Ventriloquist Dunham no dummy when it comes to characters
For a guy who has spent 40 years surrounded by total dummies who say the most ridiculous things, Jeff Dunham sounds like a pretty thoughtful and reasoned guy.
Take Achmed the Dead Terrorist — please, some might say. And Dunham has given the most outre of his puppet characters quite a bit of thought. Keep him in the act, or yank Achmed?
“That's always a tough call, especially with San Bernadino — how to you address that? I've got a dead terrorist in my act,” ventriloquist Dunham ponders.
Dunham will perform at 3 p.m. Dec. 31 at the Consol Energy Center, Uptown.
“Achmed was my response to Osama bin Laden, back when they were looking for him, and couldn't find the guy. I knew where he was — he was hiding in my suitcase.”
His Osama dummy later morphed into the current Achmed the Dead Terrorist. After soul-searching in the wake of the San Bernardino terror-linked murders, Dunham decided to keep ATDT in his act.
“It's different now — it's on our soil, and it's scary now,” Dunham says. “I address that with the audience. There's nothing really funny about (terrorism) — what's OK is to make fun of some of the idiots doing that stuff.
“Achmed is a bumbling, failed terrorist who fell in love with the country he was supposed to destroy.”
Laugh at him or be repulsed by him, Achmed the Dead Terrorist is a sign that Dunham is not one to play it safe.
Capping a year in which — according to Forbes Magazine — he will gross around $20 million, Dunham plays a New Year's Eve show at Consol Energy Center, Uptown. In addition to consistently being one of the top touring comics, Dunham has sold more than 7 million DVDs. He is nearing a billion YouTube views, with “Achmed the Dead Terrorist Has a Son” alone getting 28 million watches.
The bungling Achmed is far from his only character, as Dunham's co-stars include Walter the Grumpy Retiree, the beer-fueled redneck Bubba J, manic purple creature Peanut, Jose Jalapeno and “Little Jeff.”
Which one of his co-stars is most upset about having to be in Pittsburgh on New Year's? “Walter,” Dunham answers. “He doesn't want to be anywhere.”
It's pretty easy to track audience favorites: “I go by merch sales … Peanut and Achmed are by far the two most popular.”
Dunham started his career 45 Decembers ago, when he was 8 years old and his parents bought him a Mortimer Snerd dummy for Christmas. Dunham was hooked, studying Edgar Bergen and other voice throwers while practicing every day.
The Texas native became a pro while still in college, and has been touring hundreds of shows a year for decades. He and his wife have twin infants. “I took two months off for the babies' (birth) — that was the most time I've ever taken off since moving to Los Angeles in 1998.”
A string of TV specials has fueled his popularity, and Dunham and company have toured the world over the past decade.
The sanguine comic even does his most controversial character when he plays the Middle East.
“I had a show in Abu Dhabi ... they loved Achmed. Two weeks later, I was in Tel Aviv doing the same Achmed jokes, and they laughed the same.
“I've somehow managed to make a dead terrorist a sympathetic character, I think because I put humanity in him. I've got to think there's a handful of guys, or at least one or two that really don't think killing is the answer.”
Tom Scanlon is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
