10-1-24 *INTERVIEW* Craig Ferguson at Comedy Works This Weekend

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I aspire to do a particular thing as a radio host,
and that is whenever I have the possibility to have
someone in studio with me who at least theoretically would
eat haggis with me. If I brought a hagis in, uh,
then that's what I do.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
So that's what we've done today.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Craig Ferguson joins me in studio.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Uh, he would with you or anyone else? Really?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Have you either eaten a hag yeah? Twice?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Really in Edinburgh? I haven't been to your town, Ambersco.
But Edinburgh?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Did you have the Mcsween's vegetarian haggis or did you
have the full hagar?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The full hagis?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Okay, how are you feeling? I had it twice? Did
that means it was good enough the first time? And
I'm like, okay to a different restaurant. Have you had
a cool and uscopy in since? Because it's probably still there?
Are you?

Speaker 1 (00:50):
You?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Seriously wouldn't don't eat? Wouldn't eat if I brought some.
I've eaten a lot of hags life, you know, be
drunk to eat it or no? No, I don't have
to be drunk.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
I think that what Addams is you have to be
drunk to come up with the idea. Then yes, we'll
get all these but so off the flu up and
we'll put them in up coming dumb on Friday, folks.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, that's Craig Ferguson.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And you know him from everywhere, right, you know, you
know him from the Late Late Show, and you know
him from Drew Carrey, and you know him from movies,
and you know him from books. And he's playing it
Comedy Works Downtown Larimer Square Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Two shows Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
I have not checked this morning, but last night when
I looked at the two Saturday shows were already sold out.
So I should say before we keep going on Hagis,
I really appreciate your being here. You're a dude who
doesn't need to come on the radio to sell tickets.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
That's very nice and I really appreciate you. Thank you
with us very happy to be here. I'm also having
a nice time. I mean, I haven't talked about Hagis
and in hours hours Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You must get that a lot, because Americans are fascinated
with Hagis. Although I'm probably one of the few have
actually eaten it who brings it up with you?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Haas is kind an odd thing because I think people
have this idea, but hagis that is somehow exalting. I
think has is really just like a hot dog with
a bad.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Publicist, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (02:13):
And it's it's like, oh, how could you eat all
that stuff?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
That senda hagus to go? Have you had a bullpark?
Do you know what's in there?

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I mean it's bullpark, a brand, it is, well, I
don't mean, I don't mean a bullpark is a brand.
I mean a generic hot dog in a because I
don't know what's in a bullpark?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You ever seen a YouTube video of how hot dogs
are made?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
No? Oh, you don't want to? You know, I don't know.
I think I don't want to, you do? I think
I do want all right? I think I do want
to know all the sausages? Mane you have to work
after the show. Yeah, Oh my god, honey, what have
you been watching on YouTube?

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Bob?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Been watching sausage making videos? And I'm excited? All right?

Speaker 1 (02:55):
What was this thing about this uh bar of soap
that's fascinating you?

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Now?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's this bar soape I've been seeing it on the internet.
It's a bar of soap that it's not a die
but you wash yourself with this barsope and it stimulates
the original color of your hair.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
It might not be true, but this is what they say.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
It stimulates the color hair and you you get rid
of gray. And I've got a lot of gray hair.
And who if you can know this about me? I'm
starting to go gray. And I don't mind going gray upstairs,
but I'm getting gray downstairs, getting gicked out, and you
know it, snow on the roofs snow in the basement.
Two different sets of problems. And there are parts of
my body. I do not want to look distinguished.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Distinguished. Yeah, you know how I like it. It looks distinguished.
I mean I don't.

Speaker 5 (03:39):
I don't want it to look distinct, different, distinguished. Do
you still play drums? Yes, tell me a little tell us.
I don't know folks know anything about you and drums
to tell us a little. Well, that's how I started.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I was a drummer in punk rock bands when I
was a kid, and that's how I ended up doing
stand up because people thought the drumming was funny, I think,
but it was the punk open I was involved, right,
the you know, like the very late seventies, it was
it was more than just music.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
It was fashion. It was there.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Were beet poets, so there were you know, it was
a whole kind of scene. So the fact that I
would do they used to call it an alternative comedy.
The fact that I would do that is a kind
of natural progression. Doesn't sound like it now, but it
would have been then. It's just everybody did everything and
you ended up finding your thing.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Did wacky punk rock drummers get the girls like the
way Mick Jagger probably got the girls?

