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Holistic Guidance - The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $17.79
Your Save: $ 9.16 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.028092
EAN: 9780670019236
ISBN: 0670019232
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Publisher: Viking Adult
Studio: Viking Adult
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Editorial Reviews:
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A biography of the Saturday Night Live star as told by his friends and family
No one dominated a stage the way Chris Farley did. For him, comedy was not a routine; it was a way of life. He could not enter a room unnoticed or let a conversation go without making someone laugh. Fans knew Chris as Saturday Night Live’s sweaty, swaggering, motivational speaker; as the irresistible Chippendales stripper; and as Tommy Callahan, the underdog hero of Tommy Boy. His family knew him as sensitive and passionate, deeply religious, and devoted to bringing laughter into others’ lives.
But Chris did not know moderation, either in his boundless generosity toward friends or in the reckless abandon of his drug and alcohol abuse. For ten years, Chris cycled in and out of rehabilitation centers, constantly fighting his insecurities and his fears. Despite three hard-fought years of sobriety, addiction would ultimately take his life at the tragically young age of thirty-three. Fame on SNL and three straight number-one box office hits gave way to a string of embarrassing public appearances, followed by a fatal overdose in December 1997.
Here is Chris Farley as remembered by his family, friends, and colleagues—the true story of a man who lived to make us laugh and died as a result. The Chris Farley Show is an evocative and harrowing portrait of a family trapped by addiction, a father forced to bury a son, and a gifted and kindhearted man ultimately torn apart by the demons inside him.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: I could not put the book down, it was excellent.
Comment: As a true Farley fan I could not put the book down. It had parts that were funny, recalling specific skits, movie parts, and characters. It also includes a lot of real stuff that is tragic but true. I have passed it around to all my friends to read, its def entertaining and a story that is sad but true.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulously enlightening and sad
Comment: I am a huge fan of Chris Farley, yet was young while he was at the height of his career. Thus, I never realized what was happening and so it blind-sided me when I heard of his death. This book was so amazing and I feel like I know a lot more about this great person. He fought so many demons and was unable to overcome them. I am now educated, enlightened, and heart-broken for this lost soul. So, for anyone who may like Chris, this book is such a must-read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing
Comment: What a freat in-depth look at one of the most beloved comedic actors of all time. Even if you were not a fan of his, Chris Farley's struggles and triumphs will touch you.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fatty Falls Down... And We're All Worse Off For It
Comment: Chris Farley always struck me as accessible- one of the few Hollywood stars you could have a beer with, whose celebrity wouldn't intimidate or put him out of touch with average shlubs. And that's just how he's described in The Chris Farley Show, an oral history in the same style as Live From New York (James Miller and Tom Shales). You know the character in Tommy Boy and the Chris Farley Show skits on SNL? Yeah, that's exactly who Chris was- down to earth, nervous and plagued by insecurities, lovable and endearing, humbled to be in the presence of those he admired, and funny as hell. Farley didn't seem to have many detractors; I don't remember reading much bad press when he was alive, and the hundreds of friends, family, comedy legends and/or professional colleagues, girlfriends, and influences interviewed for the book rarely speak about him in less than glowing terms (except for deprecating his addiction). Some, like Alec Baldwin and Norm MacDonald, are downright reverential of Farley, and provide some of the book's memorable quotes and touching stories.
Just try keeping up with Farley, though, if you did get him out for a beer. Described as relatively indiscriminate about whom he partied with, there's a good chance you'd score a drink with him if you approached him on the right night, but unless you have Robert Downey Jr's constitution, you'd be left in the dust (or under the table, as it were). Farley was an eater, boozer, and user of epic proportions, who went to rehab dozens of times in his last year of life alone, and whose autopsy showed the clogged heart and beaten liver of a much older man. The CFS does an excellent, no-holds-barred job of exploring the roots of Farley's addictive personality, from a dangerous Belushi obsession, to a host of insecurities, to thinking a comic is obliged to be falling down drunk, to an enabling and abusing family.
Farley's father was a figuratively and literally (600 pounds at death) enormous influence in his son's life, who bought booze for his underage Chris, thought rehab was for the weak, and turned a blind eye to Chris' increasingly scary signs of losing it all. Some of the enablement tales are as legendary as they are irresponsible, like when Mr. Farley whisked Chris out of a weight-loss clinic, got on a plane with him to a resort in Florida, and joined his son on a several day eating and drinking binge. Kudos to author and older brother Tom Farley for taking an unflinching look at how his dad- and to a lesser extent him and his brothers- was too ensconced in his own substance problems to have been more of a help to Chris. Following the book's transcript of Chris' sober, motivational speech to a rehab audience, to his falling hard off the wagon after three years of sobriety, is like watching a slow moving train wreck.
Written by the older Farley brother in order to remember Chris as more than a collection of video clips and SNL reruns, The CFS is chock full of hilarious and poignant stories, the vast majority of which I'd never heard. It is real inside stuff, from tales of high school and overnight camp pranks, to details of his relationship with guys like David Spade and Tom Arnold, to grisly details about substance abuse, to anecdotes of what went on behind the scenes of SNL. Farley was devoutly religious and not ashamed to attend church regularly; he helped the homeless and destitute in a quiet and dignified way, in many instances unbeknownst to loved ones; he missed on chances to star in on The Cable Guy, Shrek, and Kingpin; he had OCD tendencies; and he was probably more funny off camera than on. If you weren't already aware of the tragedy of losing Chris Farley at the tender age of 33, the alternately touching and laugh-out-loud tales detailed here will convince, reinforce, and remind you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: HUGE FAN OF CHRIS FARLEY BUT NOT THIS BOOK.
Comment: Hey I am huge fan of Chris Farley but this book just doesn't do it for me. it's just story after story of something funny or not funny Chris did through his life, told by someone else. I thought it was a story about his life but it isnt really. I found it entertaing but mostly boring and over drawn. I think it would make a GREAT MOVIE, but as a book it failed to take you into the depths of the words
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