Boys and dolls don't typically mix. But that wasn't the case for ventriloquist and comedian Jeff Dunham, who breathed life into a few puppets when he was a child.
Unlike most children, Dunham discovered his career path early on in life. He was 8 years old when he came to the conclusion that he wanted to be a ventriloquist.
"I was walking through a toy store and I saw a ventriloquist dummy, and somewhere in the back of my head I remember seeing Edgar Bergren or someone like that on television," he explained during a call from home. "For some reason, an inanimate object coming to life in your own hands just fascinated me. To be able to throw your voice and fool your friends."
Miraculously, Dunham escaped his childhood and teen-age years unscathed.
"After years of being married, my wife finally asked me, 'were you like a geek in high school,'" he said laughing. "Four days ago, my kids pulled out my high school annual…I'm in like ten pages in the annual, and eight out of ten pictures was me with a dummy…I look back on it and even now I look at the pictures and go, 'what the heck was I thinking?'
"I think I must have grown up in a nice part of the country where cynicism hadn't developed quite yet. All my friends were really supportive and I always got big rounds of applause. The teachers — if I never read the book and I did the report with the dummy — I always got an A+. Everyone was always very encouraging, and I guess I'm just one of those lucky people who found something in my childhood that I fell in love with and had great fun with and made a lot of people laugh."
When attending one of Dunham's performances, you'll soon be introduced to a few key characters — the old curmudgeon Walter, the spicy Jose Jalapeno and a purple creature known as Peanut — that make up his act. Though all his characters hold a special place near and dear to his heart, the ventriloquist admitted that he doesn't play favorites.
"I'm pretty much a chameleon when it comes to what I enjoy," he said. "If the audience is laughing harder at one character, then that's who I'm in love with that night."
Since he lets his puppets do most of the talking, Dunham is able to get away with almost anything.
"The greatest part of what I do is that I never get in trouble because it's not me," he said. "There's some unspoken law that says when an inanimate object says outlandish, outrageous, put-downish things that that equals comedy. If the same words and same jokes were coming out of me, I probably would have been shot or drugged or killed right now. It's almost like therapy to me because Peanut and Walter can say almost anything."
But that's not to say that he can please everyone. Dunham admitted that his act has raised some eyebrows and offended a few people. However, he said that if people do get mad then they wind up looking silly.
"What better headline could there be than 'irate patron punches puppet,'" he asked.
Aside from his act, Dunham is staying busy with some puppet-related projects. He plans to release a "Dear Walter" book and a 30-minute video which he describes as "a Reader's Digest version of my act."
You can catch the comedian and ventriloquist live this weekend during a few Improv performances.
"My two favorite cities to play are Boston and Phoenix," Dunham said. "Maybe the people from Apache Junction love Jose Jalapeno…I don't know what it is."
Reach Kelly Wilson at musicdiva@asu.edu.
