Most people know the outline of Chris Farley’s life: a huge comic talent who rose through Chicago’s Second City to Saturday Night Live and films like Tommy Boy, and who died of a drug overdose in December 1997, at 33. The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, published in 2008 by his brother Tom Farley Jr. and writer Tanner Colby, fills in that outline and, in doing so, changes it.
An oral history
The book is built from interviews with family, childhood friends, teachers, priests, fellow comedians and colleagues, including many of his SNL castmates. Their voices are arranged so the story tells itself, a format Colby had used before. The effect is intimate and often painful, like listening in on a long wake.
What it reveals
The easy version of Farley’s story is a tale of show-business excess, of a star who partied too hard. The book shows something more complicated. Farley comes across as deeply devout, anxious, eager to please and terrified of letting people down. His physical comedy, the falls, the shouting, the broken furniture, was partly a way of making sure people liked him. His addictions were a disease he fought repeatedly through many attempts at treatment, not a lifestyle he enjoyed.
The book is also full of kindness: visits to children’s hospitals he never publicized, and a loyalty to friends that many interviewees describe with tears.
Verdict
Funny where it should be and heartbreaking where it must be. For fans, and for anyone who has watched someone they love struggle with addiction, it is essential reading.
Sources: Chris Farley, Wikipedia; The Chris Farley Show, Penguin Random House.
