Puppets' purpose more than laughs
Entertainment: Ventriloquist wants audience to care

BY BRANDY McDONNELL

Published: October 3, 2008

TULSA — When Jeff Dunham takes the stage tonight at the BOK Center, the comedian won’t be alone.

Walter the grumpy old man, Peanut the purple scamp, Jose Jalapeno (on a stick), Bubba J the beer-swilling NASCAR fan and Achmed the Dead Terrorist will be joining him.

As a ventriloquist, Dunham considers his stand-up show a success if his "Suitcase Posse” of wisecracking puppets gets all the laughs.

"The most important aspect that I look for is a character that people will care about,” Dunham said in an e-mail interview. "The folks have to want to hear what this guy says or at least give him a chance to prove himself.”

While each character has a different genesis, all of them have one commonality: They can get away with making un-politically correct jokes that Dunham alone couldn’t.

"I think folks really want to hear what a dead terrorist would say. And then when they realize this particular terrorist is a bumbling idiot with problems in life, they realize he’s human,” he said.

"With Walter, everyone knows someone exactly like him. Most people understand a curmudgeon if they have lived around one.

"It’s refreshing, in a way, to hear someone speak their mind and not care what other folks think. It’s refreshing when someone doesn’t give a damn about being P.C.”

The Dallas native has turned a childhood interest into a booming entertainment career. He was 8 years old when he taught himself ventriloquism. As a child, he performed book reports and shows for Scouting, church and civic groups.

He pursued a comedy career through his college years at Baylor University and built a strong fan base over two decades. Dunham does about 250 shows a year and often plays sell-out crowds.

But Dunham’s live shows aren’t the only outlets fueling his popularity. One of his YouTube videos featuring the skeletal and prickly Achmed has received more than 66.5 million views, making it one of the most popular videos in the site’s history.

The video has a five-star rating with more than 258,000 user ratings.

His Comedy Central specials "Arguing With Myself” and "Spark of Insanity” are among the most-watched programs in the network’s history, and the DVDs have sold 2 million copies combined.

In June, Dunham taped his first holiday show, "Jeff Dunham’s Very Special Christmas Special.” It will debut Nov. 16 on Comedy Central and come out on DVD Nov. 18.

"For 10 years, a friend of ours has had a Christmas party, and at every one of them, I have taken one of the characters and read a twisted version of ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ It always went over great, and my wife for years has said I should make it into a DVD. Well, after ‘Arguing’ and ‘Spark,’ we knew there was an audience and a demand, so we went for it,” he said.

"It was absolutely great, and it turned out beautifully ... looking forward to doing DVD No. 4 now!”

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