Welcome to Farleyville

Chris Farley as Newt Gingrich

2011-12-09T10:29:00.001-05:00

April 4th 1995 was the day Chris Farley barreled into a republican congress meeting impersonating the speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich. Having the number one movie in America at the time, Tommy Boy, Chris made the otherwise stiff congressmen laugh as he portrayed the Newt as he had done so many times before on SNL. I had actually written CSPAN on several occasions over the years to obtain this clip. Unfourtunatley they never released it to me. A few years back their website was not as user friendly as it is today. Charging $106 for this ten minute bit. Therefore I had forgotten/gave up on this event until I was able to view it on the Huffington Post website (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/chris-farley-impersonatin_n_1136927.html). With this renewed interest in the subject I found CSPAN also updated their archives making it less expensive to own this piece of political comedy history on dvd, mp4 or for free (http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/NewtGi) or just watch the embedded version below. It should be noted that although claiming no interest in politics while alive, Chris' family were republicans. Recently his older brother Tom ran for city council and in the past made a bid for lieutenant governor of Wisconsin (http://farleyforward.org/). Chris Farley's view on politics is more accurately portrayed in this SNL sketch of Spade in America:

Chris Farley & March Madness

2011-03-30T23:23:00.007-04:00

Every year around this time I remember one of the greatest moments in NCAA championship history. There I was sitting on our blue wrap around couch with a large pizza hut pizza, my black NCAA basketball and 2.1 seconds left to go in the game between Duke and Kentucky. After taking another bite of the double cheese, sausage and pepperoni pizza and gulping down a glass of pepsi, I watched history happen. Instead of giving a play by play, I will let the "late great Chris Farley" (as described by ESPN Page 2 ) tell you what happened next.

That commercial was actually in heavy rotation on ESPN back in the day but never had a chance to record it, so I appreciate ESPN for posting the video. By the way here is actually what occurred, lets see how close Chris was.

Chris Farley made it in a current book titled: LIFE Gone too Soon: Their Lives Were Not Long but Mattered. In the John Belushi section Farley is mentioned along with Phil Hartman and Andy Kaufman. I have seen Chris before in these types of magazines or books, but find this one interesting because in a way he shares the pages with the likes of not only celebrity royality (Marilyn Monroe, James Dean) but also religious, political and cultural icons (Jesus, John F Kenedy and Anne Frank) which I have not seen before.

And on a personal note my wife and I used the welcometofarleyville youtube channel recently to make a big announcement...

2010-10-15T09:37:00.002-04:00

Black Sheep free on HULU!!! Thank you to our loyal reader Lauren for letting me know about this.

A couple things to watch for in Black Sheep: 1) When playing with kids at the beginning of the movie, Farley, uses the same football play he did in Tommy Boy when they were cow tipping, "32 Belly Option on two." 2) Chris's brothers Kevin and John play security guards at the Rock the Vote Mudhoney concert. 3) When Farley is eating the plate of Chicken wings and says the punchline "Rectum, damn neared killed him," the complete joke is:

Little Johnnie's teacher asked him how his weekend was.

"Horrible, a car hit my dog in the ass," he said.

She said, "Rectum."

"Wrecked him?" Johnnie said. "Damn near killed him!"

Before watching this film do not let the late Gene Siskel influence you. According to the skinny half of Siskel and Ebert duo, in a Entertainment Weekly interview, he was quoted as saying "A couple of months ago I walked out of my first movie as a critic, Black Sheep. Can't stand Chris Farley. Just rubs me the wrong way. I knew John Belushi, and he's no John Belushi."

Farley Brothers Radio

2010-10-11T10:23:00.016-04:00

Looks like Chris's brothers John and Kevin have their own podcast on itunes (check it out here: farleybrothersradio). Brodcast from the Hollywood Second City, they are requesting questions in regards to their famous brother through facebook (you can submit them in the comments section here: ChrisFarleyFacebook). I asked what cigarettes and beer preference Chris had, let see if they answer this in a future broadcast. I have had the great privilage of meeting John and Kevin back in 2002. A friend of mine, Chrissy, invited me on a trip to go to Madison, Wisconsin for a Comics Come Home event headlined by David Spade and featuring the flying farley brothers. Along with obtaining great seats, she arranged for us to go to the meet and greet after the show. As excited as we were to meet Richard from "Tommy Boy," he was a NO SHOW! But Kevin and John more than made up for it by posing in pictures with us (please note my realization that you can see through dress shirts was not understood until after these photos were taken).
I was also lucky enough to meet and take a photo with Maryanne Farley (Chris's mom), which I will post at a later date (when I locate the photo).

