jeff-dunham-comedy-ventriloquistThere are two events that always stand out among EVERY comedian who can slay an audience and that is…

Applause breaks and standing ovations. And for the record, applause is a recordable PAR Score event.

I was watching Comedy Central and caught the last part of one comedian’s act when it became glaringly apparent that this comedy star was getting more genuine and lasting applause breaks than I have ever seen in my life.

Who was this comedian? It was none other than comedy ventriloquist Jeff Dunham during his Comedy Central special called Spark of Insanity.

His show was as powerfully funny as I have ever witnessed. The applause breaks were frequent, long and well deserved to say the least.

At the end of his show, there was no “layering” of people standing and applauding—the audience collectively leapt to their feet as fast as a bullet reaching a target for the standing “o”. No small feat, I must say.

But you need only watch Spark of Insanity to understand why.

I also witnessed one of the most brilliant marketing/name recognition techniques I have ever seen, built right into Jeff Dunham’s act, which was…

He developed a killer routine with his puppet Peanut to repeat his name and website over and over again in a hilarious way.

For those who take stand-up comedy seriously and understand the power of self promotion, I would challenge anyone to find a better, more effective way to develop name and website recognition than Jeff Dunham did during that show.

There is much to learn from comedy masters like Jeff Dunham—and it doesn’t just involve being super funny.

Does Jeff have an advantage over other comedians because he is a ventriloquist and uses puppets in his comedy show?

I’m going to say NO because…

The mechanics for generating laughter, whether you are a ventriloquist or not are EXACTLY the same as for the traditional stand-up comedy act. It’s actually harder for vents, because of the skill involved to “throw their voice” skillfully, operate the puppet effectively and…

Ventriloquists must be keen to the body language, facial expressions, voice inflection and tone variations for multiple unique characters, not just for themselves (which by the way is key for the puppets to generate the big laughs, just like traditional stand-up comedians).

Whether you are a vent or not, I would strongly recommend you review Jeff Dunham’s Spark of Insanity show. There is much to learn. And…

If you can find ANY comedian who can get as many applause breaks as Jeff, let me know.

But I really think you might have difficulty doing that.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

For more information about Steve Roye, author of this blog and the Killer Stand-up Online Course, click here.


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