In his tragically brief career, Chris Farley, who died in 1997 at age 33 of a cocaine and heroin overdose, managed to become one of the most beloved comedians of his generation. He was a fan favorite on the cast of Saturday Night Live from1990 to 1995-playing, among many other roles, a flabby and hard-to-watch Chippendales dancer; El Niño, the Master of All Storms; and motivational speaker Matt Foley, whose hard luck had forced him to take up residence "in a van down by the river."

Chris went on to a movie career that made him millions of fans and established his reputation as a bankable movie star. His most popular role was in Tommy Boy, as the sweet and bumbling Tommy Callahan, a role that earned him and co-star David Spade an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Duo.

Chris, one of five children who grew up in a close-knit family in Madison, Wisconsin, battled addiction throughout most of his career. After Chris's death, his family decided to do all they could to educate younger generations about the risks and dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. The organization founded in Chris's name, The Chris Farley Foundation, is now led by Chris's older brother, Tom Farley, Jr, who took time to speak with Freevibe.

FREEVIBE: As funny as he was, your brother always seemed to show this sort of warmth and self-consciousness that made people just really love him as a person.

FARLEY: You know, I always felt the same way, with the exception of the years I had to share a bedroom with him. But really, he was very warm and very genuine. We had just a very funny family. When we'd get together with the Murray boys, Bill's younger brothers, they have that same dynamic, just a bunch of boys yukking it up.

FREEVIBE: Is it true that he used to include family jokes in his routines?

FARLEY: You know, it wasn't so much jokes but words and phrases, little family quirks. Like in Tommy Boy, that whole "Holy shnikeys!" thing. My father used to say that, because he never wanted to swear in front of us.

FREEVIBE: You once said that the people who love Chris the most were the ones most susceptible to following the dangerous path he took.

FARLEY: When we started talking about what we wanted to do with this foundation, the reason we thought there would be such a huge impact was because we looked at Chris's fan base. Teens, young adults, the 12- to 24-year-olds that loved Chris-and still do. That demographic holds-it's as if people get to a certain age and discover Chris Farley. So we said, "These are the people who are making these choices, the ones who have the greatest risk of going down the path that Chris did."

FREEVIBE: Can you explain your foundation's slogan: "Think, Laugh, Live?"

FARLEY: What we're trying to do is communicate the dangers of substance abuse, but we want to do it the way Chris would have done it, and that's with humor . . . Whether you liked Chris or not, whether you thought he was funny or just a big, loud obnoxious guy, the fact of the matter is that you couldn't ignore him. (When he performed) most people laughed at him immediately, but there were some people who didn't buy his act. And he would just zero in on those people. To me, as the person who's in charge of getting our message out, that's what the way I want to go about it.

So going back to our motto: "Think, Laugh, Live." You can make the right choices and you can buck up against peer pressure, you can think and do all those things that are right for you. But that doesn't mean you're giving up the joy in life. You can still laugh. The Foundation wants everyone to laugh and enjoy life, but in the process, you need to think and make the right choices. If you do both those things, the third part, living, is going to be the best part of all. The problem with some kids is that they don't laugh, or they don't think, and it makes for a difficult life.

FREEVIBE: Was there any sort of pattern that Chris's substance abuse followed? Did he start using certain drugs and then move onto others?

FARLEY: Absolutely. Madison's a college town, and it's kind of a-you know, it's not an eastern school that has the cutting-edge drugs and stuff like that. It's a Midwestern school with a drug scene grounded in marijuana. Certainly (Chris's habit) started with beer, but then he went on to pot. And marijuana is what really started it off. After college, there was a slow progression. It wasn't until he got out to the East Coast that the really hard stuff came into play.

We get a lot of e-mails to the (Farley Foundation) Web site saying, "I agree with you about everything except for your stance on marijuana." It's unfortunate that there are so many misperceptions about this drug. I mean, I saw Chris firsthand. He started there. And yeah, it didn't necessarily mean that he was going to go right from there to cocaine and heroin, but you have to understand that once you start there, once you made the choice to do something illegal or take something somebody else offers you . . . It's very easy to have some guy say, "Why don't you try this now?"

That's what happened to Chris. Literally, he went to New York and found some guy who would sell him pot, and sure enough this guy said, "Here, try this now." There was a very clear progression from one to the next.

FREEVIBE: What do you tell the young people you meet through the Foundation?

FARLEY: One of the things I always told Chris, and I say this all the time. Chris loved to be around people that laughed, he loved humor, he loved the good things in life. He thought everyone was nice, and he liked to have fun. And yet there was this side of him. . . when he wanted to take drugs, all of a sudden he found himself in this culture, surrounded by people who didn't like to laugh, who didn't care about people. Because of his addiction, he couldn't see that. I kept pointing it out to him. I kept saying, "Chris, these people don't care about you. They're don't like humor. They're nothing like you." And sure enough, he died surrounded by people who were not his friends. They just wanted him to give them money so they could do whatever they were going to do.

I always look at it that way. I say: "Look around. Are these really people who care about you?"

The other thing is to understand that it's your choice. When I was growing up, as one of the oldest kids in the family, there was always pressure on me to do things. My father was a very controlling and demanding kind of guy. And one thing I hated was being told what to do. So I cherished the few choices I did have in life. All teenagers are . . . at that point in their lives when they can start to make their own choices. And yet one of the first things they do when faced with choices about drugs is to give that choice up to their peer group. The group is saying, "Here, we're all doing this." In their minds kids might be saying, "No, I've resisted drugs all this time, I don't want to do this. I know it's wrong." And yet they don't make the decision for themselves. So I tell kids, "Cherish your choices. Be strong and committed to them. Nobody else should be able to take them away from you."

Visit the Chris Farley Foundation at http://www.chrisfarleyfoundation.com .