When you are at the Chris Farley facebook page check out the photos. It appears that the management overseeing Chris's image, CMG Brands, has taken a proactive response in marketing its newest client. Also Second City has posted rarely seen Farley videos from the Chicago Stage circa 1989, all you need to do is "Like" their facebook page to check the videos out.

Walmart has a new outer shell for the Tommy Boy Holy Schnike edition dvd. It is a reflector cover with two different images from everybody's favorite movie.

The only other information that I have to report is a new entry on Chris's IMDB listing. It appears that Chris Farley and Chris Rock were on the Today Show in 1990. Not sure if this is 100 percent accurate, but this becomes the first interview segment with Chris, if it is. Would love to see this clip. If anyone knows how to obtain the Today Show episode from October 19th 1990 leave a comment or email me at welcometofarleyville@gmail.com.

New Home

2010-05-04T13:19:00.001-04:00

Just moved into a new home and what better way to greet the new surroundings than with the stylings of the Callahan Auto fashion line at Target.

From left to right: my brother Chris (not named after Mr Farley), my mom Mary, brother's fiancé Mindy, my Dad Roy, my wife Ashley and of course me.

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Twitter Account

2010-03-24T00:16:00.001-04:00

Check out @farleyville on twitter. Stop by and follow the account for quick news, random Farley thoughts and I will let you know when the blog is updated. Thanks for your support.

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Target Tommy Boy Tshirts

2010-03-21T16:31:00.004-04:00

It appears that nearly 15 years after the orginal motion picture release of Paramount's Tommy Boy, Target has released movie releated tshirts found in the mens section. I actually saw a lot of people showing their Irish spirit wearing the green Callahan Auto shirts on St. Patrick's Day of this year. At only $7.99 a pieces it is a great way to show support for Chris Farley's most memorable movie. I purchased some of the shirts on sale for $5, so keep an eye out for the weekly circulars. I am not sure if these are available at other stores, let me know if you spot them elsewhere.

Chris Farley and Bilnd Melon

2010-03-07T07:56:00.000-05:00

On January 8, 1994 Jason Patric hosted Saturday Night Live along with musical guest Blind Melon. Farley was dressed up in a bee costume (imitating the chubby girl from Blind Melon's infamous music video "No Rain") as Patric introduced the band. You can check out this video on Blind Melon's dvd "Letters From a Porcupine" and below.*

Blind Melon - No Rain

Amber | MySpace Video

Picture from "the Chris Farley Show:A Biography in Three Acts"

Maybe not purposely, but in a way, the choice of outfit paid homage to Chris' hero, John Belushi who also dressed up in a bee costume on several occasions during his SNL tenure.

What I have more recently discovered is that this "partnership" on SNL was not the band's and Shannon Hoon's only encounter with Mr. Farley. As a "deleted scene" from the "Chris Farley Show" book Tom Arnold revisits a memory from Woodstock 94:

TOM ARNOLD, friend:

In 1994 they had the Woodstock twenty-fifth anniversary concert in upstate New York. We took a helicopter in there. Chris took his sister Barb. We were supposed to introduce some of the bands, and right before he went on, he said, “I just talked to my agent, and he says I should get paid for this.”

They weren’t paying anybody. I was like, “Well, they’re kind of letting us do this. We’re just going to introduce the band, and then we get to hang backstage, but I’ll let you decide what you’re gonna do.” So I went out and introduced Nine Inch Nails or one of the bands, and Chris saw that and it looked like fun and he said, “Fuck it. I’ll do it. After the next one, introduce me, and I’ll come out.”