Speaker 3 (04:32):
No, No, that that wasn't my experience. I did not
experience it that way at all.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It was it was. It was an interesting time. It
was great.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
I had a lot of energy when I was a kid. So,
you know, punk rock drumming is a good way to
get it. If you have a hyperactive team, yeah, you know,
get them into find them a punk rock band and
get them in there as a drummer.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's it's a perfect way to deal with it. Do
you have kids. I do have two, and did either
of one of them get in drumming?

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Both of them drum really both of them are both
of them are better drummers than me.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Did they do any punk rock drumming? Or why they
can do? They can do? They do whatever. They can
pretty much do anything.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I mean, I came to drumming because I found a
drum kit and I had some buddies. They they're they're
a little more measured, they're they're they're much more interesting
people than I was. That's younger, because when I was young,
it was you know, it was very very different time,
you know. I mean, the Kaiser was amassing as armies
on the German border, you know, and the Prohibition was

(05:32):
still around it.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
It was bad. Huh, you're right right, That's why.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
I've got, you know, a distinguished basement.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I'm going to pronounce this wrong. But what was the
mascot of Cumbernauld High School?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Oh no, you pronounced it right, Okay, Yeah, Cumbernold High
School is the my old high school. I don't know
we had a mascot. If it was anything, probably a
broken bottle or something. It wasn't That school isn't there anymore. Really, Yeah,
they know it, and I'm glad they did. It was
it was what do you remember most about high school?
And it won terror fear, really fear. Yeah, it was

(06:06):
an extremely violent experience and I felt like no, not
necessarily from the teachers, though there was a bet of
that too. They used to beat us with leather belts,
but mostly just the culture around. The kids were all
kind of no. I guess maybe know all of them,
but that is just my experience. It's funny because my
my brother and my sisters went to the same school

(06:28):
and they don't remember the same way as me at all.
They have quite fond memories of it. But I was like, oh, no,
this place is terrible. Picked on a lot as a kid,
or I think so I was. I think I picked
on a little bit. My nickname when I was a
kid was Tubby, you know, because I was I was.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I was a Tubby kid. I don't think.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
I don't think it's legal to call a kid tubby,
probably not anymore.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
You know.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
You get a lot of trouble calling a kid tubby,
but I got called Tubby.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
That was my name.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
People would go Tubby Ferguson, come come here, Tubby Ferguson until.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
I give you an Indian but gosh, yeah it's back wow.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, purple nurples, everything swirlies Oh, I'm I'm really uh
fascinated by.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Your take of uh Canadian actor James Dewin's role as
mister Scott, uh you know, as the engineer on you
on Star Trek. Yeah, I'm guessing maybe you're not not
quite your favorite portrayal of a Scott's money.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
You know, I've softened on it over the years. Yeah,
I realize now that it's all right. It's kind of
a tribute and in fact, and if you know it
about Canada, it's Canada. Is a large degree of Scottishness
in Canada. And so I've softened on it because I
had somebody say to me once. I think this is
what turned me around on it. Somebody said to me.

