By Kimberly Gladman
Note: This is a guest post, hopefully one of many to come, and hopefully one of many reviews, as well, since my friends, family, and I like to go places and think about things. If you are a subscriber who has seen an interesting performance (especially a touring show) or visited an interesting place you would like to write a review or short essay about, please let me know!
—Greta Ode
“I think he had almost perfect form,” my son said as we left the Wilbur Theatre after seeing Craig Ferguson on his Fancy Rascal tour last weekend (precisely: at the late show on September 9, 2023, Boston MA). After a beat, I agreed: “Absolutely.” The funny thing is, I’m not sure either one of us could have said, at that moment, exactly what we meant by this thing we were both so sure of.
Of course when I say “funny thing,” I mean funny-peculiar, not funny ha-ha, which Ferguson very much was. Hilarious, even, at quite a few moments. My son estimated the set had about 20 main jokes (which I’d describe as as laugh-out-loud moments) and up to 200 smaller ones (which I’d describe as all the little things a comic does in between, verbally or visually, to generate a constant flow of amusement in between, and supporting and facilitating, the audience-member’s experience of full guffaws). His performance was personal, free-associative, honest, and appropriately profane in the best tradition of a brand of socio-political comedy that stretches back to Lenny Bruce, but is nowhere near as boring as this sentence.
The set was also surprisingly tender, even gentle at times—all while delivering the most nuanced, incisive, and humorous treatment I have seen of the current generation gap in attitudes towards sexuality, gender, and the First Amendment. Of course, Ferguson might not describe what he is doing in such academic terms, and neither would my Gen Z son! But this Gen X mom was grateful for a night where people of such a range of ages could laugh together. And the diversity was not merely generational: Ferguson’s act also includes the full range of registers of humor from low (farts) to high (Weltansschauung).
Aging and illness (including COVID) are among the key themes of Fancy Rascals, but Ferguson’s self-deprecating comments on his supposed debility were belied by the length of the set. At over 90 minutes, it’s the standup comic’s equivalent of a three-hour Taylor Swift Eras concert (one of which this writer was also privileged to attend). It made me think it would be interesting to compare the Fancy Rascals tour with the Eras tour in a series of blog posts, but I’m not sure that’s responsible on the basis of having only attended one event in each.
Out of respect for the fact that standup is a place-and-time specific, live collective experience, Ferguson has asked people not to post quotes or jokes from the show out of context. But general comments and observations are, I think, OK, and I’d like to know what others think.
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