Tickle Fight

Craig Ferguson’s post-late-night stand-up is at its best when he leans into his natural role as a charming, slightly chaotic storyteller. He is a comic who would rather talk about his own absurdities than keep up with the daily news cycle. While the initial segment of the set attempts to grapple with the early Trump era, particularly how his old catchphrase, “It’s a great day for America,” became polarizing after the 2016 election, the show truly finds its rhythm when he pivots away from politics. Instead, he directs the era’s collective rage toward his own facial hair, noting that growing a beard was the only thing that ever provoked genuine hate mail during his decade on CBS. Filmed at the Ludger-Duvernay Theatre during Montreal’s 2017 Just For Laughs Festival, the 66-minute special captures Ferguson several years after his departure from late-night television. Now a clean-living vegan, he spends the hour joking about 1970s pornography, the high-tech terror of Japanese smart toilets, and his love of hating magicians. His choice of opener was a nod to his talk-show past: the performer who played the front half of Secretariat, the show’s pantomime horse, making his stand-up debut. Critics noted that while the initial political material felt a bit forced, the special shines once Ferguson relaxes into long-form anecdotes.