383: Jeff Dunham | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #383 | Full Episode

Summary

The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #383: Jeff Dunham | Full Episode (4/27/2026)

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Main Theme

In this episode, Ryan Sickler welcomes world-famous comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham for a deep dive into Jeff’s most trying times (“lowlights” as the podcast brands them), perseverance, and the transformative power of comedy. What unfolds is a rich conversation about failure, artistic growth, surviving deeply personal setbacks, and finding joy after hardship—all in Jeff’s quick-witted, self-aware comedic style.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jeff Dunham’s New Ventures and Ongoing Career

• Car Show: Jeff promotes his latest TV project, Jeff Dunham’s The Cars That Drove Us (Discovery Channel), highlighting its documentary-style fun and unique use of his famed puppet characters. Standout car segments include the Vector (first American supercar), the Myers Manx dune buggy, the Humvee/Hummer (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s influence), the Keaton Batmobile, and the Trans Am’s “screaming chicken” hood art (07:21–09:19).
• Tour & Specials: Jeff is touring and prepping a new special to be taped in June and aired in July. He advises fans to buy tickets only from jeffdunham.com to avoid scalpers (10:01–11:15).
• Online Reach: Jeff’s immense reach on Facebook (13–14 million likes) and YouTube (5 million+ subscribers). “We have a lot of fun on that. Even our Facebook Lives end up on YouTube.” (11:15)

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2. Becoming a Comedian: The Long Road

• Early Years: Jeff started as a ventriloquist in third grade—not as a comedian. He stresses ventriloquism is “easy” as a skill, but entertainment and comedy is the hard-earned craft. He reminisces about working with Mortimer Snerd and being inspired by Edgar Bergen’s radio stardom (12:16–13:42).
• Setting The Goal: As a teen, Jeff set himself the ten-year goal of performing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. “Ten years is quite a chunk of time in your life, right?” — Ryan (13:42–14:04)
• Crafting Comedy: They discuss how standup comedy requires lived experience—“no child prodigy comedian, never see a six-year-old crushing”—and that being consistently funny is a skill built through hustle and passion, not just talent (16:15–17:57).

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3. Facing Rejection: Tonight Show Saga

• First Big Lowlight: Jeff candidly recounts his years-long pursuit of The Tonight Show, culminating in being booked, then canceled the day of taping because booker Jim McCauley felt Jeff was “one day early”—not ready (22:57–25:17).
  • “When you're on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, it's better to be five years late than one day early. And you're one day early, you're just not there yet.” — Jim McCauley, relayed by Jeff (24:55)
• Persistence: Jeff auditioned 9 times for McCauley, getting 8 rejections. He finally debuted in spring 1990—almost exactly 10 years after his self-imposed deadline (26:03–30:35).
• Triumph: The Tonight Show spot put him onstage with Bob Hope and B.B. King (“the best dream come true possible”). Carson called him over to the couch, a rare honor—delivering comic moments with Walter and unforgettable banter (30:49–33:44).

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4. Striving—and Crashing—in Real Life (Helicopters!)

• Aviation Hobby: Alongside comedy, Jeff built and flew experimental helicopters. He explains the intense hands-on process: “At age 24 in 1986, I was their youngest builder pilot ever… Literally sometimes 18 hours a day building that helicopter, and I spent probably 2,000 hours building it.” (34:12–36:39)
• Crash & Comeback: Jeff tells the harrowing story of his first crash with a friend on board. Both survived, but the lesson was “when you get thrown off that horse, you have to get back on.” He rebuilt, returned to flight, and symbolically revisited the crash site: “I got my sunglasses out… put them on my face, and flew off into the sunset.” (46:07–47:05)

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5. Lowlights in Family & Personal Life

• Fatherhood: Jeff reflects on his three daughters, each unique in path and personality—including his youngest, a psychologist who interviews high-risk criminal patients. (“She is now basically the Clarice of clinical psychology. She interviews the worst horrible people on the planet.” 50:49)
• Comedy and Consequence: A chilling anecdote—one of his daughter’s patients (a murderer) is a big Jeff Dunham fan. “That’s one of those—my favorite? He loves Peanut.” (51:51)

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6. Navigating Controversy: Achmed the Dead Terrorist

• Origin Story: In 2002 (one year after 9/11), Jeff introduces Osama bin Laden’s “skeleton” in his act, debuting the catchphrase “I KILL YOU!” (53:31–54:51).
• Blowback & Breakthrough: Transitioning the character into Achmed the Dead Terrorist leads to global viral success, but also death threats, FBI involvement, and heightened security (59:08–60:48). Despite critics, audiences worldwide embraced the routine—a testament to comedy’s universal language.
• International Reach: Performing Achmed to sold-out crowds in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv demonstrated how humor bridges divides. “Those 4,000 Jewish people laughed every bit as hard at every bit of the show that all the Muslims did… Comedy brings us all together.” (66:57–67:12)

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7. Big Successes, Big Setbacks: Divorce and Money

• New Heights, Hard Falls: Amid his career’s explosion after Spark of Insanity (and Achmed), Jeff’s marriage crumbled. He describes the emotional devastation and the legal/financial fallout of divorce in California—a harsh lesson about community property, alimony, and how the court splits “whatever you made in the last 12 months.” (70:40–74:20)
• Onstage as Escape: Comedy was healing—once he got on stage, he “didn’t think about anything” else. Yet his family life was interwoven with his act, making painful edits to his set as personal events unfolded (72:27–73:38).
• Real Talk About Divorce Laws: Candid about the harsh realities: “She still gets a piece of merchandise.” (76:10) “Ding, ding, ding… That’s when my daughters got smart, man.” (78:12) Admits contemplating quitting, and for the first (and only) time truly understood the depths of despair.

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8. New Beginnings and Perspective

• Finding Love Again: Jeff’s story of meeting his second wife, Audrey, is pure fate: the power of “a closed restaurant opens a new door”. She didn’t recognize him, and the two bonded over Muppets, not comedy. “I wish anybody out there who's gonna get married that they have what we found. It's, it's amazing.” (81:08–82:14)
• Advice to His Younger Self: “Don’t change a thing. Because if you don’t go through some shit, you’re not going to be the person you are when you grow up.” (82:18)
• Fatherhood 2.0: At 63, Jeff is raising twin 10-year-old boys—“My youngest daughter moved away off to college and I'm scot free for three months. And then Audrey gave birth to our boys.” (83:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On rejection & growth:
  “When you're on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, it's better to be five years late than one day early. And you're one day early, you're just not there yet.” — Jim McCauley (24:55)
• On comedy’s universality:
  “Comedy brings us all together. I get to see the world through rose colored glasses because I'm doing comedy… We all want the same things… except for the handful of crazy morons.” — Jeff (66:57–67:15)
• On overcoming failure:
  “When you get thrown off that horse, you have to get back on. You have to.” — Jeff (46:06)
• On surviving and thriving after trauma:
  “Don’t change a thing. Because if you don’t go through some shit, you’re not going to be the person you are when you grow up." — Jeff (82:18)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jeff’s car show & puppets in TV doc — 05:27–11:15
• Journey to comics/first shows — 12:16–16:15
• Debating child prodigy comedians, AI, and creative genius — 16:15–17:57
• The Tonight Show saga: booking, crushing rejection — 22:49–25:20
• First Tonight Show performance (with Bob Hope & BB King) — 30:35–33:44
• Helicopter obsession, crash & comeback — 34:12–47:05
• Daughter’s unique psychology career — 50:49–51:53
• Origin of Achmed, controversy, global love for comedy — 53:31–67:15
• Divorce, money, and legal lessons — 68:01–78:42
• Finding new love with Audrey — 79:32–82:14
• Advice to 16-year-old Jeff — 82:18–82:41

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Tone & Style

The conversation is warm, unfiltered, and brutally honest—ping-ponging between classic Jeff Dunham hyperbole and Ryan’s empathetic, open-ended questions. Both men joyfully dissect comedic craft while never shying from the messiness—professional and personal—of real life.

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Outro

Jeff plugs The Cars That Drove Us (Discovery Channel), his tour dates, and gently jokes about his show’s “family friendliness”—“depends on your family.” A rich, funny, and ultimately uplifting conversation about failure, perseverance, and the power of making people laugh.

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Transcript

[Jeff Dunham]

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[Ryan Sickler]

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[Jeff Dunham]

All.

[Ryan Sickler]

It is this show with you all, and you all have the craziest stories I promise you'll ever hear. It is $5. It's five bucks for over 300 episodes. All right? So if you or someone you know has a story that has to be heard, please submit it to us. Honeydew podcastmail.com. don't care if you're a member. Don't care if it's your story. We want to hear the best stories out there. If you've sent one in, send it again, bump it to the top. We get a lot. We'd love to do your episode. All right. That is the biz. You guys know we do here. We highlight the lowlights. And I always say, these are the stories behind the storytellers. I am very excited to have this guest with us here today. First time on the Honeydew. Ladies and gentlemen, Jeff Dunham. Welcome to how do you do, Jeff? Donald.

[Jeff Dunham]

Thanks, Ryan. You know, I want to get started by saying I always look at the decor, and I honestly, I've been to Home Depot Depot more times than I can imagine. I have never found gray stain for my wood. This is like. This is like, really great. This I get, but I've never seen. Is it. Is it wallpaper?

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

But still, somebody went, you know, let's make some wood. It looks like they stained it gray.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

But it goes great in here. But it's freaking wood.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you. It's wood. It's gray wood, bro.

[Jeff Dunham]

Now I want gray stained.

