Jeff Dunham - Ventriloquists - Denver Post Review - P  **

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By Ed Will - Denver Post Staff Writer

Despite being almost limp from laughter, his audience gave comedian Jeff Dunham a standing ovation-after his opening set last night at the Comedy Works. It was well deserved. His show combined prepared material with off-the-cuff witticism that show him to be one of the funniest comics working. His stay at the Larimer Square club ends tonight. Oh, and by the way, he's a ventriloquist. Perhaps, the best one in the world because he is the only one to twice be named the Ventriloquist of the Year by the International Ventriloquist Association. He raises to a new level the old ventriloquist standby of man drinking while dummy talks. No one could find fault with his ventriloquist technique. But it must be noted that, above all else, he is a very funny man whose humor runs from gentle to biting.

He shared the stage with Peanut, described by another dummy as a Muppet on heroin, and Walter, a pinched-faced, bald-headed grump who looks like a prune that has been sucking on a lemon.

Also on stage was his latest character, Bubba, a proud graduate of the Arkansas school system, "the goodest one in the world."

Other characters made briefer appearances, and one bit involved a two-minute conversation between five different personalities, each with its own distinct voice. "Characters" is a better word than dummies for Dunham's wooden partners. It was easy to forget they are all Dunham. His technique certainly created a personality for each of them, but his words are their real breath of life. Listen to how Bubba described the first look at his wife: "There she was leaning up against her trailer. It was a double-wide. She's from money.... The sunlight was glistening off her curlers. Then she smiled. What a tooth." Or how Walter told the crowd: "You're a sick bunch of folks and I like ya."

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