Jeff Dunham Goes on Tour

America’s favorite puppets are no longer the lovable Muppets first introduced by Sesame Street and gang.  They are the imaginative creations of ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham, with a roster of personality traits difficult to forget.  Marionettes have always seemed to be able to get away with saying things a straight, standup comedian would never dare to try.  After all, it wasn’t the ventriloquist committing the outrages – it was the puppets.

Dunham makes liberal use of this dissociation with his grouchy retiree, Walter, who jeers at the audience while making jokes about women, marriage and social affairs, beer guzzling, incurably redneck Bubba. Peanut, who appears to be more on crack than on call and who mercilessly abuses Jose, a very sad and resigned jalapeno with no arms or legs to defend himself against Peanut’s assaults.  Then there is the dead terrorist, Achmed, who’s famous words, “I’ll keel you”, continues to keep audiences in stitches.

They almost outdid themselves for their Halloween debut, when they each came in the costume of their scariest character.  Walter appears as a Crankenstein, Bubba a one-toothed vampire, and Achmed as a blonde American woman!  While Jeff isn’t very convinced Achmed’s costume is scary, Achmed delivers enough counterpoints to convince viewers his blonde masquerade is the scariest character of all.

Fifty-year-old Dunham has become quite candid about those middle-aged years, but he seems to have little choice as Peanut and Jose hound him, observing Jeff often says, “what”, and talking about the symptoms of aging as though Dunham wasn’t even there.  He may be middle aged, but this hasn’t stopped him from going on tour, winning the hearts of millions and selling out in arenas worldwide.  The phenomenally successful entertainer has been rated the top performer in Comedy Central entertainment, his DVD sales have reached seven million units and his videos have received half a billion views on You Tube.  His newest concert begins November 1st, at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, and continues making the rounds of these northern climates until December 13th, when he opens in the sunny district of Caesar’s Palace Colosseum in Las Vegas.

So, what is his Disorderly Conduct tour all about?  You’ll just have to wait until he comes to a concert hall near you, but you can bet it will be full of fresh new material, to outrage, scandalize and shake the rafters with just plain fun.

Categorized in: Comedy