[Ryan Sickler]

Gray to the brown, man. It's nice.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, it's really nice.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's nice to have you here.

[Jeff Dunham]

Thanks. And you got the obey seasoning. Why? The big sign over there? Neon sign.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's a big neon sign. It's not lit right now.

[Jeff Dunham]

You originally from where?

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm a Maryland guy.

[Jeff Dunham]

Okay. So that's why the old we obey everything, everything.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I know that sounds like the forest gump shrimp crap, but I'm putting it in my tuna. I put it on my eggs, fries, anything seafood chick. All I use Old Bay. That's my salt.

[Jeff Dunham]

And it's all msg, right? It's all MSG Pro. That's great. All right, good. So thanks for having me.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you for being here. Before we get into everything, we're talk about right there, promote everything and anything you'd like, please.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, great. Okay. So my car show came out on March 31, and it's called Jeff Dunham's the Cars that Drove Us. And anybody who's watched it, it is a car show unlike any other car show, and I think it's doing pretty well right now. We did eight episodes. They show two episodes a night starting on the 31st, so I can't do math, but that. So last a month. Isn't that crazy? One season is a month. That's like, what. Remember when we kids, it was 32, 36 episodes.

[Ryan Sickler]

It was September when we all went back to school until. What was it, May, before the summer break. Every week. Maybe a Christmas little hiatus or a bonus or a break or the Super Bowl.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. Or something.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's it.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

30 weeks.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You were on a show, you had a job. You knew.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, not that. Not on it. Watched it. You can watch a different episode every single week. And now it's like, we did a full season. How many episodes? Eight. What? That's not a season.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's not.

[Jeff Dunham]

And so that's when you hear about when I started hearing about survivor. We've had 49 seasons. We've been on for, you know, 12 years.

[Ryan Sickler]

What? Yeah. Then that's right. You're like. Because when I hear that, Matt, I'm like, that's just been over 40 my whole life.

[Jeff Dunham]

That shows.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, that's a season to me, is a year. Yeah. Calendar year.

[Jeff Dunham]

Exactly.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wait, real quick, because I. I'm a car guy. I want to know what you say. It's different than any other show we've seen because.

[Jeff Dunham]

Okay. Have you ever seen the series, the movies that made us or the toys that made us on Netflix? Same production company, same stuff. So I'm not going to say it's documentary style, but it's kind of documentary style, but we use the characters, my characters that much, and it's kind of fun. But it's unabashedly. No, it's just fun. We don't. We don't. We don't pull any punches. We tell the story this the way they are. And is this.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is this in the vein of the cars that we grew up with? Like, are you documenting famous cars?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. We pick seven Cars that are actually.

[Ryan Sickler]

Tell us which one.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. So the vector. You know what the vector is? That was the first American supercar. Okay. And we didn't have a supercar by 1990. And Jerry Weigert came up with the. With the. With the. The vector. It's a whole story. It's crazy. But there's. Then we do the Myers Manx, which is the. The first really successful dune buggy. And the story behind that, and Bruce Myers. And it's just. That is the most. If you don't cry at the end of that episode, you're not a human being. It's just. It's a tear jerker, that whole story. And what he did to bring the dune buggy to the world. So there's that one. Then the Humvee and the Hummer. That was all Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

He made that happen. And I gotta tell you, one of the most surreal moments of my life was sitting at breakfast with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, it was nuts. And he had me sit right next to him. And one of my friends pointed this out, or the producer of the show pointed out to me. He goes, did you see when he looked at you a couple of times while he was eating? I'm like, yeah, it's that look. You know that look when he looks sideways at somebody. He's in a movie right before he kills him. Yeah, he's sitting there. He's sitting there eating his eggs or whatever he's eating. Looking at me like that. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm gonna become a Terminator. So that was it. And so, yeah, that episode. And, oh, we do the Keaton Batmobile. Yeah, fantastic. And all the stories behind these cars and the people we interview, folks, okay, The Trans Am, the screaming chicken on the hood. We found the guy who designed this cream and chicken.

[Ryan Sickler]

No shit.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And we interviewed him. And literally a few weeks after we interviewed him, he passed away and dedicated the episode to him. But I mean, I mean, that's the

[Ryan Sickler]

Nike swoosh of cars.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Ryan Sickler]

They take care of him. Like they didn't know the Nike guy until much later. Was he.

[Jeff Dunham]

He was a little bit of ashamed of it at first.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

Because he did. But it. There would not be a Trans Am were it not for that artwork.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So then we do one episode on. It's. That's Factory. There's a question mark at the end. It's just all the kooky, crazy stuff. Some stuff that they can't. Anyway, so It's a great series.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I have to tell you about the Baltimore Bandit later is my buddy's dad's car. They were the first funny car in Maryland. They went from stock into the. They had it before. And then the. Then the fiberglass lifted up and all. Yeah, Yeah. I love that.

[Jeff Dunham]

Nice. So there's that. And so anyway, yeah. So it's on. On Discovery. And I, I, you know, we want everybody to watch it as when the episodes air first. And I don't know where we are at this point.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right.

[Jeff Dunham]

Because I can't do the math. We obviously are not recording this the day this is dropped.

[Ryan Sickler]

So it's so Discovery Channel.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. Jeff Dunham's the Cars that Drove Us.

[Ryan Sickler]

Boom.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And then I'm on tour and. What else? I have a new special coming out. I think we're going to tape it soon, like in June, and it'll be on in July. And again, I. I don't know. So whenever I was on the Tonight Show, I did not like telling people I was going to be on the Tonight show until it aired.

[Ryan Sickler]

Till, like the day of or after.

[Jeff Dunham]

After. Because I was always scared that it wasn't going to happen.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So you want to talk about one of the low points in my life ever?

[Ryan Sickler]

I want to talk about all of them.

[Jeff Dunham]

Okay. I'll tell you one of the lowest points. And so when I moved out to la.

[Ryan Sickler]

One more. Let me just help you out here for one sec. Social media. Where can they find you? Your website. Tickets to see you live.

[Jeff Dunham]

Jeffdon.com. that's the best place to buy tickets because, as you know. Scalp, Scalp, Scalp, scalp, scalp. If you see a ticket that's over 75 bucks. 50, 75 bucks. We ain't selling it. Somebody bought it and. And they're scalping you. But if you want to get in it, you know, pay $1,000 for a ticket, fine, but that's somebody else getting all the money, not us. So jeffdon.com and on tour, and we're on all the socials and please subscribe to my YouTube channel. We have a lot of fun on that. Even our Facebook lives end up on YouTube.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

So, yeah, Facebook, we have 12, 13, 14 million people. We're getting close to 5 million subscribers on YouTube.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wow.

[Jeff Dunham]

And that's. Yeah, that's kind of fun. I can't wait till we get to that. So anyway.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right, so back to your. One of your worst. Let's go.

[Jeff Dunham]

I had been, you know, I started ventriloquism when I was in the third grade, and people say, well, were you a comedian first? No, no, I was a ventriloquist first. Were you funny? Well, that's the funny part being of becoming a ventriloquist is easy. You just learn the skill, and it's just a matter of relearning to talk and how to make the dummy work. And this is what happens. This is why. There's why ventriloquism to me has had such a bad name for so long, because people develop the skill, they learn, and then they go, I'm in show business now. No, no. There's the part of learning to entertain and learning to be funny. That's the hard part. So I became a ventriloquist first. And as a ventriloquist in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, it's cute. It's like, oh, look at that. His little boy with the dummies making him talk.

[Ryan Sickler]

And he's telling, what are you working with first? I had one called Willie Talk.

[Jeff Dunham]

I'm way older than you because Willie Talk came later. Willie Talk was in the 70s, right? Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, maybe, yes, in the 80s, for sure. I had it.

[Jeff Dunham]

They were still making them into the 90s, I think. But mine was a Mortimer Snerd and the Ventriloquist with Edgar Bergen. He was. He was a real Hollywood star. He had the number one radio show from the. In the 30s through the 40s, and a ventriloquist on radio made no sense whatsoever. But his characters were so well developed, the comedy was so great, the writing was so good that the dummy, Charlie McCarthy, people thought it was a little boy pretending to be a ventriloquist on the air. Yeah, that's how good he was. And it was. And so one of his characters was. Charlie McCarthy was the main one. Mortimer Snurd was his hayseed. You know, they didn't have the word redneck back then, I don't think. And that's basically what Mortimer was. And I had a little plastic Mortimer's nerd when I was a kid. So that was the first dummy. And then it was book reports, Cub Scout banquets, shows at church, and I just kept going. And so by the time I got to. Well, when I graduated from high school in 1980, I said to myself, I'm giving myself 10 years to be on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. That's what I thought it was. I thought it was an attainable goal. And.

[Ryan Sickler]

But also for anyone who's out there thinking that it. It's not unreasonable to Think that if you do apply yourself and you can get in there, 10 years is quite a chunk of time in your life, right? You know, if you only live 80, that's an eighth of your life. You would think that's, that's enough time that I could probably get in there, right?

[Jeff Dunham]

But also I knew at age, you know, we graduated from high school, what, 17, 18 years old, I wasn't stupid. I knew I was not going to be on the Tonight show at age 19. That's not going to happen. Because even then I knew that stand up comics, and I was not a, quote, stand up comic. I was a ventriloquist. And that was a stamp of stink for me for many years. But, and I know this now, that I think most standup comedians don't reach their stride until well into their 20s because you haven't lived long enough to have enough garbage have gone wrong with you that you develop this interesting. Yeah, well, interesting sense of humor. Eddie Murphy's a huge exception. I mean, that guy was funny from day one.

