AMERICAN ON PURPOSE
By Craig Ferguson. Harper Collins. 268 pp. $31.99
****

WE’LL BE HERE FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES
By Paul Shaffer. Flying Dolphin Press, 322 pp. $32
****

I’ve read more Hollywood autobiographies than I care to admit. Most of them are so-so at best, dreadful at worst. There are two new showbiz bios out this fall from men familiar to late-night TV audiences. One is standard star bio stuff, but the other is, surprisingly, terrific.

The terrific book is American on Purpose, the memoir of The Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson. It is, I am delighted to report, a great read. The other is Canadian Paul Shaffer’s showbiz-soaked bio We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives, and it follows the template of Hollywood bios perfectly. It’s fun, and music fans will find it especially enjoyable, but it pales in comparison to Ferguson’s riveting story.

If you’re a fan of Ferguson’s chat show, you may expect an off-the-wall, stream of consciousness kind of book, not unlike Ferguson’s routinely brilliant opening monologues. While American on Purpose has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, it is a lot more thoughtful and — dare I say it? — inspiring than I would have expected.

For those of you unfamiliar with the man, Ferguson is the Scotsman who, in 2005, became the first non-American to be given a late-night talk show when he replaced the snarky Craig Kilborn on The Late Late Show, immediately following David Letterman on CBS. [Hold on here, Maurice ... aren’t you forgetting a little show called Thicke of the Night? —Ed.] Ferguson was known on this side of the pond only for his eight-year run on The Drew Carey Show, so his elevation to the elite club of late-night talk show hosts surprised everyone, including himself. Turns out, it was an inspired choice. Ferguson has tossed the traditional talk show format upside down, eschewing the format created by Steve Allen and followed slavishly by everyone ever since.

But Ferguson doesn’t even get his talk show until the final 30 pages of American on Purpose. Instead, he devotes the bulk of the book to his life in Scotland, his almost accidental entry into the entertainment world, and his near-fatal plunge into rock-bottom alcoholism. I have never read a more riveting, cautionary tale of alcohol abuse. And he knows how to write, too. Consider this:
“Even people who have suffered from alcoholism for years can’t comprehend it if they are still drinking, and those who have recovered from this seemingly helpless condition of mind and body seem to agree on only a few things. It is cunning. It is baffling. It is powerful, and it is patient.”

That’s just great writing, and American on Purpose is like that all the way through.

Shaffer’s book suffers in comparison, but it’s plenty of ring-a-ding-dong dandy fun. While Ferguson dealt with no end of demons, Shaffer’s life has been pretty much grief free, aside from one very serious auto accident. He grew up happily in Thunder Bay with party-loving, very cool parents. Obsessed with showbiz from an early age, Shaffer was a piano prodigy who loved playing the blues and rock ’n’ roll a lot more than Beethoven. He moved to Toronto where he fell in with a magical group of future stars (Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Eugene Levy) before going to the U.S. to find fame and fortune and another group of star friends (the original Saturday Night Live cast), countless legendary musicians, and, of course, David Letterman.

There are no shocking revelations in We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives. Even if Shaffer knew lots of dirt, which he no doubt does, he’s just too nice a guy to spill it. He loves this business we call show, and almost everybody in it. We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives is fun (with plenty of Canadian content), but if you’re going to read one book about a U.S. late-night talk show star, make it American on Purpose.