The very talented Cheeky Monkey
Each year, around the beginning of the new year, I try to watch the Talking Heads' film Stop Making Sense. I stumbled into this tradition by accident a few years ago. It's definitely performance, it's definitely an artistic statement, but for me, it's all about the joy exhibited by David Byrne. He's having a fucking blast. He jogs. He dances. He's present. I watch it each year to remind myself that there should always be something in your life that brings you pure joy. Contentment. Some sort of combination of dedicating your time and energy to something where success is measured by some sort of freedom, some sort of outburst of joy that can only be displayed with the best kind of reckless abandon, to not forget what John Keating taught me about the importance of sounding my barbaric yawp.
Craig Ferguson's last Late Late Show celebration stirred up something similar for me. In part, a LLS mission statement, and in part, a personal statement of being in charge of one's life, and in its entirety, a good time. I've viewed it again and again. They did a fantastic job writing their own tribute.
Ferguson's Late Late Show was a show had an undercurrent of DIY ethic, a small budget that created limitations but also kept them off the radar of the network. I kind of can't believe it existed at all, let alone on network television. Ferguson has often spoke of never thinking himself as part of the late night talk show world, both in time of peace and time of "war":
He was recently quoted as saying “I don’t give a f— about the late-night wars… If late-night is a club, I don’t want to be a member.”
“What I meant by that was, I don’t want somebody to lump me in with a whole form of TV that I’m not necessarily a real part of. We do a show that’s on late at night, but it’s not ‘a late-night talk show.’
- EW.com
Craig made a show that started out being rooted in British comedy and grounded in Ferguson's sheer talent, ability and intelligence. He was a happy contrarian in late night and no one on television has had more fun. He made friends along the way, including Grant Imahara who built Geoff Peterson, Craig's robot-skeleton sidekick, for him as a Twitter exchange. Geoff had some glitches, made Craig laugh, and was voiced by Josh Robert Thompson. Before Geoff joined him, Craig just talked to himself. He suffered power outages in the building, a roof that leaks, and one time he broke the camera. And often it was simply cracking up at something. Usually himself.
Ferguson is known and respected for his free-form monologue, sometimes on a single topic, like Ancient Rome, an area of discussion, like Jackass 2 and being a retired jackass himself, or meandering, like a discussion that starts out about vegetables, discusses Christopher Columbus, Kim Jong Il, and ends up on Roger Moore's Bond and muffin baskets. Or his of-the-moment reaction when Captain Sully made the emergency landing on the Hudson River in 2009.
He was frequently (comically) riled up by his live audience's reaction to something, whether it's his knowledge of Elvis or feeling bad for his producer. Or just holding them accountable. But always being willing to win them over. And those lip sync cold opens - introducing Geoff, having a Wonderful Night, Istanbul, Saying Hey, and even the ones that didn't air (because although he wrote an entire musical number, someone failed to get clearance). Le Late Late Show avec Craig Ferguson (I believe with an appearance by Ben Dukes himself), and taking over vocals himself when he felt like it.
Plus, the dancing. So. Much. Dancing. Sometimes by request. Sharing news of his marriage, his son's accomplishments, gaining American citizenship. A delightful chat with his sister, Lynn.
He also spoke from the heart - about making sure his comedy is going after the powerful and not the vulnerable, speaking of his own sobriety. He spoke beautifully in memory of his father and his mother.
Since it was also, technically, a chat show - the guests, particularly Kristen Bell, Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons, Michael Sheen, Robin Williams, Ben Schwartz, anyone who was a fan of the show - like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and, well, anyone Scottish.
I'm gonna miss the Late Late Show... miss Secretariat (and getting my cardio), miss the harmonica, awkward pause(es) and games, miss when Craig was wearing his cranky-pants, remember the skits and phone calls.
Until the end of my days, I will always know that Iceland is in the North Atlantic and its capital city is Reykjavik.
In his final monologue for the LLS, Craig shared:
... you came to a show that was, let's be honest, a bit of a fixer-upper and it kind of stayed that way... but what I hope we've done ... maybe "art" is a very grand word but what I was trying to do here, and what I think that we've managed to do here is make something that wasn't here before. So in that sense, maybe it is a piece of art - it didn't exist, now it does.
"I really mean this, and I want to make this clear....: I'm not retiring - I'm stopping doing *this*, I'm not stopping doing *it*... What was more overwhelming than anything else in the experience of doing this show, was making a connection with a country, which I became a part of. Which is astonishing to me... However, what I can't be is a member of a club, which I didn't really ask to join. I wanted to do *this show* and now we've done *this show*, and if you'd indulge me in whatever I'm doing now and come to whatever I do next, I'd be very grateful."
Craig is my favorite Chatty Cathy. He doesn't have the strongest attention span and has no patience for being bored. His interest, and subsequent monologues on, history, literature, art, and philosophy have made me far more knowledgeable. I've benefitted from hearing his point of view - someone who is forging his own path, who follows his own interests and doesn't give a flying fig newton what others think - whose enthusiasm, heart and intelligence brings you over to his perspective. Craig knows who he is. End of story. He has written a wonderful novel, Between the Bridge and the River, written some lovely and charming films, as well as offering endearing performances in others. His autobiography American on Purpose is hilarious and honest and reinforces the truth that life is a journey. I gladly look forward to whatever it is he does next. He's an iconoclast in regard to his industry, and when someone is that intelligent, that talented, funny, classy and just fucking cool... I will always pay attention.