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Jeff Dunham]

Right? Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

We've seen five year olds do Beethoven, right? Have we not? We've seen them do Whatever, right? Not one child has ever walked out onto a stand up stage and crushed because they were funny. Because they had universal life experience. You need so much more when and then to develop the skill of the timing and to work an audience and to, to crush, lose them a little bit, get them back like those things. The psychology of all of that to strangers. These aren't people we have a day to day familiarity with.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then I started getting all excited about watching this thing like, yeah man, let's see some little six year old come out here and crush. Like nope, AI can't do it right. AI can make all these kick ass songs. Not yet. Not any of these things have been done on a comedic level. And I thought that our computer up here is definitely significantly different in a way where we're not just professional clowns. We are, but there's a genius behind it.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, you know, I've had this argument with many people. It's like, well, you were, you, you, you were born with a special thing to be. No, I do not believe that some people are funny and some people aren't just because you're born that way. I don't, I do not believe that some people are better basketball players just because they were born that way. I think that you are given your. Okay, the DNA gives you certain physical attrib help you in whatever it is that maybe you're interested in. But that passion has to be there.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes.

[Jeff Dunham]

And you and the hustle, you have to put in the 10,000 hours or the 30,000 hours to be that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Look at Peyton Manning is not Peyton Manning. Yes, he's blessed with a skill set, but also took that and worked at it to take it to a hall of fame level. He's not the same guy if he just shows up and does nothing.

[Jeff Dunham]

You can't give a mechanic, a guy a bunch of snap on tools and go. That is a master mechanic right there. No, you have to know what you're doing. So Peyton Manning was given all the, all the, the skeleton literature and the musculature to become that athlete. But he had to develop all that.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I'm sure like you growing up, I knew tons of guys that were funny, funnier, right. They just never went into comedy with it, you know what I mean?

[Jeff Dunham]

They never learned how to entertain. You could find the funniest classes clown on the planet. But until that person gets up on stage and learns timing and learns, you know, and it's. And people, if they come in and do an editing session after I've Shot a special. I don't. They would not understand. It'd be like, okay, you need to take two frames out of that right there because that's. The timing is off on there. What? Two frames? That's.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's over here frame fucking everything right now. Yeah. Yes, I am. Because it's stand up comedy, not a film yet.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm sorry, let's go. We're going to the worst low life, so.

[Jeff Dunham]

And so I gave myself 10 years. And so cut to. I'd graduated from BAYLOR and in 86. I should have graduated 84. I was there longer than the allotted amount of time, but that. That covered. I was in a Broadway show.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're working on a Masters?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, well, no, I was in a Broadway show and skipped the whole year and the whole thing. But anyway, so graduated in 86. I was flying helicopters, real helicopters at the the time. And I knew I wasn't quite yet ready to move because I had to move to LA and make the big switch because I'd been going out to coming out here and trying comedy clubs here and there a little bit. In 1985, I auditioned for Jim McCauley, the guy who booked all the comedians on Carson's Tonight Show.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

And he came out and saw my show and I was still living in Waco and I was just flying a helicopter for fun and doing shows on the side. That was all I was doing, just earning money here and there. And he came because I'd been in a Broadway show for about a year and I thought my act was ready and I went out there and did a guest spot at the Comedy magic club. Jim McCauley came and saw me. Mike Lacy talked Jim to come and see me. And again, I've been doing those guest spots just here and there, going out to. Coming out to California, to la, then, you know, being back in Texas, living there. And so Jim McCauley came and saw me and he left. He didn't say anything to me. And I called and called and called and called, talking. I got to know his assistant really well. I would call once a day and finally, after about probably a week and a half, she said, she said, you're not going to give up, are you? I go, I just want to know what Mr. McCauley thought. I really would. And this was, yeah, 1985. So it'd been 15 years. And I'm sorry, five years. Wait, did I get that right? Yes, five years. So she said, she said, hold on a second. And he got on the phone, he says, you're not going to give up, are you? I go, Mr. McCauley, I appreciate so much you've taken the time to come and see me. I'm just. I want to know, I mean, do I have a shot at getting on the Tonight Show? I go, what's the problem? He goes, it's very basic. You're just not funny enough. I said, that's it? He goes, yeah, that's it. I go, okay, so you're telling me if I work on this and I get funnier than that, you'll see me again? He goes, of course. I said, okay, thank you. That's all I needed. I just needed to know that I got a green light to keep pushing. He goes, absolutely. Thank you very much. Click cut to a few years go by and finally, one of my buddies in 1988 in Waco goes, my friend Jordan Cox. He goes, why are you still here? I go, I'm flying my helicopter. He goes, why are you here? I said, I don't know. He goes, dude, it's time for you to leave. You need to go follow your dreams. I'm like, yeah, I guess you're right. So I packed up the Nissan 1987 Nissan Pathfinder. I had $4,000 to my name, packed it up, drove all the way out here and lived with some friends. And Jim McCauley had now seen me just a couple of times, but he came back out to Comedy Magic Club, saw me again. This was in. Yeah, I just moved out there in like July of August of 88. So he came and saw me in November of 88, Comedy Magic Club. He goes, wow, you're ready. I'm like, really? He goes, that was great, fantastic. And he goes, it'll be close to Christmas. And, yep, you're ready. Fantastic. Good job. I said, thank you very much. I can tell everybody. He goes, sure. So I went and I got the two thousand dollar suit. Right? That's what you did back then. You looked great for Johnny Carson, had a nice suit.

[Ryan Sickler]

And what's your act then?

[Jeff Dunham]

What it was, Peanut, my little purple guy, jalapeno on a stick.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

That was Walter there.

[Jeff Dunham]

No, Walter. Yeah, of course Walter was there. Yeah. Not in that performance. Not in that bit. So. So got the two thousand dollar suit, told everybody, the whole family, I was in TV Guide. So Jim says, I'm gonna come out to the Comedy Magic. Oh, yeah, TV Guide, right?

[Ryan Sickler]

We got a TV Guide out there. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And people go, what's a TV Guide? That's a little magazine that came in the newspaper. Well, you know what's great about TV Guide? You could open up to one sheet, see the entire day.

[Ryan Sickler]

Y. It's all right. There's my Wednesday.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, exactly. So he's not going to come out and see you one last time the night before just to iron out. You want to get it perfect for Johnny. So if there's a joke or two that's not right, I want to let you know. So, great. So he comes out of the Comic Magic Club the night before. Roseanne Barr is there practicing her set as well because she's going to be on for her third time. I think he comes out, sees me, I'm doing my bit. The audience wasn't quite as good. I walk off stage and he's gone. I said to Roseanne, I go, where's Jim? She goes, oh, he left. I go, oh. She goes, no, don't worry. He does that sometimes. You were great. Don't worry about it. Roseanne was as nice to me as anybody on the planet. She was such a sweetheart. So I don't know who that. Who all those stories is that people talk about when she's not nice. She was as sweet as she could be. So I was like, okay. So the next morning, I call Jim's office, and this is like 9 o' clock in the morning. I'm supposed to be taping at 4 in the afternoon that day. And he goes. He gets on the phone, he goes, jeff, I'm really sorry to have to do this. I made a mistake. You're not ready. I go, I'm not. And he said one thing to me that has now stuck with me forever. And I apply it everywhere. He goes, let me tell you this. When you're on the Tonight show with Johnny Carson, it's better to be five years late than one day early. And you're one day early, you're just not there yet. I said, okay. He goes, just keep at it. Keep honing it. Keep practicing. Get it funnier and tighter, and we'll revisit this. Click. So you asked me some of the worst points of my life at that point in my life. No, no parents had died. I didn't have any brothers and sisters. So everybody was. All my relatives were still alive. Nothing really terrible had happened to me at that point. So I look back at this, and I'm kind of ashamed of how depressed I got in that moment. But I had been working. It had been eight years, and I was dealt with that guy.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then the rug gets ripped out under, you know, hours before.

[Jeff Dunham]

Hours beforehand. Yeah. Here's the final, final nail in the coffin, or the. Whatever you want to call it. They. He had to get somebody to take my place.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, no.

[Jeff Dunham]

So he got a girl named Mary Christmas, and the only reason she was on was because her name was Merry Christmas.

[Ryan Sickler]

Was she funny, though?

[Jeff Dunham]

No, she just. Johnny just interviewed her.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, I see.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's it. That was like.

[Ryan Sickler]

But you know what? Kudos to that guy.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

For telling you that and being honest. Because most people these days, you're just never even hearing from them again. Well, I wouldn't let that happen. They told me today. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

I wouldn't let that happen today.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'll be like, listen, you're. You're. You're pestering us now, right?

[Jeff Dunham]

But. But. But a lot of guys, comics hated Macaulay because of that. Because they were. He was honest with him and would just tell him, and they were like, screw you, I'm funny. Like, well, you're not quite there yet. So. So that happened, and now it's like, okay, I gotta keep practicing. So I auditioned for Jim McCauley nine times. I got eight. Nope, you're not ready. Nope, you're not ready. Nope, you're not ready. And finally, in the spring of 1990, I was at the.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's 10 years, isn't it?

[Jeff Dunham]

Huh?

[Ryan Sickler]

That's 10 years is not yet. Oh, that's.

[Jeff Dunham]

This was now at the Ice House in Pasadena. And if you couldn't kill at the Ice House in Pasadena, you should not be on.

[Ryan Sickler]

You still can't. You should be. Isn't it interesting how the Ice House. I mean.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, you know what one of their secrets is? They. They play back the audience. They mic the audience and play it back. So the. The laughs are way bigger than they actually are.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right?

