BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) BREAK
In the early 90’s, Lange started focusing on stand up. He quit his day job and took on driving a taxi so he could sneak in sets around New York and still work in between and after. He was successful and ended up getting into dinner theater and improv. This lead to him getting signed by WMA and then by the end of 95, he was on Mad TV.
(THREE) POLITICS
Artie Lange has a strong opinion on politics. Thankfully, he’s a bit more towards the liberal side of things. He’s cool with pro-choice, gay rights, unions, and all the normal stuff but doesn’t want to commit to the labeling. He trash talked Bush and supported Kerry and Obama… But yeah… he’s NOT a “liberal”. Wink. Wink.
(TWO) ROLLERCOASTER OF DRUGS
Artie Lange’s drug problems aren’t anything new. If you know who Artie Lange is then you probably know he has had some really crazy stints of excess. The story about him in a pig costume and doing coke while shooting Mad TV is insane. Still, for every “sorta cool” story like that he has some bigger embarrassments. It’s one of the most infamous “drugged out tragedy” stories of recent years. It was like he was TRYING really hard to be “that guy” to the point it was sorta sad. He’s clean now, but it’s been a long journey. If you read his books, you’ll get a fuller side of this.
(ONE) BEST SELLER
All of these stories and controversies were crammed into one book. Co-written with Anthony Bozza, “Too Fat to Fish” was a huge success. It debuted at number one on the New York Times Best Seller List and remained on the top ten for about three months. The book got tons of attention. I remember seeing him pop up a few places to plug the book when it came out. I’m sure we could see a follow up down the line because this guy is full of stories and has probably enough for a book itself based on the last few years of his life.
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