saturday night live

Before Bob Odenkirk was an a--kicking action star in the Nobody films, or TV's funniest and most brilliant attorney Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, he was helping to prop up other comedians in their climb to stardom.

Obviously, Odenkirk is known in his own right as a gifted comic and actor. Having co-created Mr. Show with David Cross, he has steadily built a fan base who adore and support his exploding talent and career. But before he was even hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live (on which he wrote for many seasons), he was a member of the reputable Second City improv group in Chicago, where he worked with the late great Chris Farley.

A friend of mine happened to be at one of the Second City performances as a sixth grader when Farley debuted a version of the now incredibly popular sketch "Van down by the river." Of the show, he said, "It was like nothing anyone had ever seen before. The minute Farley walked on stage, the audience couldn't stop laughing."

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman Giphy, Breaking Bad

In an exclusive conversation with Upworthy, Odenkirk, who wrote the sketch, explains, "Chris had done a version of the Matt Foley character in an improv scene. A high school football coach, and we were improvising faculty giving kids a 'don't do drugs' talk."

Of Farley's performance, Odenkirk shares, "God, he was hilarious. So fun to watch from the second he stepped onstage. I took the energy of that character in, and that night gave it the structure of 'Matt Foley; The Motivational Speaker.' I was thinking about Tony Robbins and someone like that using themselves, as Matt does, to be a negative example. It was the perfect marriage of performance and writing structure for a great sketch."

Odenkirk theorizes where he believes Farley may have drawn inspiration. "In real life, I am sure Chris had been on the receiving end of many 'get up and go' lectures. He felt like a loser and called himself that and even worse, all day long. His negative inner monologue played out in public constantly...and it was hard to witness. We all have to deal with the negative inner voice, his was super-charged by hectoring lectures he'd received all his life. In the end, that negativity aimed at himself by himself (by his experience of getting lectured and berated), made it hard for him to overcome his indulgences."

He offers this lovely advice. "Like everyone, I loved the guy and I felt for his struggle, so openly on display. It's important to find positive pulls to get you to a better place, instead of negative ones that degrade your inner strength."

In a clip posted by GQ on TikTok, Odenkirk is shown that someone posted a clip from the sketch, asking, "I need to know what line Bob is most proud of in this." Odenkirk laughs and answers, "So I wrote the motivational speaker sketch for Chris Farley when we were at Second City together."

He adds, "In the course of rehearsal, I got to know Chris. And one night I went home and I wrote that sketch, the way it's done. I've written hundreds of sketches—a couple thousand, maybe? That's one of the few that IS in its final form, pretty much exactly what I wrote in my apartment alone one night in Chicago. Which is cool and weird and rare.

So my favorite line—'Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?' The clip then flashes back to the actual SNL sketch, wherein Farley, his bright green tie hanging way too low, leans onto Phil Hartman and points, 'I can't see real good. Is that Bill Shakespeare over there?' You see everyone on the couch trying desperately not to break character. We cut back to Odenkirk who laughs. "Just kills me. I mean, I'm a Midwestern guy and I'm always gonna call William Shakespeare, Bill Shakespeare."

Chris Farley in 'Van Down By the River' sketch for SNL www.youtube.com, SNL, NBC Universal

He explains, "We did the sketch at Second City first and I was in the cast. And I played the dad, the part that Phil Hartman played on SNL. Chris would not leave that stage until he made every other performer laugh. Every single time he did the sketch."

He shares, "My daughter, when she was six, asked me, 'what's the most fun you ever had in show business?' I said to her, 'I did a sketch with a guy named Chris Farley once at Second City. And every night that I did that sketch, every single time I did it was the most fun I ever had in show business.'"