Craig Ferguson: A Wee Bit o’ Revolution (2009)

Starring: Craig Ferguson
Grade: B+

If you were a fan of Craig Ferguson’s style as a host of The Late Late Show, you will love A Wee Bit o’ Revolution.

Summary

The intro is Craig doing a speech at his citizenship ceremony because during this timeframe, he officially became a citizen of America.

After some initial pleasantries with the Boston crowd, he touches on his citizenship and how he met President George W. Bush. Soon after, he moves on to talking about his mother being crazy and how she would argue that you could take your eye out with anything. Then, we get into his big bit on Sean Connery that is downright hilarious. If you’re a fan of Craig, you know how he loves doing his Sean Connery impression. Then again, it’s any Scot’s birthright to have a Sean Connery impression. Even if it’s not necessarily spot-on, it’s always funny. Continuing the bit, he talks about how hairy Connery is, Connery speaking Japanese in the film Rising Sun, his refusal to learn any accent of any kind, and the irony of him playing a Spaniard in the most Scottish-proud movie ever in Highlander. Let me tell you, the Connery material alone is worth watching.

Next, he talks about the weirdness of the relationship between being tough and touching your own balls and aging in general. Following this, he begins his life story.

This is where he takes us through his visiting of America for the first time and his fascination with the U.S. having gum, bowling, and everyone having teeth. Later, he touches on going to his first-ever rock concert (for the Blue Öyster Cult no less), smoking weed for the first time at said concert, and going back home to Scotland. This is where, in an attempt to recreate his first concert experience, he attends a Deep Purple concert and gets chloroform from a friend (because it’s a drug) and blacks out, missing the entirety of Deep Purple. This leads to Craig upping his game and taking every drug under the sun for years, eventually entering rehab. His description of rehab is very funny too, as he hits us with one of the best lines of the special, describing the difference between an alcoholic and a junkie:

“An alcoholic will steal your purse to buy alcohol and then be consumed with guilt and remorse and drink themselves to death over it. A junkie will steal your purse, and then help you look for it“.

In a nutshell, this was the 1980s for Craig Ferguson.

Following rehab, he remembered his dream of wanting to go to America and succeed in Hollywood. This is where he talks about getting an audition for the pilot of Suddenly Susan, but the role was that of a Hispanic photographer, which is hilarious in itself. After epically failing at the audition, he talks about immediately running into a producer and getting the role of Mr. Wick for The Drew Carey Show, finally getting his big break. He then talks about Scotty from Star Trek‘s horrible accent and him getting back at the English with his accent as the Mr. Wick character, getting married and divorced, having a Scottish/Jewish wedding, the size of his dick, his honeymoon, hotels, and finding porn at the hotel, leading him unintentionally to gay porn. He is intrigued at the subject, giving us another great quote, saying “On the one hand, not gay, on the other hand, European?”. Lastly, he touches on advisors you get once you become successful that “create problems that don’t exist and then solve them for you”, the “phone glove” example bit, Tom Cruise being certifiably insane and the subsequent Matt Lauer interview that basically confirmed it, actors needing to shut the fuck up, Oprah, plastic surgery, Lamaze classes in Los Angeles, and birthing videos.

My Thoughts:

Craig Ferguson is my all-time favorite late night talk show host. Yes, this even includes Johnny Carson. Because of this, I had to check out A Wee Bit o’ Revolution. Craig’s brand of humor is goofy enough to get anyone to laugh, and his charm can get any joke to work, even if it’s not that funny on paper. On top of that, he seems to be the most down-to-earth celebrity on the planet. Make no mistake about it, he translates his late-night personality well onto the stand-up stage, giving us a very funny special that still stands to this day as one of his better ones. Though we weave in and out of digressions throughout, as one would expect from a Craig Ferguson-centered special, a majority of the hour or so is about his life story, giving us real-life anecdotes and hysterical pitstops along the way to give us an insight of the incredible journey he’s been on to get here. From his drug and alcohol-fueled days as a young adult, all the way to when he became a success in Hollywood, Craig’s story is not only a captivating one, but a consistently amusing one at that.

Even when some jokes fall a little flat, he makes up for it with his exuberant energy on stage, dedication to the joke, and his facial expressions that can still evoke laughter with a simple look. It’s the type of charisma you can’t teach. To someone not as familiar with Craig’s style and personality, it might take a little bit to warm up to him. For fans that are aware of his life and joke-telling style, this is everything you want it to be. Craig Ferguson: A Wee Bit o’ Revolution is Craig’s first stand-up special and though there may be some jokes that may not hit for everyone, I still think it’s a very funny special that’s a great representation of our star and personal favorite Scotsman.