New Deal Tour Begins
Craig Ferguson is launching his New Deal Tour on Thursday, September 17th with a half-dozen shows at the Comedy Works in Denver, with a total of 50 stand up shows over the next four months. Tickets are still available for most shows, so book early to avoid disappointment! You can find details about venues, dates, times and links to tickets on our Live Comedy Tour page. Are you going to one (or more) of Craig’s shows? Please let us know and send us your pictures and stories! We’re happy to pass them on to the rest of the robot skeleton army. Just use our Contact Us form or tweet us a link to your blog.

Craig Interviewed
In case you missed any of Craig’s many appearances in recent days to promote his projects, here are some of the links:

Live with Kelly and Michael
Late Night with Seth Myers full show | Late Night with Seth Myers online backstage
TODAY Show
Watch What Happens Live
The Chew
@Midnight
New York local TV station KPIX interview
Rachel Ray (there are several clips, just not all together)

Craig was also interviewed by TVInsider.com, HamptonRoads.com and UpRoxx.com, in which he mentions a new comedy series he’s been working on that could be announced soon. We’ll keep an eye out for it!

And a reminder, watch Craig Wednesday, September 16 on The Talk (CBS, 2pm ET/1pm PT). Thanks as always to the RSA’s @bgrhubarb and @whyterose713 for help tracking down all the links!

‘Name Game’ Season Two
The second season of Celebrity Name Game begins on Monday, September 21st. Since it’s a syndicated show, you’ll need to check your local listings for the time and channel “in your region.” Craig has already taped a bunch of episodes, and from the previews we’ve seen, it’ll be another fast-paced ride.

Lynn Interviewed
Craig’s talented sister Lynn Ferguson appeared on a recent edition of the Girlz in the Wood podcast. She talked about being in show business, writing, acting and much more. It’s a great listen!

Dance Time
As we get ready for the new season of Celebrity Name Game, check out Craig’s new music video, featuring a bunch of this season’s celebrity guests:

Video courtesy: CelebrityNameGame

Special Debuts
Craig Ferguson‘s newest stand up comedy special Just Being Honest debuts Thursday, September 10 on EPIX, the premium cable channel, and on EPIXHD.com. If you don’t have the channel on your cable or satellite system, this is a great time to check out the show online, because from September 10-13, EPIXHD.com is offering a “free preview weekend.” Just sign up and you’ll be able to see the special at no charge. As a bonus, Craig’s official tour Twitter account will be live tweeting during the show on the first night at 10pm ET.

CF Promotes Show
Craig is hitting the talk show circuit and doing interviews with television and radio shows, newspapers, magazines and podcasts leading up to the stand up special on the 10th, and we’re guessing he’ll throw in a mention of his New Deal Tour, which kicks off Thursday, September 17th in Denver, as well as the second season of Celebrity Name Game, which starts Monday, September 21st. So far, we’ve seen interviews with Salon.com, Maclean’s magazine in Canada, and Parade magazine. TVWeeklyNow.com, The Interrobang and others have been previewing the special as well. Craig even turned up on the latest edition of Larry and Shawn King’s Back and Forth podcast. Craig’s interview starts about 10 minutes in.

Set those DVRs! Craig will be on your television:

Wednesday, September 9: Live with Kelly and Michael (Check local listings)
Wednesday, September 9: Late Night with Seth Myers (NBC, 12:30pm ET/PT)
Thursday, September 10: TODAY Show (NBC, during the 10am hour ET/PT)
Thursday, September 10: Watch What Happens Live (Bravo, 11pm ET/10pm PT)
Friday, September 11: The Chew (ABC, 1pm ET/12pm PT)
Monday, September 14: @Midnight (Comedy Central, 12am ET/PT)
Wednesday, September 16: The Talk (CBS, 2pm ET/1pm PT)

If we hear of any other appearances, we’ll update this list. Thanks to the RSA’s @whyterose713 and @bgrhubarb for scanning the Twitterverse in search of Craigy appearances!

New Tour Stop
Craig has added another stop on the New Deal Tour. He’ll be back in Napa, California at the Uptown Theatre on December 10th. See the latest information on our Live Comedy Tour page.

Fans In New York
Here’s a great promotion for the new Just Being Honest comedy special, complete with some familiar robot skeletons!

Video courtesy: CraigFerguson

‘Name Game’ Returns September 21
Craig Ferguson returns for season 2 of Celebrity Name Game on September 21st. The fast-paced game show was one of the most successful new daytime programs last year, making it an easy choice for stations across the country to renew. Craig won an Emmy Award in the first season for his work as host. And as TV By The Numbers reports, the new season brings with it more comedy, more celebrity contestants and some new rules. Thanks to the RSA’s @whyterose713 for the update.

