting sports jacket with\u00c2\u00a0his tie all pulled off to the side. He seemed really earnest about\u00c2\u00a0doing the show. You just had the feeling that he was going to be a lot\u00c2\u00a0of fun and he belonged here. It was like the show — and I don’t mean\u00c2\u00a0this to sound condescending — but it was like the show had been given\u00c2\u00a0this new golden retriever puppy.<\/p>\n

From the day he arrived at Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley was already suffering comparisons to the other outrageous, larger-than-life figure in SNL history: John Belushi. When Chris died seven years later, eerily, at the same age as Belushi, those comparisons became\u00c2\u00a0gospel. In truth the two men shared far more differences than\u00c2\u00a0similarities. Still, in life and in death, Chris has borne the\u00c2\u00a0accusation of trying too hard to follow in Befushi’s footsteps — an\u00c2\u00a0accusation with varying shades of truth. Yes, Chris looked up to and\u00c2\u00a0admired his predecessor, but whatever influence Belushi’s ghost had on\u00c2\u00a0a young Chris Farley paled in comparison to the truly dominant forces\u00c2\u00a0in his life: his father, his family, and his faith. As far as drugs\u00c2\u00a0and alcohol went, Chris’s bad habits were very much his own, seeded in\u00c2\u00a0his DNA and showing up at keg parties long before Belushi’s demise.\u00c2\u00a0And if Chris followed Belushi in more positive ways, he was hardly\u00c2\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n

In the comedy epidemic of the twentieth century, John Belushi was\u00c2\u00a0Patient Zero. The twin blockbuster successes of Saturday Night Live\u00c2\u00a0and National Lampoon’s Animal House fundamentally changed the landscape of being funny. Movie studios began churning out huge blockbuster comedies like Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop. Stars like Eddie\u00c2\u00a0Murphy, Mike Myers, and Jim Carrey beat a well-trod path from sketch-comedy cult status to Hollywood fame and fortune. Second City and\u00c2\u00a0ImprovOlympic grew from regional theaters into multiheaded corporate\u00c2\u00a0enterprises, churning out hundreds of aspiring comedians every year\u00c2\u00a0and spawning scores of other schools and venues across the country.\u00c2\u00a0 Chris Farley and his friends were the first generation born into and\u00c2\u00a0weaned on that era. Their reverence for it and obsession with it was\u00c2\u00a0the common denominator that bound them together.<\/p>\n

It all began in 1975 when producer Lorne Michaels assembled the\u00c2\u00a0original cast of SNL and took to the air live from New York every\u00c2\u00a0Saturday night. Following his departure in 1980, producer Dick Ebersol\u00c2\u00a0took over the show. Ebersol presided over some difficult years but\u00c2\u00a0also cultivated the stardom of Eddie Murphy and assembled the all-star\u00c2\u00a0cast of Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Martin Short.<\/p>\n

In 1985, Lorne Michaels returned. The show needed new direction, and\u00c2\u00a0he needed a job. After a rocky start, he went back to the drawing\u00c2\u00a0board in 1986 and assembled the cast — Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan\u00c2\u00a0 Hooks, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson, and\u00c2\u00a0Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller — that would breathe new life\u00c2\u00a0into the show. Mike Myers came aboard in ’89, but otherwise no visible\u00c2\u00a0changes where made, or needed, for the rest of the eighties.<\/p>\n

Then, in the fall of 1990, a slow transition began to take place. Nora\u00c2\u00a0Dunn and Jon Lovitz left; Chris Farley and Chris Rock entered. Far\u00c2\u00a0younger than the established cast, the two became fast friends and\u00c2\u00a0 soon found themselves sharing an office. Farley and Rock were the only\u00c2\u00a0performers added that fall. Tim Meadows, Chris’s Second City cast\u00c2\u00a0mate, would come on board at midseason.<\/p>\n