So I went back out there and I was all excited and I said—this is right after True Lies came out—I said, “Ladies and Gentlemen…Arnold Schwarzenegger!” The crowd went nuts. They were like, “YEAH!!!” So Chris came out and the whole place was like, “What the…?” Chris was so mad. And as soon as he got onstage, someone picked up a big piece of mud and hit him with it from about thirty yards out.

He was of course hilarious in making something out of the whole thing for the audience. But he was pissed. He was pissed. I said, “Well, if you hadn’t been such a pussy about the money thing. Of course we’re not gonna get paid. From the looks of things, these guys are gonna lose money on this anyway.” So, you know, he didn’t want his “art” to be taken advantage of, and yet he would perform for anyone at any time wherever he was. **

Woodstock 1994 also marked a high point for Blind Melon, as they put on one of the most memorable performances at the festival. Shannon and Chris met up after the set to take this picture together.*

Picture from "A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other"

These two encounters were the only ones that I knew about until I discovered this... Listen for Chris' voice in the background during the opening seconds of this Blind Melon bootleg recording of the song "Walk" from the Roseland Ballroom on Febuary 17, 1994.

As you can hear from the muffled audio clip, a girl asks Chris if he is from Saturday Night Live and wants to know if he is going backstage. The rest is hard to understand but a few of Farley's characteristics shine through on the audio. Of course if anyone else can translate or clear up the audio any better it would be appreciated.

Shannon Hoon, would pass nearly two years later of a heroin and cocaine (speedball) overdose. Which is very similar to the way Chris passed, with traces of cocaine and morphine (metabolized heroin) in his system. As Jerry Seinfeld's attempt at an animation motion picture taught us, that bees make the world go round. Maybe it is fitting that these two entertainers met because of a bee...costume

*Thanks to foreverlights & ~ M A T T at the Blind Melon Forum http://blindmelons.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Hellos&thread=5187&page=1#140538
**Link to Tom Arnold Interview: http://www.thechrisfarleyshow.com/misc.html

350,000 and counting

2009-11-24T22:45:00.001-05:00

Holy Cow!!! As the late great Harry Carey would have said if he saw my email box two days after posting the direct tv YouTube video. At one point I had 153 emails regarding comments posted on my YouTube channel. The video was linked to a CNN news story along with a time and yahoo online articles and more I can only assume (if you are aware let me know). I think that I have succesfully achieved the overall goal of the blog... by creating an online presence to my fallen idol, now I just have to keep up the content. Hopefully I can do so. I have downloaded a new app so I can post updates anywhere (see signature below). Also since I have some new viewers I can send out an email whenever I update the blog, just contact me at welcometofarleyville@gmail.com to subscribe. And as you can see this is a not for profit site so I will not spam ya.

In the meantime, since my last post I have discoved a couple of Farley related items which I will be posting soon. In the mean time I found this Rolling Stone cover bag at Walmart. Although it has Mariah Carey on the cover if you look closely it is in fact the magazine that looked at the final days of Chris and had the first writings from Spade since his friend's death. I have the physical magazine also but it was nice to see this available too.

And of course my birthday has come and gone (September 9th for those keeping track) but my friends at work did provide a farleyesque birthday celebration.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tommy Boy Direct TV commercial

2009-10-24T19:14:00.002-04:00

Was watching a repeat of Letterman last night and was surprised when I saw a Direct TV Ad featuring my favorite movie, Tommy Boy. In it (youtube video shown below) we see David Spade portraying his "Richard" character from the film denouncing cable and "that," pointing to "Tommy," Chris Farley's character. At first I felt that was a distasteful commercial. Chris has been dead now over ten years and David is complaining about being stuck with "tons of Fun!" Again that was my first reaction after watching it again and again, I noticed the commercial does have good heart. David's final line is "Never gets old," when Chris rips the jacket. Meaning that he can watch this over and over again. Like I said at first viewing It seems that David is a sarchastic ass (which he is) trying to profit off his dead friend (which...he isn't.)

