To promote just-released new book, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, Bob Odenkirk stopped by The View on Tuesday where he fielded questions about his decades-long comedy career, which included working with Chris Farley while the two were just starting out doing live sketches for Second City. The two eventually moved onto Saturday Night Live where Odenkirk helped create the classic sketch where Farley plays motivational speaker Matt Foley who “lives in a van down by the river.”
Thirty years later, the SNL sketch still left the ladies of The View dying with laughter, but when asked what was it like working with Farley, Odenkirk said nothing could beat their time together at Second City:
“There was nothing more fun than being on stage with him — or backstage. My daughter asked me the best time I had in show business, and I said doing that sketch with Chris every night on Second City. He wouldn’t stop until he made every performer laugh. He made the audience laugh right away. But he would grind you with his performance, and you couldn’t help it. It was pure joy.”
Of course, it shouldn’t a surprise that Odenkirk has fond memories of their pre-SNL days. In an excerpt from his book reported by the New York Post, Odenkirk revealed that he hated the now-classic sketch where Farley auditions to be a Chippendales dancer next to Patrick Swayze. The sketch would turn Farley into a comedy superstar, but Odenkirk never cared for the wrong lesson it taught his late friend.
“I know it confirmed Chris’s worst instincts about being funny, which was how he proved his worth — that getting laughed at was as good as getting a laugh,” Odenkirk wrote. “F*ck that sketch.”
(Via The View)