[Jeff Dunham]

That's the way it was back then. I don't know if they do it now, but that's how they did it.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, they pumped the own laughter back into the. That's who's sitting there hitting the button every time they're doing.

[Jeff Dunham]

No, no, they just mic'd it. So they mic the audience and then played it back in the pa.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't.

[Jeff Dunham]

I don't know how they did it without feedback, but that was what I was told. So you. You knew you were killing. You might have been doing pretty well, but it sounded like you were killing.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've always appreciated the Ice House because that, for la, is as close. I feel like locally that you get to what a Midwest crowd is in the sense that they don't feel like an audience. That feels like, right. Prove it to me.

[Jeff Dunham]

They like the Melrose implies, like store

[Ryan Sickler]

sometimes, you know, that, that very like, well, we can see Bill Burr on a Monday night. And they can, they can. So there it seems like people really come out, they spend their money, they are there to laugh, have a good time, drink, eat, that sort of thing. You don't see a lot of that in the true LA clubs.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

But Pasadena is. And then of course, the Breas and things like that. But Pasadena is the closest I think you can get here to what it feels like where you're like, yeah, you're responsible for these people's good time. They're spending good money, they're coming to see you. Some of them are getting too up

[Jeff Dunham]

to go to work. Ontario is the same way.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. All anything outside there, but. But Pasadena is the closest on the periphery of where it feels normal. Yeah. You know, I used to be someone who didn't put much thought into my outfit ahead of time, but lately I've caught myself trying to be more intentional in the way I dress. I used to think looking professional meant uncomfortable, stiff clothes that you can't get out of quick enough by the end of the day. But thanks to the pieces I've gotten from Quince, I know that's not the only way. If your wardrobe needs it, Quince has it. Everything from blazers and cashmere sweaters to lightweight linen linens. They even have pants that hit the same balance of relaxed and comfortable, but put together enough to keep me looking polished. Another huge hit for me has been the Bamboo Lounge tees. It's almost impossible to describe how soft the material is while still staying lightweight and breathable. Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen. So you're getting premium materials without the markup. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to to quints.comHoneydew for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.comHoneydew for Free Shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.comHoneydnew well, let me finish the story. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So Ice House. I freaking killed it. But I, I was like, you know what? This just felt like every other show that I've been doing. And I walked out in the parking lot, I was putting the dummies back in the back of my car and the show was still going on, you know, because I. You know, and my colleague goes out and he goes, you got it? I said, what? He goes. And he. By now, he'd become like an acquaintance, a friend or whatever. Yeah, you got it. I got what? He goes, you got the show. I do. He goes, yeah. I'll set you up a time. Congratulations. That was great. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Thank you. And that was it. It was like a dream come true. And that was April of 1990, and I had graduated from high school in May of 1980. So I got it by one month.

[Ryan Sickler]

One month, that's right.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And to make it even better again, better to be five years late than one day early. I got booked on a Friday night with Johnny Carson as the host, and the other two guests were Bob Hope and B.B. king.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, did you see the B.B. king poster out there?

[Jeff Dunham]

I didn't see it out there. Oh, is that when he was really young and skinny? Oh, yeah, I see that one. Okay, that's great.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, man, what a. Bob Hope and B.B. king and Johnny Carson.

[Jeff Dunham]

And so I went out there and I. I was talking to Adam Carolla about this. That moment of that night of standing behind that curtain, slightly muffled, you can hear the audience applauding. You can hear Johnny Carson introducing you. Doc Severson, the band playing. Standing in front of that curtain was. Is like just a moment that you can't even describe it. It's like, holy shit. It's like I still feel that, though, every time I get ready to walk on stage, it's like that roller coaster is getting to the top and you can't do anything about it. And you're about to let go, and God help you. And that's what I felt like right then. It was like, this is getting ready to happen. I don't what's going to happen. We'll see what's going to happen. So I went out there, I look back at that tape now, and I kind of cringe because at that time, it was the best I could have done then. But my act back then was like, with Peanut, and it was a Jose Jalapeno, and then it was like a worm in a bottle. And I would drink and make the dummy talk at the same time, kind of ventriloquist bits and. But it was great. And then before, when I was at rehearsal, Freddie decordova, who was the stage manager or the Producer. Producer. Freddie DeCordova, producer of the show, he said to me, don't you have another dummy, too? I go, yeah, I got Walter, the old Guy. He goes, did you bring him? And I went, yeah, he's in the car. He goes, put him back there behind the couch. I said, for what? He goes, I think Johnny might call you over. And I go, Mr. DeCordova, I know how this works. You never get called over on your first time. If he likes you, he gives you the okay sign and that's it. He goes, just trust me. I think he's gonna like you a lot. I'm like, okay, I'll put Walter behind the couch. So I put Walter behind the couch, and on that tape, I'm done. The audience is applauding. I can't believe it's over with. And the stage manager waves me over to the couch and you can see this blank look on my face like, what the hell? And I heard Letterman say it. He said, talking to Johnny Carson is like talking to the guy on a five dollar bill. Like, what are you gonna say to Johnny Carson? How are you? You know what I mean? So, and I went over there and I. And I. And again, I.

[Ryan Sickler]

Move your ass over.

[Jeff Dunham]

Really cringe now because I. I fumbled around a little bit. He asked me a couple questions and it was just awkward as hell. And he asked me about my helicopter. And I showed him a picture and. And then he said, don't you have somebody else here? And I went, yeah, it was Walter behind the couch. So I pull Walter out and I. Walter comes out, I go, you know where you are? And he goes, yeah, I know where we are. I don't give a damn either. He goes, it's Johnny Carson. He goes, well, la dee da. And he looks over at Ed McMahon. And that's when Ed McMahon was doing the Public Publishers Clearinghouse thing, you know, with the mailers, and he do his commercials.

[Ryan Sickler]

I forgot the Million Dollar Sweep, these things. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And he looks over at Ed and he goes, don't you have some envelopes to lick? Like. Like, oh my God, that's great.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And that's when B.B. king laughed really hard. And that's the snapshot, that. Of the moment when Johnny's laughing, BB's laughing, Ed's laughing, and to be sitting on the couch with Walter. And that's one of those moments in life that, yikes, thank God I got canceled two years before. Yeah. So.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, you keep mentioning these helicopters. You're flying a helicopter. So were you a pilot for a company or is this just something you got your license and you're doing? What do you.

[Jeff Dunham]

So in early 19, the early 80s, radio controlled helicopters were a big Deal. Now we have the drones. Anybody can fly them. They're easy as hell. The helicopters were not easy. They were very difficult. And I got into it and in the early 80s and flying the radio control helicopters. And then one time I saw a little ad in a magazine that said, said it said, build your own helicopter, fly it two seater, blah blah, blah. I'm like, what? You could build your own helicopter and fly. So there's a. Experimental aircrafts are, are.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's just laughing that anyone out there could read this and be like, I could build a helicopter.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, yeah, that's right. But eaa, the Experimental Aircraft association is a big deal. The Oshkosh, every year, they have a huge fly in every year here. And so yeah, experimental aircraft. If people knew that you could just build your own airplane, your own helicopter, go fly it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. Yahoos would be everywhere.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, that's, that's what you can do. It's got to be inspected, you know, by the FAA, but so you build a full size at age 24 in 1986, I built, I was their youngest builder pilot ever.

[Ryan Sickler]

And how big are we taught?

[Jeff Dunham]

A full size helicopter? Yeah, it seats two people.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And, and you're doing it by yourself in a barn in Waco, Texas and

[Ryan Sickler]

it's like an adult Legos for lack of a better term. Is that what we're.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, snapping it together at that point. I had never worked on a car. So basically it's a flying car and

[Ryan Sickler]

you're gonna fly this thing.

[Jeff Dunham]

Basically, it's a flying car. It's got a, you know, a force four cylinder reciprocating engine with carburetors, dual carb.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's it cost back then to buy one of these? 10, 20,000?

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh no, no, it was more than that. It was like 30, 35, 000, I think, I think if I remember correctly.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you get one.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And I had saved up my money because I'd been on, on that, on that Broadway show for, for a year. I'd saved up my money. Maybe it was more like 70,000. I got to look back, I still have the contract because on the contract, you know, a next of kin had to sign it because you're. This is dangerous stuff. You know, you could be killed. It says in the contract you could be killed. And so I faked my father's signature. Kind of me brothers and sisters and yeah, I faked my father's signature and I didn't tell my parents about it. I was dating a girl at the time. I dumped her this hell, I almost failed my senior year of college. I just, I was in that Barn literally sometimes 18 hours a day building that helicopter, and I spent probably 2,000 hours building it, I think. And. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

How long, how much time, though? We talk. How much is 2000 hours but for you, is that a year?

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, no, that was like. It was like eight months. It was unheard of.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're just. That's what you're doing.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's all I'm doing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Got it?

[Jeff Dunham]

That's it. And again, I almost failed college my senior year.

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Jeff Dunham]

You.

[Ryan Sickler]

First of all, you had to have a big ass barn. Were you growing up to have a barn the size that can fit this helicopter?

