"I Am Chris Farley" — the first feature-length documentary film to take a heartbreakingly close look at Farley’s rise from trouble-making son of a salesman to “infuriatingly talented” comedy superstar — will be screened for a Chicago audience on Monday at The Second City’s Up Comedy Club. View Full Caption I Am Chris Farley

OLD TOWN — Comedian Chris Farley’s life was a shooting star that started and ended in Chicago.

It’s where the funny fat kid who grew up in Wisconsin cheering for the Packers scored a spot on the Second City’s main stage and transformed himself into a big-time comedy star and the ultimate Chicago Bears “Superfan.”

And in 1997, it’s where the 33-year-old "Saturday Night Live" superstar’s long struggle with obesity and addiction came to a fatal end after a heroin-cocaine binge with a prostitute in a John Hancock Building apartment.

So, it’s fitting that "I Am Chris Farley" — the first feature-length documentary film to take a heartbreakingly close look at Farley’s rise from troublemaking son of a salesman to “infuriatingly talented” comedy superstar — will be screened for a Chicago audience on Monday at the Second City’s Up Comedy Club.

“Chicago was very important to Chris, and the city is very important to Chris’s story, and that’s why we wanted to screen it there,” the late comic’s brother Kevin Farley said as we chatted about the film Wednesday.

“Chicago is where Chris went from being a funny guy to someone who could really own a stage. He learned all his chops in Chicago. It’s where he grew the most.”

The film, a Farley-family approved documentary, focuses sharply on the funny man’s unlikely rise to fame and purposely tiptoes around the offstage demons that ultimately led to his early death.

“We all read about how Chris died. There was a lot printed about it. The media is obsessed with death. I don’t think people care about that,” said Kevin Farley, who will answer questions with filmmakers Brent Hodge and Derik Murray after the Chicago screening Monday.

“This is about how he lived, what he did when he was alive. He gave 100 percent to his craft … and you could see it in his work and who he was. That’s what people will remember about Chris the most.”

Farley’s family, including his older brother Tom, who co-authored “The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts,” shared stories about growing up in working-class Madison with their attention-seeking sibling who got big laughs long before he became America’s favorite guy to watch fall down.

The film gives a rare glimpse at the comic’s coming of age from his theatrical debut at summer camp to the ridiculous stunts he pulled in high school — unzipping his pants in class and typing with no hands, among other things.

Hard-core Farley fans also get to meet Matt Foley, the guy who inspired Chris Farley’s famous "SNL" skit “Motivational Speaker” and actually did live “in a van down by the river.”

Farley’s Hollywood contemporaries — David Spade, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Tom Arnold, Dan Aykroyd, Bob Saget and Bob Odenkirk, among them — offer praise and emotional remembrances of their pal who lived a dangerous double life.

Saget put it this way, “He was a very sweet guy before midnight.”

Myers says he was saddened, but not shocked by Farley’s death.

Sandler said he warned his friend about his drug use saying, “You’re going to die from that buddy. You’ve got to stop. It’s not going to end right.”

It didn’t end right. And for that, the loving tribute "I Am Chris Farley" doubles as a cautionary tale for aspiring comedians flocking to Chicago to chase their dreams.

“Chicago is still America’s place to go to learn improv and study acting. Audiences are smart, it’s a working-class town. If you’re going to be an actor, I’ll tell you don’t go to the coasts. Come to Chicago and learn there first,” Kevin Farley said.

“But you have to believe in who you are. Chris had a hard time doing that. He had a lot of self-doubt. He was very hard on himself. It’s critically important to give yourself a break and understand all you can do is the best you can. Because this business can overwhelm you and be dangerous to your health.”

“I Am Chris Farley” is set to make its cable TV debut Aug. 10 on the Spike Network.

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