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King of Comedy

Kevin Ferguson rules local late night

By Rebecca LaRue Fisher

Fort Wayne Reader

2005-05-30


“He was persistent. We couldn’t get rid of him.”

Kevin Ferguson says that’s probably how his tombstone will read. For a guy who personifies determination and capitalizing on opportunities, he seems pretty relaxed and comfortable with this time in his life.

Ferguson, a native of Fort Wayne, graduated from North Side High School and attended St. Francis College on a basketball scholarship. He had intentions of becoming an art teacher, but those plans faded when he was serving his student teacher assignment. “Because I’d graduated high school at 16, I was student teaching people my own age…it just didn’t work,” he says. When asked whether he graduated so young as result of great intellect, he laughs out loud. “No. I think my mom sent me to school early to get me out of the house. No one cards a kindergartner to see if he’s old enough to be there.”

When college didn’t go the way he’d planned, Ferguson got into the business of buying and selling real estate. Soon he purchased a business, a “jingle house” where he’d create advertising and jingles for clients. The facilities were state of the art for the day and so he also had a successful sideline business of renting out the facility to his competitors when they had clients who wanted to ‘see’ where the work was (supposedly) done.

One client, Bruce Wisman of Wisman’s Appliances, jokingly told the fledgling Comcast that he would advertise on their channels when they gave his friend Kevin a talk show. The next day, a Comcast representative called Ferguson and offered him the chance to do a talk show. Originally, it wasn’t a showcase for comedy; Ferguson just thought it would be a place for his advertising clients to air their commercials, so he agreed to try it. He imagined a studio like the set of the Tonight Show but found Comcast’s studio was about the size of his kitchen. Undeterred, Ferguson talked his way into using Gentry’s (a nightclub) on Tuesday nights, when it was closed.

The first format for “Fort Wayne Entertainment” was not celebrity-driven in any way. Ferguson “interviewed” his clients - local car dealers talking about the latest models, for example. He had great local musicians as his “house band” since he also used them for his jingle and advertising business.

Eventually, the general manager of Fox 55 came to Ferguson and asked whether he’d like to do the show on Channel 55. Ferguson says he thought he’d hit the big time. Now he was branching out with real guests —- including an escape artist who nearly died on the show. The gentleman did a trick where he dangled from a burning rope above a bed of nails. The bit would show the escape artist slipping from the rope binding before it burned through and let him drop to the bed of pain.

“Well,” Ferguson says, “that’s how it was supposed to work.” That particular night, and possibly due in part to a backstage open bar, the escape artist was bound with the wrong rope - a much faster burning rope. He ended up falling head-first onto the bed of nails. He survived and performed the trick flawlessly on a future show, but it’s a memory Kevin will never forget.

Once he got settled at 55, the show was renamed “Night Shift.” Ferguson contacted the comedy club Crackers in Indianapolis, and the partnership routed comics through Fort Wayne on off-nights. Another symbiotic relationship developed about that time, with NBC and David Letterman’s “people” at Late Night. Network television is leery of taking chances on untested talent. Many comics who wanted a shot at Late Night were directed first to Night Shift, where NBC and Letterman could get a look at them onscreen and interacting with a host.

In fact, Ferguson thought he might be headed to the real Big Time when he was in the running to fill the chair soon to be vacated by Letterman. The pool of talent was impressive: Dana Carvey, Dennis Miller, Garry Shandling, Jon Stewart and Kevin Ferguson. At one point, Ferguson’s agent called to tell him he was a “shoo-in.” “They say it’s an unknown who’s been chosen. That has to be you!” he was told. However, while driving down Washington Center Road, Ferguson heard on the radio that, indeed, an unknown had been named to succeed Letterman. “Wow, it is me and they didn’t even call,” Ferguson thought. But the unknown’s name wasn’t Kevin Ferguson. It was Conan O’Brien.

Ferguson sees a lot of positives in the call that didn’t come - he is not wailing about being located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “We all got into this business because we want acceptance from other people. We crave the audience. Then someone like a David Letterman—he has really become a recluse. That makes no sense,” Ferguson says, giving it some thought. “I love to talk with the customers. I love when people come up and talk to me about the show, even if it’s negative. And sometimes it is!” But he is reminded frequently of the positive aspects of his life. “I do a television show. I own a comedy club. I sleep in my own bed at night. Just this week a comic who was coming through said, ‘You really cut out a slice of heaven for yourself here.’ He’s right. ”

Night Shift now airs at midnight on Sundays on WPTA-TV 21Alive (Comcast Channel 7). The ratings are better than ever. In a recent ratings period, Ferguson says the show finally beat the competition in the time slot, with coveted over-40 viewers. “That was the first time we got that audience,” Ferguson says. “Usually CSI had them. Which means my own peer group would rather watch an autopsy than see me!”

Ferguson’s take on his Fort Wayne customers is very positive. “They’ve become a very sophisticated comedy audience,” he says. “The very best working comics come through here and the audience sees very high quality work. They all need to do TV and this was one of the few markets where they could get that experience.” Ferguson’s all-time favorite act is the comedy team of Steve and Leo. They were incredibly funny and fabulous, he says, even writing skits for the show. Then, Ferguson introduced them to his friend Tim Allen. Steve and Leo wrote Allen’s hit movie The Santa Clause and that was the end of the duo’s comedy touring. Now, they are successful writers with huge careers.

Stand-up is hard work, Ferguson warns. He’s seen it from all sides. “The first time I ever did stand up was on the show. I loved it! In fact, the first three times I did it, I loved it. Then, the fourth show came along and I had used up my lifetime of funny stories and bits. That’s when I really realized, this is hard work.” He sees newcomers all the time who get up on stage for their three-minute open mic set and it just isn’t working. “After about one minute, they want to die,” he says. Ferguson’s advice to new comics is to have a strong stomach. You have to hear a lot of insults and just keep getting up there and working on your show. He says the ones who make it are the ones who find something to enjoy, even when their show is going downhill and nothing is working right. “Comedy is not polite,” he says. “At a play or a concert, everyone knows when to clap. With stand up, it’s a minute-to-minute reaction. It’s the most honest art form you can try.”

Loving his work is something Kevin Ferguson seems to have mastered. He says his workweek is really Wednesday through Saturday, which leaves him Sunday-to-Tuesday as a ”week end.” When asked what he does on his “weekends” he barely pauses. “Work,” he says without a hint of regret. “Hey,” he laughs, “it’s not like I am pounding nails or pouring concrete. The chance to be creative in your own hometown, well, there is something really special about that. Writing jokes and stuff - it keeps you young. I’m 97.” And you can almost hear the rimshot.

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