The Rollercoaster Ride of Artie Lange

Artie Lange had an interesting growing up years. Born from a homemaker mother and a contractor father, he said that he has always been unsure of his father’s ethnic background. Just a couple of weeks after his birth, his father was arrested for money counterfeits. But because of him, his father was spared from jail time. Artie Lange had always though that he was a mixture of German and Native American from his father’s side despite the fact that their family claimed that they are Italian-Americans.

The family lineage controversy was Lange’s ticket into comedy. On a Howard Stern Show segment, Artie Lange showed up with a blood sample which will be taken to the laboratory for some genetic testing. Eventually the results came and Howard Stern revealed that the tests showed that Artie Lange is actually 25% American Indian. Lange turned the whole thing into a comic relief when he said that he’ll be thinking about reevaluating his position on watching Western films and have always sided with the Native Indians.

Lange was also notoriously arrested after graduation, another incident which he tried turning into another comedy ticket. He was arrested for trying to rob a bank for which he explained that he just passed the bank teller (whom he was interested in) a fake holdup note which demands 50,000 dollars and tells the teller that he was armed. The catch though was that it included his name.

But his real ticket to popularity came when he was offered a stint in MADTv in 1995. He was among the original cast members when the “My White Momma” series on the show started. However, he was a bit off-guard in claiming the ticket since his background was on stand-up comedy and not on sketch. Unfortunately, it was also during this time that he became heavily involved with using cocaine. His stint with MADtv finally ended when police finally came into the studio out of his cocaine binge.

Although Quincy Jones had entered into the scene, as an executive producer for MADtv, his attempt to give ticket to Lange for another chance in the show was also abruptly stopped. He was only sober for a couple of seasons and was fired after that.

Lange was actually a good talent. But his drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits often threw his career off guard. Apart from cocaine, he also eventually got ticket into the world of heroine. However, he continued to make a name for himself in stand-up comedy out of his noriety.