While everyone else in grade school was worried about bringing home a report card that read … “Johnny doesn’t get along well with others.” That wasn’t Jeff Dunham’s concern during his school days … he got along well enough with his classmates. No, being one of the shyer children in town, it wasn’t Jeff that was starting any fights at his local elementary school in Dallas, Texas.

But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t find Jeff arguing in class. Jeff Dunham, the nation’s premier comic ventriloquist, has been performing since the young age of eight. His first performance was in front of an audience of classmates for an oral book report on Hansel and Gretel in the third grade. He recalls spending about 3 minutes on the book and about twenty minutes berating himself and his classmates. Thus began, what would become for Jeff, a phenomenally successful career arguing with himself.

Winning over a classroom of third graders wasn’t hard for Jeff Dunham, they loved his first performance. The laughter filled the school building almost immediately. But not every audience greets a ventriloquist with quite the same enthusiasm. “There’s a stigma against ventriloquists,” admits Dunham. “And there’s no denying it. When someone says ventriloquist …if they haven’t seen a good one they’re going to think negative thoughts, they’re going to go … Oh, great … not a ventriloquist. Let’s face it, it’s a very strange way of entertaining people,” confesses comic vent Jeff Dunham, of the way he makes his living. “Think about it for a minute … It’s what everybody says … You’re talking to yourself. You’re reacting to yourself. And that’s not quite normal.” Despite what others might think of the art form, ventriloquism has held a fascination for Dunham ever since he was a tiny little boy and it still does to this day. And so the stigma which Dunham speaks of only inspired him to work harder at his chosen craft. To become not merly a better ventriloquist, but a constantly improving comic as well.

“I look to Edgar Bergen as the true example of the way you’re supposed to succeed as a ventriloquist,” says Dunham. Who, like ventriloquist legend Edgar Bergen, puts more of his attention on the humor of the jokes and the routines than he does on technique. “I think I’m fairly adept at not moving my lips and being convincing. But, at the same time, I think people come back to the shows over and over again mostly because they enjoy what they see and what they hear.”

And what they see and hear, year after year, are Dunham's three mainstay characters … Peanut, Walter and Jose Jalapeno. Other characters have been used over the years but these three have become the mainstay of Dunham's act and are the most loved by audiences all across America.

Jose Jalapeno, although on stage less time than the other two, has actually been in Dunham's act the longest. Jose dates back to '82 and was inspired by a radio job Dunham had during his college days. Dunham, at that time living in Waco and attending Baylor University, supplied character voices for a series of radio commercials for an Italian restaurant featuring pizza toppings that talked. Since people in the area were already familiar with the radio commercials and the voices why not try to turn some of them into puppet characters for his act? The first pizza topping to be immortalized as a vent character in Dunham's act was the talking Jalapeno. After Dunham had created and painted the head for the puppet he put it on a stick by an open window in the sun to dry.

Upon seeing the green Jalapeno shaped head, propped in the sun drying, Dunham's college roommate remarked … Hey, a Jalapeno on a Stick! … making reference to a bit that had appeared on a Larry 'Bud' Melman (Calvert DeForest) segment of the David Letterman Show a few nights earlier … Melman's 'Toast on a stick." The timely reference made the two laugh and Jose, in turn, never got the body he was intended, but instead became Dunham's famous "on a stick" character. A small yet integral key player in Dunham's act. Jose is, as Dunham refers to him, “a salsa-fied crack-up” and remains the longest running character in Dunham's show.

Peanut came next and was an immediate favorite. The most popular of the bunch, Peanut charms audiences from coast to coast with his childlike wonder and streetwise naughtiness. Joining Dunham in the Spring of '86 he's had a hot run ever since. He is a purple Woozle who appeals to young and old alike. Children like his cute and funny charm. Teenagers find him cool, hip, and irreverent. To adults and older people he's that off-the-wall and wonderfully goofy reminder of the child within themselves that they thought they'd lost.

