The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tanner Colby, Tom Farley Read Free Book Online

easily, especially among the Marquette rugby team—the gung-ho, gonzo athletes who would become his ad hoc fraternity. Given the preferences of his father, and lacking any clear ones of his own, Chris started out in the business studies program. Bored and disinterested, he did not do well. However, as his understanding of his talents grew, he changed course and dedicated himself to a career in acting and comedy. Though his early attempts at performance were frequently clumsy, Chris kept at it with a dedication he had previously shown only in his football uniform.
    As a Jesuit institution, Marquette teaches its students to pursue knowledge and personal growth not only for their own self-advancement but also for the glory of God and service to others. Chris’s four years in Milwaukee would give him the opportunity to do precisely that.

JIM MURPHY, friend:
    When he first came to Marquette, he was a very preppy guy. Super preppy. He would always have his hair combed and always had polo shirts and khakis and Top-Siders. Then over time he would take those Ralph Lauren button-down oxfords and he’d rip the sleeves off. Then, in the next phase, the khakis became army fatigues and the oxfords turned into flannel shirts. It was the same thing everyone did in college. We all kind of came in as one thing and left as another.

FR. MATT FOLEY, friend:
    The first time I saw Chris was on the rugby pitch. I was the president of the rugby team, and a sophomore. He was a freshman. He was wearing some kind of obnoxious chartreuse-colored polo shirt with argyle shorts and gym shoes. I was drawn to him right away because I thought, oh, this poor soul is going to get his ass kicked. The guys on the rugby team are a little rough, and here comes the preppy, portly kid. But he hustled and made many friends in no time because he was such a classic character.
    One of the great things about Chris was that he was so very generous. Marquette would play Madison every year in rugby, so we went out there that fall. We’d been drinking all day, and Chris was like, “Let’s all go over to my place!”
    We get there, and Mr. Farley and Mrs. Farley are just the most gracious hosts. All these drunk, dirty rugby guys are running around their house—this is around one in the morning—and Mrs. Farley is going, “Oh, you boys! Let me make some sandwiches.” And she just brought out all these beautiful sandwiches.
    We rode back to Milwaukee in the back of a pickup, freezing our asses off. It had a camper top on it, but it wasn’t very warm. The bars in Madison closed at one, but the bars at Marquette didn’t close until three. You could close the bars in one town and still make it to close the bars in the other. That’s the rugby mentality at its finest.

KEVIN FARLEY:
    When I got to Marquette, Chris had only been there two years, and he was already a legend, flat out the funniest guy on campus, and that really grew out of the rugby parties. The Avalanche was a typical Milwaukee bar. That’s where the rugby players would go party after their games. It had a great jukebox and a couple of pool tables. They had fifty-cent Red, White and Blue beers. When you finished your bottle, you threw it against the back wall of the bar.
    Chris started doing this thing after the games: naked beer slides. Everyone in the bar would pour out their beer and he’d take off all his clothes and take a running start and slide across the bar like Pete Rose coming into home base. The Avalanche is long gone, but people still do it. It’s something of a Marquette tradition. People have built a legend around it.

JIM MURPHY:
    It got to a point where every team coming in to play Marquette had heard about the beer slides and wanted to see them. Chris would start to take his clothes off, going, “Aw, man. Why do I always have to do this?” But he’d kind of set the tone early, and he always had to live up to himself.

PAT FINN, friend:
    Any time during a game that there was a lull,