Craig Ferguson rises from drunk abyss to top dog

It’s said that great comedy is born of adversity, and CBS’s Craig Ferguson would doubtless agree.

Now in his fourth year of hosting ‘The Late, Late Show’ the Glasgow-born comic has come a long way from his days as a recurring drunk. Born in Glasgow in 1962 and now an American citizen, Craig details his journey in a new memoir, ‘American on Purpose’ which Harper Collins will issue on September 15.

One story retold in the book is of the day Craig considers the lowest point in his life. One Christmas day-morning some years ago he awoke in the storage room of a London bar, surrounded by [what he hoped was] his own vomit. “I felt worse than I ever had.” he recalls. “I was a drunk, a loser and a disaster as a human being.”

He decided right then to end it all and jump into the Thames. But on his way to the river he met a friend who lightened his mood, and thus changed his whole life. A series of unplanned adventures then led him from cold, rainy London to sunny LA as the Late Show’s head host, and Craig’s rather proud of his adoptive new home, calling the US, “the land of the second, third and 106th chance.”

Now happily married with three dogs and a son, Milo, Craig explains this nation’s magic in succinct, glowing terms, “Here, failure is not a disgrace. It’s just a pitch you missed.” he says. “And you’d better be ready for the next one — that one could bring a homer.”

Source: NY Daily News