Chris Farley: Anything For The Laugh #sponsored

When it comes to comedic talent and presence,

it's hard not to look back and remember Chris Farley.

His career was exceptionally brief, but in the time he had,

he made an undeniable mark on the world.

From his early years in Wisconsin to his days in Chicago doing improv to

the world of sketch comedy in New York City on SNL

and finally to Hollywood.

Farley accomplished a great deal in the time he had.

For 33 years, Chris Farley brought joy to all those he met.

Anyone who got a brief moment with Farley knew that he was something special.

He was a complicated man who would have had an even greater career had

he had the chance.

His life is a mix of triumph and tragedy, luck and consequences,

laughter and torture.

This is the tragic story of Chris Farley,

the comedian who wanted nothing more than to bring people joy

and laughter and to be loved.

Welcome back to Biographics.

I'm your host, Eric Malikite, and today's script was provided by James CJ.

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On February 15th, 1964 in Madison, Wisconsin, Christopher Crosby Farley was born.

Farley was one of five children born into an Irish Catholic family.

His mother, Mary Anne Farley, was a homemaker, while his father, Thomas Farley, Senior,

was the owner of Scotch Oil.

Chris Farley was their third child after Barbara

and Tom Jr. and before Kevin

and John.

As a result of their father's success in business, they relocated to Maple Bluff,

Wisconsin, an idealic and affluent suburb of the 20th century.

Over the course of 15 years, the family lived in four separate homes,

each bigger than the last, living well and living the American dream.

The Farley's were pillars of their community, heavily involved, always throwing parties,

and Chris's father was the life of the party,

qualities Chris would pick up on and adopt.

The truth was, the Farley family wasn't always thriving.

However, Thomas Farley senior was skilled at maintaining appearances.

In one instance, the kids were removed from their parochial schools

and sent to public schools during a rough patch at Thomas Senior's business.

Growing up in a Catholic household, Farley himself was pretty religious.

While some of his siblings believed he was more superstitious than religious,

he'd continued practicing his Catholicism throughout his life.

As a kid and teenager in Maple Bluff, Chris was popular.

According to his brother Kevin Farley, he was known for getting everyone together,

starting up games, and having an easy time making friends.

Chris was known as a wild and crazy person who loved to have fun.

While this was true, it was also a defense mechanism, a weapon to use.

Chris, for the majority of his life,

struggled with his weight and was the fat kid.

So, the class clown persona

and his joining the football team was the insulation he needed to ensure he

wasn't the butt of the joke.

He'd only be the joke on his own terms, not anybody else's.

Something that started early for Farley was his vices.

He was 17 when he had his first drink.

He was at a party where he was given a drink,

and although he didn't like it at first, he continued to indulge.

He stated when recalling this fateful evening

that Wolf Down about two of them no problem.

And I remember hearing stuff like, "Man, I thought he was wild before,

and now he's really going to be a wild man."

This instilled in him something he'd always been chasing, acceptance and fitting in.

So every weekend he'd get blind drunk with his friends

and be the life of the party.

This never stopped in more ways than one,

and it would only get worse as he got older.

By 1986, Chris Farley had graduated from Marquette University.

He double majored in theater and communications while also playing rugby union.

How Farley came to love comedy was a combination of two things.

For starters, it was the many summers he'd attended Camp Red Arrow near Monacqua,

Wisconsin.

He'd often be cast in their plays

and enjoy great success due to his natural comedic ability,

specifically physical comedy.

Visiting parents who'd seen Farley act from a young age were amazed at his

natural gift and ability to connect with audiences.

However, it was primarily at college

that he truly began to realize his love of comedy,

particularly through his participation in stage plays.

It would take a few more years before he could truly capitalize on this

newfound passion,

though.

His first postcol job was working for his father at Scotch Oil,

while he also began learning improv at the Ark Improv Theater.

From here, his career in comedy began

as he took his growing talent to Chicago,

where he joined the Second City Theater,

a move that many great comedians have undertaken at some point in their careers.

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The decision to leave

and take a chance in Chicago wasn't necessarily an easy one for Farley.

The main reason that he'd come to the conclusion

that he needed to escape Wisconsin was

that after a year of working for his father's company,

he knew it was leading to a life he didn't want.

In the end, with the support of his family, Farley made the move,

taking the risk that would ultimately pay off.

Barley's siblings thought he'd last 6 months before coming home,

but that was far from the reality.

He left and never looked back.

It was June 1987

when Chris arrived in Chicago to try to join Second City.

He stayed off Armmitage Avenue in a small apartment.

He learned quickly that breaking out in the renowned comedy institution wouldn't be easy

as he was untrained

and fresh off the bus.

In the meantime, he joined Improv Olympic.

At the time, Improv Olympic was a fledgling outfit of vagabond comedians.