[Jeff Dunham]

One of the guy I was living in an apartment. One of my friends that flew radio control helicopters, whose father's name was Walter, that Walter was named after.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right? Yeah. Hell yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So his barn, he had a hay barn. It was just a four post barn with a roof. That was it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

So he said, come on out, build it there. I'm like, okay. And it was, you know, like five miles from my dorm or from my apartment at Baylor. And yeah, I had fun, but I didn't know how to weld. I didn't know how to do. So. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And then there was another Walter that was friends with that Walter, that was a welder, he old guy, he was a Korean war veteran. He taught me how to weld. And so. And I remember some of the major parts he had to weld on the helicopter kit. I remember calling Stretch was the head lead mechanic at Rotorway was the name of the company. And I would call Stretch. And I go, Stretch. I don't. I don't know if my welds are good enough. And he goes, well, there's one way that you can test your welds. I'm like, okay. He goes, whatever you just welded, put it in your vise, clamp it down really tight. I'm like, okay. It goes to take your biggest hammer and hit it as hard as you can. If the weld holds, you're good.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's it. That's the test.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's it. That's the FAA test for testing if your welding is good enough.

[Ryan Sickler]

I would get this thing three feet up in the air. Hell no.

[Jeff Dunham]

So, but then you have to learn to fly it. So then they add a school too. And there's three phases. First, you don't already know how to fly a real helicopter? No, I learned the whole time you're

[Ryan Sickler]

going and getting the light license and learn. No, no.

[Jeff Dunham]

So when you're. And you don't go for any lessons until you're like 90, done with the helicopter, with the kit, because by the time you finish it, you'll have forgotten everything you learned. And so I went out there at Phoenix, Arizona, took the school. It's a whole week. I look back on this and this was like the greatest time of my life and effort.

[Ryan Sickler]

But it was.

[Jeff Dunham]

You don't realize when you're that age, when you're not married, you don't have a family, you don't realize the freedom and how great it is because you could do anything you want.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, you're staying out of trouble, drug all of it. You're sending that fucking barn.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And so I went out there and I learned to hover. And, and. And then you also learn how to rig the helicopters to get it flying. Because, you know these are flying Swiss watches. You got to get everything just right. And so you learn to rig your ship, how to hang the blades, how to balance everything out. And then you start scoot, literally scooting it around on the ground until you learn the balance. You're scooting the helicopter around and scooting it around until you finally get it. You pick it up an inch or two. That was good. Set it back down. You are teaching yourself to someone in it with you. Well, that's. Out in Phoenix. They teach you to hover. But when you're getting your own. Now you're still. You're a few months after your first lessons, now you're back at home. I go, I kind of remember this and see if I can do this without dumping it over. And rollovers happen all the time when they roll the helicopter over. You've seen those crashes. So I'm sitting there scooting it around on the ground, scooting it around on the ground, and. And finally I get it up in the air, and you're like, no more than three feet in the air. I'm hovering it. Hovering, doing all the maneuvers. And I called stretch. And I go, I got it. And it only been, like, a couple weeks I've been flying. He goes, you got what? I got all the maneuvers that. That you told me to learn to do before I come back for phase two. He goes, you don't have that done yet. I go, I do, too. He goes, send me a videotape. So I sent him a videotape of me hovering. He goes, nobody's done it that fast. I go, it's because of the models. I knew how to do it. I already knew. I had the feel for it, so. And then I went back for phase two, and that's forward flight. And you know how to turn off the engine and still land it and all that stuff. That's called an auto rotation. That's where you turn the engine off in a helicopter. You got one chance to land it, and you do. So cut to now. I had only, like, 30 hours of flying time. I'm not experienced, but I'm really good, I thought.

[Ryan Sickler]

And so it's like comedy and everything. At first, you think you're ready, right?

[Jeff Dunham]

You think you're ready.

[Ryan Sickler]

Now, before you say anything else, how high are these things? Like, is there a limit?

[Jeff Dunham]

No, no. I mean, it depends on the airspace. It's like any aircraft.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you have to let the ffa.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, yeah, you're talking to tower. It depends on the airspace you're in. But I was in Texas in the middle of nowhere. It didn't matter. There's no airspace out there.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you're not calling anyone or.

[Jeff Dunham]

No, I was close to the Waco airport, and the airport I was at was called uncontrolled, meaning there's no tower. You're just looking at other looking, making sure you don't hit anybody, staying in the flight pattern, all that stuff. So. So I'm over corn fields, all that stuff. But the first time you actually go to altitude, you have to take it up to 2,000ft. Chop. Chop the engine. Chop the engine and, and do what's called an auto rotation and get it down to at least 3ft controlled. And then bring the power back in and you're good. You don't have to actually set it on the ground. That's a full on auto rotation. But that's when all the damage happens because you hit too hard. But if you can get down to 3ft and 0 forward speed, you'll walk away no matter how you set it down. Right. So I'd been practicing these auto rotations. I was awesome. And there's something called a360 auto. That's where you chop the engine, turn it over sideways, and turn and you're literally more than you're.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that that fancy term we see?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're like magnum PI and you

[Jeff Dunham]

look out your right window and you're looking at the ground.

[Ryan Sickler]

Ground.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right. And you're. And. And I would corkscrew it down all the way down and. And do that. So I'm out there practicing these with my buddy who had the barn and he's like, we're having a great time. And it's over corn fields. And I got my orientation mixed up. I didn't know which way the wind was coming from. And again, this is this experience thing. I thought I was great. Well, I had it. I got it. I was 180 degrees off. And for anybody who knows anything about flying, you have to fly into the wind because that's just how aeronautics work. The wind. Yeah. You're using the wind as the aircraft thinks it's forward speed. And that's what helps an airplane fly. It helps a helicopter fly. I had 180 degrees off, off. So by the time I got to the end of the auto rotation, when I was supposed to flare and stop and bring back the power, Nope. I was still going 15, 20 miles an hour. I had no lift, nothing left in the blades. Nothing. And I hit and hit and rolled it over.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, you crashed hard.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, crashed.

[Ryan Sickler]

How up were you from the. The.

[Jeff Dunham]

It doesn't matter. I'm going. I'm going 20 miles an hour with zero lift left in the blade.

[Ryan Sickler]

So how do you hit? Like nose down?

[Jeff Dunham]

No, the tail's down. So the tail hit first. First and then it slammed it, you know, the landing gear flat and then it turned sideways. And then we roll. Then we roll over. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And are you in danger of being diced to death by that blade?

[Jeff Dunham]

No, because the good part was this helicopter. They had a really good roll cage on it. It was like. It's like a nascar, you know, you're inside that cage. If you're in the cage, you're okay. And so Keith, my friend, he. He pulled his legs up like a little baby.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, he's in it with you?

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's down there watching.

[Jeff Dunham]

No, he's with me. And again, I'm breaking the law, cuz I didn't. I wasn't a licensed pilot, I shouldn't have a passenger.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's in it with you?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So he pulls his legs up like a baby, which saved him from. Because most people like spread their arms out like, ah. And he got in the fetal position and just, you know, we're in the. We're in the harnesses, so we're fine and. But the one thing I did is I mounted the fire extinguisher up next to my head to get it out of the way, which was not in the plans. They didn't have your word. And I hit my head on that fire extinguisher. Got a little minor, minor concussion. But we were hanging upside down by the time it's done and, And I. And I. Oh, and I hit my Ray Ban sunglasses on that fire extinguisher. Ben them all to hell. And so we were out in the middle of nowhere. Had to hike back five miles. You know, I had to get a tetanus shot later because I got cut on a barbed wire fence. And my pride. Everything's just destroyed. Just absolutely destroyed. And so we got back. Keith wasn't mad at all. He was. We were both just happy to be alive.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So we. We went and got his truck. Truck trailer, hauled it back, went to a place and I didn't drink back then, but. Yeah, we had a couple drinks after that. And so then. But here's the. The part. And this is what I try and part on my kids. When you get thrown off that horse, you have to get back on. You have to. So I called Stretch and ordered all the parts and started rebuilding.

[Ryan Sickler]

You built another one?

[Jeff Dunham]

I rebuilt that one.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, that one. It was. You were able to.

[Jeff Dunham]

There was a. Yeah, there was some. Yeah, there's the engine and all that stuff is still. Okay. So I saved all the parts that were still usable and rebuilt it. And when we left that crash site, I picked my Ray Bans out of the dirt and they were bent and dirty. I put them back in the case, I said, I know what I'm going to do here. So three months later, I had it fully rebuilt, flying again. Three months. That's it, man. That's all I did. Had it rebuilt, had it flying again. The very first time I took it to altitude, I went up to the exact same place, and Keith said this. You should auto rotate down to that exact spot because the odds of the same helicopter crashing in the same spot are nil. So I shut the engine down and auto rotated and landed on that very spot where we crashed. I got my sunglasses out of their case, straightened them out, dusted them off, put them on my face, and flew off into the sunset.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can you fly today? Oh, yeah, you can.

[Jeff Dunham]

I didn't let my medical lapse until a few years ago because now we have twin boys and I got three grown daughters.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't even consider that. You have to have medical and everything.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, just. I just, you know, I use. One time, I flew back to my hangar in Waco, and there was an old guy who was probably in his early 90s. He had an experimental airplane himself. And I came and there were. There was. It was. There were tornado warnings and all this stuff. And I came flying in, sky was green. And I came flying in and landed. The winds were heavy. And he walks over after the rotor stopped, and he goes, you know, every pilot is given a certain amount of luck. You just used up a good portion of yours. I thought, yeah, there's a lot of wisdom in that statement. So I did some crazy stuff. And. Oh, my gosh, some of the places I landed, and Keith and I. One time, there was this girl I wanted to date, and we took like. Like, we took four roses, single roses, all wrapped up, and we circled around. She was. She was out by the pool at a country club, and we made parachutes.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So the first three were all. Because Keith was the bomber and I'm the pilot. And we had to estimate the winds, and we. We'd throw it and the parachute would come out and the rose would float down. It would. Nowhere close. And finally on the last one, he goes, I think I got it. And I said, okay, do the run. And we do the run at like 100ft. Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just solo.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, solo. And so against the law. And this is Waco, Texas. Nobody cares.

