MalahatTwo7
10-27-2009, 10:50 AM
Ventriloquist brings huge web following to TV
By Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service October 27, 2009
You may not care for ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham's new comedy program. The Jeff Dunham Show, but you need to ask yourself: Can 120 million YouTube hits and a virtual legion of ventriloquism fans be wrong?
The show, which boasts two million DVD sales, makes its Canadian debut tonight on the Comedy Network
After a run of quirky dummy characters like José Jalapeño on a Stick, Bubba J, Peanut and Sweet Daddy Dee, Dunham appears to have struck comedy gold with his bug-eyed skeleton dummy, Achmed the Dead Terrorist. The politically incorrect Achmed, with his signature line "Silence! I kill you!" has drawn more than 97 million YouTube views in the two years since it first appeared on the site.
Comedy Central programming president Lauren Corrao told reporters this past summer that Dunham, who "was eight (when) he found his first dummy under the Christmas tree," is now "the third-highest earning comedian in the U.S., behind Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock." Dunham's most recent special, A Very Special Christmas, was Comedy Central's most-watched telecast, ever. "Bigger than South Park," Corrao said. "Bigger than The Daily Show. Bigger than anything that's aired on Comedy Central in 18 years."
"This is all I've ever done," Dunham admitted to reporters, this past summer. "I did my first show in the third grade. I started doing book shows and Cub Scout banquets and church shows, and by junior high I was actually doing Kiwanis Clubs. I got audited when I was 12-, 13-years-old."
And now he's on TV. In Canada, too.
Try not to go into anaphylactic shock or clench your face into an expression of passionless pain and grief. Some people -- a lot of people, evidently -- find this funny.
Don't worry. If you laugh, even once, we won't tell.
10 p.m., Comedy
Network
Three to see:
Just in time for Halloween, Keith Richards wins a lifetime achievement award -- he's named an official Rock Immortal -- at tonight's Scream 2009 Awards. The presenter is Johnny Depp, who reportedly based his Pirates of the Caribbean character, Jack Sparrow, on the hard-living rocker.
9 p.m., Spike
The two-hour special A Tribute to the King of Rock 'n Roll: Scotty Moore and Friends, recorded at Abbey Road, features longtime Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore performing some of the King's most fondly remembered standards, accompanied by such granddaddy rockers, as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler and Keith Richards' bandmate, Ronnie Wood.
6 p.m., Bravo!
A change-of-pace: PBS's Frontline documentary, Close to Home, examines the effects of the economic downturn on an upscale hair salon on New York's Upper East Side. A different take on a familiar story.
7 p.m., PBS-E; 9 p.m., PBS
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
By Alex Strachan, Canwest News Service October 27, 2009
You may not care for ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham's new comedy program. The Jeff Dunham Show, but you need to ask yourself: Can 120 million YouTube hits and a virtual legion of ventriloquism fans be wrong?
The show, which boasts two million DVD sales, makes its Canadian debut tonight on the Comedy Network
After a run of quirky dummy characters like José Jalapeño on a Stick, Bubba J, Peanut and Sweet Daddy Dee, Dunham appears to have struck comedy gold with his bug-eyed skeleton dummy, Achmed the Dead Terrorist. The politically incorrect Achmed, with his signature line "Silence! I kill you!" has drawn more than 97 million YouTube views in the two years since it first appeared on the site.
Comedy Central programming president Lauren Corrao told reporters this past summer that Dunham, who "was eight (when) he found his first dummy under the Christmas tree," is now "the third-highest earning comedian in the U.S., behind Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock." Dunham's most recent special, A Very Special Christmas, was Comedy Central's most-watched telecast, ever. "Bigger than South Park," Corrao said. "Bigger than The Daily Show. Bigger than anything that's aired on Comedy Central in 18 years."
"This is all I've ever done," Dunham admitted to reporters, this past summer. "I did my first show in the third grade. I started doing book shows and Cub Scout banquets and church shows, and by junior high I was actually doing Kiwanis Clubs. I got audited when I was 12-, 13-years-old."
And now he's on TV. In Canada, too.
Try not to go into anaphylactic shock or clench your face into an expression of passionless pain and grief. Some people -- a lot of people, evidently -- find this funny.
Don't worry. If you laugh, even once, we won't tell.
10 p.m., Comedy
Network
Three to see:
Just in time for Halloween, Keith Richards wins a lifetime achievement award -- he's named an official Rock Immortal -- at tonight's Scream 2009 Awards. The presenter is Johnny Depp, who reportedly based his Pirates of the Caribbean character, Jack Sparrow, on the hard-living rocker.
9 p.m., Spike
The two-hour special A Tribute to the King of Rock 'n Roll: Scotty Moore and Friends, recorded at Abbey Road, features longtime Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore performing some of the King's most fondly remembered standards, accompanied by such granddaddy rockers, as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler and Keith Richards' bandmate, Ronnie Wood.
6 p.m., Bravo!
A change-of-pace: PBS's Frontline documentary, Close to Home, examines the effects of the economic downturn on an upscale hair salon on New York's Upper East Side. A different take on a familiar story.
7 p.m., PBS-E; 9 p.m., PBS
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist