Jeff Dunham tour 2025: The place to purchase tickets, schedule, dates

Don’t count on an excessive amount of materials about New Yr’s resolutions on the present both. “When it comes to diets and those kind of thing, I don’t wait until the first of the year. If I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it right now,” Dunham famous.

Jeff Dunham tour 2025

After the Newark NYE cease, Dunham has 52 dates lined up on his ‘Artificial Intelligence Tour.’ To see if he’s headed to a venue close to you, you could find his full calendar right here:

Jeff Dunham characters

Per normal, Dunham’s steady of characters that followers have grown to know and love over time will accompany him onstage.

Only a few of these iconic dummies embody curmudgeonly Walter and hyperactive Peanut, in addition to these primarily based on stereotypes like Jose Jalapeno, Bubba J and Achmed the Lifeless Terrorist be a part of him onstage in any respect exhibits.

Whereas the core characters have been with him for many years, Dunham continues to be innovating.

“Among the finest bits that we didn’t use within the particular was once I was making Peanut speak and, each every so often, I’ll flub up fully and Peanut goes, ‘what the hell was that? Are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘I’m fantastic.’

He goes ‘it sounds like I didn’t have a tongue’ and he goes, ‘that’s what you want: a dummy with no tongue.’ Then it simply went downhill from there in a beautiful manner.”

Nowadays, after years on the highway with these iconic puppets, Dunham most identifies with Peanut and Walter.

“One of my goals in life is to not become like Walter,” Dunham smiled. “When I started out, I was young man in college. He was a 64-year-old old man but Walter hasn’t aged a day since that. Now, I’m 62. Pretty soon I’m going to catch up to him.”

To remain forward of the bit, Dunham makes certain to deal with this uncommon scenario he’s gotten himself into.

“The joke in the show is Walter goes, ‘what’s going to happen when you die?’ I go, ‘I don’t know.’ He says, ‘I’ll probably be in the balcony on The effin’ Muppet Show.’”

“Then, I’m like Peanut because I like to think I still have a little bit of a kid left in me.”

For a complete take a look at all of Dunham’s characters, we advocate having a look at his web site.

Jeff Dunham comedy specials

Dunham is without doubt one of the most prolific comics working at this time.

Previous to the upcoming tour, he’s launched a staggering 13 specials courting again to 2006. As he informed us, “I usually write a little bit every single day. And that’s how we’ve ended up with 13 specials since 2006.”

For a better look, right here’s how one can stream every of them.

“Arguing With Myself” (2006) could be streamed on Netflix

“Spark of Insanity” (2007) could be streamed on Amazon Prime

“Very Special Christmas Special” (2008) could be streamed on Netflix

“Controlled Chaos” (2011) could be streamed on Netflix

“Minding the Monsters” (2012) could be streamed on Netflix

“All Over The Map” (2014) could be streamed on Netflix

“Unhinged In Hollywood” (2015) could be streamed on Netflix

“Relative Disaster” (2017) could be streamed on Netflix

“Beside Himself” (2019) could be streamed on Netflix

“Completely Unrehearsed Last-Minute Pandemic Holiday Special” (2020) could be streamed on Paramount+

“Me The People” (2022) could be streamed on Comedy Central

“I’m With Cupid” (2024) could be streamed on Paramount Plus

“Scrooged Up Holiday Special” (2024) could be streamed on Amazon Prime

Jeff Dunham origin story

Dunham isn’t the primary comedian to get onstage with a dummy.

“When you go way back in history with this art form, you go back to vaudeville days and the ventriloquists were shoved onstage when the curtain came down so they could set up the stage for the next ‘real’ act,” Dunham mentioned.

“It wasn’t until Edgar Bergen came along with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd — who were two really defined characters and the jokes were so well-written — that’s ventriloquism went over on radio.”

Bergen’s success knowledgeable Dunham’s trajectory.

“I didn’t want to just be a variety act at the Comedy Magic Club. The goal was to be the headliner and be as funny as anybody else.”

So, he began when he was simply eight-years-old. The Dallas native carried out Cub Scout banquets in addition to church and expertise exhibits. He went that route for a decade earlier than stepping foot in a comedy membership in 1978.

“I did the opposite of most comedians because most comedians say ‘okay, I want to get into comedy.’ They’re doing comedy clubs and work their way up. By the time I got there, I was a performer and I knew how to get in front of an audience and was well-versed in how to do a show.”

After a decade toiling away within the golf equipment — and constructing helicopters on the aspect — Dunham was lastly requested to do a five-minute set on Carson in 1990.