Here is the Video:

Chris Farley on an episode of "Roseanne"

2009-06-28T20:12:00.004-04:00

In case you missed it Chris Farley was in a rerun of Roseanne on June 23rd on TV Land. And even if you did check out the episode you had to look real close to find him. See in the syndicated episodes his lines are edited out and you only see him walking out of the clothing store. So unless you purchase Roseanne: Season 5 or happen to have videotaped the original broadcast (as I did) back on May 4th 1993 you more than likely have never seen Farley's appearance on this hit TV show. Well the episode is titled Glengarry, Glen Rosey and with the creation of the new WelcometoFarleyville youtube channel, I bring you the Chris Farley appearance on Roseanne.

Chris Farley Spotted at Walmart

2009-06-11T15:46:00.006-04:00

There is no better way to celebrate Father's Day then with of course every Dad's favorite movie, Tommy Boy. Well now to complement that viewing you can purchase an American Greetings Father's Day card with...you guessed it Chris Farley:

It is actually a greeting card with sound giving the film quote "I can take a good look at a T-bone by sticking my head up a bull's beep (ass) but I'd rather take the butcher's word for it." But up for discussion is whether it is truly Farley's voice or not. My wife says "No" but our good friend Lauren and I say "yeah." So go out and buy the card for your father and you be the judge.

**UPDATE**
I came across this link about the American Greetings teaming with Paramount to release these special occasion cards. Apparently there is another Tommy Boy card on the market, a birthday one.

The "Tommy Boy" card features Richard (David Spade) and Tommy (Chris Farley)with the phrase: "It's your birthday -- Do something exciting!" Inside, the two say, "Have fun!" The sound chip adds, "I can't believe you've never been cow tipping before! Get ready to live!"

So keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you find one.

A Paperback Book, An Award & THS

2009-06-03T22:37:00.013-04:00

Well it has been a while since my last update and I have come across some various news items about this blog's namesake, Chris Farley. First off if you have not picked up Tom Farley and Tanner Colby's book The Chris Farley Show: A Biography In Three Acts do so. On May 26 it was released in paperback check out deepdiscount.com for the least expensive price.

Last year around this time the first ever Chris Farley award was presented at the Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival. Well this year has brought us the second winner of the award, Pat Finn. Pat was one of Chris's best friends from High School and ended up one of the pallbearers at Chris's funeral. He performed with Farley at Second City and has moved on to other improv comedy teams since most recently with Beer Shark Mice. Along with providing personal stories in The Chris Farley Show book he has also contributed to Marylin D Andersen's book(which I have not read yet) Chris Farley (They Died Too Young) and according to the IO West he took part in the Natural High video series volume 4 on drug awareness for High Schools in which he talks about Chris's drug problems. This video is to be released soon. The award was presented by George Wendt (NORM!) on June 1st 2009 at the IO Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival.

And finally I must thank my wife for watching her favorite late night talk show Chelsea Lately last week on the E! channel. You see she saw a preview for the True Hollywood Story (THS) Top 10 Greatest Stories Ever Told and decided to watch it the next day. Well two stories in she shouted for me in a way she does anytime that Chris is on TV and said "Guess who is number eight?" The clip is about three minutes long and if you come across it on the schedule it occurs within the first twenty minutes of the show and is worth seeing for the clips alone. It shows just how funny Chris is simply walking down the street and shouting at his fans. Here is a short clip E! put on their website:

Tom Farley interviewed about the Chris Farley Show

2009-02-12T15:30:00.003-05:00

If you get a chance to listen to the Tom Farley interview with Mr. Media I believe that it is the best one on the web. I took down the embedded code to the interview, because it automatically played everytime you would open up the page, but here is the link if you would like to give it a listen:

http://www.mrmedia.com/2008/05/tom-farley-jr-chris-farley-show-co.html

Unfortunately the Mancow media link was taken down. If anyone is dying to listen to it hit me up with an email at farley669@hotmail.com and I will see what I can do.

Artie Lange: the next Chris Farley...dead!!

