“The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson” has been without Ferguson as host since he left his desk, his robot, and his fake horse in mid-December after a 10-year run on CBS. But that hasn’t slowed down the sharp-witted Glasgow guy, who’s been living in the States for almost 20 years and has been a US citizen for almost eight. A post-“Late Late Show” visit to Scotland let him catch up with family members and get some R&R. But as soon as he returned stateside, he jumped back into the world of stand-up comedy, which was one of his many starts in show business. His “Hot & Grumpy Tour” stops for a doubleheader at the Wilbur Theatre March 1. Josh Robert Thompson, who shared perfect chemistry with Ferguson as the voice of the randy robot Geoff Peterson, will open.
Ferguson, 52, spoke about his past and present, and a wee bit about his future by phone from his northbound tour bus, just minutes after finishing a show in Baltimore.
Q. American audiences first caught notice of you when you played Nigel Wick on “The Drew Carey Show.” What sorts of things were you doing before that?
A. I was drumming in some punk bands in the early ’80s in Glasgow, and I would sometimes go to the Tron Theatre. They had what they called a gong night in the bar, where people would get up and play harmonica or the spoons or whatever they did. I went up and did a little comedy act, and they liked it, and I didn’t gonged off right away. I ended up being in a couple of plays at that theater, and that’s what kind of dragged me into being in a more legitimate form of show business than being a drummer in a punk band.
Q. Were you planning to be a musician?
A. I didn’t really plan on anything. I’m not a big planner. I didn’t have a career in mind, and I still don’t. One of the only infuriating things about doing the late-night show was everybody assuming that you wanted to do another late-night show. But I was like, “Can’t I just do this one, and then leave this one?” I feel like I did the show the best way I could for as long as I could stand it, and then I got out.
Q. Wait, you’re jumping ahead. After you did some plays at the Tron, you moved into stand-up. Did that come easy to you?
A. Well, easy-ish. I think it felt like the right thing to be doing. In Glasgow, there weren’t really any comedy clubs. I would go on in a [dance] club and they’d stop the disco, and the emcee would say, “Now here’s a guy that thinks he’s funny.” So you develop a certain kind of aggressive style. It was a little bit more like combat than comedy. But I was a wild young man, and it made sense to me then.
Q. You had a tough time getting started in the States. A pilot you did wasn’t picked up, then you failed an audition for the TV show “Suddenly Susan.”
A. That’s true, but that’s how I got the job at “The Drew Carey Show.” On “Suddenly Susan” I tried for a part as a Hispanic photographer [laughs]. The casting director said, “You’re clearly not the right person for the Hispanic photographer, but we have another part for ‘The Drew Carey Show.’ Do you want to try out for that?” I said yeah.
Q. You really switched gears when you got the gig as Craig Kilborn’s replacement on “The Late Late Show.” Was that at all daunting?
A. At the beginning, yes, it was frightening. I think what played in my favor was that I didn’t grow up in the United States. I didn’t grow up with the legacy of the late-night host. I didn’t feel like I was walking into any sort of hallowed church. I knew I had to do an hour of TV every day, and that was a little weird. But it got easier.
Q. You’ve played the Wilbur before, and you hosted the Boston Pops on New Year’s Eve four times. Do you have some kind of connection to Boston?
A. My in-laws are from New Hampshire, so I’m in Boston a lot. My first stand-up TV special in America, “A Wee Bit o’ Revolution,” was recorded at the Wilbur. And when I became an American citizen on July 4, 2008, [Boston Mayor] Tommy Menino asked me to speak at Faneuil Hall about what it’s like to be an American. Also, my family are Scottish and Irish, and I’m an American. So Boston feels like a natural fit for me.
Q. Josh Robert Thompson is doing the current tour with you. What’s happening on those shows?
A. Josh comes out and does 25 minutes, then I come out and do an hour and a half, though we occasionally ad-lib some stuff at the end. We’ve worked together for a long time, we’re friends, and he makes me laugh. We get on a bus, we go from town to town. It’s kind of like being in a band.
Q. You’ve made it clear that you’re not a planner, but can you drop any hints about what you might be doing next?
A. I’ve got my funky little game show, “Celebrity Name Game.” I’m doing a second season of that starting in April. I love that! It’s not gonna change the world. It’s a game show. It’s funny. And Lionsgate TV offered a deal to my production company Green Mountain West. We have a first-look deal with them, and we’re trying to find a way of doing something together. You never know how these things will work out, but we’ll see how it goes.
Ed Symkus can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.
Ferguson’s shows at the Wilbur Theatre, orginally scheduled for Feb. 14, were postponed due to bad weather. An earlier version of this story reflected those dates.