CF Gets On The Promotional Train
Set those DVRs! Craig will be on your television twice on Wednesday, September 9th. In the morning, he’ll be on Live with Kelly and Michael (syndicated – check your local listings for the time and channel “in your region”), and in the evening, he’ll be on Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC. He’ll be promoting his new stand up comedy special Just Being Honest on EPIX, which debuts on Thursday, September 10th, and he’ll probably talk about the new season of Celebrity Name Game and his upcoming stand up comedy tour, The New Deal Tour. Thanks to the RSA’s @bgrhubarb for the updated DVR news! She also spotted on NewsOnNews.com that longtime Late Late Show announcer Shadoe Stevens will be the new voice of Antenna TV, which is debuting nightly classic episodes of Johnny Carson in 2016.

Enjoying Time Off
Before Craig headed back to Los Angeles, he did a magazine interview, which Twitter user @Longing2belong posted, and several hobos retweeted. In it, Craig talks about the upcoming standup special and enjoying some time off. Click on the image to see the full-sized version.

Craig on the Radio
And then there was that time back in 1994, when Craig guest-hosted a radio show on BBC Radio 5 called Fabulous. The show was usually hosted by comedian Mark Lamarr, perhaps best known for his long run as the original host of television’s Never Mind the Buzzcocks. When radio historian Andy Walmsley tweeted the clip, Craig replied that he didn’t recall doing the show:

I have zero recollection of this. Worryingly I was 2 years sober by then. #geezer #ThrowbackThursday

Video courtesy: YouTube

Craig To Appear on @Midnight
Just back from some time off, Craig Ferguson will be appearing on Chris Hardwick‘s Comedy Central show @Midnight, on Monday, September 14. If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, you can get tickets to the taping, which will be at 2pm. Thanks to the RSA’s @whyterose713 for the heads up!

RSA Remembrance
We are sad to report that devoted Craig fan and longtime member of the robot skeleton army @mimetska has passed away. As the RSA’s @GenieFirestone related, Mimi waged a valiant battle with cancer for more than three years and was determined to be upbeat through it all. As she posted on her Facebook page, ‘The brave don’t live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all.’ She was one of the first people to follow us on Twitter and was a loyal reader of our posts from the days when when we started out on Blogger. Her favorite day was Groundhog Day, so she will be fondly remembered by the RSA family then and now. She will be missed, and our condolences go out to her family and her many friends.

Goal Surpassed
Josh Robert Thompson‘s indiegogo campaign to help finish post production of his self-titled variety show was a huge success, raising more than 205 percent of the campaign’s goal. Thanks to the donations of fans around the world, Josh will be able to put all of the finishing touches on the pilot episode of his show, to help market it to networks. Josh tweeted:

OVER 50K!!!! Because of YOU, my dream project has been funded 200% beyond our original goal! THANK YOU! ALL OF YOU!

Corden to be Honored
Late Late Show host James Corden will be honored as the Artist of the Year by the 2015 BAFTA Britannia Awards, reports The Wrap. This year’s ceremony will take place Friday, October 30.

No Liza Involved
Craig’s stand up comedy special Just Being Honest debuts September 10 on EPIX. Twitter user ?@tsokolove recently captured a photo of a great taxi ad for the special, as it sped by the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. Here’s a quick message from Craig about the show:

Video courtesy: EPIXHD

Get Those Tickets
Book early to avoid disappointment! Tickets for nearly all of the fall shows scheduled for Craig Ferguson‘s New Deal Tour are on sale. Only one scheduled venue that we know of has not yet posted links for tickets. We’ll keep an eye out for on-sale dates for Snoqualmie, Washington. It is possible that a few other dates could be added to fill some gaps in the schedule. We’ll post those as soon as we can confirm them. And for those who have asked, there is also a September 26th show in the works that we have not added to list for now. It will be at Hofstra University on Long Island, and we’re told that ticket sales will be geared toward incoming students, their families, faculty and staff, rather than to the general public. Craig has done shows like these at other universities around the country.

Meanwhile, Canadian comedian Mark Forward will be opening for Craig in several cities during the Canadian portion of the tour. Forward has opened for Craig several times and gets the crowd rolling. He tweeted:

I’ll be opening for @CraigyFerg Sept. 23 thru Oct 4. Toronto, London, Kitchener, Ottawa & Hamilton & more.

To see the complete list of shows, along with dates, times, venues and links to tickets, see our Live Comedy Tour page.

Home Stretch
Josh Robert Thompson is in the final days of his indiegogo.com crowdfunding campaign, to raise money for post-production of his self-titled variety show pilot. The campaign raised its initial goal in just three days, and has also surpassed a second goal. You can still contribute toward a third goal until midnight Pacific Time on Wednesday night. Check out the site for more details.

