NBC is changing up the whole late night line-up. Jimmy Fallon started at 12:30, Conan O'Brien's moving to 11:30 and now Leno's got his 10:00 deal. All the other guys are still doing their own thing. We caught up with CBS's Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show back in January.
Crave Online: How hard is it to find comedy out of Barack Obama?
Craig Ferguson: Yeah, we've thought about it a lot. There doesn't seem to be any. It'll happen. He'll screw up and we'll get him.
Crave Online: What do you hope for him in the first 100 days?
Craig Ferguson: I'm hoping for some kind of comedy pratfall or maybe like his pants fall down. Something that would help the late night community, I'd really appreciate that.
Crave Online: Is the competition for guests getting worse?
Craig Ferguson: Not us. I think it'll affect the more traditional shows. I don't think so. I don't think it'll affect us that much. We book authors and directors and stuff as well. No one else books them. Some nights I know why. I don't know, maybe. I don't know.
Crave Online: Will they give you a bigger studio?
Craig Ferguson: I'm kind of used to the studio I'm in now. I understand the idea.
Crave Online: But there are issues with music.
Craig Ferguson: Yeah, we have to move my desk when the band's on. Yeah, somebody asked me, if you went to 11:30, would you have a band? I said maybe, but only if they weren't a very good band. I'm not convinced a bigger studio would help. It might, it might now. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. I'm fine where I am.
Crave Online: With all the reconfiguring at NBC, will you combat that?
Craig Ferguson: I haven't got any special plans to address what's going on at NBC. No, we'll keep doing what we're doing.
Crave Online: Are you friends with Leno and wished him well?
Craig Ferguson: Jay usually comes on road trips with Dave and I. We go antiquing up through Vermont. It's awesome. It's just awesome. It's a good time.
Crave Online: Seriously though?
Craig Ferguson: With Jay, I actually am quite friendly with Jay. We're both quite interested in similar things and his mother was Scottish, so we have an encounter group about that.
Crave Online: What do you admire about the other late night hosts?
Craig Ferguson: I'll tell you what I noticed when I joined this little fraternity was that they're all very classy gentlemen. You'll always get a phone call, like when I got married, everybody calls. When my parents passed, people call and letters. Jimmy Kimmel is particularly good about that. It's a small group of people. There aren't that many of us so they're kind of classy. It's not for me to critique anybody else's performance. I wouldn't do that. I don't think I'm qualified. Certainly it's not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be very snippy and back biting but it's not.
Crave Online: Is having Ringo on a personal kick?
Craig Ferguson: Yes, of course, he's a Beatle.
Crave Online: Does Dave actually talk to you?
Craig Ferguson: Dave does actually talk to me, yeah.
Crave Online: Does he say don't host the Oscars?
Craig Ferguson: That hasn't come up.
Crave Online: Was the monologue about voting spur of the moment or planned out?
Craig Ferguson: No, I hadn't thought about it for a long time because we don't. It's not a luxury you get in doing a show every day but the fire of that, the passion of that was at that point in the campaign, there was a lot of talk, and it seems kind of silly now, but there was a lot of talk at the time about trying to encourage young people to vote by, I don't know, leaving Xboxes outside the voting booths. I was like this is nuts. This is just clearly nuts. So it was just something I felt passionate about that day. It's easier to do these monologues because you feel passionate about them. What's hard is when it's a light news day, nothing really happened and it's nobody's birthday. Then I find myself trying to get passionate about the discovery of a new tree frog in Brazil or something. That's when it's hard but when I really am fired up about something, it's a lot easier.
Crave Online: Do you try not to think about the ratings?
Craig Ferguson: I think in all honesty, the ratings, I've been doing the show, this is our fifth year now. The ratings come and go so I think you could really drive yourself watching them, if you're in my position. There are guys who do it. What I rely on now, I watched it very closely the first couple of years and what I do now is I rely on Michael Naidus really more than anyone. He'll tell me when it's bad and when it's good. When it's in the grey area of it's not too bad, not too good, then we let it go.
Crave Online: Do you obsess about what makes it bad or good?
Craig Ferguson: When it's bad, if the numbers are down, I don't know what we do. I guess we just try and be funny, which of course makes you look more uncomfortable.
Crave Online: Will you beat Jimmy Fallon like a used pony?
Craig Ferguson: First of all, let me just say I resent the implication that I would abuse a pony in any way. But I think Jimmy Fallon's audience, I think it's a different audience. I think Jimmy's competition is Adult Swim. I don't think it's me. I challenge you all to this. Give Jimmy a month before you review him. That would be fair, I think, because nobody knows how he's going to do, not Lorne and not Jimmy, not Jeff Zucker. Nobody knows. Let's be honest, who amongst you thought I'd be sitting here four years after the last time I talked to you? I would have given me a couple of weeks. I think you gave me less, and I think that we should give him a chance. I'd heard some negative stuff about Jimmy which I find a little surprising given the fact he hasn't done anything yet. He's kind of like the reverse Barack Obama. It's like he hasn't done anything yet, but everybody is commenting on his performance. Give him a chance.
Crave Online: Do you expect to be number one in your time slot a year from now?