[Ryan Sickler]

So finally, it's right there.

[Jeff Dunham]

Finally, on the last one. This is no joke. This is no fish. No fish story here. Not. Not embellishing, as most comedians do on every story. This is not. He threw that Last one, it floated down and literally landed in the chair right next to where she was.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's all I know. Did it work?

[Jeff Dunham]

Nope.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

Absolutely not. Wouldn't to me. She's like, no. That's embarrassing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you know everyone here embarrassed?

[Jeff Dunham]

Y.

[Ryan Sickler]

So good. Y.

[Jeff Dunham]

So it was terrible.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, now, wait. You also just said kids, grandkids. You got all of it going.

[Jeff Dunham]

I have three grown daughters out in the world doing great things right now. One of my. My youngest daughter. My oldest daughter is. I don't even know how to explain this. Okay, what. What. What's the thing called where you call somebody and somebody's list? You know, the service. Kelly's list.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's Angie's list?

[Jeff Dunham]

Angie, Kelly. You know, some chick.

[Ryan Sickler]

So Kelly might have a whole different list.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't know what we're promoting right now.

[Jeff Dunham]

My oldest daughter is somehow the liaison between the people who do the work and the people.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

So. Yeah, but she heads up all the people that do that. So she's doing great. Has three kids. So I have three grandsons.

[Ryan Sickler]

All out here with you?

[Jeff Dunham]

No, they're up in Montana.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

And son and law. He's great. And then my middle daughter is in town here. She's working on. She's works for a production company, so she's on the other side of the camera. She's doing great. And then my youngest daughter, who was the. The most interesting of the three because she was just this great little kid that did not watch the Disney Channel. She wanted to watch the Cartoon Network only. And her favorite movie was always starting at age three was Nightmare Before Christmas. Okay, a little twisted, but she also keeps. She says, dad, stop telling that. She said, I also had a Barbie doll. I'm like, I know. And she. I don't know. She's watched normal stuff, Disney stuff, too, but she's the one that grew up, went to college, became a psychologist, and she is now basically the Clarice of. Of clinical psychology. She interviews the worst horrible people on the planet.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, you're not kidding when you say that she's interviewing the Hannibal Lectors out there.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Ryan Sickler]

And she told you anything? I know they're not allowed to tell

[Jeff Dunham]

a few things and terrifying things, and some things rattle her a lot. And. But I said, there's no shame in changing. You've done this. You prove it. You're a. You're great. If you ever want to change boats midstream, she goes, dad, I love what I do. I'm like, okay. I'm just saying, you Call me every once in a while and says, I know, but that's just part of it. So here's my favorite story with that, though. So, you know, the doctors that all work at this facility, they're not supposed to talk about each other's patients, right? But of course they do. How could you not go to the bar? You know, it's a little bit of therapy for him, I guess. She goes, she said one of her friends goes, hey, you know that guy, my patient? The guy that like, like, killed his mom and was trying to kill the rest of his family and his grandmother killed his grandmother and then was trying to kill the rest of his family. And my daughter goes, yeah. Turns out he's a big fan of your dad. I'm like, oh, no, that's one of the. That's one of those. My favorite.

[Ryan Sickler]

He loves peanut.

[Jeff Dunham]

He loves peanut. I know. I just, like, I laughed. I thought it was great, right? And then for all the wrong reasons. And then the other one, though, that's kind of like that is when Ahmed the dead terrorist came out.

[Ryan Sickler]

Guys, I recently used TaskRabbit for two things. I got an invert chair where I hang upside down and stretch my back and it feels amazing. And I got a vanity for my daughter. These things had about 3, 000 pieces. And I was like, yeah, man. I. I'm just looking at them on the floor. I'm like, I'm not doing this. So I hit uptake. TaskRabbit. All right. Guy came out, put both of them together. All right. TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area for moving furniture, assembly, home repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing. Because Taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, handled 1.5 million moves and counting. I promise you, any kind of these chores I have nowadays, I'm hitting up TaskRabbit. When life happens, your to do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get 15 off your first [e-mail] or on the TaskRabbit app. Using promo code Honeydew, Taskers book up fast, especially for same day tasks. So book trusted home help today. That's 15 off your first task using promo code Honeydew with the TaskRabbit app [e-mail].

[Jeff Dunham]

so this was Ach the dead terrorist came out. This was. So I'll try and do this story real quick. So a year after 9 11, nothing funny about 911. Never will be, right? We didn't know where Osama bin Laden was. Didn't know if he was dead or alive. Didn't know if he was hiding, didn't know anything thing. And I had to look to at that time, Letterman and Leno and what were they saying about all this? Well, they were making fun of Osama bin Laden and the idiots who did all that, right? So I thought, okay, I can do that. So I thought, wait, I know where Osama bin Laden is. He's half dead and he's been hiding out with my characters in the suitcase. So I went to the stores, a store called Oz here in la. And they had, you know, cheapy decorations and all kinds of costumes in that. And I was walking through Oz one time and I saw this bumbling looking, looking plastic skeleton that looked like something out of South Park. Had a big head and a tiny body and it was all crap, blown plastic. And I thought I could turn that into the dead Osama. So I took it home and I, you know, messed it up a little bit, put a beard on him and a thing on his head and, and put glass eyes instead of the, the plastic ones and went, okay, this looks like a dead Osama. So I thought, if I'm going to do this, I have to do this right? I'm not going to chicken out and write some cheap jokes and try it out in Seattle Battle, you know what I mean? I need to pretend that there are members of the audience that lost family members in the attacks. What material would work for them and make them laugh and help them move forward. So I wrote those jokes and I thought again, I'm not going to go somewhere way out in the west coast, far away from where it happened. So I got booked at a comedy club called Bananas, which was three miles from ground zero. And at that time, what year? It was a year after 9, 11. So 2002. And, and at that time I was pretty big in the comedy clubs. I could sell out a comedy club. And it was a Friday night and both soul shows were sold out. And so my audience knew me. It wasn't like, I would hate to be a comic now, where you're just a nobody and you go in a club right now and you try and entertain. What can you talk about if they're not on your side when you immediately walk on stage? Man, it's got to be Tough right now. Gotta be tough. They're judging you from second one, right? But back then, it was like. So they knew who I was. They bought the tickets because it was me, not just because it was a comedy club. So it was my audience. So I go, but it's still New Jersey, New York, right. I'm from California, originally from Texas. So it was two strikes against me. So I go out there, I do my regular 45 minute. It's great. Peanut, Walter, Jose, Jalapeno, everything's great. And then I say, they think it's the end of the show. And I go, oh, by the way, one more thing. I said, there's all. There's one sentence we've all been waiting to hear, and that is, osama bin Laden is dead. And a huge round of applause, Right? Well, I got a surprise for you. He's here tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Osama bin Laden. And it was like God took a vacuum and sucked all the air out of that room. I mean, you could hear a pin drop. It was like, like. And I could hear him thinking, what has this from California brought to us right now? Right? So I pulled this bumbling skeleton out of the suitcase. I started into it. The jokes, I got to pat myself on the back were perfect for that audience in that time. And then that's where I came up with the I kill you thing, right then it was an ad lib, and it could not have gone any better. And I kept doing it and kept doing it and kept doing it. And I started getting, you know, just compliment after compliment of grab. But it went on. I used him for about two years. And then Osama bin Laden fell out of. Out of. Out of the news. We just stopped talking about him. Right. Two, three years. So I stopped doing it. But then come 2007, I'm getting ready for my second Comedy Central special. My first Comedy Central. I kept it kind of. I wanted everybody to enjoy it, so I made it really clean and all. And that. But then it was like, no, on this second one, I want to put some edge to it. I need another character that's something a little. Little edgier. And I thought, you know, the dead Osama was good. But I always want to make my specials evergreen. So you can turn it on in 10 years and still be entertained and not go, oh, he obviously taped it at this date. So I thought instead of. Instead of offending one dangerous guy, I'm going to offend an entire group of dangerous people. So I came up with Ahmed the dead terrorist. And I created this character from scratch and built him and then created a routine that was more evergreen with him. And then that took off like wildfire. And that's when YouTube was coming up. That's when DVDs were huge. It was the. It was a perfect storm. So DVDs, YouTube, the taste of the country. It was the perfect storm. And things just went through the roof. And then we did a. At the Improv in Chicago, we did a song called Jingle Bombs, which was Ahmed's song. And we put that on the Internet. And out of context, Ahmed, if you don't know who he is, looks very offensive. It looks like I'm making fun of Muslims, but in the act, I made it a point of Ahmed saying, I'm not Muslim, I was made in China and look at my ass and use a sticker that says Made in China. Right? So I would make a point. I never, ever want to make fun of anybody's religion ever, ever, ever, ever. That does not. To me, that's a no go place, because that's a personal thing. And it's, you know, so. But you take Ahmed in the state that he looks, and you have him sing Jingle Bombs. It's offensive to some people. And so that's when I started getting death threats.

[Ryan Sickler]

You did?

[Jeff Dunham]

I had to bring the FBI in.

[Ryan Sickler]

Come on, bro.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, and we had extra security because nobody really knew it yet. And so this is. My manager tells me, you know, Robert, he tells me he was talking to the FBI guy, and the FBI goes. Guy goes, okay, let me get this straight. You have a client who has a terrorist puppet who's dead, and he makes fun of what they do, and you want me to do what?

