Chevy Chase to talk ‘Christmas Vacation’ at Sunday event

Comic actor Chevy Chase will appear Sunday in Morsani Hall, at Tampa’s Straz Center for the Performing Arts. He’ll follow a screening of the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the third (and most successful) in a series in which he played Clark Griswold, the bumbling head of a suburban Midwestern family.

Chase, 81, will share his memories of making the movie, and follow with an audience Q&A. Go time is 7:30 p.m.

Cory Michael Smith portrayed Chase in Jason Reitman’s 2024 film Saturday Night, about the early days of TV’s pioneering Saturday Night Live; Chase was hired as a writer in 1974 and became the breakout star of the debut season.

He became the first of dozens of SNL alums to depart for a career in the movies; for a few years, he was one of America’s top box office draws.

Like all Not Ready For Prime Time Players who followed a similar trajectory, Chase made some great movies (Caddyshack, Fletch, the first and third Vacation films) and some real stinkers (Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Nothing But Trouble, Spies Like Us).

Of the latter 1985 opus, The Washington Post opined: “That Chase is godawful is no surprise — he’s been running on empty for years with variations on that tired ‘I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not’ riff.”

Four years later, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was No. 1 at the box office for two weeks, and made $72 million in theaters.

Film critic Roger Ebert, however, gave it the ol’ thumbs down. “The movie is curious in how close it comes to delivering on its material: Sequence after sequence seems to contain all the necessary material, to be well on the way toward a payoff, and then it somehow doesn’t work,” he wrote.

Through home video and streaming, the film has gained a reputation as something of an enduring Yuletide classic. “Sure, it’s crude, episodic and half the jokes don’t work, but Christmas Vacation may be the only modern Christmas comedy which really stands up to repeat viewings,” said TimeOut.com.

The website Cracked.com has a particular bug up its something-or-other about Mr. Chase. For a story published Nov. 21, titled “Is Chevy Chase King of the Comedy Cash Grab?,” writer Matt Solomon went to great lengths to describe the 35th Anniversary Christmas Vacation Legacy Box LIMITED EDITION, available on the comedian’s website.

Included are seven trading cards, a custom anniversary poster signed by Chase, two limited-edition ornaments, a deck of cards, a bag of popcorn and a card that may or may not be autographed by Chase or one of the movie’s co-stars (from Beverly D’Angelo to Juliette Lewis, or even the relatively-unemployable Randy Quaid).

The box sells for $300, and what it pointedly does not include is a copy of Christmas Vacation in any home video format.

In 2023, Cracked reported, Chase was selling – at $500 a pop – small cards with his autograph and a scrap of the “Land Shark” costume he wore during his single season on SNL.

According to numerous online sources (including Cracked), Chase’s net worth is $50 million.

Tickets for Sunday’s event are available here.