Few comedians have had careers as insane and tragic as Artie Lange. The funny-man has had more than his fair share of struggles, but no matter how dark things get, Lange always finds a way to come back. Here's the real story behind the tragic life of Artie Lange.
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00:00Few comedians have had careers as insane and tragic as Artie Lange.
00:05The funnyman has had more than his fair share of struggles, but no matter how dark things
00:09get, Lange always finds a way to come back.
00:11Here's the real story behind the tragic life of Artie Lange.
00:15Right after Artie Lange's 18th birthday, tragedy struck when his father fell off a ladder at
00:20work and was paralyzed.
00:21Lange, who often worked alongside his father and held his ladder, was away playing pool
00:25with friends.
00:26I have nightmares about that.
00:28He never brought it up to me, but I think about it all the time.
00:34Lange's father died four and a half years after the accident, with Lange later revealing
00:38to Rolling Stone that he'd simply lost the will to live.
00:42After moving to New York and doing stand-up for about three and a half years, the 27-year-old
00:47Lange scored his dream job when he was cast on the brand new Fox sketch show Mad TV.
00:51However, working on the show was stressful, and Lange's growing cocaine problem didn't
00:55exactly help matters.
00:57According to his memoir, Too Fat to Fish, Lange reached a low point when filming a sketch
01:01called Babe Watch.
01:02A parody of the movie Babe and the hit show Baywatch, Lange had to spend three hours transforming
01:07into a creepily accurate pig man.
01:09A pig face, a pig snout, six teats, the bikini top on each one, that was a joke, you know.
01:16You didn't see us at the Emmys a lot back then.
01:18When he finally got to set at 4 a.m. after having to stare at himself in pig makeup for
01:23hours, Lange decided he needed a boost.
01:25After buying cocaine in a parking lot and doing some lines in a restaurant bathroom
01:29while still wearing his pig mask, Lange returned to set, only to continue doing lines there.
01:34With no end to his addiction and sight, combined with two attempts to take his own life, Lange
01:39was fired from Mad TV after only two years.
01:43Needless to say, Lange wasn't getting a ton of offers thrown his way after being fired
01:46from a hit TV show and having a known drug problem.
01:49I have no job, no car, no money, no girlfriend.
01:53I'm not particularly good looking.
01:55When I go to the beach, I don't tan properly."
01:57However, comedian Norm Macdonald was happy to give him a chance by casting him in the
02:02movie Dirty Work.
02:03Lange was in rehab when Macdonald reached out to him about the role, but instead of
02:06completing the program, he simply paid the rehab director to give him written permission
02:10to begin filming.
02:12Lange and Macdonald hadn't met before the film, but they instantly became friends during
02:15Lange's audition.
02:17When Macdonald appeared on Howard Stern in 1998 to promote Dirty Work, he brought Lange
02:21along, talking him up until Stern invited him into the studio.
02:24Is that the guy who got fired from Mad TV?
02:26Yeah, man, he got fired from Mad TV.
02:29This is the coolest story.
02:32Where is he?
02:33Bring him in, too.
02:34It was Lange's first appearance on the show, and it led to the most successful move of
02:37his career.
02:39Lange's easy charm left a lasting impression on Howard Stern after his initial appearance
02:43on the show.
02:44However, when Stern needed another person in the studio in 2001, Lange was the first
02:48to come to mind.
02:49The comedian stayed on the show from 2001 to 2009, and Stern praised him as the funniest,
02:54sweetest guy around with the biggest heart on the planet.
02:57While the two loved working together, Lange's drug problem eventually made the collaboration
03:01impossible.
03:02After falling asleep in the studio and nearly punching his assistant on air, Lange went
03:06back to rehab and appeared in his last show in December 2009.
03:12By 2010, Artie Lange had hit rock bottom.
03:14In his darkest moment after a four-day heroin binge, Lange drank some household chemicals
03:18and attempted to take his own life with a knife.
03:21Lange later explained his addled thought process, saying,
03:24"'At the time I did that, there was a part of me that just wanted to get that heroin
03:27feeling or that opiate feeling or whatever.
03:29My logic was, if I get bloody, I'll get queasy and I'll go to sleep.'"
03:33Luckily, his mother found him passed out and bleeding in his bedroom and rushed him to
03:37the hospital.
03:38After a year and eight months in rehab and therapy, Lange started to work again, writing
03:42his second book, Crash and Burn, about the incident and his addiction.
03:45If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
03:49Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.
03:54Though Lange has had more than his fair share of troubles, he always seems to get back on
03:58his feet.
03:59With the help of small roles on Louie and Inside Amy Schumer, Lange slowly made his
04:03way back on TV, all while continuing his stand-up career on the road.
04:07The game-changer came in 2016, when Lange scored a major role in the HBO series Crashing.
04:13Lange plays himself on the show and acts as a sort of mentor to Pete Holmes' lead character,
04:17an aspiring stand-up comedian.
04:19After only four episodes, the show got picked up for a second season, upping the chance
04:22of Lange's role becoming significantly larger.
04:26Though he spoke about sobriety after nearly taking his life in 2010 and seemingly got
04:31his career back on track, Artie Lange was arrested in March 2017 for possession of cocaine
04:36and heroin.
04:37After the arrest, Lange tweeted to his fans that he was okay and never wanted to live
04:41more, though he warned young people to not follow in his footsteps.
04:44However, a few days after the incident, Lange surprised fans by saying in a radio interview
04:49that he had been fired from Crashing, but HBO and executive producer Judd Apatow were
04:53quick to shoot down that idea.
04:55The show's creator and star Pete Holmes even said,
04:57"...once you meet and know Artie, you're not going to turn your back on him."
05:01It's unclear what caused all the confusion about the supposed firing, but Lange did eventually
05:05return to the series, even starring in a poignant episode that directly addressed his
05:09long battle with addiction.
05:11Unfortunately, the condition of Artie Lange's nose tells his story.
05:16Fans who paid close attention to the comedian's nose in pictures and appearances could watch
05:20the progression through the years, but Lange addressed it head-on in December 2018 by posting
05:25several photos to Twitter, captioning one picture of his nose,
05:28"...woke up clean.
05:29My nose is f-----.
05:30Gotta accept it.
05:31But I'm alive and blessed."
05:32This all comes amid court appearances for continued drug convictions, as well as reports
05:36that Lange relapsed during rehab in the fall of 2018.
05:40However, Lange insists that he's clean now, even taking to Twitter in December 2018 to
05:45defend his decision to stay busy with stand-up comedy.
05:47Lange wrote,
05:48"...I'm clean, guys.
05:49I swear.
05:50Will it last?
05:51I hope so.
05:52But I can't sit inside and be what people want me to be.
05:54I gotta take the risk.
05:55It's the only life I know.
05:56I love you all."
06:02For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org