Back in the writers’ room, Jim Downey, a freshman writer in SNL’s\u00c2\u00a0early years, had assumed the reins of head writer and producer. At the\u00c2\u00a0core of the writing staff was a group that had led the resurgence from\u00c2\u00a0 the show’s mid-eighties nadir: Robert Smiget, Jack Handey, Bob\u00c2\u00a0 Odenkirk, and Conan O’Brien. Meanwhile, Tom Schiller, Al Franken, Tom\u00c2\u00a0Davis, and Marilyn Suzanne Miller — also veterans of the show’s\u00c2\u00a0original writing staff — had all come back for an additional go-round. Added to that was a very young team of stand-up comedians –\u00c2\u00a0Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Rob Schneider — whose age and sense of\u00c2\u00a0humor would ultimately bring about a generational shift at the show.\u00c2\u00a0Both on camera and off, SNL found itself with a varsity squad and a\u00c2\u00a0junior-varsity squad. It was an odd mix of talent, but it worked well.\u00c2\u00a0For a while.<\/p>\n

Chris arrived in New York in October. His older brother, Tom, had\u00c2\u00a0lived in the city for many years, and together they found an apartment\u00c2\u00a0for Chris on Seventh Avenue, just north of Times Square and right\u00c2\u00a0around the corner from the show’s Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center. The\u00c2\u00a0canyons of midtown Manhattan were a striking contrast to the cozy\u00c2\u00a0comforts of Chicago’s Old Town, but Chris soon discovered the Carnegie\u00c2\u00a0Deli, St. Malachy’s Church on West Forty-ninth Street, and a fine\u00c2\u00a0Irish pub called The Fiddler’s Green, all within a small walking\u00c2\u00a0radius. He had made his home again, scarcely able to believe what that\u00c2\u00a0new home was. As many latter-day SNL writers and performers have said,\u00c2\u00a0anyone who works at the show is a fan of the show, first and foremost.\u00c2\u00a0And Chris was surely that.<\/p>\n

ROBERT SMIGEL<\/strong>, writer\/coproducer:<\/em><\/p>\n

I was a coproducer as well as a writer, and so I got to go with Lorne\u00c2\u00a0to Chicago to scout the Second City show. Hiring Chris was probably\u00c2\u00a0the easiest casting decision Lorne’s ever had to make. In all the\u00c2\u00a0shows I scouted before or after, I’d never seen anybody leap out at\u00c2\u00a0you from the stage the way Chris did. Lorne hired him the next day.<\/p>\n

JIM DOWNEY<\/strong>, head writer\/producer:<\/em><\/p>\n

There was so much buzz about Farley that our checking him out was\u00c2\u00a0almost pro forma. It was kind of automatic.<\/p>\n

LORNE MICHAELS<\/strong>, executive producer:<\/em><\/p>\n

I’d had something of a concern that maybe he was too big, personality-wise, to play on television. Theatrically, he was sort of playing to\u00c2\u00a0the back of the house. But after we saw him, there really wasn’t much\u00c2\u00a0doubt.<\/p>\n

ROBERT SMIGEL<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Lorne invited me to be in on his meeting with Chris. Chris showed up,\u00c2\u00a0and he was in full altar-boy mode, lots of “yes, sirs” and bright-eyed\u00c2\u00a0alertness. He was so transparently on his best behavior that you kind\u00c2\u00a0of had to laugh and wonder if it was inversely proportional to his\u00c2\u00a0worst behavior. Lorne talked about the show and what would be expected\u00c2\u00a0of him, and Chris just kept sweetly nodding his head in agreement.\u00c2\u00a0Lorne had been told, at that point, about Chris’s problems. I don’t\u00c2\u00a0remember exactly what he said, but he told Chris, in so many words,\u00c2\u00a0that it wouldn’t be tolerated. He even said something to the effect of\u00c2\u00a0“We don’t want another Belushi.”<\/p>\n

LORNE MICHAELS<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

It wasn’t presented to us that Chris had any sort of problem, just\u00c2\u00a0that he was still a little young and liked to party too much.<\/p>\n