[Ryan Sickler]

Protect him? He's getting death.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right?

[Ryan Sickler]

Security shows. Do you have to do that? No.

[Jeff Dunham]

But the rest of the story makes it a lot better. So now Achmed is out there, the special comes out, the clips start going viral around the world. YouTube is huge, huge, huge. And people start to understand this is just a joke. It's just a stupid joke. He's not making fun of anybody's religion. He's just a goofy, failed terrorist that wanted to kill everybody, but he sucked at it and he blew himself up. That was it. And I started getting word back that guys from Iraq and Iran were sitting around at lunch going, I kill you. Oh, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And then in 2014, I did a world tour all around the world. And like, like, literally 11 countries. We did 40 cities all around. And one of them. So Robert's Telling me, go here. All the countries you're going to go to, including Abu Dhabi. I went, the what? He goes, abu Dhabi. I go, that Abu Dhabi. That's where, like, he goes, yeah, we're the Muslims. I got. You realize that's. He goes, they love you there. I go, they love me because they want to kill me. Are you crazy?

[Ryan Sickler]

They can't wait to have me over.

[Jeff Dunham]

I am not gonna. I'm not gonna do that show. He goes, no, you've already sold out. You've already sold, like, 4,000 tickets. I'm like, no, that's not gonna happen. He goes, oh, it's gonna be great. Just trust me. I'm like, are you going there with me? He goes, like, oh, hell, no. Yeah, all right. I'm telling you all these stories. So. So we do the store, and. And we do all the shows everywhere around, and then we're getting ready to do Abu Dhabi. And I'm terrified. I really am, because I'm like, I don't. This is not. This is not an audience I'm used to. And we go there, and it literally. The front row. I curtain peek. The front row was all the guys in the white dish dash, the women all in black, a few rows behind them.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right?

[Jeff Dunham]

I'm like, oh, my God, what is happening here? And I'm scared to death. So I'm backstage with Audrey, my wife, and I said, okay, when we're taping, this is for, you know, my special. And. And I said, okay, I need the hair stuff, because, you know, the last, like, this shaky stuff. What's it called? You shake on your head. It's like. Yeah, what's it called?

[Ryan Sickler]

I can't remember, but I see it every time I go do something. They have it in your dressing room if you want it. The hair powder? Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So it looks like you don't have bald spots. If you have a little light spot, you. Because the lights will show the light spot. So I have light spots at the back of my head. I want to look bald. So in the front, a little bit, too. So I. And I always have the hair stuff, and I do it myself because I do it better than any makeup artist. And I go, where's the hair stuff? She goes, well, you have it. I go, I know, but I forgot it. You always carry some. She goes, I forgot it, too. I'm like, but I'm. And now I'm already, like, nervous about this audience. Like, I can't go out there with suddenly, you know, one city. I look like I Have hair. And the next city, I have bald spots. I go, I go, well, what are you gonna do? I go, I don't know what I'm gonna do. What are we doing? We're out in the middle of nowhere at this venue where there's no stores. We can't go anywhere. We can go back to the hotel. It's 30 miles back. I'm like, oh, my God, what we're gonna do? She goes, wait, I have this stuff from Starbucks. It's called. It's micro powder. Micro powder. What do they call them? I can't remember what they're called, but it's micro powder. Little powders, little pouches that you open up and you pour it in. It's literally coffee. But it's not freeze dried. It's. Yeah, it's free. Yeah, it's a tiny little pouch, but it's. It's micro. It's like, like powder. And. And it's actual coffee. Not. Not freeze dried actual coffee grounds that you put in a hot coffee.

[Ryan Sickler]

And it's coco, I guess.

[Jeff Dunham]

But it's like. I go. She goes, it's brown. I go, same color as my. Yeah, that might work. So she had some of these things. She pulls them out and I start sprinkling them on my head. I'm like, this is great. This is perfect. It's the perfect color. All right, so now I'm getting ready to go on. I'm getting ready to go on. And

[Ryan Sickler]

no idea if you're about to be assassinated.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Stabbed to death.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's right. Thank you for setting this up. Even better. Robert comes to me and I go, is showtime. He goes, oh, we got to hold the show like 15 minutes. I go, for what? He goes, well, the bomb sniffing dogs haven't finished.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm like, the bomb sniffing.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, yeah. So he said to me. I'm like, so. So I go out there and I'm nervous as hell, but I start the show and they're like, could not have been a better audience. And I saved Achmed to the end because I thought, if I'm going to be killed, at least let's do the first part of the show for sure, right? So I pull out Ahmed and I mean, the roof comes off the place. They were like. And so. But I'm still. I'm still nervous. And so Stu is one of our producers. And Stu's this kind of great guy, kind of neurotic, kind of crazy. Don't get near him. If he's. If he's if he's stressed out. Right. So one of my other. A friend of mine was with us named Jeff Rothman, helps me with jokes. He's a writer, and he. He and Audrey. Stu and Jeff and Audrey are standing watching the monitor. And Stu looks at the monitor. He goes, is Jeff bleeding?

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, no, no, dude. I was gonna make a joke about you sweating and everything.

[Jeff Dunham]

Jeff Rothban goes, look at. He's so deadpan. He's like. He's like, eeyore. He goes, it's coffee. And Stu goes, what? And Stu goes, what? And Jeff goes, it's coffee. And Audrey goes, yeah, it's coffee. Stu's like, coffee. What? What? Are we gonna have to stop the show? He's bleeding. He goes, no, it's coffee. So he hands a towel to Audrey, and he goes, goes, at some point, you need to go out there right now and stop the show, because we can't use this. It look as he's bleeding. So at some point, in the middle of the act, Audrey comes out, and I go, you know, somebody walks up behind stage. It's like. Like, whoa.

[Ryan Sickler]

Especially then. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, yeah, exactly. She goes. She leaves behind me and says, my ear. I go. She goes, the coffee's dripping down your head. And so, yeah, she wipes it off. And. And. And we go on from there. So that was that.

[Ryan Sickler]

I want to go watch it now. See that?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. Well, we did. Obviously edited it out, but.

[Ryan Sickler]

No, but your hair'. That's right, your hair is okay.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, now and then, the final part of this story. This is where I know comedy. This is where one of the proofs to me that we live in a really beautiful world, believe it or not, with all the press, if it bleeds, it leads. It's all terrible news. You get stuck in an elevator with 12 people. 11 of those people are going to be kind souls that want to help each other get out of that damn elevator. And it's the one asshole that ruins it for everybody else. And that's what I think about this world. I think we live in a world of really great, wonderful people. We all want the same things, no matter what. We want good health. We want food on the table for our family. We want a place to sleep. And that's it. We're all the same, no matter what your culture is, except for the handful of crazy morons that want to kill everybody and blah, blah, blah. Because I did that show in Abu Dhabi, those beautiful, wonderful people loved the show. Laughed at all those jokes. Two nights later, I'm in Tel Aviv Israel doing the exact Same show for 4,000 people, almost all of them Jewish. I did not change a single word of that show, except when Ahmed comes out, I go, you know where we are? And he goes nowhere. And I go, tel Aviv. And he looks around, he goes, holy shit. All right. And they laughed. But then the rest of the show was all the same. And those 4,000 Jewish people laughed every bit as hard at every bit of the show that all the Muslims did.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did.

[Jeff Dunham]

And it's like, look how comedy brings us all together. It's just this amazing thing that I get to see the world through rose colored glasses because I'm doing comedy and because people are coming to want to a show and pay good money because they want to laugh.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And it's such this amazing cathartic thing

[Ryan Sickler]

that we get to do that no child hasn't been able to do, that AI has not been able to do because we're geniuses.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, that's the part about the 30,000 hours that you take a dumb guy and if he does something for 30,000 hours, he better well be good at it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right, I want to ask you one more thing before we get you out of here. You and I had a quite a conversation before this that we're not going to get into details on, but at one point, I've been a fan for a long time. I watch, you know, I'm a. I'm a student of the game and I watch the high earners and everything. And you cracked the nut a while ago. You crack it really before, I mean, probably you say it was all perfect timing, YouTube and everything. You're early on and then you go through a divorce.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So in 07, my. I'd come out with my first special and my career was going up, up, up, up, up. And they came out with Spark of Insanity, which is my second special is when I introduced Achmed the dead terrorist. And things literally went out of the stratosphere. You know, there are a handful of things that have surprised me in my career. Career that when I drove that Pathfinder in 1988 to LA that I never dreamed of, one was doing arenas when they said, oh, you're killing it.

[Ryan Sickler]

What's your first arena?

[Jeff Dunham]

I don't remember, but I was, you know, that things were going up and comedy special and all that. And I was doing these big theaters and that was my goal when I was doing the Comedy Magic Club. My, my goal is to, you know, besides being on the Tonight Show, I want to fill up a Theater, I want to do a thousand seats or 2000 seats like Jerry Seinfeld. That's when I wanted to. To do. And then we were selling out these big theaters, and they go, it's time for you to go into an arena. I go, an arena? How am I gonna do a show in arena? Well, we had big video walls, like we do now, a big screen, and it works great. It's fantastic. So, you know, now we're doing, you know, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15,000 people, and it's amazing. So that was one of the first surprises. The second surprise was doing international stuff, and that's where Ahmed got me. And now we're doing shows all over the world, and it's crazy. South Africa, Australia, all over the uk, all over Europe, and in places where English is the second language. And it's amazing how comedy translates, even when your native tongue is not English. So it's. It's amazing. That's the other one. And the other one is a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. How the hell did that.

