There comes a time in every silly guy's life when opportunity knocks and he finds a way to dive into the not-so-politically-correct arena, spewing sarcasm and sass through the mouth of a dummy.
For two decades, ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has amassed a following for one simple reason: He uses a trunk full of wooden dummies to perform a side-splitting, gut-busting, hilarious comedy show.
Dunham's Spark of Insanity comedy tour makes a stop in the Tri-Cities on Nov. 14 at Toyota Center in Kennewick.
Dunham has been using dummies to entertain since he was 8 years old. He started by using a dummy to do book reports for school, then it was Cub Scout shows and on to church and civic organization events. All before he got to high school, Dunham told the Herald this week via e-mail.
"The inspiration for Walter came from two folks," Dunham said. "One was a close friend's father who was exactly like Walter, and was even NAMED Walter."
The other source of inspiration came from Bette Davis when she was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson for the last time in the mid-1980s.
"Here was a woman who had been everywhere and done everything and had opinions on it all," Dunham said. "She spoke her mind and didn't give a rip what anyone thought about her. It was incredibly refreshing and she had Johnny spinning in his chair with laughter. I thought, 'a guy with a mind like that in my act would be great comedy.' "
Dunham has no doubts that most people know someone exactly like Walter.
"It's refreshing when someone doesn't give a damn about being politically correct," he said.
Dunham's show might be irreverent, but there's no question it'll still be a belly-busting good time.