My SNL weekend with Chris Farley

A Madison kid makes good

This weekend’s fantastic 50-year birthday party also came with a sad reminder for me. The festivities came just two days after my friend and Madison icon Chris Farley would have turned 61.

Back in 1994, Madison Magazine writer Doug Moe and I managed to scam tickets to SNL. He was writing a profile of the 29-year-old Farley who was then a rising star. This was the year before his break-out with the hit movie Tommy Boy. Chris and I had gotten to know each other when he and his mom had worked on my campaign for Congress.

We arrived at the NBC studios around lunchtime where Chris was thrilled to show us around the studios and let us sit in on some early rehearsals. Away from the spotlight Chris was quiet and soft-spoken. He sat with us as writers and producers worked their way through early drafts, whispering like a play-by-play sports announcer describing the personalities and issues.

Most of the cast was scattered around a series of beat-up office, just down the hall from the studio itself. Chris walked us around introducing cast members along the way. Some like Mike Myers were focused on early draft of scripts and barely looked up. In contrast Phil Hartman immediately harassed both of us with him yelling down the hallway at me “Klug, yeah, I know all about you Klug. I know you’re trouble.”

As the afternoon wore on, Chris pulled us aside and said we had to leave. If you have seen the recent movie on the premier night of SNL the show is still being written right up to airtime. Skits get tossed, others rewritten. A few hit the right tone immediately. Even by 4:00, 7 ½ hours before it hit the air, the room had become edgy, and the pressure was building. While the cast and writers were friendly and professional with one another, the truth is behind the scenes, everyone fights for airtime. The seconds and minutes are precious. While Saturday Night Live is billed as a 90-minute show, when you subtract commercials, musical acts, the opening monologue, and pre-produced videos, it flies by quickly.

After dinner Doug and I were back at Rockefeller Plaza standing in a line snaking down the hall from the small theater. We scored seats adjacent to the stage in a section that had 40 seats. The balcony maybe had 100 more.

Chris had the best moment of the night. The show was airing right before Xmas, and Farley dressed as Santa Claus was rousting sleeping kids. “You’re going to get up Christmas morning,” Farley threatened “and find your stocking full of JACK SQUAT!” The skit ended with him tumbling downstairs dropping Christmas presents and wiping out the tree.

At the end of the show, now back on stage, Chris had swapped out one red costume for another. He was wearing a UW football sweatshirt I had hand delivered to him that morning, proudly celebrating UW’s historic Rose Bowl win.

We tagged along to the cast party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Before your imagination runs wild, no orgies or rampant drug use. The host that week, Sally Field brought along her mother for god’s sake. Woody Harrelson was circulating. Flea from the Red-Hot Chili Peppers was bending Loren Michael’s ear who was holding court in a corner of the room. . Chris was not much for small talk and worked the room perfunctorily. We were out the door after half an hour.

We got together over breakfast the next morning and thanked him for his kindness.

Doug later wrote a terrific piece about the trip. There were two sides to Chris. The New York wild child, and the Wisconsin kid who missed the quiet of the Northwoods.

Here is how he wrapped up his story in Madison Magazine.

“The work has given him much that he’s dreamed of money and fame and the respect of his talented peers. There have been endorsements and movie roles with more in the offing. At present, “Saturday Night” is still a kick and a challenge. He says live television is like being shot out of a cannon. You climb in, the fuse burns down, and boom, you’re hurtled into space.

Sadly, for Chris and all of us, the rocket ride was far too short. Three years after our weekend at SNL, he was dead at 33. Great show last night, but I missed my favorite cast member.