Craig Ferguson Is ‘Just Being Honest’ in His Uncensored Comedy

Nine months after America’s favorite rowdy Scotsman left a decade-long stint hosting CBS’s The Late Late Show, Craig Ferguson is back on TV with a new stand-up special, Just Being Honest. Free from the parameters (and censors!) of network television, the comedian’s material is more devious than ever, with targets including Kenny G, Mick Jagger and prostate exams. Buckle up.

The title of the special, Just Being Honest, refers to when people use the phrase to preface something otherwise rude. Do you use it?

I occasionally find myself saying it in order to save myself after I’ve said something which is clearly offensive to the company that I’m in. If you talk as much as I do for a living—or just in your life—it’s a scattergun. At a certain point, you’re going to hit somebody that you didn’t mean to hit.

Has your comedy changed since leaving late night? There’s no individual to point a finger at here, but I think that I became quite institutionalized doing a late-night show. I was careful not to get into trouble with the network or the sponsors or the censors. When you come out of that, I think there’s probably a bit of a pendulum swing in the other direction to celebrate your newfound freedom. So I expect I’m a bit dirtier and a bit coarser and a bit more ribald than I’ll end up being two or three years from now.

What are you doing with your newfound free time? I’m just coming to the end of a two-and-a-half-month period in Scotland. I haven’t spent this much time here in 20 years. And I’ve been getting—weirdly—worse at golf.

What’s the last thing that made you laugh? It was my youngest son, about 20 minutes ago. We were walking through the woods near the house, and he was sitting on my shoulders. He saw some tall ferns, and he said, “Daddy, that fern is taller than you! I didn’t know there were things taller than you outside of a zoo!”

Craig Ferguson: Just Being Honest, 10/9c, Epix