It starts at the kitchen table.
Craig Ferguson sits just off center of the camera. His hair coiffed to one side. He doesn’t make eye contact with the lens too much, opting to look outside of the window next to him.
Even though we would go on to meet his wife and two sons, this is about as much of the comedian’s home life we get to see. Instead, Ferguson -- in a low, Scottish growl -- talks about his first dreams of performing. They weren’t of doing comedy but of being a rockstar. His words. And he’d reach that level too. Yet comedy would draw him more.
“I was a drummer in a punk rock band. That's the way I ended up being a performer,” He tells me. “It’s a different form.”
It was December of 2018 when Ferguson and his crew finished shooting his latest project, Hobo Fabulous, a stand up special -- or rather a series of specials -- in the guise of a docuseries. Comedy Dynamics produced six episodes, each running close to half an hour, that follow Ferguson as he tours 50 dates around the U.S.
We had a phone conversation recently to talk about the new show.
“It was kind of for me a way of doing something a little different because, like late night television, by the very nature of doing that job, you do topical stuff every day. Every day.”
The series was directed and produced by Late Late Show veterans Joe Bolter and Tomas Zakopal respectively. Both men were the head and rear end of the late night show’s character Secretariat. Respectively.
Writing duties of Hobo Fabulous was done by Ferguson and Bolter. Both deliberately wanted to write something that was bereft of political, topical affair. All this for the sake of being “anecdotal” and making sure the special “[existed] within itself.”
The importance of making the docuseries one of a kind comes across whole heartedly. Take Ferguson’s joke structure or lack thereof. He was careful not to fall into the same patterns as traditional comedians. He has prepared jokes, yes, but the comedian also feels the room. If a jokes doesn’t work completely, Ferguson will call it out.
“I don't go out there and expect them to respond by rote to something I've written. That would get boring for me […] If it doesn't work… there's fun to be had in that. I think audiences like it when you admit it didn't work.”
A chat with Kathie Lee Gifford earlier this year where he was promoting his latest memoir, Riding the Elephant, would lead to Ferguson noting how writing is intimate but timeless. Any casual viewer of his comedy knows how he’s not of the standard set up/punchline variety. He’s more of a storyteller. And that’s where intimacy -- be it writing or stand up -- comes into play.
“Because we wrote in that style, that became a very intimate show. It became about anecdotal stories about what happens when I lost my virginity or I got in a very bad spot or the time I nearly drowned or something like that. So because it became a very intimate show, I thought the best way to recreate that type of show is not necessarily resist because when you're in the theater, it feels intimate.”
To that end, even the home audience was taken into consideration.
“When you're watching something on TV, there's a removal from [intimacy] unless you add that behind the scenes element the people in the theater don't get to counterbalance it. So I feel that it was a way of giving the television audience something that the theater audience didn't get because the theater audience always, in every stand up, gets something that the TV audiences [don't get].”
The intimacy comes across in Hobo Fabulous in notacible ways. When Ferguson is performing his act, the camera is tight -- focusing only on what’s on stage. Traditional specials would include crowd shots along with multiple applause breaks. The home audience knows they’re there but not seeing them keeps the spotlight on Ferguson.
Off the stage, Bolter focuses on his subject in a world where the comedian doesn’t have to be funny. The hotel rooms aren’t posh. And the dressing rooms can vary between optimal and questionable. Car rides aren’t groundbreaking with new insights on approaches to jokes. It’s in these moments Ferguson gets to breathe, taking in the world around him.
Intimacy is further explored during the cast’s chats to the camera. The Ferguson family is asked questions in regards to the patriarch. He’s painted as a good, attentive husband and father, of course, not exactly the rockstar the audience has come to see him as. It’s good then that a juxtaposition is given to dispel any regular idea of who Ferguson is supposed to be.
This isn’t late at night anymore. His tattoos can finally show.
With that in mind, Ferguson doesn’t fit the traditional Hollywood model. He says as much in the docuseries. In many ways, Ferguson is the opposite of his contemporaries. His late night period didn’t consist of stunts and online viewer driven bits like driving while performing karaoke or drinking coffee. He’s gotten his American status yet resides in his homeland of Scotland. And he hates famous people.
“First of all, I don't hate all famous people. Some of my best friends are famous.”