(07:45):
It was someone in La said, I'm offended on your behalf.
I'm like, well, far it spent from the character of
Grant's keeper Willie and the Simpsons.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
That's offensive the Scottish people.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
I'm like, not really, you know, I mean, I don't
know how many Scottish people you know, but you know
rounds keeper will he is in shape, and he has
a job.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
You know, he's he's doing pretty well.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
I don't have a problem with grounds keeper Willy or Shrek,
and people say, oh, you can write a bit Shrek.
I'm like, he's a cartoon.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
It's a cartoon of an ogre, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
And also it looks like a lot of people I
went to school with I got a problem with.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah, well, it's kind of like goes back to the
thing you can't call anybody tubby these days, everybody wants
to be offended.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
About about something, right.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
It's I think it's kind of I get it. I mean,
it's maybe a little bit of an overcorrection, but I
like the idea that the that people can get called
out and being mean to other people. I think it's
I don't really have a problem with that. I think
when it gets when, it gets ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
But I don't think.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Most people are in that world of ridiculous hypercentage.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I think that's kind of made up.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
I think it's kind of like the fake thing like
that they do on the tabloid websites.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Stuff like they pretend that everyone one's annoyed.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
They'll say everyone's annoyed on a thing, and then you'll
go what, And then if you read it, it's like
five people on when instagrammar annoyed at a thing and
I'm like, well, they were annoyed anyway before that thing,
so I don't think it's the same.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
It's all clickbait all the time.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
So I think it's the fear industrial complex. It's like,
how do we get you to engage with whatever digital
product we're putting out? So the things that will make
you engage is fear or anger, and so they try
and get a headline. I mean, I saw a thing
a headline once. I can't remember. It was on a
tabloid website where I said this will make you angry,

(09:35):
and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Click on it. And I did not like telling that.
I can't even remember what it was.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
But it's just, you know, it's it's the way to
try and get you engagement is where the money is.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
That's all it is. We're talking with Craig Ferguson.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
He's playing Thursday night and then two shows Friday and
Saturday nights at Comedy Works Downtown in Larimer Square. Be
sure you understand that it's the downtown club and there
are some tickets still available at Comedy Works, not all
the tickets again as of last night, at least.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
The Saturday shows. We were already sold out. Do you love
playing Denver? I love playing the comedy works.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
It's for me that that club is the best club
in the US. I mean, there's a lot of good
clubs in America. The comedy clubs are I My favorite
way to do comedy isn't a club which is is
dark and you know, no more than you know, a
few hundred people and packed, and and and it's a
one off event.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
You know, it's not a there's no digitization.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Nobody's recording it, nobody's filming it, and nobody's got their phone.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's like it's an old school analog experience.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
And I like that, yeah, I mean, and and so
that's the way I like to do it.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
And you know, and.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I've done the normal domes, and I've done the you know,
the theaters, and I still do you know, I tend
to you know, doing big, big theaters is a lot
of work. You gotta sell the tickets and you gotta
then you got to do the show. And it's not
doesn't feel the same way. And I'm getting too old
to not to not enjoy it. I got to enjoy it.

(11:04):
Else what am I doing it?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
For you know, and at the enormous I mean, and at
a comedy work show, your closest attendee will be closer
than you and I are right now, and I can
almost touch you.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
And at the enormo dome.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
There's a there's a I mean, they're what you're doing
if you when you play the big venues, they're actually big,
giant screens on either side. And so people when you
go out and stand in front of an audience is
looking at the screens. They they're looking They're not looking
at you. They're looking at the screens, and there's a disconnect.
And also, no matter how good the technical stuff is

(11:38):
and wherever you play, it was the tiniest delay between
you speaking and the screen. So if your if your
job is almost entirely about timing, you gotta I mean,
it's doable and you can do it, but you got
to work it. And it doesn't feel the same like
if I if I'm playing and this will happen this week,
I will write jokes on stage and I I will

(12:00):
hear them for the first time at the same time
the audience hears them, you know what I mean, We
all hear the joke for the first time at the
same time. That does not happen in the large well
not for me anyway. Yeah, in the large gigs, I
don't do it like that. I go out there with
a show that I'm going to do. But in the clubs,
it's like, all right, well we're taking a ride. Yeah,

(12:20):
and I kind of I prefer it that way. No
everyone does, but I do.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
I mean, you're one of the most successful comedians here.
I mean I assume, based on you know, ten years
in one network and however many years on another, you
probably don't even need to work. You probably just love
what you love what you do. So does that mean
like if somebody says, we want you to play to
play a normal dome and we'll give you seventy grand