However, it would later become an established industry mainstay,

producing talent such as Tina Fey, Mike Myers, Steven Colbear, and many more.

During the day, Farley worked odd jobs to make ends meet.

At night, he tore the house down on stage,

proving he was a talent to watch.

In the book, The Chris Farley Show, a biography in three acts,

Farley's friend and contributor to the book, Pat Finn,

said Farley must have had something like 40 jobs during that time.

He even spoke specifically to a moment where the two walked down the street,

and Chris pointed out all the places he'd worked, saying, "Well,

I worked at the butcher shop for like an hour and they fired me.

Then, I got a job at the hardware store the day after the butcher

shop,

but I was really tired cuz I'd had to get up

so early for the butcher shop,

you know.

So, I fell asleep on some boxes in the back.

His string of losing jobs proved he needed to make it in comedy

because for him,

that was all that really mattered.

It was the only thing he gave all his effort and attention to.

Thankfully, his parents were footing the bill for most of Farley's expenses,

meaning he didn't necessarily need to worry a whole lot about money.

After 18 months of bouncing around from job to job

and working with Improv Olympic,

Chris finally got his chance to join Second City.

He auditioned for the Second City's touring company in January 1989

and got the job.

Within a matter of weeks, he was part of the mainstage ensemble,

a position that most performers took months, if not years, to achieve.

Similar to Improv Olympic, he'd spend 18 months at Second City performing in reviews,

touring, and growing his reputation.

Farley worked alongside Tim Meadows,

with whom he continued working for years in their next job.

As is somewhat common in comedy, behind the scenes, behind the jokes and laughter,

Chris Farley was an addict.

He was drinking heavily and taking drugs constantly.

It was something many people knew.

Tim Meadows noted that

while they all drank

and all did their fair share of other things,

he noticed with Farley, like with everything he did, it was more intense.

Meadows also stated Chris was both a messy drunk

and a different person

when drunk,

constantly getting louder and up in your face.

Farley's friend Ted Dondanville described drinking with Chris as follows.

The first hour of drinking with Chris was fun.

The second hour was the best hour of your life.

The rest of the night was pure hell.

Many attempts were made to help Farley fight his demons,

but he often rejected the help.

This would follow Chris for the rest of his days

and play a part in his downfall.

In early 1990, Lauren Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live,

saw Chris Farley in action

and knew he had to have him in his cast.

He flew Chris to New York on March 24th, 1990 for an informal meeting.

At the time, Farley was working on his second review for Second City,

and it would be what helped him land the SNL job.

Thanks to a character

that fellow Second City performer

and SNL writer Bob Odenkirk helped Farley create,

the motivational speaker, a character

that would follow him for the rest of his career.

It was with that performance that Michaels was sold and hired him.

Chris Farley was announced

as one of the new cast members of Saturday Night Live

or SNL for the 1990 season.

Farley was taking his talents to the small screen.

Landing a job on Saturday Night Live is still a big deal to this

day.

The sketch comedy series, which has been on the air since 1975,

has produced some of the biggest names in comedy as a result.

But when Farley was offered the job,

he wasn't 100% sure he should do it.

And as confident and irreverent as Farley was,

he was also constantly doubting himself and needed reassurance.

He asked everyone what they thought he should do,

and they all said the same thing: Take the damn job.

Regardless of the overwhelming consensus from everyone,

he still went round and round on it.

He had grown extremely comfortable in Chicago.

His apartment was close to Second City, the bar, and his church.

He was afraid to leave it all behind.

Eventually, it was his family that pushed him towards going,

including seeing him off at the airport,

knowing this was what was going to change everything.

During Farley's tenure on SNL, he quickly became a fan favorite.

The season he featured in saw him become part of the bad boys of

SNL,

which also included fellow cast members Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Tim Meadows,

and Chris Rock.

They earned this group name thanks to their outrageous comedy styles.

Additionally, the group became close friends

and often still show up in each other's movies.

Had Farley lived long enough,

he'd likely have continued acting with the Bad Boys of SNL long after their

sketch comedy days,

which would probably make new Adam Sandler movies slightly more watchable.

Part of that bad boy persona stem from Farley's excessive partying, drinking,

and drug usage, which while not uncommon for the era,

was taken to extremes by Chris.

Farley took much of what he learned at Second City

and translated it into the new setting

that was SNL.

For starters, he continued to rely heavily on physical comedy,

using his body to his advantage,

like in the famous sketch with Patrick sees where he auditions to be a

Chip and Dale's dancer.

Interestingly, many of Farley's friends stated

that they hated that sketch for how it made Chris the joke due to

his weight.

Some even went as far

as to say that due to his desire to be loved,

Chris did the sketch, got the laughs, got the recognition,

but all at his own expense.

During his five season run on SNL,

Farley had numerous recurring characters that became favorites.

