Thank you Craig Ferguson

I don’t bother to watch late-night talk shows very often, only tuning in whenever someone I like is a guest or watching Jay Leno’s monologue when my parents are visiting.  A lot of times I’m just winding down for the evening and I can’t stay awake long enough to watch the later shows, like Conan or Jimmy Kimmel.  Despite this, my very favorite talk show host is Craig Ferguson from the Late, Late Show.  From the very beginning when he took over for Craig Kilborn he has developed his own style and refused to book big stars on his show only to help them promote their new projects.  He tries to bring on guests he genuinely likes so he won’t have to feign interest when interviewing them.  It also doesn’t hurt that he has a beautiful Scottish accent.  I especially love to watch when one of his guests happens to be from Scotland.  He positively lights up and a good portion of his interview winds up being a conversation about Scotland and growing up there.  I particularly love his monologues.  Unlike Leno’s sometimes mean-spirited jokes (has anyone else noticed he still tells Bill Clinton jokes EVERY NIGHT?) and Letterman’s “I can do this in my sleep” smoothness, Ferguson mainly spends his monologues telling funny yet honest anecdotes about himself and observations he’s made, whether it’s about taking the test to become a U.S. citizen or being upfront about being a recovering alcoholic.  He is unable to stand still and he often strays from his mark, never quite wandering out of the camera’s sight but moving back and forth, sometimes even touching the camera.  It gives him an air of spontaneity and I find it very refreshing after all the scripted jokes you get from the other shows. 

Last night I found myself watching the entire show and I feel I was very privileged to catch it.  On December 1^st Ferguson’s mother Janet passed away and he had just returned from attending her funeral in Scotland this past weekend.  At the very beginning he announced that he had hesitated to do the show that night and had struggled whether or not to mention her passing, but after a conversation with his sister he decided to dedicate the episode to talking about her life.  The monologue suddenly became a poignant eulogy and seeing him start to break down just as they cut to commercial made my heart break for him. 

After the commercial he began to tell more humorous stories about his mother, my personal favorite being how she developed a surprising friendship with RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan after the show taped the two of them hitting some of RZA’s favorite spots in L.A.  (a place that serves fried chicken and waffles together?????)  When Ferguson announced his guest – the awesome Chi McBride from Pushing Daisies – he admitted more than once his immense relief that his guest was McBride and not “one of those Hollywood types”.  Though they mainly discussed McBride’s new baby you could see the relief Ferguson felt in having someone so understanding and caring to talk with.  After a musical performance by Seal, Ferguson ended the night by reading the Victor Hugo piece he read at the funeral and closed out the show by playing her favorite song, “By the Rivers of Babylon”.

Ferguson ultimately chose to do last night’s show because he realized many people out there over the holidays will be missing people they have lost and he wanted them to know that they are not alone in their feelings.  He hopes that talking so honestly about his mother will help others to cope with their losses.  As one of those people who will be spending a bittersweet Christmas missing the loved ones who passed away this year, I feel extremely blessed that I managed to catch this one very special episode.  My heart goes out to Craig and the Ferguson family.