Suave Example: Craig Ferguson

There are few people to look up to when it comes to being suave these days. Sure, you have your Daniel Craigs, your George Clooneys. But just how often do we get to see them in action, having a genuine and unscripted interaction with a beautiful women? The moments are few and far between.

Fortunately, there’s the archive of Craig Ferguson, former host of the Late Late Show. Ferguson was a Scottish comedian who, admittedly, falls closer to “tall, dark, and handsome.” But he’s also goofy and twice the age of most of the women he flirts with…yet he gets away with it because of genuine quick wit and a natural approach to talk show interviews: they were clearly unrehearsed and more like the conversations you might have with someone you might have met only once or twice.

What’s more, he’s flirty in a way that the other talk show hosts simply cannot get away with. A lot of people are younger, more debonnair, and more handsome than Craig Ferguson…but he’s the one whom Esquire called “The Most Mercilessly Hit On Man in the History of Television.”

Why? Here are a few thoughts:

Ferguson’s Approach

You’ll notice at the beginning of each interview that he tears and up throws away his notecard, a wordless reference to how these interviews usually go: the host constantly refers to his/her notes to ask the right questions that set the guest up to share their amusing anecdotes.

Ferguson doesn’t do that, at least not with the help of a card (he stills knows things about his guests). Instead, he trusts himself as a conversationalist and lets things flow where they may. Sometimes, that’s to awkward moments. Instead of freaking out and filling the air, he milks the moment for its comedy. Sometimes, he asks nonsensical questions just to keep the guest talking:

Kate Mara: …what else do you want to talk about? Craig Ferguson: …ever been fishin’?

As you can see from the context, this is far from awkward. The atmosphere is fun and flirty, so the audience laughs. Guests are expected to be part of the conversation, and the result is that you get a much better feel for their personality than the typically stiff interviews.

With Ferguson, there’s very little of the “this is a beautiful woman; I have to treat her differently.” Watch how he sits next to one of the most beautiful women in the world. He asks Irina Shayk “who do you play in this movie…Mrs. Hercules?” when she’s there to plug a movie. Just light and funny, unaffected, the way you’d talk to just about anyone you already knew well. You can watch her slowly melt from “talk show mode” to “joking around with this cool guy” mode…and somewhat back to talk show mode when he admits his anxiety. Even Craig Ferguson can’t win them all.

He’ll also lightly tease his guests, as he does here with Kate Beckinsale. Now there’s a big difference betwen “I’m teasing someone because I’m having a light, fun, and natural conversation with them the same way I might talk to my girlfriend or friend” and “I’m going to tease her to get her to like me.” Even so, it’s interesting to watch.

Context

The entire Late Late Show was loose during Ferguson’s tenure; you see guests like Kate Beckinsale make references to previous segments that included talking about underwear. Ferguson’s sidekick is a robot-skeleton thing that hits on the pretty female guests. In short, things aren’t stuffy.

What’s more, there’s Ferguson’s reputation to consider; female guests know what they’re getting into when they go on his show. That’s why double entendre and sexual topics are more free reign from the beginning; they know this isn’t Jimmy Fallon they’re talking to.

He’s a little touchy-feely.

Touching back and forth between host and guest is common on Craig Ferguson, especially if the guest knows him well. He’ll point out something about their dress. They’ll point out something about his hair..

Of course, context is everything. He and his guests make jokes out of it. Touching a woman who’s clearly uncomfortable with you is something else entirely.

Constant Double Entendre

Ferguson has guests play the harmonica, leading to constant double entrendre moments like “are you going to suck or blow?”.

Sometimes, the double entendre is a stretch. It doesn’t matter.. “I will give you a snake cup, young lady.”

This constant reference to sex means that everyone, guests and audience alike, picks up on every pun. The result are conversations that go above and beyond the usual talk show blather and actually have some spontaneous entertainment value for anyone tuning in.

He’s “incorrigible.”

He compliments a beautiful woman on her shoes, she puts the shoe up on his desk, exposing her leg. Ferguson’s response:

Leave it there, I can see it better.

Or this moment:

Leslie Bibb: If I said to you, “I have my own raft,” you’d go out with me? Craig Ferguson: Yeah, because I’d think you’re crazy and we’ll probably have sex on the first night.

She laughs and says, “maybe.”

The results

Esquire calls him “The Most Mercilessly Hit On Man in the History of Television.”

Kathy Griffin says, “I just thought I should start a trend of just handcuffing myself to attractive men…don’t act like a lot of you wouldn’t like to be in this position right now.” Once again, Ferguson is regarded as handsome. He’s not a bad-looking guy, but let’s face it: he’s no Brad Pitt.

Chelsea Handler says: “I thought you were very sexy the first time I came on…”

Even more, you’ll see what happens when women are responsive to flirting: in the moment with Leslie Bibb above, she starts keeling over with laughter. People don’t do that if there’s no connection on any level - when you’re connecting on a romantic level, all of your jokes become hilarious.

There’s a difference in the body language of Kate Mara and Piper Perabo and the usual neutral body language you’ll see in most interviews. There’s a reason I tell guys to look for genuine attraction and to choose women who choose them: when a woman is attracted to you, you won’t have to wonder and guess and agonize over it. You’ll know.

I challenge you to watch Craig Ferguson, learn a few things from his relaxed and natural approach, and see if you can be just as natural as he is without seeing similar results with women.