Chris Farley’s brother to perform stand-up to promote responsible use of drugs and alcohol
Posted on March 13, 2008
Substance abuse is not a laughing matter, but some think it would be better if it were.
Chris Farley’s brother and president of the Chris Farley Foundation, Tom Farley, will be performing stand-up comedy Monday at 6 p.m. in Memorial Hall. The Chris Farley Foundation uses humor to promote the responsible use of drugs and alcohol.
Chris Farley, known for his roles in “Tommy Boy,” “Wayne’s World” and “Saturday Night Live,” was a successful comedian before he died at the age of 33 from a drug overdose.
“[The Chris Farley Foundation] is not so much anti-drug, anti-drinking; instead they want to teach how not to become addicted and go about having fun without getting totally wasted where you don’t remember what you did,” said junior organizational communication major Caroline Farley.
Farley is a distant cousin of Chris and Tom and organized the event with senior communication major Caitlin Harrison.
Farley said she thinks humor is more effective than any anti-drug commercial she has seen, and the Chris Farley Foundation gets through to people by catching their attention.
“If you’re going to sit someone down and say lets talk about drugs and alcohol, most people are like ‘oh-my-gosh not again,’ “ She said. “But he doesn’t approach it that way. He approaches it by joking about it, but then he also uses Chris and says here’s a guy who dedicated his life to humor but still couldn’t mix the two and look what happened.”
Humor can only be effective if used the right way, according to sophomore psychology major Megan Black. However, she doesn’t think most anti-drug and alcohol ad campaigns are effective either.
“They shouldn’t use such extreme ads so that if people do use drugs and realize that’s not what it’s like, that will just make people distrust every ad,” she said. “I don’t really agree with scaring people into not using drugs or alcohol.”
Harrison said she thinks that the event will offer an alternative to the unrealistic ads that exaggerate the consequences of drinking and drug use. She said the foundation is effective because everyone likes to laugh and drug and alcohol use is portrayed in a realistic manor.
According to a 2006 study by the Office of Substance Abuse Research 81.2 percent of students reported alcohol use while 21.6 percent of students reported drug use.
“I have seen people fall into drugs and alcohol where it’s affected their family life, social life and school life,” Farley said. “It’s a serious issue.”
Farley classifies alcohol and drug abusers as people who don’t know how or when to stop.
Farley thinks peer pressure is the largest factor students use drugs and alcohol.
“College is an age where you have so many expectations to live up to especially socially, and if you’re in an uncomfortable situation, alcohol is an easy escape,” she said.
Tickets are $5 at the door, all proceeds will go to the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County Community Resource Center.
