I had a happy, dramafree youth, growing up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. The only thing that was slightly unusual compared to most of my friends was that I was an only child… I don’t think that’s why my parents gave me a dummy, at least they’ve never copped to it. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
The only way a ventriloquist speaks differently is that he forgoes using his or her lips, and learns to reproduce sounds using the tongue, upper palate, and teeth only. Those ‘difficult’ letters are B, F, M, P, V, W, and Y. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
A lot of my best stuff is just ad libs on stage, and that’s one thing that I’ve gotten back to at the live show. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
My goal in any show is to make people laugh. That’s the No. 1 thing. Everything else pales in comparison to that. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
There are not that many ventriloquists out there who build their own characters. I love that because they are uniquely mine. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
I’m guilty of being fascinated by gadgets and toys and technology, but any penny that I spend, I try to make it be a part of what I do for a living. Because then you are forwarding. You are forwarding that art, forwarding that career ahead. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
I think maybe one reason why ventriloquists are looked down on is because it’s very difficult to be funny. I think what happens is that people get a dummy, they learn the technique of ventriloquism, they memorize the script, they think they’re in show business. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
I think there’s a lot of, unfortunately, unfunny ventriloquists out there, so they’ve got a bad rap. It came after Edgar Bergen because everybody had a little cheeky boy dummy like Charlie McCarthy, and everybody decided to become a ventriloquist because Bergen had popularized it. He brought it back from the doldrums of vaudeville. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
I’m a pretty good ventriloquist, but it’s the entertainment value and the laughs that keep people sitting there and wanting more. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
I’m not trying to teach anybody anything, I’m not trying to say anything, I have no political motive whatsoever. My motive is just the big laugh. Jeff Dunham Read Quote
