Craig Ferguson reflects on his younger self, comedy and why he left behind the 'rigours of corporate America'

Originally published on May 6, 2019

Craig Ferguson is a stand-up comedian, a novelist, a punk rock drummer and a star of the 90's sit-com The Drew Carey Show, but he might be best-known as the host of The Late Late Show — the show that ran after The Late Show with David Letterman for almost a decade.

Ferguson was always different from the other late night talk show hosts. When Britney Spears was going through a very public breakdown and all the other shows were having a field day, Ferguson promised to lay off Spears and even went on to open up about his own issues with addiction and near-suicide.

Now, Ferguson has released a new book called Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations and Observations. It's a collection of essays about addiction, fatherhood and mortality. He joined q's Tom Power to tell us more about it.

Click 'listen' near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.

— Produced by ​Chris Trowbridge