Jeff Dunham: Talking Heads

Context & Trivia

Dunham's relationship with ventriloquism started at Christmas 1970, when he received a Mortimer Snerd dummy at the age of eight. He taught himself the craft from library books and hours of mirror practice, with no formal puppetry training. Over time he built a cast of characters that have become fixtures of mainstream comedy: Walter the grumpy old man, the hyperactive purple creature Peanut, beer-loving redneck Bubba J, incompetent suicide-bomber skeleton Achmed the Dead Terrorist, and José Jalapeño on a Stick — a talking jalapeño in a sombrero that holds the distinction of being the first puppet Dunham constructed entirely on his own.

What sets Dunham apart in the modern history of puppet performance is his insistence on making as well as performing. His figures begin as clay sculpts, move through mould-making and are finished with the installation of the internal mechanics that drive mouth and eye movement. For later characters he brought in professional effects houses for the moulding stages, but design and mechanics stayed in his hands. That commitment to the full construction process is a defining element of his artistic identity.