2009-01-25T02:25:00.011-05:00

Today I received the February 5th issue of Rolling Stone, with the Boss on the cover, and quickly flipped to read the article of my current favorite "FAT" comedian, Artie Lange, entitled: America's Biggest Loser. The article details the tremendous success he is currently obtaining: $700,000 a year as a sidekick on the Howard Stern Show, $3 million on the stand up circuit, Too Fat to Fish on the New York Times best seller list with Random House paying $800,000 for a follow up book. Reading this you would assume that Lange is on the top of the world, but then you get to looking at his lifestyle, past and current failures that coupled with his appetite for heroin and food you can not help to compare the similarities between Chris Farley and Lange.

Farley was also featured in an article in Wenner Media's (publisher of Rolling Stone) US magazine detailing his destructive behavior during the most successful part of his career, titled: Chris Farley: On the Edge of Disaster. As you will see in the US magazine article (Click Farley's photo below, opening photobucket, click the pages and select full size to read.) The article starts very similar to Lange's explaining his current success in movies: David Mamet (writer of Hoffa, Wag the Dog, Hannibal and more) wrote a script specifically for him, the trio of movies that made him a star (Tommy Boy, Black Sheep & Beverly Hills Ninja) and also mentioning being one of Hollywood's highest paid comedians making $6 million a picture. Both articles talk about recent trips to rehab, both mention the need to lose weight; Farley for a movie role in the Gelfin was to be shipped off for two months to a fat farm, Lange to a 21-day program of cucumber juice, therapy and wheatgrass enemas in Florida, both programs were never completed. Farley talks about a year and a half long relationship with a girl (Lorri "Kit Kat" Bagley, learned about in the Chris Farley Show book) that he lived with and was ready to propose to when she broke up with him, he says "It is hard when they break your heart.” Lange’s girl, Dana (Cironi), left him three and a half years ago - and he is still heartbroken about it. The other woman in these guy's lives were/are their mothers. Farley's mom often accompanied him to movie premiers, late night talk shows and SNL (Mary Anne Farley was on a Mother's Day special) and Lange's mom has and still takes care of her 41 year old son, decorating his house and supplying it with the necessities. As you can see...Chris and Artie have A LOT in common.

Farley's US article was published in September of 1997, three months before his death. You can see where I am going with this. Are we witnessing the eventual death of Mr. Lange? If things pan out like they did for Farley, Lange will be dead by June.

In the Rolling Stone article Lange mentions Farley:

-but Chris Farley's death, from booze and speedballs, shook him to the core. "I'd just been with him, (Chris filmed his role in Dirty Work in early September of '97) and I'd even tried to bang the same hooker he had - just so I could say I'd done it" says Lange. "I couldn't believe he died."

I hope that we are not saying the same thing about Artie Lange.

2008-11-15T09:36:00.004-05:00

Let's set the scene, May 28th 1998, a little more than six months after Chris Farley passed away, the great Phil Hartman is shot dead by his wife, Brynn Omdahl Hartman. I liked Hartman, not as much as Farley, Sandler and Spade when they were on SNL, but I liked him. I enjoyed Phil's movie, with Schwarzenegger, Jingle all the Way. Well as much as anyone else right, not enought to buy it on DVD, but enough to pick it up and look at it when I saw it was rereleased as a special 10th anniversary edition, well maybe when it hits the Walmart $5 bin I will rethink it and possibly buy it. But getting back on track, although I was sad to see Phil go, it didnt hit me like it did when Chris died and therefore instead of going through the motions of mourning, I sat there, like a selfish Chris Farley nerd, next to the TV, with VCR remote in hand, and my finger on the record button looking for something, anything with a possible Chris Farley connection. To my suprise, I scanned across it, on CNBC out of all channels, CNBC with Charles Grodin, The Charles Grodin Show it was called. I guess him and Phil had been great friends and he was paying tribute to his buddy. Well as the last segment rolled, Mr. Grodin said "and I leave you with this:"

I recorded the entire segment that was aired. It was actually a clip from a show that aired, I believe in 1992 from a show titled Talk Back Live. From what I remember that show had special guest hosts and on this particualr show it had Phil as the host and Farley as the guest. What an odd coincidence. This combo would be repeated on Phil's last show on SNL in another coincidence (see picture below). Anywho thanks to Charles Grodin I was able to see a segment from what I assume was an entire episode with Farley and Phil. Unfourtunatley, in September of 1998, I had this tape in the VCR with "Bobcat's Big Ass Show" scheduled to record, and that is what it did, recorded over this moment in history. Well thanks to a Phil Hartman fan collection at http://www.adequatulence.com/hartman/vault/video/video.php, the coveted video that I have been looking for since 1998 can finally be seen, in a very short form. I am still looking for the orginal complete show, but this is quite a happy suprise. Thanks again.