(12:45):
for one night, you might think I just I just
don't really dig that and I don't care about the
money that much.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
I just don't enjoy it so much. Or let's not
get ahead of her. I just made up a number.
I know, idea, what the numbers of all the symphony
ground ain't enough for the normodome.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
But but the but the the idea of it's not
even so much that it's it's the when I was young,
when I was a young comic, or when I was
in my thirties and forties, the idea was very.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Ambitious, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
It was like, you've got to get the biggest crowds,
you got to get the most frenetic fame experience. You
want to be every warrior whether I don't want any
of that anymore. I don't want to be in that
high octane zeitgeist experience. I've done it well, I like
to do it, and you're right, I don't have to
do this.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
I've got a I've got a pension, I guess.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
But it's this is fun and and and I engage it.
It's like if I was a guitar player and I
went around the country playing the guitar, no one would
be remotely surprised. It's like, well, he plays the guitar,
is what he does, and that's kind of what I do.
This is this is kind of what.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I do, right, I mean, I think the interesting comparison
would be, you know, the Rolling Stones are still touring now.
You know, again you probably don't have Mick Jagger money,
but you know, and they still play the big places.
But of course I think it's it's a very different,
Like it's a different thing for a musician to have

(14:13):
fifty thousand people cheering and clapping and singing at the
same time.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Then for a com you make it an interesting point
because I know the Rolling Stones experience pretty well.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I worked with.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Mike Jagger on a screenplay for a movie we never
made for about two months, huh. So about two months
of the Bridges to Babylon tour, which is about twenty
years ago, maybe more, I toured with the Roland Stones.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
So I was on the road with Meg, you know,
and we went.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
I was in Istambul and Cologne and Santiago del Compostela
in London, and you know, in all these different places.
And why took away from that? I mean I took
a law away from that. It was an amazing experience.
But one of the major things was Meg, who I
was working with, is a real showman, right, It's what
he does.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
But Keith is a musician.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
And Keith would be just as happy playing a pub
in eel Pie Island in London as he would be
playing a stadium in Istamboul. In fact, I don't think
he even notices the difference. He's playing the guitar that's
what he's doing. And so I think Meg would notice
the difference. But I think that band they're so welded together,

(15:21):
now I don't. I mean, you know, Mike and Keith
have been together in that band since they.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Were eighteen, you know, did I was going to ask
you a question, but as I think about it, I
think it's a stupid question. But I was going to
ask you why did you go on tour with.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
The Rolling Stones?

Speaker 1 (15:34):
And now I'm thinking the answer is, well, wouldn't you
if you could?

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Well, and also we were writing this, we were writing
this screenplay and you know makes it well, you know,
I'm there on the tours, so what to do is
you come out on the road with me? And we
were right the screenplay and I'm like, all right, okay,
how going to you make dagger? I suppose? And it was,

(15:58):
I mean, they were very nice. It's a huge machine, sure.
I mean there are three crews. There's about two hundred
and fifty people working that.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's not just guys on stage.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
That's an enormous you know, that's like this building is
going on the roads, you know. I mean, it's like,
so there's a I think that the band I know
that Meg does, and that they feel a sense of
responsibility there. There are people that they've been working with
for a long time that you know, it's this is
their job. You know, the roadies and the crew and
the text and you know they all work together for

(16:30):
a long time.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
It's a big, big organization.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
That's a great point. Boy, I'm glad we stumbled onto
that story. Dan in Northern Colorado said that soap you're
talking about doesn't work. Oh yeah, yeah, you should still
try anyway.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah I might. And also Dan maybe further down that
down the road that may. I don't know. You know,
every once in a while it's interesting to.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Follow up, keep up with like TV celebrities after they've
been out of the spotlight for a while and just
see what they're doing now. And I'm wondering if you
know what Jeff Peterson.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Is doing today?

