Craig Ferguson is unpretentious. Why use an adjective in the negative to describe him? Why not say “authentic,” “humble,” or “genuine?” He’s certainly all those things, but I want to emphasize the point that he defies the norms of late-night television, and deliberately trims all the neat lacing of an outward television persona. Another post might look closely at the form of his show in general: the absurd elements and what makes the show so special. Here, instead, I want to focus on the person, Craig Ferguson, and abstract away to the idea of being unpretentious.

We can draw a connection to being unpretentious in our own lives: our professional sides, and the double life we lead in the professional world. We change the way to speak, act, and show ourselves in order to present our professional selves in the best light. Television hosts must do the same, but, for Craig Ferguson, his approach, particularly with his guests, is to be unpretentious and instead just focus on building a relationship with his guest. Unlike other talk shows, his guest is not merely a client promoting their project in exchange for more viewers, nor is his guest subject to the host’s particular TV persona.

Craig Ferguson is essentially relation: he shifts the focus to the other and is empathetic to the point of forgetting to worry about how he looks and how he comes off to the gaze of the audience. The relationship he builds with the guest is the performance. The key to making the conversation with his guests interesting is that he’s genuinely interested in his guest. He asks engaging questions that are not superficial. It can get intimate, inappropriate, or indecent – all the things you’re not supposed to do in the professional world – but it is interesting.

Professional relationships are superficial and risk adverse, and thereby mostly uninteresting. As a professional, you cannot get intimate because it risks offending the other party or creating an uncomfortable environment: all elements that are not conducive to business, transactions, or a work relationship. Even the jokes in a professional context are sterile, forced, and disingenuous. The professional world is so concerned with optics, maintaining power, and looking competent that it creates an air of pretention and self-aggrandizement. Put differently, it’s about selling an image instead of meaningful interactions. There are boundaries to stay within because it is the superficial where we can all comfortably interact – this universality of professionalism, from the lens of comedy, is trite and hackneyed.

Notice how Craig Ferguson shifts all the attention and focus to the guest instead of trying to focus on maintaining his professional façade. He is free from boundaries, and he is free to explore all the uncomfortable areas for humor and an interesting conversation. He might end up looking foolish, incompetent, or weak, but this is the risk he takes in being unpretentious.