Yes, that’s right, the 59 year old who plays the Doctor on Doctor Who. The man who is super happily married for decades, has a daughter 7 years younger than me, and whom I don’t find remotely attractive at all. I ask my brain, “Why? Just why?” But the dream was so realistic and we were very much in love in it (and neither of us were married either and were coworkers on a project. It was all on the up and up, mind you).
So, I did what any one would do in my situation. I google image searched and video searched Capaldi for basically an entire day. And those Doctor Who interviews got old really, really fast… which led me to his interview with Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show in 2009. You haven’t seen it, I’m nearly certain, so you can watch it now…
Secretariat and LSD
And suddenly, everything made sense to me. You see, I used to watch Craig Ferguson all the time. Never consistently, never with intention, but it’d be on and I’d watch it. And I loved it. Like, really loved it. But the one thing I just never understood was the weird horse pantomime thing, Secretariat.
But then I find out he’s dropped acid with Pete* and it just all made sense. Secretariat and the randomness of the dance numbers and the energy levels and the gay robot, Geoff. All of it. I wish I’d seen this interview ages ago, it would’ve clarified so much for me!
*if you’d had the dream I had about Capaldi, you’d need to call him Pete, too. Anything else is much too formal.
What’s most nerdy about this interview are two things:
1. Pete’s magician’s jacket
For those less exposed to Craig Ferguson, you may not realize how massive of a Doctor Who fan he is. But once I realized he and Pete were friends and bandmates, and I already knew how much a Doctor Who loser Pete was, it all clicks into place and those Chris Hardwick interviews back before anyone gave a shit about Nerdist all have more meaning. But the jacket!!! You can almost imagine the exchange between Capaldi and Craig Ferguson…
“I have a secret you can’t tell anyone, and I mean it.” Pete says, in a serious tone.
“If you tell me that you’re the new Doctor, I only have one thing to say to you.” Craig replied, half awake and joking.
“And what’s that?” Pete asked. Craig could hear the smile and knew his friend had been cast.
“Holy shit, I was only joking.” he sits up, totally awake now.
“Sure, yeah. What would you tell me?” Pete asked.
“You have to wear the magician’s jacket. There is no other choice.” Craig said, dead pan.
“Exactly what I told Elaine!”
2. “You should drum on the show”
That moment when Peter couldn’t stop himself from doing a real compliment of Craig’s drumming. It was like true longterm friendship love in action. And then, Craig introduced a new opening credits in which he’s drumming throughout Los Angeles. I’m not saying the two are related, but… Anyway, the opening credits are at the end of this clip in which Craig announces he’s stepping down.
I Loved Craig Ferguson’s Show
Suddenly I was in a tailspin spiral of Craig Ferguson videos. I’ve always loved his interviews. I loved how easily they flowed and how he not only called attention to, but fully embraced any awkwardness experienced between himself and the celebrity. I loved Craig’s conversational style. He always drew out the most personality from celebrities because of this. I needed more. I watched Matt Smith, Karen Gillan (wow, she’s so weird!), Alex Kingston, David Tennant, James McAvoy, more Karen (like seriously, she can act so well, I don’t understand), Jenna Coleman, more James McAvoy (I might now have a weird crush on James McAvoy, just FYI).
As I immersed myself in all of this again, I was reminded of my favorite thing about Craig Ferguson’s show… the complete lack of taking anything too seriously. On all the other late night talk shows, there’s this layer of formality. On Craig’s show, he’d always call out how CBS would spend no money on the show, he had no real band, no side kick, no money to get rights to music. Nothing. Any graphics they’d do were so low budget feeling. It was just particularly great in how unpolished it was. I loved that he would cuss all the time and they’d cover it with foreign language slang. This became a gag in which he’d try to work around it with Scottish terms that were real things, like this with David Tennant (sorry the audio sync is off):
Really though, I loved how irreverent the show was. To the point that it was uncomfortable at times. It felt like you were really there with everyone. That the full crew was part of the show and the journey. Sure he did weird gags and sketches, but that’s normal now with late night TV. The whole show was so ridiculous, and completely self-aware of this fact. There’s really nothing quite like it now.
Take Heart, There IS A Craig Ferguson Show Now
So, I went to search to see what Craig was up to now other than being a game show host for some celebrity name game something or another (which just seemed rather sad), and I realized that he’s got his own radio show now! It’s on Sirius XM, channel 94 and started just this February. Here’s the facebook page, which seems more useful than the website.
I don’t have Sirius radio, so I have not yet listened to the show, but I can imagine it’s the same energy, but slightly less ridiculous gag-wise. Hopefully it’s the same interview quality, too. Sounds like he can’t have Geoff on for legal reasons, but the voice actor who voiced Geoff (Josh Robert Thompson) will be on this Friday (May 19)! So if you’re having Geoff withdrawals, maybe he’ll do a little Geoff impression for you.
Just One More Episode for Old Times’ Sake
I just love this one. And Michael Caine in Space (in Scotland). And Scotland.
Did you also love Craig Ferguson’s late night show? What other shows do you miss dearly? Do you also have romantic dreams about random celebrities and it becomes problematic to your day’s productivity? Let me know (please! I don’t want to be the only one).
