Live From New York - James H. Miller [261]
There was a Saturday Night Live reunion at the Comedy Festival. And we had a “Mr. Show” party, and Chris showed up. He wanted to speak to me, and somebody came to get me, and I went out and Chris was in the alley in a limo with like five asshole party kids from Aspen. They were all smoking pot, and he just looked like — I just knew he wasn’t going to make it. He was going to pop. He was bloated and flushed and looked terrible. That was the last time I saw him.
The more interesting thing than seeing him in that state was when I saw him probably a year and a half before that. He was with David Spade at a party in L.A. I’d never seen Chris say no to a drink, but they had a keg at this party and Chris was turning them down. And he seemed incredibly in control — like a different person. He seemed really empowered, whatever he’d been going through, and in control of himself. And I thought that he’d really turned a corner, and that was almost more amazing than seeing him the way he was in Aspen a year later. It was to see him and think, “Wow, there’s really hope,” you know?
I think his life was pretty chaotic. Between flying around the country and being in these different sorts of spheres of influence — L.A. with his friends, and Chicago with probably a different group of friends, and maybe Madison with his family, and who knows where else when he was on location. I think it’s a pretty chaotic lifestyle, and without the structure of Saturday Night Live around him, that might have been all Chris needed to get really screwed up.
DAVID SPADE:
On the first day of Tommy Boy, he was so nervous he drank twenty-nine cups of cappuccino throughout the day and thought it was a big joke. I thought, I couldn’t do that, and if he can do that, and he can drink and he can get up, and he can go out all night and be more chipper in the morning than I am, and I slept fine, then I said, “Okay, we are just built differently.” And then when I heard that he had died, I thought, “Yeah, there is some stuff that he can’t handle.” It goes too far, but when you keep chasing a high like that and you can handle it, then there is no reason not to go to the next level.
TIM HERLIHY:
Chris Farley’s death was the most devastating thing that happened while I was there, for sure. Everybody was very emotional and it was very hard that week. That’s probably my hardest week. And I feel bad. I think Samuel L. Jackson was the host, and I think everybody was so full of emotion that, you know, we probably could have done a better job.
Chris was such a great weapon in the writers’ arsenal. If you were like writing a sketch and you got to page six and nothing was happening, you would just say, okay, “Farley enters.” I did that so many times in so many sketches. It was a trick that always worked and never failed, especially in read-through.
NORM MACDONALD:
I never thought Chris would die, because first of all, I don’t think anybody will ever die. It just seems like if you’re alive you’ll stay alive. But also because he was so strong, you know. Like, I would always worry about myself, because I can’t drink and I can’t smoke and I can’t do drugs. I’m always freaked out about like I’m too fragile and I’ll die. Spade seems to me like somebody that’s very mortal, but Farley was this big, strong guy. It seemed like he could do anything. He was the funniest, that guy. Chris Farley — oh my God.
His comedy was like sophomoric in the best sense of the word. He would just do any crazy thing for a laugh. He’d get naked and act like a little girl. He’d put a pool cue up his ass or something. One time, when I first met him, I was at this retreat right before Saturday Night Live started, he just kept breaking me up. You’d laugh and he’d try to do more and more, and then by the end of the night he was like doing his impression of a salad. He’d take all this salad dressing and pour it over his head and then put like tomatoes in his ass and stuff. It was great. He could make anyone laugh — smart or dumb, young or old. If you liked