TOM FARLEY:<\/strong><\/p>\n

All the cast and writers were sort of strolling in over the course of\u00c2\u00a0that first week. Chris immediately gravitated to this younger, newer\u00c2\u00a0crowd of writers and actors: Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, and David\u00c2\u00a0Spade. They were coming on as writers. The only two new cast members\u00c2\u00a0were Chris and Chris Rock. They got all the press.<\/p>\n

DAVID SPADE,<\/strong> cast member:<\/em><\/p>\n

I had done four shows as a writer\/performer. Then it was summer break,\u00c2\u00a0and when I got back Farley and Rock came on as featured players.\u00c2\u00a0Sandler came about six months later.<\/p>\n

I met Chris the first day, walking over from the Omni Berkshire, where\u00c2\u00a0SNL had put us up. I saw him downstairs, and I’d heard about him. We\u00c2\u00a0talked and then we walked over to 30 Rock together. I thought he was\u00c2\u00a0funny. He was a nice Wisconsin dude, a genuine, sweet guy. I was out\u00c2\u00a0from Arizona. I’m not really a bad guy. We just gravitated to hanging\u00c2\u00a0out all the time and stayed buddies ever since.<\/p>\n

MARCI KLEIN,<\/strong> talent coordinator:<\/em><\/p>\n

I first met him the day he started. He was wearing this English\u00c2\u00a0driving cap and looking very Irish. He was very quiet and deferential,\u00c2\u00a0very nervous, like I was the person in charge or something, which I\u00c2\u00a0thought was funny, because I wasn’t. He would get so nervous; that was\u00c2\u00a0one of the things that was really charming about him.<\/p>\n

CHRIS ROCK,<\/strong> cast member:<\/em><\/p>\n

We both got hired the same day, which was probably one of the greatest\u00c2\u00a0days of my life. We were the new guys, and they threw us together. The\u00c2\u00a0funny thing was that everyone was worried about me — I lived in\u00c2\u00a0 Brooklyn and didn’t want to move to Manhattan, because I couldn’t park\u00c2\u00a0on the street and I couldn’t get a cab. I said it in the Live from New\u00c2\u00a0York book: Two guys named Chris both get hired on the same day and\u00c2\u00a0share an office. One’s a black guy from Bed-Stuy and one’s a white guy\u00c2\u00a0from Madison, Wisconsin. Now, which one is going to OD?<\/p>\n

The above is an excerpt from the book The Chris Farley Show: A\u00c2\u00a0
\nBiography in Three Acts<\/em> by Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby. The\u00c2\u00a0
\nabove excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print.\u00c2\u00a0
\nAlthough this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear\u00c2\u00a0
\ndue to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for\u00c2\u00a0
\naccuracy.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00c2\u00a9 2009 Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby, authors of The\u00c2\u00a0
\nChris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts<\/p>\n

Author Bios<\/strong>
\nTom Farley, Jr., author of The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three\u00c2\u00a0
\nActs, and Chris’s older brother, is president and managing director of\u00c2\u00a0
\nthe Chris Farley Foundation, which educates young people about\u00c2\u00a0
\nsubstance abuse and addiction. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

Tanner Colby, co-author of The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three\u00c2\u00a0
\nActs<\/em>, is former head writer of The National Lampoon Radio Hour<\/em> and\u00c2\u00a0
\ncoauthor of Belushi: A Biography<\/em>. He lives in New York City.<\/p>\n

For more information please visit http:\/\/www.thechrisfarleyshow.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts and will have the review up soon.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s mostly comprised of interviews with the friends, family and co-workers of Chris.\u00c2\u00a0 Below is Chapter 6 from the book and is a good example of the format used to tell the story of Chris Farley.\u00c2\u00a0 (Thanks… Continue reading Excerpt from The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley, Jr., and Tanner Colby<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24,182,181,183,185,184],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","tag-book","tag-chris-farley","tag-excerpt","tag-tanner-colby","tag-the-chris-farley-show-a-biography-in-three-acts","tag-tom-farley-jr","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t