Ventriloquist Dunham Reveals Hilarious Comedy Writing Delivered at Friday’s Concert

0

Jeff Dunham began studying ventriloquism when he was 8 years old. He never developed any other interest, not even earning a degree at Baylor University.

Forty-seven years after receiving his first ventriloquist dummy, Dunham has created a comedy empire with the help of a cast of hilarious puppets: Walter, Bubba J, Peanut and Achmed the (“Silence, I’m Killing You”) ) Dead Terrorist. It works with props as simple as Jose Jalapeno on a stick and features a pair of new characters this year, although only one appeared at Dunham’s hilarious Friday show at the Municipal Auditorium.

Congratulations to Dunham for becoming a gifted ventriloquist. I guess there are a lot. What sets Dunham apart is his gear, his delivery, his sleight of hand.

He doesn’t want to be known as a big ventriloquist. On the contrary, Dunham wants to be respected as a comedian, which is why he opens his own shows without the puppets — and which is why he was honored on September 21 with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His skin is thick because he uses personal experiences from his own life as comedic ammunition. We admire the humor of self-mockery, whether he pronounces the insults or that they come from his group of puppets.

Dunham visited the larger United Supermarkets Arena 18 months ago. On Friday, he warned fans in the auditorium that he treats comedy the way bands treat concerts. In other words, he would start his new material. After all, Lubbock was the second stop on his passively aggressive 60-city tour.

However, like top musicians, he planned to share greatest hits and piece together some of the tracks that had fans seeing him in the first place.

To his credit, however, Dunham blends old and new material like a master mixologist. At no point on Friday could fans just say, “Oh, I’ve heard that before”…because, before they got the words out, new stuff came in.

One part that is expanded is the increased interaction between the puppets. Of course, Walter doesn’t have much good to say about anyone. Still, Peanut grew more aggressive, especially upon learning that Jose was planning to quit the act.

Dunham’s conversation with a puppet is no small feat. Changing inflections and accents, it also moderates when two puppets lower each other, contributing to three conversations. Also impressive were the moments when Walter, who wasn’t present, is insulted, and the audience hears Walter’s muffled, clever remarks from inside his holster.

The show was going great without that little extra, but Dunham will do whatever it takes to make the laughs louder and longer.

Even so-called mistakes can actually be planned, although it took me a while to figure that out.

Consider the huge laughs that come when Dunham seems to accidentally lose control of Peanut, with the puppet sliding to the ground and reading the riot act to him afterwards. Ahmed the Dead Terrorist expresses similar agitation when it comes to replacing a bone here, a rib there.

Accidents lead to improvisational comebacks that leave fans in proverbial stitches.

Or…wait a second…could these tracks have been planned down to the smallest detail?

In my 2016 review of Dunham’s show, I wrote, “Equally impressive was Dunham’s comedic recovery time, especially when he accidentally sent Peanut flying through the air and later couldn’t prevent Achmed to temporarily lose ribs and arms. Both times he let the puppets laugh out loud.

Dunham may not have fooled everyone last year in Lubbock, but he sure did. As long as these bits of his show continue to elicit gasps and laughs, they’re part of his comedic legacy.

His comedic bravery goes hand in hand with being an equal opportunity offender, using blacks, whites, Mexicans, Trump, Obama and Black Lives Matter as keys to opening doors to more hilarity. Trump’s border wall jokes were popular “last night in El Paso,” Walter tells us.

Dunham also recently left the double-barreled shotgun of Comedy Central and YouTube to record his first Netflix comedy special in Ireland. It also prompted Dunham to introduce a new puppet: Seamus, the drunken Irish baby.

Seamus missed the flight to Lubbock.

Instead, Dunham opted to audition another new character: the incredibly stressed Bob, a personal adviser to President Donald Trump who can’t stop the president from tweeting about everything. Bob can be quite funny, but he came across as a work in progress. We are confident, however, that Dunham will recognize what worked and reject or rewrite the rest.

Either way, Dunham always stays funny. He admitted to falling in love and marrying a woman 18 years younger – OK, Walter spills those beans – but it’s Dunham who expresses his love for their twin sons, sharing that he “will be 75 when they get their University diploma.” All for laughs.

Later, Peanut recalls Dunham performing years ago at a comedy club in Lubbock. A visitor in the front row took offense to the act, according to the puppet. Peanut said: “He came on stage – and he punched me. Me!”

This never happened, even with drunk customers. I refuse to believe it. But my God, Dunham and that furball sold it well. As silly as that sounds, it was damn good comic book writing and delivery, and the real reason Dunham enjoys such a level of stardom.

Share.

Comments are closed.