Here’s Johnny
It was bound to happen: With Craig Ferguson no longer on late-night television, the newest plan is to bring back the other best late-night host. Antenna TV has purchased the rights to show episodes of Johnny Carson. They’ll be played at 11:00pm ET/8:00pm PT starting on January 1, reports the trade publication Variety. They’ll be showing episodes from most of Carson’s run on The Tonight Show, starting when the show moved from New York to California in 1972, through Johnny’s retirement in 1992, but no episodes from Carson’s days in New York are planned. They’ll show hour-long episodes on weeknights, and 90-minute episodes on the weekends, from the days when the show ran from 11:30pm-1:00am. The shows will simply be called “Johnny Carson,” because NBC still owns the rights to the name The Tonight Show. And incidentally, NBC has signed Jimmy Fallon to a six-year contract to continue as host of the current iteration of The Tonight Show. Where can you find Antenna TV? It’s an HD channel available over the air (and sometimes on cable) in about a hundred markets around the country. Use their channel finder page by typing in your zip code to see if it’s available “in your region.”

Pull My Finger
In a preview of the next season of Celebrity Name Game, Craig recalls a time when a handshake turned into something else.

Video courtesy: Celebrity Name Gamee

More Tickets On Sale
Tickets are now on sale for nearly all of Craig Ferguson‘s announced stand up comedy shows across the country that are part of his New Deal Tour. Tickets for Calgary, Alberta go on sale August 13th. Seats for Ottawa, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Fargo, North Dakota; Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia will all be available on August 14th. And you can buy your tickets for Morgantown, West Virginia starting on August 31st. We have not yet heard about the on sale dates for Bismarck North Dakota or the December show in Snoqualmie, Washington, but we expect tickets to go on sale soon. And there are a handful of other shows in the works for this fall that have not yet been officially announced. Just keep an eye on our Live Comedy Tour page, which we update whenever we hear new information.

Josh’s Podcast Update
Josh Robert Thompson‘s latest installment of the Joshin’ Around Podcast includes an update on his indiegogo.com campaign to help crowdfund his self-titled television variety show and about his other projects.

New Sign
Television critic and author Bill Carter noticed that CBS has changed the sign at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, as they prepare for the arrival of Stephen Colbert, new host of the Late Show. Colbert is scheduled to launch his first broadcast on September 8th. Click on photo to enlarge..

Corden in Vogue
Late Late Show host James Corden was recently profiled in the UK version of Vogue magazine, in which he talks about adjusting to a new life as an entertainer on American television.

Craig’s Impressions
As part of their effort to put the entire second season of Celebrity Name Game on YouTube before it actually airs on television, the show’s producers put together a clip of Craig’s best impressions:

Video courtesy: Celebrity Name Game

Tour-A-Palooza
In the past week, Craig Ferguson and his team added 17 more stops on the New Deal Tour coming up this fall. By our count, Craig will be performing 46 times before the end of the year, and the tour website suggests at least nine more shows are in the works, so if you haven’t seen Craig on stage, this will be a great time to do it! We’re keeping up as more venues are announcing shows, and we appreciate your help in keeping us up to date. If you see a new show popping up “in your region,” please tweet us and let us know. As always, thanks to the ever-vigilant @bgrhubarb and @whyterose713 for spotting new shows! To see the complete listing of confirmed shows, visit our Live Comedy Tour page any time.

Josh on a Roll
Josh Robert Thompson has surpassed both his initial $25,000 goal and a $30,000 stretch goal on his indiegogo.com page, raising money for his self-titled television variety show. There is still time to donate and get some great perks, as he aims for another stretch goal of $60,000. Meanwhile, Josh has issued a new episode of his Joshin’ Around podcast, to bring everyone up to date on what he’s been working on over the past several months. Blogger Mark Evanier also had nice things to say about Josh’s project.

Nerdy Talk
Recently at the San Diego ComicCon, the @Nerdist Chris Hardwick interviewed the current Doctor from Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi. Promoting the show, they tweeted some audio of Peter and Craig performing in their band The Dreamboys. Later, the RSA’s @iknowjojo joined the conversation on Twitter, to let the @Nerdist folks know about her comic featuring Peter and Craig:

@NerdistDotCom @CraigyFerg @MattDelhauer You’ve all read the Ferguson/Capaldi Doctor Who comic, right? http://iknowjojo.com/craigcomicep1.html … (Peter has).

They responded to say they really liked it:

@iknowjojo @CraigyFerg @MattDelhauer omgomgomg! LOVE.

How Humor Works
In this preview of season 2 of Celebrity Name Game, Craig explains how humor works:

Video courtesy: Celebrity Name Game