The VOICE(S) OF THE PEOPLE
Jeff Dunham is a giant in the humble field of ventriloquism, but there’s always room for reinvention as his big Toronto show draws near
His chosen art form’s cultural heyday was probably in the vaudeville era, a century ago. There is no CGI necessary and the audience doesn’t need VR goggles to appreciate it. But make no mistake: Jeff Dunham strives to keep his act up-to-the-minute.
The giant star of ventriloquism — he’s probably the only active practitioner many people can name — says he’s got a couple of brand new dummies to unveil for his Toronto show at the Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 9.
“This guy I tried to come up with (came from), ‘What would be the worst possible job they have in the White House right now’ … He works in the shadows, but he is Donald Trump’s personal adviser, even helps with his tweets; his name is Larry and he’s a bit stressed out,” the comedian says dryly, chatting on the phone with the Star.
“The other one (is) only about five shows old … the United States is completely divided, at least politically, and this guy is divided as well, both literally and politically. He is a conjoined twin, one is left and one is right. One is named Richard and one is named Happy so it’s Rich and Happy.”
They take their place in the act beside familiar, decade-old staples most recently seen in 2017’s Netflix special, Relative Disaster, where the crowd roars at the mere introduction of grumpy old man Walter (“You’re adopted, right? … Or is that just something your parents said to make themselves feel better?”) and aggrieved skeleton Achmed the Dead Terrorist, who laments his problems with his dog (“He’s always trying to play fetch with me — no, not with me, with me”).
The jokes are not bleedingedge — Relative Disaster sees several adult-diaper jibes directed at Dunham, who’s 56, for having young children — and might seem less than contemporary to some jaded Torontonians (in the same special Walter scores with some jokes about being beaten as child).
An arena date with 14,000 or so fans can’t be dismissed, however, and the ventriloquist has been playing the big barns for a decade.
In fact, the Guinness people say his 2014 tour sold the most tickets of any standup act ever: almost two million.
All of this success came even though these massive venues aren’t built with small-scale, intimate performance in mind, like joke-telling and Dunham’s ventriloquism (simply adopting a new voice and making it seem to emerge from a dummy two feet to his right). Dunham, however, says that problem has been overstated.
“If you’re on a bumpy road you drive in a certain way. If you’re on a giant freeway you drive in a certain way, but it’s not like you have to train yourself,” he says, noting that technical advances and his team’s careful attention to audio prevent any lulls. “My crew has been with me for 10 years now and we care — we have two 18-wheelers and we carry our own lights and sound and the video wall and so everybody knows everybody and, yes, the key to that is to have a good sound system where, when the laugh is starting to go down, the applause is starting to go down, you can step on it.
“I will say, however, that a couple of times, I’ve gone back to the (comedy) club to do whatever or a smaller venue or a smaller theatre for whatever reason, it is almost delightful because it’s like (when) you run with ankle weights … you take the ankle weights off and you go, ‘Oh, this is much easier.’ ”
Dunham’s obvious mass appeal, cultivated over three decades in show business, is achieved through his art form but also despite it.
As he observes, ventriloquism has “never been the most loved form of entertainment.”
“Even in the days of vaudeville, we were the guys that were shoved out onstage (to fill time) between the real acts.”
The Dallas native sees an uptick after young Darci Lynne Farmer won America’s Got Talent in 2017 (Season 2 winner Terry Fator still headlines his own ventriloquism show at the Mirage in Las Vegas), but Dunham says he also sees up-andcomers who have worked hard on throwing their voices and not hard enough on the comedy.
“I’m a standup comedian that happens to use ventriloquism as the vehicle for the comedy … I give the same advice to a ventriloquist that I would in a standup comedian and that is, get up in front of as many audiences as possible.
“Learn to entertain a handful of old people. Learn to entertain a bunch of drunk people in the comedy club. Learn to entertain a Cub Scout banquet group.
“If you can do all of that, then you’re going to learn to read audiences and know how to entertain just about anybody … that’s infinitely more difficult than learning the skills of ventriloquism.”
“I’m a standup comedian that happens to use ventriloquism as the vehicle for the comedy.” JEFF DUNHAM VENTRILOQUIST