Book Review: "The Chris Farley Show"

August 13, 2009 by Lance Carter

The Chris Farley Show is the biography of the brilliant, late comedian Chris Farley.

chris-farley-biography I remember watching him on Saturday Night Live in those first couple of episodes when you had no idea who he was and he had only one or two lines in a sketch. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. He had this energy that radiated off screen.

Through motivational speaker Matt Foley, the Chippendale’s dancer and Tommy Boy, he created characters that will live on in our memory for years to come.

The book has Chris Farley’s friends and family reminiscing and recounting his life as they remember it. From David Spade, Tim Meadows, Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, Norm MacDonald and Lorne Michaels, this book is equally funny as it is heart-breaking.
It’s divided into three acts. Act 1 is his early years in Wisconsin and Chicago. Act 2 his SNL days and Act 3… well, I’m sure you can figure where the book veers off at that point.

Since I didn’t want to take away from the feel of the book, I decided to take some excerpts and reprint them here. The following are quotes are from his colleagues, talking about his acting and how gifted he was.

James Grace, cast member of ImprovOlympic:
He was an amazing processor if information. He wasn’t great at getting things started, but if you gave him anything, he would take it, internalize it, have a perspective on it, be affected by it, and ride it out for the scene.

Charna Halpern, director/teacher, ImprovOlympic:
He was always more himself onstage than off. He was more intelligent onstage. He’d step out there, and it was like a light would go on behind his eyes.

Nate Herman, director:
Chris was never captured in either movies or TV as good as he was on stage. He was too explosive. He just seems to fall flat in all those movies. It’s like watching a large wild animal in a cage.

On Matt Foley, Bob Odenkirk, writer:
I sat to write it, and the sketch came out pretty much whole the way it was done. I handed it to Chris, and watching where he took it was insane.

Jill Talley, cast member:
He was so into character that he’d be swinging his head around and his glasses would go flying off. Then he’d proceed to act like he couldn’t see for five minutes, stumbling around looking for his glasses, and that would become the scene. Funny things would just happen organically. Even if he did the script word for word, it felt new every night.

Alec Baldwin:
Whenever I was watching Chris perform I would think, “How do I get to where he’s at? How do I get to be as funny and as honest and as warm?” Chris was someone who was very vulnerable; it was a card he played. It was a tool in his actor’s repertaiore, and yet it was something totally genuine. Even when he’s playing Matt Foley, and he’s hectoring people in this overbearing way, there’s a tinge of the character’s own neediness. Even underneath that, there’s Chris.

Chris Farley as Matt Foley:

Alec Baldwin:
There are people who are smart in a way that has no applicability to performance, but Chris’s brain and his quickness inside of performance were amazing. He knew exactly how to scan a line, exactly what inflection to have, how to time it, what expression to make. A great performer is someone who puts together a half a dozen things in an instant, and Chris was one of the most skilled performers I’ve ever met in that respect. And he knew his opportunity would come. He wasnt sitting there calculating how he was going to trump you or dominate the scene. He just patiently waited for his moment and then arrived fully in that moment.

Julie Warner, co-star in Tommy Boy:
To be an actor, you have to make itreal, play off the other person, listen and react. And Chris had that. We really connected when we were acting together. Interestingly, when Chris was on camera, it was the only time I could get him to look me directly in the eyes.

This really is a great book. And if you are at all interested in the inner workings of Saturday Night Live, this is a must read.

Click here to order the book (Currently on sale for $10.88)