I auditioned for Jim McAuley at ‘The Tonight Show’ 9 instances earlier than I received the decision. I received eight ‘no’s’ and he simply retains saying, stored saying to me, ‘you’re simply not humorous sufficient but.’”

“”I noticed if I used to be going to comply with these big names and even a few of the center guys that had been hilarious, I’ve to be taught to be humorous. It may well’t be simply amusing. So I made a decision as a substitute of being a ventriloquist who does jokes, I’m going to must be a comic who does ventriloquism.”

Going again a 12 months or two, Dunham received daring and would ask comedy membership bookers “when can I start headlining?”

The one reply that caught out to him was when the lady who was in command of selecting acts on the Tempe Improv informed him “you can headline when the headliners can no longer follow you.”

Dunham mentioned “okay!’ and began to blow the roof off the place.

“Before you knew it, the headliners started complaining that they didn’t want me to be the opening act anymore.”

Anyhow, on April 6, 1990, sufficient of the comedy business had taken discover of Dunham that he was lastly able to make the soar to “The Tonight Show.”

His five-minute set went over so effectively, Carson waved him over to talk with him and do a couple of minutes of panel. For a first-timer on the present, this was a very spectacular feat that’s usually reserved for seasoned veterans.

“I had no idea I was going to the couch but then (director) Freddy de Cordova said to me ‘don’t you have another character besides Peanut?’”

Dunham informed him Walter was additionally in his arsenal and de Cordova advised placing him behind the sofa. The 28-year-old was skeptical however did as he was informed. After he wrapped his set to emphatic applause, it turned out de Cordova’s instincts had been proper in spite of everything. Nonetheless, Dunham was shocked.

“You can see the blank look on my face when I’m thanking the audience after my bit and the floor director waves me to the couch. I was like ‘me? You want me to go over there to talk to him?’ What are you going to say to freakin’ Johnny Carson? ‘How are your kids?’ How do you make small talk with the King?”

Dunham sat down and chatted politely for a couple of minutes. Then Carson requested, “do you have somebody with you?” At that second, Dunham breathed a sigh of reduction.

“I thought, ‘oh, finally, Walter can save me’ and everything was ad-libbed” which led to a wonderful change the place the dummy made enjoyable of “The Tonight Show” — “well, lah, dee, da,” he grumbled — after which leaned over to take take a look at Johnny’s sidekick, Ed McMahon.

“I know that guy,” he muttered. “Stop sending me all your damn mail.” Johnny laughed and all was proper on this planet.

“I look back at that now, and think, man, at 28, those were some cojones to say to that guy because what if it didn’t work? You laugh when the king laughs. The studio audience would have sat there and silence if Johnny didn’t laugh.”

When all was mentioned and finished, Dunham met his agent who was standing backstage. He informed him “your life will never be the same.”

Facet word: Dunham is not proud of this set. “I watch that act now and cringe as a result of it’s me doing the doll ingesting a glass of water or making the dummy speak. That’s all this ventriloquist stuff, which I frown upon now. It’s imagined to be a sitcom on stage. It’s imagined to be telling jokes, making folks snicker. However at that time in my profession, that was one of the best I might have finished at that second in time.“

Jeff Dunham Hollywood Stroll of Fame

In September 2017, Dunham was honored with the two,619th star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame. The common-or-garden comedian by no means noticed the popularity coming.

“There were a couple of unexpected things that happened along the way of my career,” Dunham mentioned. “One was doing arenas. The one person who ever did comedy like that was Steve Martin within the late ’70s and I by no means thought a comic might ever attain that type of standing.

The second shock was after we went worldwide and began doing exhibits outdoors our borders. I’d by no means even thought-about that may be a risk. Then, the third one was getting a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame as a result of once I moved to LA in ’88, I simply wished to get greater and higher than the comedy golf equipment. First, I wished to have the ability to do comedy golf equipment after which after that, however to be on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame and see all these names of individuals, that was one of many largest surprises.”

Dunham doesn’t know if the achievement will get him any extra gigs or however to him it’s a bona fide stamp of approval that claims “wow, I’ve been here, done something that somebody took note of besides buying tickets.’ So that was unbelievably special to me to be associated with so many greats.”

Jeff Dunham addresses the critics

Over time, the comedian has handled flak for using probably unflattering tropes of Hispanic and Center Japanese cultures in his act.

When requested concerning the materials that some might deem offensive, he was fast to leap in with protection.

“I all the time discover that the folks which can be most upset concerning the stereotypical depictions of characters in my present are those who don’t have anything to do with that race. I actually assume that most individuals on this world have humorousness and and may take joke. “

Dunham claims that on the subject of race, faith and sexual orientation, he doesn’t punch down and over time have eliminated characters that didn’t fairly work in his act.

