Brother of late comedian Chris Farley advises students to party wisely
Posted on March 27, 2008
Did you eat a lot of paint chips when you were a kid? Do you know anyone who might have?
If so, you may have something in common with St. Patrick’s Day speaker — Tom Farley. Older brother of the deceased comedian and actor, Chris Farley, he spoke to students about his efforts to discourage excessive alcohol and drug use among middle and high school youth. The March 17 event at Memorial Hall event raised approximately $300 for the Harrisonburg Community Resource Center.
After Chris died of opiate and cocaine intoxication, Tom Farley started the Chris Farley Foundation, traveling to schools across the country for the past 10 years. While he focuses on drug prevention in middle schools and intervention in high schools, at colleges he stresses the importance of becoming good role models. Farley emphasized humor as one of the main measures of combating drug abuse.
“We try to teach them how [youth] can maintain their peer relationships without compromising what they do with their lives,” he said. “Humor is one of those things that can get you out of situations without compromising choices.”
JMU senior Caitlin Harrison, an organizer of the event, thought it was good that Farley taught students with humor, as it could be beneficial in the long run.
“I think he’s definitely right about approaching kids in a realistic way,” she said. “You can’t just scare kids. Humor is a way to approach people.”
While Chris may have been known for both his comedy and his drug use, there was no correlation between the two. According to Farley, the routines and performances for which Chris was best remembered occurred during the three years he was actively working on his sobriety.
“For three years he was sober, and he was on fire,” Farley said, later adding, “Chris wasn’t funny because he [used drugs]. Quite the opposite.”
Growing up with Chris, Tom witnessed the downfall of his brother first hand. From the little boy sharing a room with him in Wisconsin, to the man wowing crowds at the New York Saturday Night Live Studios, Farley watched as addiction consumed his brother.
“It happened so incredibly fast,” he said. “It’s incredible how addiction goes from a little problem to ‘holy s---, what are we going to do now?’”
Junior Caroline Farley, a distant cousin of Chris and Tom’s, brought Farley to campus as she thought it would be beneficial for students to hear his message.
“A lot of people think of Chris Farley as rich and famous, but he’s living proof that actions have consequences,” she said.
Not wanting others to follow in his brother’s footsteps, Farley wants to help youth before they get pulled into problems they cannot work their way out of. His lecture focuses on staying positive, enjoying life and finding the humor in every situation.
“I saw how cruel it is for things like drugs and alcohol to stop kids from doing all they could with their lives,” he said.
While Farley tried to help his brother and keep him from falling over the deep end, he knew that Chris was not entirely to blame for his actions. While environmental factors were at play, biology could have also had a role in Chris’ addiction.
“What always bothered me is this stigma that drug use is self-inflicted, that they brought it on themselves, and that it’s not a disease,” Farley said.
More than anything else, Farley asked students to behave responsibly.
“Knowing who Chris was and knowing how he died I can’t come out here and tell people not to do it,” he said. “I want you to be safe.”
