|
 Faster
than a speeding bullet…looser than his “loco”
motive…able to leap tall stories in a single bound…it’s
super stand-up, late night TV host Craig Ferguson, coming
to the Orleans 26-28.
Proving that there IS life after television, Ferguson, host
of “The Late Late Show” on CBS, returns to Las
Vegas to fight crowd boredom and lethargy with his quick wit
and mostly ad-lib show. For the comedian, who recently returned
to stand-up after 10 years and says that he’s already
developed a lot, there are things about performing live that
will no longer come out of the “blue.”
“I took the “f” word out of my act,”
he says. “I discovered that it was funnier without it.
My routine is basically the story of me coming to America
from Scotland and I try to be as much in the moment as I can
be. My routine, on any given night, is anywhere from 50 to
80 or 90 percent ad-lib.”
To be sure, one “f” word he hasn’t taken
out of his act is “fun.” That goes for Ferguson
himself as well – he, too, is obviously enjoying himself,
waiting to see what will be coming out of his mouth next.
As on his TV show, about which he says “we do what we
do, we fool around,” he just talks and hope that something
funny comes out.
“Sometimes it’s hard to get material,” Ferguson
admits. “Then the president of Iran comes to town. Sometimes
I go so off on a tangent that it’s hard to get back
to my written material – my punch lines are scattered
through endless miles of talk and I’m hoping that I
can find my way back. Usually something happens in my head
that gets me going or someone in the audience will make a
noise that leads to something else. I don’t know how
to categorize myself as an entertainer – I call myself
a stand-up comedian and leave it at that.”
Ferguson has been in the United States for 13 years now. He
had been planning his move here ever since he was a kid and
his family came to New York on vacation. Having grown up watching
American television, Ferguson quips that he always wanted
to come to this country and go to Hollywood and have his teeth
fixed.
“I was thrown out of Scotland because I was caught flossing,”
he laughs. “They came after me with torches.”
Ferguson was a working stand-up comedian in his native country
when he decided to cross the ocean on his own and seek his
fortune here. His visa only allowed him to work in show business
and after an initial tough 18 months, he auditioned for “The
Drew Carey Show” and was hired for one episode. He ended
up staying with the show from 1996-2004 and then got his own
TV show and the rest is history. He and Carey remain buddies
to this day.
“I had two suitcases with me when I left Scotland and
went to the airport,” Ferguson cajoles. “And they
weren’t mine – I stole them from baggage reclaim.
For the first six weeks, I couldn’t get much work in
America because I was dressed in a kimono.”
On a serious note, Ferguson arrived in 1995 and went straight
to Los Angeles. He says that he never doubted his decision
to come to America, that it is where he felt he belonged and
still does. In contrast, he had previously lived in London
for eight years and reveals that he felt very unwelcome there
but that he found it easy to adapt to life in the U.S.
Guess the bottom line is that Ferguson just needed a place
he could really sink his teeth into.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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The
Mouth that Roared