Perhaps his most famous was Matt Foley,

the motivational speaker who was over the top

and loved to remind anyone

and everyone that he was living in a van down by the river.

The character of Matt Foley was what got Farley in the door of SNL.

It was also what ultimately became his claim to fame on the show.

The character was named after Farley's friend Matt Foley,

who went on to become a priest.

But what is your favorite Chris Farley character?

Mention it in the comments below.

As is the case with most SNL actors,

Chris would get to take his talents to the next level

when he began appearing in SNL movies.

He was about to have Hollywood knocking on his door.

In 1992, Farley booked his first film role in Wayne's World.

Although it was a small cameo role as a security guard,

it marked the start of his film career.

For several years, he benefited from the SNL sketch to film pipeline,

enjoying larger roles in SNL films, Coneheads, and Wayne's World 2.

He then joined his friend Adam Sandler in the 1994 cult classic Airheads where

he had a small role

as Officer Wilson.

Following the 1994 to95 season of SNL,

Farley and several other cast members were released from their contracts.

With this, Farley decided to focus on his film career.

In 1995, Farley was given the chance to headline a movie by Lauren Michaels,

who after four years of seeing him conquer SNL, believed he was ready.

He'd take the lead role in what is inarguably the best Chris Farley movie,

Tommy Boy, as the titular Tommy alongside his close friend

and fellow castmate David Spade.

Tommy Boy became a cult classic because of Farley's natural chemistry with Spade.

But it was also the film's underdog story

and of course it slapstick comedy

that really amused audiences.

Also, Dan Akroyd makes a surprisingly compelling villain.

This was a high point in Chris's career.

He was confident and self- assured.

Today, Tommy Boy stands

as an example of what could have been had Farley had more time to

take on more roles

and,

you know, better ones.

Tommy Boy was the first of a two-pictur deal Farley had with Paramount.

Farley appeared alongside Spade once again in the Lauren Michaels produced Black Sheep.

Unlike Tommy Boy, this film was a disaster.

It was approved with an unfinished script directed by Penelopey Spirus, who,

while having success with Wayne's World,

might not have been the right fit for the project.

Additionally, she didn't believe in the Farley Spade pairing,

especially because she didn't find Spade funny at all,

but that's kind of the point.

He's kind of the straight man in that in that duo, you know.

Anyway, ironically, she'd work with Spade again two years later on Senseless.

Farley was particularly disappointed with the film,

which had attempted to recapture that chemistry from Tommy Boy in an inferior product,

but it's still largely watchable.

Like, it's still kind of funny.

You know, you could put it on as background noise.

Who cares?

As a result of his feeling towards the film,

Farley relapsed the night of the premiere, throwing away 3 years of sobriety.

It was around the time between Tommy Boy

and Black Sheep that Farley was fired from SNL along with the majority of

the cast following a shakeup at the sketch comedy show.

This, combined with a failure of Black Sheep, didn't help Farley, who continued spiraling.

However, following his relapse, he attended rehab.

And once he completed his treatment, he was ready to return to work.

Initially, Farley rejected Beverly Hills Ninja.

But after being offered a $6 million paycheck, he changed his mind.

While critically panned, the film went on to become a cult classic

and was also rather successful at the box office.

Farley was a proven bankable star.

Chris himself was not pleased with the final product that was Beverly Hills Ninja,

telling those close to him he was heartbroken and it was an embarrassment.

That would be his final film released during his lifetime.

His next two projects would be released in 1998, a year after Farley's death.

Before he died, Farley had many projects either in the works or in development.

For starters, he was the original voice of Shrek

and had completed a significant portion of the voiceover for the movie.

And seriously, you need to check out this uh footage.

It's like mostly animatic stuff,

but it's it's a totally different vibe than Mike Myers's Shrek.

However, following his death,

it was decided it was better to recast than have an imitator come in

to finish what was still left to record.

Other films he was potentially going to do included a third Ghostbusters movie,

which would have been really entertaining to see Farley as a Ghostbuster.

I'm I'm sorry.

I'm probably in the minority on that, but yeah, an adaptation of Captain Underpants,

an adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunes, an adaptation of The Incomparable Aduk,

and a biopic about comedian Fatty Arbuckle.

Interestingly, Dons's Attek and the Arbuckle biopic were projects John Candy

and John Belalushi had once been involved in to some degree,

leading many to believe the projects were cursed, as all three actors died young.

Farley was also in talks with David Spade about getting together on screen again

for a third outing.

Alas, it was never to be, as for two months later,

the short life of Chris Farley would face its final curtain call.

If you look back at the work of Chris Farley,

you will see a comedic talent who knew how to turn it on

and just the right amount.

But behind it all, Farley was struggling his entire life.

Over the course of 33 years,

Farley was in and out of rehab at least 17 times.

The majority of these rehabs occurred during his SNL years.