So he doesn’t actually hate them.
“I'm very distrustful of them,” he insists. “In late night, you meet everybody. You meet everybody on the way out, everybody who's at the top, and everybody who's heading back down. You meet everyone. And what happens is you realize that some people are nice, some people were assholes and some people are kind of forgettable; just like everybody else. And so it demystified the ideal of fame and celebrity for me.”
Hobo Fabulous has turned into something of an anti-special. In a landscape where seemingly every comedian -- regardless of career length -- is getting a special, those hoping to stand out with their stand up will have to go the extra mile and maybe even a little bit further. Neal Brennan had three microphones. Drew Michael had no audience. Now Craig Ferguson goes behind it all with a documentary. Putting it in this format makes it so the home audience can see what it takes to tour with a comedian and subsequently the toll it can take on them and their personal lives.
The idea for a docuseries came from Ferguson’s viewings of documentaries about Anvil, Journey and Rush. Prior to watching the movies, he could care less about those bands. At the end of each movie, he grew to like them.
“This is a is a good way for me to make some television for people that don't like me,” he starts. “You know, it's not only for people who like me but for people who don't like me, there’s plenty of entertainment too.”
Prior to his 9 year stint as the host of the Late Late Show and after his music career, the Scottish comedian performed stand up through the 80’s and 90’s in both the U.K. and U.S. He landed a role on ABC’s The Drew Carey Show, which lasted 9 seasons. During that time, though, his stand up lapsed. He wasn’t able to go out as much if at all due to his obligations with the network sitcom. At that time, whatever he did under contract, the network owned. It wasn’t until CBS called that Ferguson used the opportunity to get back on stage. In his time since, Ferguson learned that the audience should come before everything else.
Catering to the audience is what every performer has to contend with. It doesn’t matter if they’ve had a bad day; it’s all about the ticket holder.
“When I do a show I try and control the situation and make it as entertaining as possible -- first for the audience and then for me, but them first. Whether I enjoy the show or not is second to whether or not the audience is. Within reason. I can't go to make sure everyone's sitting comfortably and you know plump their cushions.
Their experience is what happened to them when they're there.”
The act of performing comedy will never grow boring. However, performing is only part of the experience. It’s the demanding act of touring that many comedians dread, Ferguson notwithstanding.
“What happens is that each day becomes about movement; you're traveling every day. So it's like when you go on vacation; the day you go there and the day you come back are not the best days of vacation. But it's like that day -- every day. Not that it should be a vacation but there's a lot of travel and it wears you down.”
Touring is tough for any performer. They’re gone from their homes for most of the year, making familial relationships difficult to navigate. Ferguson was so weighed down emotionally on his last tour that he had to cut it short.
“My youngest son was getting distressed about it. He was like ‘I don't want you go away, daddy’ and I was like okay! So I thought [I have to] be careful with that. It's not like I can turn around when my kids are in their 20's and go ‘Okay, I'm done. Want to hang out?!’ Because you know, they're not going to be available.
It's like that disgraced politician thing. I really did want to spend more time with family. I really did.”
At the end of our conversation, we returned to the feeling the room technique. Ferguson runs through a theoretical where you’re in a room with people, including your grandmother, telling a story that involves a curse word.
“Grandma is not going to be annoyed and everybody else is not going to be uncomfortable because grandma's getting annoyed.”
So he feels the room.
“I don't really have a problem, you know thinking on my feet like that, adapting on my feet. I don’t fall in love with jokes.”
Starting with dreams of being a rockstar and ending up a comedian may seem like a bust to most. However, it can be argued Ferguson achieved his goal and then some. He’s got the tattoos. His instrument is his voice. Yes, comedy is a lot less work than practicing music. Still, he’s already reached rock star status.
Hobo Fabulous ends the same way it started. Ferguson sits at the kitchen table giving short glances to the camera. This time he’s talking about how good Scotland can be. His readopted homeland looks much different to him as an adult than it did as an angsty teen. He takes himself much less seriously now and his performance is much better for it. Finally, he’s moved forward.
Through it all, Ferguson seems to take his final words to me to heart: “There's always another joke.”
Follow Craig Ferguson on Twitter and Instagram. Check out Hobo Fabulous on Comedy Dynamics.