Comedy Central Special Taped in Milwaukee

A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet (Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends plus bits of humor and interesting but useless information.)

Jeff Dunham Tapes Comedy Central Special in Milwaukee

Friend and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham was gracious enough to invite Dale, Leslie and me to a pre-taping dinner for his production staff, last Friday night. The dinner was held at the Safe House in Milwaukee, WI across the street from the historic Pabst Theatre where Jeff's Comedy Central Christmas Special was to be taped the following night. I think there were around 50 people at the dinner ... which gives you an idea of how many people it takes to produce a show of this caliber. We knew some of the people and others we met for the first time. Everyone was as cordial as could be. Jeff obviously continues to surround himself with quality professionals who are genuinely nice people and who look out for his interests.

(Side note: Jeff's "YouTube" clip of Achmed the Terrorist singing "Jingle Bombs" has recorded over 50 million views and may be the most watched video clip of all time.)

Jeff taped two shows Saturday night. The first show must have run long, because the second show started an hour late. As a result, about 2,000 people and one Mannequin American were milling around in the lobby area waiting to get into the second show. No announcement was made about why there was a delay or when we would be allowed into the theatre. Needless to say, there were a lot of disgruntled individuals waiting to sit down. And these ticked off people would make up the audience of Jeff's second show. I was a bit concerned that the long wait would dampen people's enthusiasm when the show started. I was wrong. When Jeff hit the stage the audience erupted with a roar and standing ovation. And the enthusiasm continued throughout the show and through several promotional commercials that Jeff taped after the show. Jeff took his final bow at 2:30 a.m. and received another standing ovation.

I don't want to give away anything about Jeff's Christmas Special other than to say it's probably one of the best things he's ever done. Each puppet has its own stage set, which are fantastic. The majority of Jeff's material is brand new except for things like "Jingle Bombs" which the audience wants to see. Bubba sings his own Christmas song and Jeff's reading of The Night Before Christmas, with Peanut, is hysterical, original and contains a fitting insider's tribute to Edgar Bergen who read The Night Before Christmas to Charlie McCarthy on one of his radio shows.

In all the show was tremendous, so the Comedy Central Special, although shorter, will undoubtedly be a big hit. And Jeff's Christmas DVD which will contain the entire show and additional segments, will be a "must have," for Dunham fans.

I want to give a big "Thank You!" to Jeff for inviting Dale, Leslie and me to the taping and for his friendship. We've known Jeff for a long time and it's really been fun watching his career climb. With his unbelievable work ethic and continued enthusiasm for what he does, it's obvious that his current success will merely be a stepping stone to an even higher level of success.

The Return of the Milwaukee Mile
Even though Dale no longer races he still drags me to the track to watch others race. So I recently found myself sitting on comfortable aluminum benches at the Milwaukee Mile for the Indy Car races.

The race had some exciting moments; especially with just a few laps to go when this incident occurred (Dale was a racecar driver so he prefers that I call these "incidents" versus "crashes.")  The "incident" occurred right in front of the red and white Penske car driven by Ryan Briscoe, who was leading the race. He somehow managed to miss the carnage and went on to win the race.

I have to admit that the long-overdue unification of the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series League seems to have helped boost interest in open wheel racing. The Milwaukee Mile crowd was the largest I can remember seeing at the annual Indy Car event.

And for sure, the crowd was larger than the last time Dale raced at the Milwaukee Mile. At that race the stands were filled with all of Dale's fans when he took the checkered flag ... pictured above.  (If you're really sharp you've noticed that Dale's car appears to be going the wrong way on the Milwaukee Mile. You're right ... sort of. Races that include the road course section that serpentines through the infield of the Mile, traverse the track clockwise.  This virtually eliminates the usefulness of the softer barriers which are designed for counterclockwise races. How dumb did Dale have to be to race there?)

Speaking of Racing

The Principality of Monaco was the heady and glamorous location for round six of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship. The 20 cars and drivers competed around the 3.34km street circuit, racing between the Prince's Palace and the Mediterranean Sea ... which near Monaco is usually covered with some of the World's most lavish yachts.

Monaco is an expensive place to visit. How do I know? We were there about a week before the 2007 race. We had intended to stay for the race, but we ran out of money in about six minutes.

Here's a photo of Dale standing on the street course about two blocks from the famous Monte Carlo Casino. What a dork.

As if being an F1 driver isn't glamorous and exciting enough, this year's race winner, Hamilton Lewis, and his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, were part of a continuing partnership between their race team, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and Steinmetz, a world class creator of diamond bling. The long-running tradition includes creating custom diamond-adorned helmets which both drivers used throughout the Monaco Grand Prix weekend. Each helmet had the signature of the driver paved with a line of hundreds of Steinmetz's handcrafted diamonds. Here's Hamilton and his diamond covered helmet.