Clowning Glory
In the over-the-(big)-top tradition of his late brother
Chris, Kevin Farley rocks as a faux teen idol on MTV
Almost everything actor Kevin Farley knows about being funny
he learned from his big brother. "People said he was a
partyer," Farley says of Chris, the gifted Saturday Night
Live comic who dies in 1997, at 33, of a cocaine and morphine
overdose. "But his work ethic was triple anyone I've ever
seen. I learned a lot from him. Chris believed his characters
were real people, and he brought 100 percent of himself into
each one."
So when MTV's boy-band parody movie 2Gether sent out a
casting call last October for the role of Doug Linus (an
optimistic baby-boomer oaf who persuades his kid brother to
let him join his band), Farley stepped out of his balding,
35-year old, classic-rock-loving self and shamelessly belted
out a Backstreet Boys song to win a part. The spoof ranked
No. 1 in its February time slot with 12 to 24-year olds,
prompting MTV to green-light a weekly series that will make
its debut Aug. 15. 2Gether has even toured live, opening for
Britney Spears (their next shows is on Aug. 28 in Boston), and
released a CD that features songs such as "U + Me = Us
(Calculus)" and "Say It, Don't Spray It." Says Farley's
real-life brother John: "It's ridiculous! He's a grown man, for
God's sake, and he's wearing Bungle Boy pants!" ("That's Bugle
Boy!" snaps Farley.)
Despite the generation gap, Farley's 2Gether
castmates-Evan Farmer, 22, Alex Solowitz, 20, Michael
Cuccione, 15, and Noah Bastian, 16-insists he's one of them.
"Kevin's the reason we're successful," says Farmer. "He
embodies the humor in our performances."
Even as Farley's career emerges from his brother's shadow-a
task made harder by their resemblance-it's easy to spot
Chris's intense bran of physical humor in Kevin. But Kevin
welcomes the comparisons. "I'll get that as long as I live," he
says. "Chris is still in people's hearts and minds-that's his
legacy." As is the Chris Farley Foundation, which the family
founded in 1998 to teach kids about the ricks of drugs and
alcohol. It's a topic the Farley's know all too well: Kevin,
Joehn, and mother Mary Anne are recovering alcoholics (Kevin
has been sober for six years). "The family stopped drinking
years ago-Chris led us," says Mary Anne, 64, who runs the
foundation. "He was going through his sobriety, and we looked
at each other and realized, 'What are we doing?' I credit
Chris for showing us that parth." While the pain of his death
still cuts deep, the Farley's find solace in humor. "Chris didn't
like being fat," says Kevin. "But he thought, 'If I make a joke,
it'll be easier for everybody.' It's how all Farleys deal with
things-we make a joke of it."
Laughter has always veen at the family's core. Growing up in
Madison, Wis., the third of five kids, Farley remembers his
dad, Tom, an asphalt-company owner who died last year at age
63, rousing the entire clan to watch Saturday-morning
cartoons together. (Brother Tom, 38, is a radio promoter in
Fairfield, Conn.; John, 31, is an actor; Barbara, 40, teaches
preschool in Eagle Heights, Wis.) At Edgewood High School,
both Kevin and Chris played football and were class clowns.
Says Farley's best friend Richard Thompson: "There isn't a
line in the Meatballs/Caddyshack movie genre they didn't
know!"
In 1986 Farley graduated with a business degree from
Marquette University in Milwaukee and began working with his
dad. "Then I hit what they call rock bottom," he says, laughing.
Bored with sales, he headed to Chicago in 1995 and began
taking comedy classes. Two years later he relocated to Los
Angeles, where he guest-starred on sitcoms until his 2gether
breakthrough last fall.
Relaxing at his two-bedroom Irish cottage in Pasadena, Farley,
who is single, reflects on losing his brother. "You're faced
with a choice," he says quietly. "You can either be depressed
or move on with your life. I carry on with laughter because
that's what Chris would want."
by Ting Yu and Paula Yoo
