Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
It’s been nearly a decade since he signed off from CBS’ “The Late Late Show” in 2014, but Craig Ferguson still loves making us laugh.
The former late-night comedian brings his “Fancy Rascal” standup comedy tour to the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia this Saturday night.
“I actually named it after my Jack Russell dog,” Ferguson told WTOP. “What you have to do when you’re choosing the name for a tour is choose something that’s not going to annoy anybody, and I think ‘Fancy Rascal,’ I can’t imagine anyone being annoyed at that for some reason, but maybe, we’ll find out. … That being said, I don’t want to elevate anyone’s expectations: the dog will not be on stage!”
Just because he’s called into our D.C. radio station, don’t expect him to make any political jokes.
“I made a decision about six years ago that I would no longer do any politics on stage,” Ferguson said. “I’m now even tired of listening to people I agree with. … What I wanted to do is create a show that’s 90 minutes long, anecdotal, personal or universal in its themes: love, sex, death, weather, family, food, but it doesn’t have any politics. All of the stuff that you’re angry about when you enter, it’ll all still be there when you get out.”
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1962, his formative comedy idol was Scottish comedian Billy Connolly.
“When I was a teenager, I would listen to his albums, they were the naughty albums like Redd Foxx that you had to be quiet and sneaky about, so you had to hide them from your parents, only to find out later that your parents were listening too,” Ferguson said. “Then also the American standups: Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, Bob Newhart [and] Joan Rivers, who was a fantastic comedian, maybe the best I’ve ever seen.”
Ironically, Ferguson didn’t really perform much standup in his early career, instead starting as a drummer in a punk-rock band before transitioning into independent films and sitcoms like ABC’s “The Drew Carey Show” (1996—2004). He became a household name when he replaced Craig Kilborn as host of “The Late Late Show,” which followed “The Late Show with David Letterman” nightly on CBS, competing with NBC’s Conan O’Brien.
“It was very exciting to start out doing it, but I also felt at the time, ‘I’m probably gonna last a couple months in this job before they realize they made a terrible mistake,'” Ferguson said. “It’s such a machine doing late night, it sucks you in, every day … you have to do the show. I’m really glad I did it and I’m very proud of the shows we did, but I’m kind of glad I don’t do it anymore. It’s a lot. It kind of takes over your life.”
In total, he hosted “The Late Late Show” from 2005 to 2014, making countless fond memories.
“The episode that won the Peabody Award with Archbishop Desmond Tutu where we did a whole episode about South Africa, that was a real high point,” Ferguson said. “Robin Williams, who I idolized … Betty White became a regular every couple weeks. These icons you grew up with turn into human beings as they sit across from you. It’s a fabulous thing that demystifies the whole idea of celebrity, which I think is healthy.”
After “The Late Late Show,” Ferguson won two Daytime Emmys hosting “Celebrity Name Game” (2014—2017).
“I love doing game shows,” Ferguson said. “All I have to do is turn up and play the game. I don’t know who’s going to win the game and I kind of like that. It’s a really fun thing to do, I really enjoy it and it requires not a great deal from the audience, and really in a way, if you enjoy yourself and just run the game, it doesn’t require a lot from me either. All I have to do is enjoy myself and play the game and I love doing that. I’ll do that again.”
To this day, he remains diplomatic about successor James Corden, who hands off to Taylor Tomlinson in 2024.
“I don’t think it’s seemly for me to comment on people doing the job,” Ferguson said. “That’s someone else’s job. I’m not a pundit. I know it’s a hard job, I know it requires a lot of your time and anyone who does it has my respect because you can’t phone it in, you’ve got to turn up and do it, so anyone who does it, I wish them well.”
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below:
