Craig Ferguson just goes with the flow on talk show

The former 'Drew Carey Show' star is making his first Cleveland appearance.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
When actor/comedian Craig Ferguson was announced as Craig Kilborn's replacement on CBS' "The Late Late Show," no one was more surprised than the Glasgow, Scotland, native best known for his role as Drew Carey's boss Nigel Wick on "The Drew Carey Show."
There's little doubt Ferguson was the dark horse with the short list for the job including D.L. Hughley, Damien Fahey and Michael Ian Black. Two years later, it turns out America is pleasantly surprised with Ferguson's offering a slightly different take on the late-night television talk show.
"I think that's because we have no money," Ferguson said with a laugh, calling from Los Angeles. "But it does play in our favor and makes it more formal. I think what you have to do with a show like mine is turn disadvantage to your advantage. We don't have a big budget or a band, so we just kind of own it rather than hide from it."
Part of owning it includes usually paring the monologue down to a single news topic, extending interviews and even singing from time to time. With ratings growing, Ferguson earned his first Emmy nomination last year for what has become a highly improvised show often resulting in unexpected turns.
Doing it his way
"I think what happened is you do a show five nights a week, and we do 215 shows a year, you have to start doing a show you're comfortable making," Ferguson said. "Very quickly I decided what I really wanted to do was not a bunch of one-liner gags. What I wanted to do was stuff that I thought was funny, and if no one else thought it was funny, I could care less."
He added, "The other thing was I refused to do a scripted interview with someone. That just felt crazy to me. So if I don't know something about one of the guests on the show, like their movie or background, I'll just ask them. I figure if I don't know, then the vast majority of people watching don't know either, so what's the harm? It seems to work out."
Something else Ferguson did was turn his attention back to his first love, stand-up comedy. Now with a perfect promotional vehicle in a syndicated network television show, Ferguson started touring nationally, averaging 75 shows a year.
First show in region
While the 44-year-old has been through Cleveland many times (Carey took him to his first Major League Baseball game at Jacobs Field), his shows Friday and Saturday at Hilarities will be his first Northeast Ohio stand-up appearances.
"I just talk about whatever is in my head," Ferguson said. "The stand-up act kind of has a loose structure, how I ended up in America, but it changes from night to night. Kind of like the monologue, I have a rough idea where it's going to go, but as for exactly how it'll come out, I couldn't answer that until after the show. I like to keep it very, very loose. That's the way you keep it fun."
In an odd way, Ferguson said he feels a kinship with the city where the "Drew Carey Show" was based.
"Even though we shot the show in California, Drew had Stadium Mustard flown in, and all of his buddies from Cleveland were there," Ferguson said. "You always had to know how the Browns were doing. Yeah, you felt like once you got on the stage for the show, you were kind of in Cleveland."
Considering Carey is one of Cleveland's favorite sons, perhaps he can dish some dirt on the Old Brooklyn native.
"If you're from Cleveland, you probably know more about Drew than I do," Ferguson said, laughing. "But what you probably don't know is how sensitive he is, and how he cries all of the time."
Invariably, crying from laughter is something Ferguson hopes to have his audience doing all weekend long.