Jeff Dunham

At 62 years old, Jeff Dunham has this physical status:

Jeffrey Dunham (born April 18, 1962) is an American ventriloquist, stand-up comedian, and actor who has appeared on many television shows, including Late Show with David Letterman, Comedian Central Presents, The Tonight Show, and Sonny With a Chance.

Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos, Jeff Dunham: Minding the Monsters, and Jeff Dunham: All Over the Map.

Dunham also appeared in The Jeff Dunham Show, a network show on television in 2009.His style has been described as "a more digestible version of Don Rickles with multiple personality disorders."

Time described his characters as "politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting, and ill tempered." Dunham has been credited with sparking resentment and doing more to promote the art form than ever since Edgar Bergen. Slate has listed Dunham as "America's favorite comedian."

He is the top-grossing stand-up act in North America and one of Europe's most popular shows as well, according to the concert industry publication Pollstar.

As of November 2009, he had sold over four million DVDs, an additional $7 million in merchandise sales, and received more than 350 million hits on YouTube; his introduction of Achmed the Dead Terrorist in Spark of Insanity was the ninth most watched YouTube video at the time.

The Very Special Christmas Special was the most watched telecast in Comedy Central history, with the DVD selling over 400,000 copies in the first two weeks.

Dunham was ranked as the third highest-paid comedian in the United States behind Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, who said that he was one of the highest-earning comedians in the country from June 2008 to June 2009, grossing nearly $30 million during that period.

Dunham also does occasional acting roles.

For his Spark of Insanity tour, he set a new Guinness Book of World Records record for "most tickets sold for a stand-up comedy tour," he sold in 386 theaters around the world.

Early life

Dunham was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 18, 1962. He was adopted by real estate appraiser Howard Dunham and his homemaker Joyce, who raised him in a wealthy Dallas suburb as an only child when he was three months old.

At the age of eight, he began ventriloquism, and his parents gave him a Mortimer Snerd dummy for Christmas and a accompanying how-to book. He checked out a how-to book on ventriloquism from the library and said he still had it in 2011, remarking that he was "a thief in the third grade." Dunham decided not only wanted to be a good ventriloquist but also the best one ever by the fourth grade. Dunham began practicing for hours in front of a mirror, investigating Edgar Bergen's habits, and learning how to record Jimmy Nelson's Instant Ventriloquism, a learned skill that anyone with a normal speaking voice can learn. Dunham has revealed that as an only child, he loved being alone, likening his solitude to a "warm blanket" with which he could explore his own thoughts and ideas, which prepared him for the loneliness of living alone.

When Dunham was in the sixth grade, he began attending the Vent Haven Convention in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, an annual international meeting of ventriloquists that includes athletics, where he met Jimmy Nelson in person. Since 1977, Dunham has attended just one Convocation since then. Dunham was eventually named a "retired champion" by the Convention's organizers, who were unable to participate in any more competitions because some attendees were too afraid to challenge him. Dunham's legend, Se or Wences and Dunham's, Edgar Bergen, is devoted to a section at the Vent Haven Museum in collaboration with Sesor Wences and Dunham's.

Personal life

At the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, Florida, Dunham met his first wife, Paige Brown, for the first time. They began dating in 1992. Dunham married Brown in May 1994 and adopted Bree, her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Both Ashlyn and Kenna were born in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Dunham's time away from work put a strain on the marriage, and he filed for divorce in November 2008. Dunham was in a relationship with Audrey Murdick, a licensed nutritionist, personal trainer, and a competitor bodybuilder, and engaged on December 25, 2011. The couple married on October 12, 2012. Dunham revealed on Facebook on May 14, 2015, that he and Audrey were expecting twin boys. She gave birth to James Jeffrey and Jack Steven in October.

Dunham also restores antique dummies used in his act, such as The Umpire, a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) dummy that was built in 1941 to serve the plate at a girls' softball game that went unreserved and packed away for 50 years before Dunham acquired it in early 2008.

Since childhood, Dunham has adored helicopters and is fond of building and flying his own kit helicopters built from Rotorway helicopter kits. He began building his fourth kit when he finished writing his autobiography in June 2010. He is also a muscle car and Apple Inc. products aficionado. According to the CBS television show The Batmobile, Dunham owns the original Batmobile from Tim Burton's Tim Burton film Batman, which he had outfitted with a Corvette engine to make it street legal.