Sometimes Lauren Michaels got involved,

sending him to rehab

when his behavior became too disruptive on the sketch comedy show.

Every time he went to rehab, he'd come back sober, but it never lasted.

The environment he existed in wasn't conducive to sobriety, especially when you're an addict.

From the get-go,

Farley was comparable to larger than-l life SNL alum John Belalushi,

someone whom Farley had long admired.

The comparison wasn't necessarily a kind one.

Belushi was famously known for his substance abuse issues,

which resulted in the overdose that killed him.

It wasn't necessarily true that Farley was following too hard in his idol's footsteps.

The two were far more different than they were alike.

But for Lauren Michaels, it was a film he'd seen before,

and he knew how it ended.

He didn't have time for Farley's addictions and the consequences that came with them.

Michaels even said something to the effect of,

"We don't want another Belushi," in the interview to hire Farley.

It was during the SNL years that Farley would begin booking roles in movies,

the next step in his career.

Unsurprisingly, he was somewhat in demand.

Black Sheep sent him right back into the arms of his demons.

Though with every 30-day program,

he'd come out and last a short amount of time before the cycle continued.

In 1997, his final year, he stayed in rehab several times.

Since leaving SNL, his health had taken a massive hit due to the constant

substance abuse.

This even led to several hospitalizations.

In 97, it accelerated with rapid physical and psychological decline.

Additionally, his weight was fluctuating erratically in connection with drug binges.

His condition was becoming increasingly noticeable on screen,

which was often where Farley got away with hiding it the most.

In particular, his appearance

as host of a 1997 SNL episode

and his final interview with Jay Leno,

promoting Beverly Hills Ninja were among the most disturbing examples of the actor's dire

state.

You could see he was pale, sweating, at times out of breath,

and visibly incoherent.

It was almost manic.

Not as regular manic either,

but an alarming display of a man falling to pieces.

The life and career of Chris Farley filled with laughter

and comedy ended in tragedy.

At 2 p.m. on December 18th, 1997,

John Farley and Ted Dondanville went to Chris's apartment at the John Hancock Center

in Chicago.

Dondenville stated that he needed something but didn't have his set of keys,

prompting Jon to accompany him.

As they entered the apartment, they found Chris on the floor.

At first, they believed he was joking,

but it became clear very quickly that that was not the case.

John attempted to give his brother CPR while Ted called 911.

In that call, he mentioned it was Chris Farley,

a mistake that resulted in media attention almost immediately.

The autopsy confirmed that Farley died of an overdose thanks to a combination of

cocaine and heroin known commonly

as a speedball as well

as advanced atherosclerosis which was declared a significant contributing factor.

Farley died the same way his idol Balushi did at the same age 15

years apart.

Farley was laid to rest on December 23rd in Madison,

Wisconsin at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in a private service.

It was attended by over 500 people,

including many individuals he'd worked with over the years, such as Lauren Michaels,

Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, Bob Odkirk, John Goodman, Norm McDonald, Chris Rock, Dan Akroyd,

and many others.

A memorial service was held on January 13th, 1998 at St.

Monica Catholic Church.

Once again, it was attended by hundreds of people with many A-listers in attendance.

In his short life,

Farley had met and made a positive impression on so many people.

If anything, let that be his legacy.

In 1998, Farley's last two movies were released.

Almost Heroes, where he starred opposite Matthew Perry,

was a critical flop with many critics calling it a sorry Swan Song for

the talented Chris Farley.

Additionally, he had an uncredited work in Dirty Work,

which is credited as his final on-screen appearance.

It wouldn't have been how Farley wanted to end his career,

but he didn't get much of a say in that in the end.

The more you learn about Chris Farley,

the more you see the comedian he was

and how his genuine character seems to shine through in his performances.

It's easy to understand why so many people fell in love with him.

On August 26th, 2005,

Chris Farley was postumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The biography, The Chris Farley Show, was written by Chris's oldest brother, Tom Farley,

his son, Tom Farley Jr., and author Tanner Colby.

KBY had also collaborated with John Belalushi's wife, Judith Jacqueline,

to write the Belushi biography, which shared a similar style to his Farley biography.

Documentaries have been made, and as of 2024, a biopic is in development.

Farley's legacy is that of a comedian who would do anything to get a

laugh.

He loved and lived off the laughter.

At his core, Chris Farley was a funny man who loved his family, friends,

and faith while struggling with a volatile relationship with his vices.

He joins a long list of comedians who have passed away too soon for

one reason or another,

but he left behind an undeniable legacy that will endure.

Chris Farley loved making himself the joke.

But his life was anything but.

I hope you learned something today, and if you enjoyed this video,

be sure to deploy your likes, comment a historical figure we haven't covered yet,

subscribe, and ring that bell,

and share this video with someone who loves learning about history's most important people.

I'm Eric Malikite and we'll see you next