Unlike his late-night cohorts, Craig Ferguson is more of a storyteller than a headline-ripper. He’d much rather run on at the mouth about his dear ol’ batty mum or get a little confessional about his stint in rehab than lob out two-liners about Lindsay, Britney or Bush.
Which makes him something of an odd duck on the dial. He’s sincere, or as sincere as any comic, where Letterman is ironic, rambunctious and ballsy while O’Brien plays at being brittle and neurotic, a Glasgow punk counterpoint to Leno’s Hollywood smarm.
The same goes for his stand-up act, which on June 14 at Massey Hall played out like a condensed version of his life story — the Late Late Show host pacing in denim and work boots, his conversational style offset by great, goofy leaps around the stage as he dished on his childhood, his early struggles in Hollywood and all things Scottish.
“The problem, when you have just 27 cents in your back account, is you can’t get it out,” he noted, halfway through a story about a failed audition for Suddenly Susan. “Just when you need it the most!”
And where would Scottish comics be without Sean Connery? Ferguson has a bit about the original Bond, naturally. And though it starts out with the exact same gag that’s been done to death by so many others — whatever the role, his accent never changes — Ferguson kept going and made it his own, building an extended and uniquely funny bit about his role (as a Spaniard) in Highlander, opposite (the Belgian, playing a Scot) Christopher Lambert.
But one of Ferguson’s least personal bits also earned his biggest laughs of the night, after a somewhat dated but nonetheless pointed attack against Tom Cruise over that whole anti-depressant/post-partum depression thing.
“Tom Cruise is 12 feet of crazy in a four-foot man,” said Ferguson to a big applause burst from the crowd.
Seems like ever since that Scientology video was leaked earlier this year that everyone is doing the Tom Cruise Creepy Laugh these days, but damn if Ferguson’s isn’t the funniest. Or creepiest. Whichever is better.