Craig Ferguson: Yes. Yes, I expect that, and I also expect disappointment in my life, too. I don't know. It's very important for the networks, but really for me, I don't know how important it is in my life to be either first, second, or third. It doesn't affect my salary sadly. So I expect to still be on the air, but then, again, I may be disappointed there, too. I say the wrong thing here today, it's over.
Crave Online: Did becoming a U.S. citizen embolden you to talk about U.S. politics or things like that?
Craig Ferguson: I think becoming a U.S. citizen, I think it entitled me to voice an opinion in the debate. I think up until that point, my feeling was, if I wasn't a citizen, then it was like going to somebody else's house and complaining about their drapes. It just didn't seem polite, but once I had become a citizen, it asked of me to participate in the discussion, and so I felt that it was time to do that. It happened to coincide with the election, which was not part of any plan that I had. It's divorced really from the show. It's a big deal to become a citizen. Anyone who's become a citizen will tell you, you go through a lot. It's a real decision. So it wasn't just about TV. It was a bit bigger than that.
Crave Online: Why do you think you're still here after four years?
Craig Ferguson: I think it's because of Peter Lassally because he's immensely powerful, quiet but immensely powerful. I think that what happened is that we created, or because of the situation that exists at CBS, which was that they gave us the opportunity to fail in the sense that we could fail creatively, which we do most nights. That became our kind of trademark, and I think we're still here because we do something I think a little bit different, not affected in that way to say we must do something different. It's just that it is different just by the very nature of we don't hide how crappy we are sometimes, I suppose. I think sometimes that's quite entertaining and refreshing.
Crave Online: Your monologues seem like you're winging it. Are you?
Craig Ferguson: Well, yes. What happens is that we have a writing staff at the show, and we write a monologue, but not really one that I'm going to read. We have jokes. We have topical things that I'm going to say, but there's nothing structured. The monologue is not written until it's performed, and then it's written. That's really, I think, to keep it interesting for me. It's nothing to do with the abilities of the writers. It's just that I have to keep it interesting for me. I mean, how many do we do a year? 200 or something? So I have to enjoy it or else it won't work. Not everyone is going to enjoy, but I have to enjoy it.
Crave Online: How were you balancing the comedy and emotion when you discussed your mother passing away?
Craig Ferguson: When I did the show when my mother died and I did a similar show when my father died, I didn't concern myself with what I thought the audience wanted to hear, and, in fact, I don't do that any night because I can't possibly imagine what they want to hear. What I try and do or I tried to do on that night and I try to do on any given night is to do what's appropriate for the situation. The situation 99 times out of 100 is that I'm doing a late night television show. It's my job to entertain and amuse you before you go to sleep or the drugs wear off, whereas, that night, I didn't feel like that. I do try to be, as much as is prudent for my own privacy, to be as truthful as possible with the viewing audience. That's why I approached it that way. And, also, it's my mom. What was I going to do, make jokes about Paris Hilton? I can't. So I just have to do it. Again, my lack of talent as an actor is what leads me to this area, I think.
Crave Online: Do you ever regret revealing so much?
Craig Ferguson: Yeah, yeah, a lot. I've done it a lot here already this morning. Yes. That's an occupational hazard, but it's okay. Look, the truth is I think what happened, and this plays back into what you were talking about earlier about when my mother died and stuff. I think what happened is this: I came into this game when I was 42 years old. I didn't learn it. I don't know how to do this. This is what I do, but I don't know how to do it. What I know is this: Everybody goes to the bathroom. Everybody is frightened of something. Everybody has got stuff to do. Everybody has got parents. Everyone has got stuff to deal with. Everyone has other people causing bullsh*t in their lives. So that's what I do.
Crave Online: Who are your favorite guests and who is on the wish list?
Craig Ferguson: I feel that I'm kind of like a doctor. I can't discuss my guests other than the best guest ever is always and always will be Betty White. But other than that, I don't like to pick favorites, but I like Betty White very much. She's my favorite.
Crave Online: Why is Betty White a great guest?
Craig Ferguson: Well, Betty's my friend and I've known her for a very long time. In fact, she was the first person I worked with when I came to America. She's also got the best timing of anyone I've ever seen in comedy ever. She's unbelievable, so kind of that.
Crave Online: Who is your favorite character you play?
Craig Ferguson: Betty White. I actually play Betty White. What most people don't know is I'm actually a very talented actor. Betty White has never been on the show. I play her.
Crave Online: Do you remember when you first knew you were funny?
Craig Ferguson: I'm not entirely convinced I'm funny now. I think what happens with comedy is that it's a reaction. I just keep talking until the audience gives in. My father, I think, let me know I was funny because he very rarely laughed, but he always thought I was kind of funny. I think he was just laughing at me a lot of the time, though. I don't know. This may surprise you because I am a performer, but I don't think about myself that much. I know, but I don't. I try not to. I think it's unhealthy. It's kind of like when you talk about jokes, when people say, "That joke, what did you think of that joke?" I don't want to know. It's all alchemy to me. It's all strange witchcraft. I don't know what it is, so I don't label it, and I don't remember the first time I was funny.
