Craig Ferguson

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of maximumfun.org and is distributed by NPR.

**Jesse Thorn** (0:21)
Hey, it's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn. Craig Ferguson is Scottish. He was born and raised in Scotland. That's probably not a big surprise to hear if you have ever heard him talk.
Like, for example, on the Late Late Show on CBS, which he hosted for about a decade.

**Craig Ferguson** (0:37)
I remembered that I had $50 on my desk. I keep money on my desk in case I have a bad guest, like that would ever happen. I keep, usually, I have $50 in singles on the desk. CBS has money, it's not my money, I don't have that kind of money. But CBS, there's $50 in singles, and if there's a bad guest, and they're like, you know, I'm saying like, what is it like on the movie? Have you met George Clooney? And they're like, I don't know, I don't know. Then I give them a dollar. Then, you know, show business people will do anything for money. They're like carnies, but with less class. So.
I didn't know we had a lot of carnies in tonight.

**Jesse Thorn** (1:20)
Craig Ferguson is also American. He's lived here for over 40 years. He became a naturalized US citizen in 2008
Ferguson, and I do not think that I am overstating this, loves being an American. He loves to talk about America, American history, about what it means to be an American.
So much so that he has a new TV show about exactly that. It's called Craig Ferguson, American on Purpose. It's a five-episode cross-country series where Ferguson interviews dozens and dozens of people about the stuff that makes this nation great, not so great, and everything in between. Here's a little bit of the show. In this scene, Craig comes face to face with Thomas Jefferson's very own copy of the Declaration of Independence.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:07)
This was literally printed on July 4th, 1776

**Craig Ferguson** (2:11)
That is unbelievable to me.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:12)
Let's touch it.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:13)
Can I touch it?

**Craig Ferguson** (2:14)
No.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:15)
No, don't touch it.

**Craig Ferguson** (2:16)
I'm so close to the Declaration of Independence and I can't see a thing. I really wish I'd brought my readers.
Dr. Anita Allen, legal scholar and member of the American Philosophical Society, is walking me through the thought process, the American philosophy, if you will, that led to the genius of the First Amendment.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:37)
No touching the document.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:39)
Craig Ferguson, welcome to Bullseye. I'm so happy to have you on the show. Thank you for coming.

**Craig Ferguson** (2:43)
Thank you very much for having me on the show. It's delightful to be here.

**Jesse Thorn** (2:47)
I think you are a really famous America enthusiast. What are you enthusiastic about, about the United States?

**Craig Ferguson** (2:54)
Yeah, I'm a big fan actually. As countries go, I think we're pretty good.
I became an American officially in 2008, but I think long, long before that. What am I fond of America? What do I like about America? This is too much to say. There's too much to say. I had to make five hours of documentaries for CNN in order to get some of it in. I feel like I didn't reach all of it either. In fact, I know I didn't. It's just a very big place. There's lots going on. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's huge.

**Jesse Thorn** (3:25)
When you came to the United States, was it because you thought it was a land of opportunity or because you were not getting what you wanted out of Scotland or the United Kingdom?

**Craig Ferguson** (3:43)
I think yes to all of that and more. I mean, what happened to me is a formative thing for me.
When I was 13 years old, there was 1975, and in that year, a guy called Freddie Laker, who was an early pioneer of budget aviation, started running flights from Scotland, DC-10 airplanes from Scotland to JFK, for like 25 bucks or 50 bucks or I don't know. I mean, he went bus pretty fast. But when those flights were on, my dad and I came over when I was 13 to visit my dad's little brother, my uncle James and my aunt Susan, who lived in Smithtown, Long Island, they had emigrated here in the 1950s. They're still around. They live in upstate New York. They're still going and still married. Things have worked out great for them.
I came to visit them when I was 13 I came from directly, before I ever went to England, before I ever went to other parts of Scotland, I came from Glasgow to New York City when I was 13 years old, and it never left me, the vibrancy. It was almost like stepping into a cartoon for me. I mean, I felt like I had walked out of black and white into a Technicolor picture. It was unbelievable. I loved it. And I still do. Every now and again, when I walk down the street in New York, and I'm in New York now, I'm just shocked by the vibrancy of it. There's a story every 10 feet in this city.