When good-for-little stand-up comic Artie Lange joined the permanent cast of The Howard Stern Show in 2001, it was nothing short of a renaissance in the Stern universe. The Stern juggernaut has never slowed since its 80s heyday, but Lange provided what Stern had yet to find all in the same place: a wit quick enough to keep pace with his own, a pathetic self-image to dwarf his own, a personal history both heartbreaking and hilarious, and an ingrained sense of self-sabotage that continually keeps things interesting. To Stern show listeners, when Artie Lange joined the cast in 2001, it was truly a great thing.
Since then, an entire mythology has evolved around Artie, from the serious to the absurd. There are fan sites devoted to monitoring his weight, his stand-up comedy gigs, his sports betting losses, and even his probable date of death.
A stand-up comic and actor whose resume includes the movies Dirty Work, Elf, Beer League, and the cult television show Mad TV, and who is a favorite guest on Letterman, Conan, and Kimmel, Lange is a natural storyteller with a bottomless pit of material. He grew up in a close-knit, working-class Italian family in Union, New Jersey, a maniacal Yankees fan who pursued the two things his father said he was cut out for–sports and comedy. Tragically, Artie Lange Sr. never saw the truth in that prediction: he became a quadriplegic in an accident when Artie was eighteen and died soon after. But as with every trial in his life, from his drug addiction to his obesity to his fights with his mother, Artie mines the comedy, pathos, and humanity in these events and turns them into classic bits.
True fans of the Stern Show will find Artie gold in these pages: hilarious tales that couldn’t have happened to anyone else. There are stories from his days driving a Jersey cab, working as a longshoreman in Port Newark, and navigating the dark circuit of stand-up comedy. There are outrageous episodes from the frenzied heights of his coked-up days at MAD TV and surprisingly moving stories from his childhood. But also in this volume are stories Artie’s never told before, including some that he deemed too revealing for radio.
Wild, shocking, and drop-dead funny, Too Fat to Fish is Artie Lange giving everything he’s got to give. And like a true pro, he never disappoints.
