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Ace Backwords on Pot

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His TV show has been characterized as "for collegiate stoners" but you don't have to be either collegiate or a stoner to love Craig Ferguson. There are plenty of references to recreational marijuana use, though he would have us believe it's strictly in the past. Which really doesn't matter, because once that consciousness has been accessed, it sticks. Like the Beatles said, "How often have you been there? Often enough to know."

In this interview, for instance, when asked about the reactions to Saving Grace, Ferguson says, "It interests me that you could be fine with someone drinking a large scotch and be concerned with someone smoking a big doobie. I don't see the difference. I really don't."

Ferguson co-wrote the script for Saving Grace along with producer Mark Crowdy, and tailored the part of Matthew for himself. In one of the TV monologues, he talks about preparing for the role, how he had to learn how to smoke a joint, for artistic purposes. "I had never come across such a thing before," he says innocently, and imitates how someone taught him the technique. Hardworking and dedicated actor that he is, naturally Ferguson requested, "Let me practice some more." In another monologue, he remarks, "I did a movie once about a guy who smokes a lot of pot. Somehow, I came up with a performance." Another time he says, "I had begun the research for that movie a long time before I even wrote the script."

In the film, the town's doctor is a pothead, and I like that. It reflects the real-world fact that people in responsible positions can function just fine, even if marijuana is their drug of choice. A friend who worked in a hospital once told me that potheads are the most conscientious and compassionate people in the medical field, and it's not difficult to believe.

Saving Grace is a big hit in Italy and when he goes there, Ferguson says, people are always offering him pot. "I'm like the Cheech and Chong of Italy." Brenda Blethyn, who plays Grace, told an interviewer about the filming, "Everyone was in such a good mood, because we were making a comedy that we all wanted to make. It was just a magic time."

An interviewer asked Ferguson how he feels about people who object to a movie about marijuana.

They're just professional, get-annoyed people who always get their sphincters in a tight knot about something. … If we upset these people, great, fine, I'm happy to upset them. They should be upset. They're idiots.

Ferguson has rolled a "joint" for the TV camera, and he's convincing as "Mountain Dude" in the imagined public-access show called Nature's Platform. Depending on the content of a particular monologue, litness goes by many names. After a rap about how George Washington grew cannabis, there's a later reference to somebody getting stoned as "paying tribute to George Washington." And so on. In one monologue, Ferguson mentions the first person who turned him on to Kurt Vonnegut. It was his dealer. There wasn't any dope, but the guy gave him a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five and said, "Here, this will blow your mind."

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