So another road trip to see Craig Ferguson has come and gone—this time, 5.5 hours down Highway 44 (part of Route 66 in another era) to that glittering oasis in the middle of the deser…excuse me, prairie…Tulsa, baby!

This time it was the Tulsa Hard Rock Casino playing host to Craig, and I was so impressed with the surroundings that as soon as I got there I immediately…went to my hotel room and finished reading Terry Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals. Priorities, people. 🙂 (I don’t get that much time to read, so a little ‘me time’ was nice).

I guess casinos just aren’t my thing. I don’t mind being there on the rare occasions I frequent them, but they’re not usually my first choice of activities. But overall the Hard Rock was a great venue. The music memorabilia is neat to look at and you can gamble if you like, or people-watch sitting on the fake truckbeds outside Toby Keith’s restaurant, which ScottishConan and I did for a while. Even saw a pair of purple-feathered “Vegas” showgirls strut by, as well as your usual assortment of other interesting characters you can find at a casino. You can say one thing for casinos, they’re always interesting to people-watch at.

(As for people-watching for a certain Scotsman we all know and love, ScottishConan and I did for a bit after the show, but no luck. But, not a big deal—we’ve both had the chance to meet him briefly before (me in NY, and ScottishConan I’d forgotten had run across him either in Tulsa in the past or in Thackerville, en route to the show)—so we can save the luck of perhaps meeting him for other roboskellies on the tour schedule.)

ScottishConan and I met up for dinner at a very nice Irish pub in town and got the chance to catch up, then back to the Hard Rock for the main event at the casino’s theater. The Joint (yes, our former-pot-smoking show opener Randy had some fun with that name) was, as such a joint in a place called Hard Rock should be, rocking. 2700 seats, packed pretty full (I think a sellout but couldn’t tell for certain), and the crowd was in an electric mood.

I don’t want to spoil the show for anyone so I won’t give details, but Craig was on top of his game, as always. Spectacular. I didn’t think it was possible that anything could top it, but this show might even be funnier than Does This Need to be Said. I got to see this run a few times in Denver while Craig was giving it a final polish, and it never gets old. Or less funny.

There were a few moments specific to Tulsa that hopefully shouldn’t spoil anything for anyone, that kind of give a flavor for the night. At one point Craig brought up Glenn Beck then realized he was in Tulsa, where people might actually like Beck and have the guns to back it up, and started to sneak off stage before anyone got any ideas. Far from hating him for it, the audience ate it up. At another point some discussion or other of gayness brought a cheerful “Woo-hoo” from an audience member, which led to surprise that 1) there were in fact gay people in Tulsa 2) they were brave enough to yell, and 3) they must be really confused because they’re living in Tulsa. Finally, Craig mentioned not knowing where to go out to in Tulsa after hours, which led to a bunch of helpful shouted suggestions from the audience, which in turn led to “What the hell do you think this is, Improv-a-Ganza?” 🙂

Randy performed well as well, with a mix of old and new material that flowed nicely together. He’s always great interacting with the audience, and he seemed to find a good fit with the Tulsa crowd. He even participated in the dance number, and kudos for that—if you’re not a big dancer, dancing can be even scarier to do on stage then normal material, and he did it with gusto.

I won’t spoil the open and close, except to say that the opening holds a lot of meaning for me, and I literally laughed til I cried. It is an absolutely perfect summation of what watching Craig is all about, at least for me. And I can only wonder, if the name for any eventual special will be “Craig Ferguson: Family Jewels.”

The closing deserves a mention all its own, and I really wish I could give it a full write-up. It is awesome—you can tell Craig truly means it when he does his part. I would call it a love letter direct to the Robot Skeleton Army and his audience. So enjoy it when you get to see it.

Looking at all the music memorabilia before the show, I joked that we’d found Craig Mecca—or maybe that should be Nirvana. I almost wanted to call the trip a pilgrimage.

But there’s a creepiness to that that goes too far, that you can’t walk back with a cockeyed (yeah, I said it 🙂 grin and a “Nah, too far” comic apology. I would bet Craig would get irked if he heard it—I can just hear the rant, “Do not put me on that pedestal, I am not a religious figure! I am no one’s role model!” (I guess one could retort, “Between the Bridge and the River, Fraser”, but that’s for another conversation).

Besides, the pilgrimage term isn’t accurate anyway. Over my time of watching Late Late Show (about a year now), while on this adventure, I’ve met a lot of interesting people who like Craig. Everyone has their own story as to why, what lures them in and keeps them around. But there seems to be a lot of artistic types, philosopher types, drawn to his comedy. Seekers. Including one lawyer who still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up (if she ever does).

And I think what we’ve all found in Craig, what we maybe somehow innately recognized here, is a fellow traveler on the road.

I’ll let you fill in “On *what* road? To where?” on your own.

Until next time,

Your faithful correspondent
Susan HMSFox