Very rarely does an entertainer take a stage and just knock out the audience. From the moment an entertainer walks out on stage they are thinking about one thing, a great performance. The setting for this show was The Venue inside Hammond’s Horseshoe Casino. The puppet master himself, the one and only, Jeff Dunham was the Saturday night entertainment and he was hysterical.
From the time Dunham stepped on stage, the audience didn’t stand a chance. He hit them with one powerful joke after another like it was a hit from a prize fighter. First a left – then a right. Some of the audience members had a hard time breathing with all the comical hits. The audience never stood a chance; it was an unfair match up as this comic’s jokes are just too strong.
Doing two sold out evening shows back to back with his family of ventriloquist dummies; Dunham was a five alarm fire that could not be put out. His laid back approach when he first came out made someone say “how is he going to do this?”, but a book should not be judged by its cover. With a mighty power Jeff hits you with comical stories. As he starts to tell the stories, witty one-liners spawn off the story giving you a few seconds in between the laughs and building you up to the big ones.
He changed from one dummy to another during the show and went into comical interludes with his cocky arm decorations as his mouth piece. Jeff works in a way that most ventriloquists do. He lets the dummy make most of the insulting or off color jokes except Dunham goes a little further. You won’t see him do any tricks like drink a glass of water while the dummy talks. He is far beyond trying a novelty prank.
Each of his dummies has a personality that is different than the others which makes you wonder if Dunham has multiple personalities himself. Certain ones are more respectable characters and others are not. Doesn’t seem to matter who he has with him, Walter, Peanut, or Achmed, or any of the others, the show is a guarantee to be a side splitting moment. His performance had the crowd hurting because they couldn’t take any more.
The 3,400 seat theater appeared to be completely sold out and the happy feeling coming from the stage was being felt within all the seats. No where amongst the crowd could you find a person not laughing. A few young ladies in the balcony sent happy feelings back to Jeff with a “We love you!” It was a good performance.
The time came and went quickly as Dunham was already saying goodbye leaving everyone wanting more. He finished up and the lights came on. Most of the lucky individuals who saw this show were still laughing when they were getting into their cars to make the journey home. It’s not a concert they will soon forget.
Dunham has reached tremendous success with his comedy over the past few years. His most recent success places him at the number three position for top grossing comedy acts in the two previous years and looks like 2011 will be no exception. This just proves that he is more than just a flash in the pan comic. He has put smiles on the faces of so many over his time in comedy and it’s fair to say he is an expert within his craft of stand up ventriloquism.
When Jeff Dunham started to perform at The Venue inside Hammond’s Horseshoe Casino, no one really knew what to expect. No one knew this rock solid entertainer was going to hit them so hard with his comical wielding. He was more than just hysterical. He was priceless.