Speaker 3 (17:03):
Oh, I know exactly what he's doing. He's he's in
my den at home, unplugged.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Tell folks who Jeff Peterson is.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
Jeff Pearson was my robot skeleton sidekick on the on
the Late Night Show. It was actually Jeff Pearson is
emblematic of my failure as a late night because.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Ten years and you're calling it a failure.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Absolutely, And what it was is this is is that
what I thought was, I thought, I want something that
will mock the trope of the late night sidekick, you know,
the kind of Oh everything you say is funny, everything
everything you say is funny, You're so clever, it's so
great to be around, and all that.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
So I thought, it's so robotic, and I'll get a
robot to do it. But but the.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Problem was that Josh Robert Thompson, who was the guy
behind that, he was the performer who did all the
voices and operated the robot.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
It's so gifted and talented.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
That he actually became the best money, the best late
night side kick there ever was. And and so I
failed with my adolescent mocking of the of the of
the sidekick and actually.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Started using one. And I love Jeff Ishon.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
I particularly am a fan of Josh who did the job.
I mean, really, he doesn't get enough credit for what
he did there.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
It was amazing.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
Well why is your robot named Jeff Peterson?

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Because I wanted something that didn't have a robot, I mean,
because the network was saying, well, we'll call him mister
bones or Bony m bonerson and stuff, and I'm like, no,
you don't get it.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
I wanted just to be a guy. He's a guy.
He has to have a personality.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
And I wanted a name that was just like a
like if you go to a car rental place and
you say, I am Jeff Peterson, I'd like to rent
a car, they'd be like, sure, can I see your license?

Speaker 2 (18:49):
And nobody's gonna say Bony mc bonerson. You know they're
gonna it's just a name. It's just a generic, everyday name.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
And what was the for the name of the guy
who created him and did the.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Voice, Josh Robert Thomson Josh So during.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
The show when when Jeff Peterson was speaking physically, where
was Josh?

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Did him the off stage? No, he was.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
He was slightly off in a little kind of cubby
hole underneath the audience bleachers. He was in there, and
he operated the roobot from an iPad and he spoke
into a microphone and he was doing it in real time.
It just with me and him just doing it right there.
I mean, you've never seen it like that. Guy should
have a wall full of amis. It's unbelievable. What he
was doing. I mean he was juggling, he was spending place,
and he was improvising comedy all at the same time.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Wow, folks, go get your tickets for Craig Ferguson. He's
playing Thursday night two shows, Friday night two shows, Saturday
night Comedy Works Downtown in the Armer Square. I don't
know that there are very many tickets left, so you
better get over to Comedyworks dot com right now and
get them while you can. Craig, it's such a pleasure
to meet you in person. I feel like I know
y'all already because we've talked on the phone and I've

(19:53):
seen you so many places.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
But I think we're probably friends now. Yeah, I think
we can say.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Does that mean we can eat a hag together next time? Oh?

Speaker 3 (20:01):
I think you're on your own with the hags e
elite will be. I have to say this though, this
is true misweens of Edinburgh who probably made the haigas
u eate Okay, in a Vega higas company, they make
the vegetarian hagus, and the vegetarian hagus is delicious.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Really, it really is. I know it sounds weird, that.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Does did you know that it's illegal to import hagas
into the into the US, but I bet you can
import the vegetarian one.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I think you could probably bring in a vegetarian hagis.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
You can't bring in a that's called See what they
do is the higas cartels are now trying to land
the hagis. I think they're coming in through Miami and
then up from you know, Tijuana and San Diego. I mean,
it's a real problem.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
I was actually this, so this part is true, and
I'm late here, but I'll say this anyway.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
So my wife and I were.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Just in Cartagena, Columbia for our anniversary and her birthday,
and there are these guys.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
There are a.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Few people came up to us and offered us, you know,
party supplies, and some people are overtly offering cocaine, which
is right, What do you expect to be offered in Columbia?
And I think, you know, based on what you're describing,
if I had stayed like one more day, somebody would
have been like whispering to me, I got haggis.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Higgis for you?

Speaker 4 (21:14):
itIt you want? You want a good time meat? Ways
would you would you like some awful you know what
I'm saying. Hey, could I interest you? Hey, buddy, check
it out, check it out. Sausage sausage, cheap sheet guts.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
You want some sheet guts, Buddy, I'm gonna have to
catch my bread to do the rest of the show.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Go to comedyworks dot com and get tickets while you
still can't.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Thanks for being here, Craig Pleasures. Thank you.