Picture from Phil's last SNL show:

Phil lets Chris, as Matt Foley, finds solace on his shoulder as he addresses the audience and those at home by saying "You know, I can't imagine a more dignified way to end my eight years on this program, (sings) Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye."

Chris Farley Day July 18th 2008

2008-10-12T01:00:00.034-04:00

My big summer excursion this year was to East Troy Wisconsin for a Jimmy Buffett concert. Having heard about the Wisconsin Historical Society having a new exhibit Chris Farley Remembered I decided to combine the trip and make it into two days . Being in Madison and a Chris Farley enthusiast I researched his old stomping grounds and made an agenda for the day. Along for the journey was my very lovely wife Ashley, my best friend since High School Joe and his wife Christin and rounding out the group was my brother Chris. So on a beautiful Madison morning we left our hotel and crammed into our 2002 Pontiac Sunfire.

Our first destination for the day was Our Lady of Queen Peace Church which ended up to be a bust, somehow we ended up at a church with the same name in the next town over. But after speaking with the church practitioners(?) they advised us on where to continue and off we went to our second (first official) stop Resurrection Catholic Cemetery (2705 Regent St., Madison, WI, 608-238-5561) where Chris lies in the mausoleum. Chris's father, Thomas J Farley, lies a little further down the hallway in the center on the left side.

After seeing the final resting places of two deceased Farley men, we walked outside and found a street sign that bares their name.

After contacting Melanie Conklin at The Capital Times, she advised me one of Chris's favorite hangouts was State Street Brats (603 State Street, Madison, WI, 608-255-5544) . Although Ash & I are vegetarians, the food did not disappoint. We had grilled cheese and waffle fries (and of course I had a couple of beers). The rest of the gang enjoyed the restaurant's namesake.

The girls took a 30 minute shopping spree on State Street while the boys found their way upstairs and played spot the difference at the bar. While we left Joe spotted Farley's picture in the entrance.

We then made our way over to the Wisconsin Historical Society (30 N. Carroll St., Madison, WI, 608-264-6555) for the exhibit, but not without a little scare. I parallel parked on a steep street which sat on the upper banks of Lake Mendota. On our way out I had to go down the hill towards the lake to pull a U-ey (I have never spelled that word out before) . On the way down I shrieked "Honey, NO BRAKES!!!" My brother, sitting shotgun, swung open his door and nearly barrel rolled out of the car before I actually braked and said "Just kidding." The funny/sad part was he planned on watching all of us plummet over the rocks and strait into the lake as he never seemed to reach for seat lever to let the three people in the back seat out to safety. That seemed to show how much he cared about our well being.

Making it to the museum, with a little less trust in my little brother, Joe dropped a twenty in the donation box and off we went to the display case, yes only a display case of Chris Farley stuff. I thought there would be more. But don't get me wrong, the case did not disappoint. As you can see from the pictures below it did in fact highlight Chris's life. A few of the items that I am highlighting is a jacket from the Matt Foley skit, his football jersey and Rugby coat, the Tommy Boy and Black Sheep jackets, the apparently heavily rewritten script for Edwards & Hunt, later to become Almost Heroes and my favorite piece was the letter from Dave Letterman, asking Chris to come on the Late Show, which as I understand it is very rare for David to do.

After having the desire to make Joe's twenty go farther we decided to explore the rest of the museum and then we were off to Chris's childhood home...which we never found, but I did locate it on a realtor's website. Below is the picture and here is her email if you are interested in buying tammy@lakewoodrlty.com:

We filled up on expensive gas and drove to the Chris Farley Foundation (1213 N. Sherman Ave., #215, Madison, WI). For one reason or another I had in my head the foundation would be an office with a secretary, Tom Farley in the back making arrangements and posters of Chris Farley (like this one)ready for the taking. Unfortunately it was nothing like that...it was a UPS Store, but my wife did find Tom's box.