The character Walter was born before the dummy was, it was at a Vent Haven conVENTion during the summer of '86. Jeff Dunham was fascinated by a grumpy old man figure that was on display in the venders room. Before the conVENTion was over Dunham offered to perform with the figure convincing the figure maker that it would be good exposure for his workmanship to showcase one of his figures in action on stage. The character he created that day to go with the dummy was an immediate hit but Dunham reasoned the type of humor he delivered would be great in small doses but not long ones … due to this Jeff Dunham decided the price tag was more than he wanted to spend on the dummy even though he had been so well received by the audience. But when Dunham returned to his College dorm he began work on carving his own grumpy man ventriloquist figure to add to the act … Walter was born soon after.

“It's amazing how these little guys can say things that a mortal human could never get away with,” admits Dunham. “There's some sort of unspoken license … when outlandish things come out of an inanimate object, somehow it equals humor.”

So after years of playing comedy clubs across America with ever growing success Comedy Central came knocking on Jeff Dunham’s door asking he be the first ventriloquist to make a stand up comedy special for their network. And not to shy away from that perception of the art and artists, that ventriloquist hate, Dunham playfully named his comedy special “Arguing with Myself.”

That first special was a phenomenal success attracting Dunham’s loyal following from his years touring the comedy club circuit as well as converting a new legion of fans. Comedy Central repeated the special often after it’s first airing and TV audiences tuned in in impressive numbers each and every time. So much so, that almost immediately after the first special Comedy Central was knocking at Dunham’s door once again, requesting he make a second comedy special for them. Dunham's second special, Spark of Insanity, will premiere on the Comedy Central cable TV network September 23 and hit the DVD racks soon afterwards.

Their second comedy special was shot this past May and this time around they’ve decided to come clean. Jeff Dunham and the gang were a relatively clean act even before, by modern comedy club standards, but, the new special will not require any second sound track bleeping of “four letter” words. “I feel a lot better about that, in the right kind of way,” says Dunham of his decision. “But from a business stand point we’re also finding that clean comics are outselling the other guys hands down.” Maybe it’s simply Economics 101 … supply and demand. Dunham continues, “You can literally, on one hand, count the current guys that are completely clean … that you could take your grandmothers to. There aren’t many of them.”

Dunham’s decision to keep it clean has been a growing experience, comedically, for him as well. He’s finding that the best way to develop better comedy writing skills is to force yourself to remove the curse words. “It’s much harder to write clean,” admits Dunham. “It’s much easier to throw in a dirty word. It’s like putting spice on bad food. You have a plain dish that doesn’t taste very good. Well throw a little spices here and there and it will pump it up and make it taste better. It’s the same thing with comedy if you’re joke is not quite good enough put the f-bomb in front of the punch line and it’s much funnier. But … if you remove it … than it shows you the pure joke.”

In addition to studying the great ventriloquist that came before him Dunham has been following the great comedians as well. And he noticed a pattern in comedy albums … the second album is never as good as the first. So in addition to keeping it clean Jeff Dunham gave himself another requirement this time around … make it even funnier than the first. He worked with the same production company as he did the first time around. “My assignment was to make it funnier … Their assignment was to make it greater and better in every other way.”

The DVD of Dunham’s first Comedy Central special had just gone quadruple platinum one week before we spoke to Jeff Dunham for this interview … giving Dunham the most sales for any stand up comedy DVD in the country. Needless to say Dunham was extremely excited about the latest news. “You know why that’s exciting?” confides Dunham. “That means that people are going out there and buying this DVD. They’re choosing to buy a DVD of ventriloquism. And that’s really exciting.” Once again audiences are taking ventriloquism seriously. You can argue with yourself … but … after all, there’s no arguing with success.

Catch the full 90 minute version of 'Spark of Insanity' on Comedy Central Sunday, September 23 - 9pm / 8pm c.
For the latest on Jeff Dunham's Tour Schedule and more visit … www.OnAStick.com

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