| Vol. 1 / No. 2 • Summer 2001 • Looks @ BOOKS Section… |
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ifferent fans of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's act have a different favorite dummy but one thing everyone agrees on is the ‘Dear Walter’ segment of the show… it always seems to be one of the highlights of the night. Before the curtain goes up, everyone in the audience is given a ‘Dear Walter card’ and asked to write down any question they wish to ask the grumpy old curmudgeon. Then later in the show, drawing from his vast knowledge and years of experience, Walter either shares his brand of wisdom or just gets ticked off and nails you with a zinger. Either way audiences love it. So when Dunham decided it was time to write a book his fans could enjoy it didn't take him long to come up with an idea… ‘Dear Walter’.
Behind all of Walter's funny remarks is ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, something people sometimes seem to forget. Dunham says everyone talks of his dummies as if they were real people. “You know… Walter said this, and Peanut said that… instead of Jeff made them say that. And that's kind of how it is in my own head. I understand that I put them in the box and they go away but at the same time when they're out they have their own personalities.” So now we take a look at Jeff Dunham the man who puts the words in Walter's mouth…
Jeff Dunham shared a childhood fascination with many of his generation… ventriloquism. At the age of seven Jeff saw a ventriloquist dummy in a toy store and pleaded with his parents for the toy. That Christmas, under the family tree, was a replica of Edgar Bergen's Mortimer Snerd. The main difference between the thirty-something Dunham and others his age is that when he wants to relive his boyhood fascination with ventriloquism and puppetry he doesn't have to dig through his parents' attic in search of some wooden boyhood pal, he merely has to go to work.
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 for an oral book report on Hansel and Gretel in third grade. “I spent about three minutes on the book,” recalls Dunham, “and twenty minutes berating my classmates. I started getting paid for it at a pretty early age,” says Dunham, who by age 13 was audited by the IRS. “I guess I'm one of those lucky people who found something at an early age and stuck with it. I turned it into a business and I've never had a real job since.”
Dunham turned to books and recordings by ventriloquist legend Edgar Bergen to learn the skills he needed when first starting out. And he still turns to Bergen to this very day… “I still look to Edgar Bergen as the true example of the way you're supposed to succeed as a ventriloquist. He concentrated mainly on the humor of the joke and the routine rather than on the technique. He had been spoiled by being on the radio. He didn't care if anyone saw his lips move he just wanted to make sure everyone understood what the dummies, Charlie and Mortimere, were saying. But, even though technically he wasn't very good in later years, he was funnier than anybody. The jokes were great. And through the voices, he created, he could bring his puppets to life. That was what was most important, that's why people loved him… because he made them laugh.”
“That's what I try to concentrate on, as well.” confides Dunham. “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.” Which is probably the reason Dunham and his gang attracts such a diverse audience. You don't have to be a fan of ventriloquism to enjoy his performances.
The mainstay of Jeff Dunham's act today are three characters he created in the '80s… Peanut, Walter and Jose Jalapeno. Jose, the first to come to life back in '82, is a talking jalapeno pepper on a stick. Although Jose is only on stage for a small amount of time, compared to the other two, he is an integral player in Dunham's act and always is a hit with the audiences. Jose's portion of the act consists of stick jokes, along the lines of… “I was a disappointment to my parents, they were hoping for a fudgesicle.” Walter, who joined the act in '86, is a grumpy old curmudgeon that needles comedy club audiences, corporate executives and celebrities alike. No one is above his barrage of unrelenting sarcasm yet everyone seems to love him, even his victims. When Dunham visited the Tonight Show, for the first time back in 1990, Johnny Carson said, “Jeff, thanks for coming and I hope you can come back again soon.” To which Walter replied, “Yeah, well it will be a cold day in hell before you get ME back here.” Any other Carson guest would have probably sealed his fate with that statement and never set foot on that stage again, but Walter… Well, lets just say Johnny had Jeff Dunham back several more times before his run as host ended. Peanut, a furry purple creature who has been described as a muppet on heroin, was introduced into the act in '86. This wonderfully goofy, off-the-wall character is probably the most popular of the bunch charming audiences from coast to coast with his childlike wonder and streetwise naughtiness. “It's amazing how the 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.”
Jeff Dunham and the gang serve up some hearty laughs everywhere they appear. So, the next time you visit a comedy club why not treat yourself to something somewhat different… Jeff Dunham, and a bit of comedy on a stick.
Visit Dunham's web site at www.onastick.com for information on his book, ‘Dear Walter,’ a listing of his upcoming performance dates and other interesting information.
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