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Career

Dunham performed for audiences as a child, in various settings such as school, church, and at Six Flags. He began performing for banquets attended by local celebrities, including Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, having developed his own style of lampooning those he performed for, and puppets were used to say that the puppets were too dangerous for him to say without them. When the still prepubescent performer caught the attention of Dallas reporters like Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Dunham for a local news story, it was his first television appearance. While still in high school, Dunham did commercials for Datsun dealerships in Dallas and Tyler. He met with a jerk and won over the majority of the audience when emceeing a high school talent show. He became so involved with his art that he and one of his dummies "cowrote" a column in the school newspaper, and he'd pose with his dummies for yearbooks as an inexpensive way to get professional pictures of his act for promotional use. He was chosen Most Likely to Succeed in 1980, and Dunham set out a career ambition of obtaining, within ten years, a role on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which was considered the "holy grail" for comedians.

Dunham began attending Baylor University in the hopes of obtaining a degree in communications, while still active on campus. He will also fly around the country on weekends, performing up to 100 private shows a year, including GM's CEO, Jack Welch, who mocked during his routine. Dunham's career by his junior year (1983-1984), and as word of his appearance spread, he landed featured slots opening for Bob Hope and George Burns, but he maintained his act as raw, not having any idea of stand-up comedy beyond his Bill Cosby albums.

He took a break in 1985 when he was invited to join the Broadway show Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, replacing an outgoing variety act. Broadway was a new world for beautiful showgirls and crusty stagehands, as well as his first glimpse of entertainment industry egos when Rooney called Dunham into his dressing room and told him he was there for one reason alone: so that Rooney could change his costumes. On Long Island, he appeared at the Westbury Music Fair. His early experiences, in which he portrayed José Jalapeo on a Stick, taught him the importance of modifying his appearance nationally, especially since the jalapeo jokes in Texas were not as well received by Long Island audiences. He continued honing his act in comedy clubs in the Southwest with new characters such as Peanut and José Jalape, but he denied that he was not a genuine comedian because he relied on props.

His attendance at Catch a Rising Star in New York City was a bitter reminder of where ventriloquists stood in the comedic food chain, as the emcee at that club treated Dunham with little reverence. The emcee reacted with astonishment as he told Dunham that he would be given a late time slot, but Dunham kept postponing Dunham's stage time until Dunham left the club.

Dunham believed his career had gone as far as it could go in Texas, and he moved to Los Angeles, California, never having to worry about "a real job" as he has said. His parents, who hoped that his act would be relegated to local theatres such as church groups, were concerned. The comedy in his act bombed when he first arrived in Los Angeles. Dunham attributes his initial reaction to his underdeveloped comedy, noting that although the characters' personalities were established at that time, his comedies were not. In addition to this, the comedy world was not warm to ventriloquists and his boss, Judi Brown-Marmel, did not use the term "ventriloquist" when looking for tickets for him, preferring to present him as a comedy pair. Dunham gained a steady slot at the club, where Dunham improved his performance by attending comedians like Jerry Seinfeld's techniques and learning from colleagues Bill Engvall's tips, moving away from his G-rated content to more adult themes.

Dunham was told by James McCawley, a talent booker for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, that the program would feature the talent booker. Despite being ecstatic that his 10-year goal had arrived two years early, Dunham and Roseanne Barr cancelled Dunham's appearance after attending a public performance of Dunham the day before Dunham's scheduled Tonight Show taping. McCawley told Dunham on the day of the planned taping that he had been wrong in his initial assessment of Dunham, who later said he was not up for The Tonight Show. Dunham continued to tighten his act in Los Angeles clubs by appearing in the same six-minute segment with Peanut the entire time over the next few months. McCawley told Dunham that he would finally attend the Tonight Show in Pasadena in April 1990, after Dunham did the same segment. On April 6, 1990, Dunham and Peanut appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, as well as guests Bob Hope and B.B. King is the king of the United Kingdom. Following his appearance on Johnny Carson's couch, he was invited to sit on Johnny Carson's couch, a mark of agreement on Carson's performance. Dunham pulled out Walter, who told Carson sidekick Ed McMahon, "Stop sending me all the damn mail." Dunham's initial reaction to Walter's use of the letters "hell" and "damn" was dissatisfied, and he'd remain in obscurity for another twelve years, appearing in small roles on television, as he did. One of these episodes was a 1996 episode of Ellen, in which he appeared with Walter. In a Hertz television commercial, Dunham appeared with Walter Walter. Dunham will appear on The Tonight Show a total of four times, as well as similar television venues such as Hot Country Nights, in one segment with Reba McEntire. This performance made Dunham a big theater headliner, a rare occurrence for a ventriloquist. However, his television appearances had diminished by the mid-1990s, and with them, his stage audiences had dwindled, as did his stage audiences.

