Dude, it has been a really long, tough week. First, last night, Stephen Colbert said goodbye to everyone while he was seemingly with everyone, which is sort of amazing.
Tonight, a few hours from now, Craig Ferguson will also end his epic, historic run. Although these are two different men cut from very different cloth, Craig has had a much bigger impact on my life because the man is sober.
He's an amazing human being, he truly is. So, because Oke and I started the Dkos series Insomniacs Venthole with Craig Ferguson several years ago, I thought one of us should bid the man adieu.
I was reading Salon the other day, and there was a really beautiful article about how Craig Ferguson sort of changed this guy's life:
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that I traded nights at the bars for nights on my couch with the “Late Late Show” as some sort of magic formula for recovery: just stay at home and watch the sober guy instead of going out and being the not sober guy. No, that’s not it at all. It wasn’t some sort of swap, and as a working professional, the nights I have actually been awake to watch Craig Ferguson in real time have been fewer and farther between with every passing year. It was more just knowing he was there — sometimes in my DVR, but sometimes just there. On TV. Even in the abstract and even when I wasn’t watching. Craig Ferguson was there — living a bold, conspicuous and flourishing life. He wasn’t missing out on the fun or life’s opportunities because he didn’t drink — he was the fun, he was seizing the opportunities, and he was excelling at living. It was reassuring and it was inspiring.
Mr. Ferguson has been sober now for 20+ years. And, in 2007, he went on an epic rant about how he couldn't (with good conscience) make fun of celebrities battling addictions and still sleep at night:
It was one of my first introductions to Craig Ferguson and, at the time, I was battling some mighty fierce demons of my own.
Craig helped me through that. He helped me through a ton of that, actually. And he is such a kind and warm individual that he made me never want to leave:
Ferguson built a show that often played like an impish inside joke, poking fun at the ubiquitous talk show sidekick by having a robot skeleton sidekick built and naming it Geoff Peterson.
It was so much fun, just watching every night to see what he would do, to see who he would piss off, to see what guest he would rankle ... whatever. :) He did all of that and more.
Craig was very excited about becoming an American citizen, and in 2009, he did just that!
But my very favorite episodes were the ones where he would just be a goofball and ham for both the camera and the audience.
I mean, seriously, how can anyone not love this shit?!
and
The man was also a perfect interviewer, because he couldn't care less for scripts and so he improvised all the interviews, pretty much every night, which would take an epic amount of time to prove.
Ah, hell. I love Craig Ferguson. I'm going to miss him and his crazy sense of humor. I'm going to miss his humility. I'm going to miss his humanity.
I haz a sad.
:(