“When I did Sweet Daddy D, who was my Black character that I used for only a little while, I did my very best to talk to Black comedians and go ‘I know you tell white jokes. Please tell me the jokes that you say when we’re not around. How can I make this character legit?’ So, I tried to make him my manager, and the only reason that he didn’t work in the act is because I could not walk a mile in that guy’s shoes because I have no experience being a person of color. I don’t know what they’ve lived through and what they deal with on a daily basis.”

He did the identical when he launched a feminine character that solely final three months.

“I did my best to write material so that it sounded legitimate and real but…that didn’t work either, because I could not ad-lib, I could not think like a woman. I was around women all the time and had no idea.”

Dunham says on the subject of Jose and Achmed — two of his hottest characters — he is aware of that a picture of a white man with a Latino and Center Japanese dummy might look offensive however urges those that have by no means seen him reside to dig just a little deeper.

“Please come watch the entire show. Don’t see a clip. Don’t see a picture and say that guy’s racist because I guarantee if you show someone who knows nothing a picture of me and Achmed the Dead Terrorist without listening to any jokes or any material, that looks racist. You’re judging that book by the cover,” he mentioned.

“I do my highest to make it possible for everybody is aware of that Achmed doesn’t say that he’s Muslim. He says, ‘look, it even says on my a–, made in China. All I was doing back then was making fun of those guys who did those horrible things to us in our country. And at that moment in time, that’s who everybody’s able to snicker at and whistle at the hours of darkness at their fears as a result of we had been nonetheless petrified of that, as a result of we didn’t know the place Osama bin Laden was. I used to be reacting to what our nation was able to snicker at and wished to snicker at, and that’s the place he got here from. It was the ‘dead Osama’ again then…I modified him to Achmed the Lifeless Terrorist and now folks get indignant if he’s not within the present.

“It’s just kind of reacting to the times and what I think people can relate to. To me, that’s the biggest key in what I do. The characters have to be relatable, and that’s why I always use trite stereotypes. People know who rednecks (his Bubba J. character is Southern) are. There’s not a town or city in this world that doesn’t have rednecks in a city nearby.”

Over time, Dunham tells us Achmed has developed a cult following abroad.

“My favourite instance of how I get to see the world by possibly a unique lens or rose-colored glasses was once I was doing a world tour in 2014. I used to be in Abu Dhabi performing for 4,000 Muslim people.

There weren’t a bunch of People there to see me. It was all of the native those who got here to see the present. And I pulled Achmed, the useless terrorist out. It was like a homecoming. It might have gone over higher. Two nights later, I’m within the center in Tel Aviv, Israel doing the very same present for 4,000 Jewish folks. Didn’t change a phrase of it and their favourite character was Achmed.”

Nonetheless, he’s fast so as to add that you simply received’t “learn anything at his show.” Dunham informed us “critiquing my show is like going to McDonald’s and saying, ‘but they don’t have Chardonnay.’ We dumb it down to the biggest laughs and that’s what gets left over. And guess what? One of the biggest laughs in the show is when Achmed the dead terrorist said ‘that’s what she said.’ So it’s not my fault! It’s the audience’s fault for laughing too loud at certain jokes.”

With regards to politics, Dunham takes a no-sides method the place he makes enjoyable of whoever is in cost. Just lately, he had Walter play Joe Biden. Now that Trump has been re-elected, he might revive some outdated bits making enjoyable of him.

“A few of my movies when Trump was President the primary time, we might costume Walter up like Trump and name him Grump and he had the massive hair. We’d take him outdoors, the wind would blow his hair, he’d be bald beneath and get pissed off.

I even received a few texts from considered one of Trump’s sons saying, ‘this is great. We love it. Keep going. Even Dad loves it.’ I assumed ‘that’s both nice or a menace. I’m undecided.’ You need to push just a little bit. Hopefully, there’s some materials in there that’s not simply Massive Mac stuff, possibly there may be some Chardonnay in there, I’m undecided.”

Comedians on tour in 2025

Should you fancy your self a comedy nerd, that is your 12 months.

Most of the largest names within the laughs enterprise are staging mega excursions these subsequent few months.

Listed here are simply 5 of our favorites humorous folks you received’t need to miss reside within the close to future.

• Jerry Seinfeld

• Kevin Hart

• Sarah Silverman

• Sebastian Maniscalco

• Invoice Murray

Need to catch a live performance? Listed here are all of the 2025 Grammy nominees on tour. See you at a present!