Dunham has returned to clubs for the first time in more than 200 appearances in a year. To keep a fan base, he'll use question cards from his audiences to create a database, which would be tailored-made for the burgeoning World Wide Web. Although he was named Funniest Male Standup at the American Comedy Awards in 1998, his club work kept him away from his wife and daughters between two and three weeks per month, putting a strain on his marriage and increasing family budgets. Dunham's aim was to get more TV time to help him boost his name and reduce his standup routine by 2002. Such exposure was elusive until Dunham and Walter's appearance on The Best Damn Sports Show Period, where Dunham and Walter made raucous of co-host Tom Arnold, Michael Irvin, John Salley, and John Kruk, generating sarcastic laughter from them and giving Dunham and Walter ample exposure. Dunham was the front runner to replace Jimmy Kimmel on Fox NFL Sunday in 2003, but hosts Howie Long and Terry Bradshaw were not keen on the prospect of being upstaged by a puppet, and did not allow him to talk much during his appearance.

Dunham made his first solo appearance on Comedy Central Presents on July 18, 2003. José Jalapeo on a Stick, Walter, an early version of Melvin the Superhero Guy and Peanut, which Dunham had begun to market into a line of dolls, was on display during his half hour segment. The performance was fruitful, but Comedy Central refused to give Dunham more airtime, fearing that he was not a good match for them. After 2005, Dunham decided to gamble on his own comedy DVD, Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself, which was taped in Santa Ana, California. Judi Brown-Marmel, Dunham's boss, lobbied for the network to air it, blaming Dunham's rising popularity and merchandising gains and arguing that the network needed more diverse programming. The network began to reconsider its brand after being shocked by the high success of the first Blue Collar Comics concert film the same year. Comedy Central aired Arguing with Myself, attracting two million viewers as it premiered and selling two million DVDs in late 2006.

In the Larry the Cable Guy's 2007 film Delta Farce, Dunham appeared as The Amazing Ken with José Jalape. Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, his second special, was taped at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., the same year. It helped cement Dunham's fame but also introduced his most popular character, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, which became a viral internet sensation. On YouTube, a video of Achmed from Insanity received more than 140 million views, making it the ninth most watched video on the website as of October 2009.

Dunham's characters had crossed language barriers by 2008, with his specials dubbed for audiences in several countries, including France, and Dunham's Middle East, where it has attracted interest in South Africa, Australia, Norway, Denmark, China, and the Middle East. Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special was taped at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the same year, and premiered on Comedy Central on November 16, 2008, viewed by 6.6 million viewers. On November 18, 2008, it was available on DVD and Blu-ray. The special's premiere was the highest-rated telecast in Comedy Central's history.

His career hit new heights in September 2008 as he began to perform in arenas packed with tens of thousands of people. Dunham was initially suspicious of large venues, but he was able to adapt by altering the timing of his often tumultuous conversations with the puppets so that audience members farthest from the stage could have time to respond.

Dunham's first music collection, Don't Come Home for Christmas, was released on November 4, 2008. It contains original Christmas songs as well as a parody of Achmed's "Jingle Bells," as well as a parody of "Jingle Bells" entitled "Jingle Bombs." All the songs, with the exception of "Jingle Bombs," were written and performed by Brian Haner, who appeared on Dunham's "Guitar Guy" in the film. In Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, he made his first on-screen appearance.

Dunham also signed a multi-platform contract with Comedy Central in March 2009. It featured a fourth stand-up special on television, a consumer products partnership, a 60-city tour, and an order for a television series named The Jeff Dunham Show that premiered on October 22, 2009. Despite having the most watched premiere in Comedy Central history and with higher average ratings than other shows on the network, the show was cancelled after only one season, despite poor reviews, dwindling ratings, and higher production costs than other Comedy Central shows.

Dunham appeared on NBC's sitcom 30 Rock as Bubba J, playing a ventriloquist named Rick Wayne and his dummy Pumpkin from Stone Mountain, Georgia. In November 2009, Dunham appeared alongside Walter in "Hart to Hart," an episode of Disney Channel series Sonny With a Chance, as two security guards. He appeared in Dinner for Schmucks, a 2010 Steve Carell/Paul Rudd comedy, as Lewis, as Lewis, with a new puppet named Diane.

Jeff Dunham: The Uncontrolled Chaos, his fourth special, premiered on Comedy Central on September 25, 2011. Minding the Monsters, his fifth special, which was taped in Savannah, premiered on Comedy Central on October 7, 2012. All Over the Map, his sixth special, which was taped in various international cities, premiered on Comedy Central on November 16, 2014.

Achmed Saves America, an animated film starring Achmed the Dead Terrorist, premiered on March 28, 2014.

Unhinged in Hollywood, Dunham's seventh special, premiered on September 17, 2015. The special rather than premiering on Comedy Central, the special was televised on NBC.

Dunham performed in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Pi-Rat," with the actor portrayed as a rat in pirate clothes wearing a smaller "Pi-Rat" inside, where the costume is a puppet for Dunham that will also function. On "Vegas Night" with Montell Jordan as "Panther," he was elimninated.

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