And we also discovered Aberg avenue, you may remember that road name from Beverly Hills Ninja. “You try catching a cab in the middle of winter dressed like that on Aberg Avenue.”

Through my research I discovered the original location of where, back in 1986, Chris got his start in improv comedy. The Ark Improv (I don't think this link is current) was located at 220 North Bassett St., Madison, WI, is now home to Quick Clean laundromat. My brother and I found a spot where Chris more than likely performed.

The story goes Farley #59 didn't always get a lot of playing time, so in order to impress the girls after the game by appearing he had played the whole time, he would often run and dive in the mud on the sidelines. There was no mud on the field during our trip, but we did find Edgewood High School (2219 Monroe St, Madison, WI) and that infamous football field.

Before dinner we wound up finding Our Lady of Queen Peace Church (401 S. Owen Dr., Madison, WI) where the funeral service were held and attended by Chris Rock, Lorne Michaels, Dan Ackroyd, George Wendt and many others.

When Tom Arnold made the trip from the cornfields of Iowa to the cow pastures of Wisconsin, Chris decided to bring his guest to one of his favorite places in town, Skip Zach's Avenue Bar (1128 E. Washington Ave., Madison,WI 608-257-6877). Although the atmosphere was busy and the appearance was homely my brother and I found the plumbing to be perfect. On our way back to the table we came across proof that Tom and Chris were there (see below).

The Avenue Bar brought me a final joy to the day, deep fried cheese curds. I had never before enjoyed these bite sized treats and boy does Skip Zach know how to make 'em. A full fun Chris Farley day was had by all (well at least by me), and it was time to head back to the Extended Stay Deluxe. As I lifted the seat to let Ashley in the back of the car I couldn't help but wonder is this the end of my fascination...or just another beginning. Well, with plans in the work for Chris Farley day Chicago version next year, I can honestly say this fascination with Chris Farley is going to be around for quite a while.

To view the complete set of pictures from our journey please visit this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31333872@N06/?saved=1

Soul to Squeeze

2008-10-12T00:40:00.002-04:00

What is the connection between Chris and the Red Hot Chili Peppers? Well they performed on Saturday Night Live on February 22nd 1992 with host's Tom & Roseanne Arnold (at the time) and he was in their music video "Soul to Squeeze" (which was on the Coneheads Soundtrack). Let me know if you can find his cameo.

2008-08-27T21:37:00.006-04:00

Lauren, Here is the clip that you are talking about...it appears that SNL has taken the video down...but here is the next best thing, the transcript. (Look to the end for your quote)

92m: Alec Baldwin / Paul McCartney
The Chris Farley Show .....Chris Farley.....Paul McCartney

