New graphic novel shares childhood stories of comedian and Wisconsin native Chris Farley

In the childhood household of late sketch comedian and Madison native Chris Farley, comedy was seemingly all he and his brothers would ever talk about.

“The only movies my dad would let everyone watch are comedies,” comedian and sibling Kevin Farley told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” 

But their father, Thomas, was also a Catholic man who wanted his boys to be gentlemen.

“That meant having some manners, even though it didn’t seem like [it with] Chris, but he would have manners sometimes,” Kevin joked. “[My father] didn’t like bullies, and he didn’t like people that were too showy. He wanted you to be — like any kind of Wisconsin dad — grounded in Midwest values.”

A new graphic novel, “Growing Up Farley,” penned by Kevin explores some of the brothers’ early forays into comedy — from performing for a group of boys at summer camp in the Northwoods to entertaining each other in their backyard. 

“There was always a competition: Who could make each other laugh the most?” Kevin said. “And [Chris] usually won those competitions because he one-upped everybody. We would dare somebody to do something, and he’d always do it.”

Kevin shared some stories of the boys’ childhood and the role their father played in bringing his children into the world of comedy.

The following was edited for clarity and brevity.

Kate Archer Kent: In this graphic novel, we get glimpses of your dad. What impact did he make on you and your brother’s comedy?

Kevin Farley: A lot. He had sort of a dry sense of humor. But when he’d laugh, he’d laugh really hard. He loved wordplay and was inspired by a lot of the Mel Brooks comedies. … We were flooded with “Caddyshack,” “The Carol Burnett Show” and basically those kinds of comedies.

He was sort of a connoisseur of comedy, and he laughed hard. … We had a VHS player, and we could watch them over and over again. So, I think we watched “Caddyshack” over 1,000 times.

KAK: In the novel, you talk about going to Red Arrow Camp in northern Wisconsin in the summers. What role did summer camp have in you both getting your first taste of performing for a crowd?

KF: Red Arrow always had a play at the end of the summer and everybody in the camp had a little something to do there. I was mostly in the choir, but Chris always had a lead role. He sang songs like “Teddy Bear” by Elvis Presley. He really killed that one. He was always the hit of the play. So, we knew there was something there at that point.

KAK: When Chris starts performing at The Second City in Chicago as Matt Foley, the abrasive and clumsy motivational speaker that became a famous sketch on Saturday Night Live, what did you see in Chris as he came to life in those performances?

KF: We had a lot of football coaches that were loud and boisterous. They were hilarious because of the way they spoke. 

The coach would always say, “Do me a favor: Don’t think. Do.” Those kinds of things always resonated with Chris. [Phrases] like, “If you’re going to make a mistake, make an aggressive mistake.” He loved the football coaches’ sayings. And then a lot of it was mixed in with my father and his boisterous voice. So, it was a combination of our football coaches [and] my dad.

KAK: I appreciate how in the novel you really focus on the behind-the-scenes things we just don’t see between your brothers and your dad. You don’t spend time on the struggles that are often focused on with your brother: food, alcohol or drugs. Do we sometimes shy away from the good points and the relationships — the aspects that seem to get short shrift — in these narratives?

KF: My brother died a very public death. Everybody knows how he died. We talk about that a lot, but I always wanted to show people the other side of him. He was a pretty shy guy, and a lot of times very insecure. 

My father also had an illness. He was overweight, and we all had a problem with food. I still do. But you have to address those issues. Since then, we’ve all looked at ourselves. I’ve looked at myself, and I’ve sobered up. So, I look at that as something that was in the family and was something we all had to address. I didn’t really know what alcoholism was when I was growing up. But then I figured it out pretty quick after Chris died.

I wanted to just point to the good things. Because there’s so many times when people focus on the troubles Chris and my father had. But there were also a lot of good times too.