Jeff Dunham (er. right) has sold more than 4 million DVDs with help from such characters as his dead terrorist.

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Almost a year after the terrorist attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, ventriloquist Jeff Dunham nervously stepped in front of an audience and hoped for the best with his newest puppet - a smack-talking dead terrorist.

"I thought, 'If I'm going to do this (routine), I'm not going to chicken out and do it in Alaska or Hawaii,'" Dunham says during a phone interview to promote his Tuesday show in Knoxville.

"The place I did it was in a comedy club just outside of New York City. These people ate it up. They were ready to laugh."

Such calculated risks are how Dunham, a 47-year-old divorced father of three from Texas, has gone from unknown ventriloquist to a comedic force of nature. He's leaped from doing small galas and corporate gigs to arenas and sell-out shows.

Concert industry publication Pollstar named Dunham as the top-grossing stand-up act in North America in 2008. This year, he sold more than 4 million DVDs and received more than 350 million hits on YouTube, making him one of the most-viewed entertainers of all time.

"Jeff Dunham: A Very Special Christmas Special" was the most-watched telecast in Comedy Central history. Forbes.com reported he is one of the highest-earning comics from June 2008 to June 2009, earning around $30 million during that period.

And now, "The Jeff Dunham Show" is one of Comedy Central's most popular series ever.

"Over the years, I've been able to (entertain audiences with) whatever the people are talking about," Dunham says. "Be it a happy thing or a sad thing, I believe you can find humor in just about anything."

Dunham has gathered a following through his array of puppets such as Achmed the Dead Terrorist; Walter, a grumpy retiree; Sweet Daddy Dee, a pimp; Melvin, an overgrown kid in a superhero costume; and Jose Jalapeno, a jalapeno on a stick.

Not everyone is laughing. Dunham's characters are deemed by some as being racist caricatures. A TV commercial for a ringtone featuring Achmed the Dead Terrorist was banned by the South African Advertising Standards Authority because the character is allegedly offensive to Muslims. "He's not Muslim," Dunham says. "He never says he is Muslim, and he has no identifiable accent.

"My thinking is there is goodness in everyone, and there's got to be one (terrorist) out of all these guys who had to be sitting back and saying, 'We're supposed to be doing this (terrorism), but is this really a good idea?' He doesn't have his heart in it so, as a result, he's really bad at (terrorism)."

Dunham has been performing for more than 25 years. At age 8, he started fooling around with voices and ventriloquism. By the time he graduated college, he was ready for a full-time show-business career.

His career goal was to make it onto "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" within 10 years. He was able to do it. "It wasn't because I just wanted to be on 'The Tonight Show,'" he says. "It's that I knew a lot of things would have to happen in my career to get me to that point."

Now as one of the most popular comics on the road these days, Dunham has gone beyond the early goals he set for himself.

"We have a couple of generations living today that have never seen a ventriloquist in person," Dunham says. "Because of that, there's some novelty to what I do. But if it is funny and people enjoy it, then it's going to be popular. I don't care if it's something like a dog act.

"In fact, I'm waiting for the next big dog act to come along, and people will get back into that again. I think all I do is comedy, and I happen to be bringing it through ventriloquism. If I were technically a really good ventriloquist but I wasn't funny, too, then none of this would be happening."

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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