Chris Farley: Um, hi. Welcome to The Chris Farley Show. I'm.. Chris Farley.. and, my guest tonight is.. one of the.. greatest musicians.. uh, rock musicians. I guess, songwriter, ever. [ Smacks himself ] GOD! That sounds stupid! God, I'm an idiot! I never know how to start these things!
Paul McCartney: You're doing great, Chris.Chris Farley: [ hopeful ] Really? No, I'm not. [ hyperventilating ] Anyway.. I guess.. I didn't have, have to say, who you were, because.. man, I mean.. everyone knows who you are. Mmm.. you're Paul McCartney.
Paul McCartney: Well, it's great to be here.
Chris Farley: [ uncomfortable ] You.. you.. you remember when you were with The Beatles?
Paul McCartney: Yeah, sure.
Chris Farley: That was awesome!
Paul McCartney: Yeah, it was.Chris Farley: O-kay.. Oh! You.. you remember when you went to Japan.. and, uh, and at the airport they arrested you 'cause you had some pot, and.. it made all the papers, and everything..?
Paul McCartney: Well, to be honest, Chris, I'd kind of like to forget all of that.
Chris Farley: [ smacks himself harder ] IDIOT!! That's so stupid! What a dumb question!!
Paul McCartney: No, no, no, Chris. I get asked that all the time in interviews. Maria Shriver asked the same question last week.
Chris Farley: Really? [ pause ] Did you know that she's married to Arnold Schwartzenegger?
Paul McCartney: Yeah. I've heard that.
Chris Farley: Did you see "Terminator"?
Paul McCartney: No, I missed that one.
Chris Farley: That was a pretty awesome flick. [ pause ] O-kay.. remember.. you remember when you were with The Beatles, and you were supposed to be dead, and, uh, there was all these clues, that, like, uh, you played some song backwards, and it'd say, like, "Paul Is Dead", and, uh, everyone thought that you were dead? That was, um, a hoax, right?
Paul McCartney: Yeah. I wasn't really dead.
Chris Farley: Right. I think we.. I think we got time for one more question. Uh.. remember when you were in The Beatles? And, um, you did that album Abbey Road, and at the very end of the song, it would.. the song goes, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make"? You.. you remember that?
Paul McCartney: Yes.
Chris Farley: Uh.. is that true?
Paul McCartney: Yes, Chris. In my experience, it is. I find, the more you give, the more you get.
Chris Farley:[ecstatic, starts to point at Paul and mouth "AWESOME!"] Well, that's it for this week's show. Thank you, Paul McCartney, thank you, for being one of the greatest.. of rock.. I mean, a living legend. And uh, a legend of rock and roll.. and.. just thanks for being on the show, and.. [smacks himself even harder] GOD DANGIT! That sounded stupid! I knew I'd screw up!Paul McCartney: You did fine, you did fine, Chris.
Chris Farley: Really? Thanks, man. Thanks. Thank you. [Outro music comes on, Chris continues to talk to Paul] Remember.. remember when I was talking to you about "The Terminator"? You.. you should see that movie, it's pretty cool..[ Paul nods his head ]

-thanks snltranscripts.jt.org

2008-08-25T18:02:00.003-04:00

Welcome to Farleyville, here it is the first post for the blog. Chris touched my life back in '92 (I believe) when I first caught him on Saturday Night Live. Yes I was 11 at the time and the only goal that I remember back then was staying up as late as possible, which was quite easy for me be it that my father was Exalted Ruler of the Elks Club, lodge 541 that year and always took my mom with him to the bar. I would stay home and "babysit" my brother who was 6 at the time. And when I mean "sit" that is exactly what I would do. We would wrestle around in the basement imitating our favorite wrestlers at the time, his the Ultimate Warrior, mine Andre the Giant. We had recently discovered the WWF and the video tape library at Video Palace and were not exactly current on our wrestling. Therefore in our eyes Andre was still at the top of the federation but very limited in his abilities. His finisher at the time was the Giant Squash, which involved sitting on his opponent. So there I was sitting on my brother when I heard a Saturday Night Live commercial. I must have heard of it before and realized it was on late, so in my head I knew I had to stay up and watch it. So later that night, my brother had survived the giant squash and was off to bed and there I was fighting the sandman with the assistance of Coke, cereal and circus peanuts, ready for the show. Nothing stands out on that first viewing in particular, well except my instant liking of Chris Farley. I just remember a funny chubby child like looking man smiling ear to ear when Sharon Stone came out and realized he was just like me when cute girls were around. Later in the show Farley and Sandler tried to pick her up in a restaurant and just stumbled over there lines while talking to her. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. From then on I had found a hero, someone that I could really enjoy every time I saw him on the TV. That is when the VCR know how came into play. I could stay up and watch this "adult" show when my parents were not there, but if they were home, I couldn't do that, so I programmed the VCR to record every show on Saturday Night. Unfortunately some of those tapes were recorded over with my other discovery around that time of "USA Up All Nite." From then on every time I knew or heard that Farley was going to be on TV I made sure that I had a videotape ready. But of course I missed stuff and picked up stuff along the way. Right now I probably have about 100 things dealing with Chris. Obsessive yes, but hey somethings from your childhood just don't go away. Unlike Mr. Farley, hopefully his memory will live on.