[Ryan Sickler]

You got one. Yeah, thanks.

[Jeff Dunham]

But that was amazing. So.

[Ryan Sickler]

So life's going great.

[Jeff Dunham]

So things are going great.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, finances. Crushing. Yeah, crushing.

[Jeff Dunham]

A big, big year in your life. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Like, in. In a few years before that, I. I literally almost had to sell the house because I was doing well in the comedy club, but even clubs, and even that started to go downhill. And, you know, I was selling out clubs, but, you know, we'd gotten. My wife and I had gotten a big house and private schools and a couple of nice cars. Living the life. You know, you think when you start making a lot of money, it's going to stay that way all the time. Nope. Every career, every. Every business has its ebbs and flows, and so. But I almost, literally almost had to sell the house until my manager, Judy and Robert went to Comedy Inn Central and said, look, please just air this special. I financed the first special myself, arguing with myself. And they just tried to sell it, and they go, please just air it. And they said, we don't really want it. He's a ventriloquist. And they said, tell you what, we'll give you this guy if you'll put on this guy. They did that trading thing, and they said, okay, we're going to air it one time. So they aired it one time. And I've been all around the country for years, for 20 years doing comedy clubs.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right? That.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, yeah, yeah. It was 18 and a half, 19 years at comedy clubs. Oh, My Lord. And I did my time then the worst clubs and the best clubs. And so I had done it like Leno, where I'd farmed my following just club by club by club, 300, 300 members by 300 members of every audience, bit by bit by bit by bit, had a great following, but nobody knew it until they hear that Comedy Central special. We called them on Monday morning, they said, we said, what were the ratings? And they said, we think there's been a mistake. We'll have to get back to you. And it had been off the charts. And they said they wanted that next special yesterday. So that's when I started doing Sparkman. Sandy got dead. Terrorist career started going straight up. And that's when things in my marriage started to go down. And I found out a few things. And this was literally the lowest point in my life ever. Forget about getting canceled from the Tonight show the first time that paled in comparison whatsoever.

[Ryan Sickler]

And at the time, let me ask, I'm just taking stock here. How many kids do we have?

[Jeff Dunham]

Three girls. And they're all, you know, 10, 12 and, and 14.

[Ryan Sickler]

So not a job.

[Jeff Dunham]

10, 12, and 16.

[Ryan Sickler]

We've got. God. Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

So it was, it was not, not good. And you know, it, it tore me to pieces. And I, I, I'd never canceled shows for any other. I'd only been had to cancel shows from being sick a few times, a couple, like literally three times in my life. And but this, I had to cancel a week of shows because there was no way I was going to walk on stage. It's like, you know, so did that, then got back out on the road, road, and it was awful. And eventually I got through all that and met Audrey.

[Ryan Sickler]

Let me ask you, because even, like, I know for me, at my lowest, I split with my daughter's mom, all those things, for whatever reason, I don't, won't even look into it. Right When I put my feet on that stage for however long I'm there, 15 hour, hour and a half, I don't think about anything.

[Jeff Dunham]

It's amazing, isn't it?

[Ryan Sickler]

And it blows. And I don't even even like, I don't even remember to try to, like, take stock in that. When I'm up there, I'm so present and in this moment and I can't. And then when I leave, I'm like, that was 90 minutes where I didn't think about it. But any other time, all day long, it's every other minute I'm thinking or, you know, so how are you well,

[Jeff Dunham]

my trouble was my family life is woven in and out of my show. And so, you know, and the same thing when my parents, both my, you know, parents passed away and lost mom a couple of three years ago and dad seven, eight years ago ago, and they were part of my stories. And every once in a while I'll do a little slideshow and show pictures. And so those were.

[Ryan Sickler]

That.

[Jeff Dunham]

That was tough. And so getting through some of those stories, I had to edit, you know, edit, edit. Take this joke out. Take this joke out. Walter couldn't do wife jokes anymore. Didn't make any about my wife because he would make fun of me and my wife and. And I had to take all those jokes out.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, is there a part of you anytime during the lowest part that even feels a bit like a fraud? Like, I'm out here doing this and I've got to adjust what, what I say now. It's not.

[Jeff Dunham]

You know what, you're right. Because in the first few shows, I didn't want to change it because I, I had to work through it and figure out how to change it. It's like, you know, I'm going to change this recipe on this chicken. Well, I can't suddenly stop using the salt. I got to figure out what I'm going to substitute the salt with.

[Ryan Sickler]

Chicken still got to be good while we figure out how to change the recipe.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right. So, yeah. So I did do it. I did keep. I forgot now. I did keep those jokes in for a little while and then finally worked them all out because it was live. Yeah. It was all complete lies. Yeah. I like to be genuine with the crowd.

[Ryan Sickler]

And we're in a California here, no fault state. And I've learned from plenty of men here, so. And women too, actually. I do have a friend that was the breadwinner who had a divorce. And the way it works here is, I believe 10, 10 years you have to be married. Yeah. And then after that.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yep. Good luck.

[Ryan Sickler]

50, 50, 50, 50. Regardless of whose fault it is.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. And the bad sad part was this was the biggest, biggest career, money wise, I'd had. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And not to get too into the weeds. It's not your fault.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, I don't know nothing.

[Ryan Sickler]

I hear you.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

The reason it's happening isn't something you did. And now that's correct. This money. So I want to ask you about this because it's new money for you. Y. How does the court system decide what this person who's been with you for X number of years. But this money's only been here for a year. Year.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

What do they get?

[Jeff Dunham]

It's the. Like I said, whatever you made in the last 12 months, that's what they judge it on. Yeah, well, doesn't that.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not the 20 you've been to get.

[Jeff Dunham]

Not the average, right? No, I think maybe it was the last three years. Maybe it was the average. I can't remember what it was three years. I don't remember what it was. I think it was the last 12. I don't remember what it was. All I know was if that had happened a year before, I would have been off a lot better.

[Ryan Sickler]

Terrorists came and blew your life up.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yep. The most important thing in comedy is what time.

[Ryan Sickler]

So and, and then does that, I'm asking genuinely here, legal here, once that happens, is that a one time thing or does that person entitled to.

[Jeff Dunham]

You want to stay out of court because you never know what's going to happen.

[Ryan Sickler]

But does that.

[Jeff Dunham]

It's lawyers doing what lawyers do best. And it dragged on and dragged on and dragged on. They did a great job of dragging it out.

[Ryan Sickler]

But that's alimony.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, sure. There's child support.

[Ryan Sickler]

Go for life.

[Jeff Dunham]

It depends. I'm out of it now. I'm done. I'm done. Yeah. And that was. I was living for that year. It was the same year that I turned 60. Yeah. When I turned 60.

[Ryan Sickler]

What year? How were you when this went down? The divorce?

[Jeff Dunham]

Hold on one second. What is when I turned 60?

[Ryan Sickler]

This few years ago?

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, it went on for a long time. Yeah, it went on for years that I had to pay. Sure, of course. And some guys it goes on forever.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, yeah. And here's the other thing I learned.

[Jeff Dunham]

Oh, oh, she still gets a piece of merchandise.

[Ryan Sickler]

I stopped selling merch. I stopped selling.

[Jeff Dunham]

Is that right?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. I just pull my merch out.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

The. Okay, what happens is if this doesn't happen to you, by the way there,

[Jeff Dunham]

by the way when all this happened, I have to take accountability. There's a reason that happened. I don't know what the reason was.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm not here to judge. I just want to talk X's and O's numbers, that's all. Okay. Yeah. This person who's not at fault is the breadwinner. They pay the other person.

[Jeff Dunham]

Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

What happens if you have a bad year? Does it get readjusted? Like do you have to go into debt to keep giving, doing? No, no.

[Jeff Dunham]

It's like you have to really prove that it's. That it's a burden. And, and it's not working out anymore. But I'm never gonna do that. I would never, I, I thought I go, I'm just gonna quit.

[Ryan Sickler]

So.

[Jeff Dunham]

But then the court would say, no, I remember these arguments. They would say, the court would say, Mr. Dunham.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

You have every ability to make this money.

[Ryan Sickler]

And they've heard this all that. You're not the first people in there. I've heard it all before, bro. Yeah, yeah. So. So that person also, from what I understand, could theoretically just have a long term partner, boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever. Never officially tie the knot and the alimony still keeps coming while they ding, ding, ding, live and frolic in the house that maybe you paid for things like that.

[Jeff Dunham]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And that's when my daughters got smart, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

See, that's the part there too. And so as you said to me, careers going here, personal life goes down,

[Jeff Dunham]

money and everything opposite direction.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I, and see, I say, you know, you look, this is why I really like talking about this show I'm watching. You know, you think, you see all these people, that everything's going wonderful for Jeff Dunham. And it's like, financially things are great right now and everything else is killing.

[Jeff Dunham]

I never, never, I never have considered ending my own life. But at that point, I understood it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Tell me before we wrap up, you're, you said that was obviously the lowest point. What's the lowest you got, got in, in that. Did you tap? You said you took a week off, but are you.

[Jeff Dunham]

I remember standing at DFW waiting for a plane, and my friend Jeff Rothban, the writer, he meets me in Dallas and he looked at me and he goes, wow. And he never says anything like this, you, you don't look good. So, yeah, that was probably the lowest point. And I realized, yep, you're right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Right.

[Jeff Dunham]

But you know Audrey and, and again, I, I, she, Audrey's your wife now. And let me tell you this. So let me, you talk about the, I have to throw in the good part, please.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes.

[Jeff Dunham]

So Judy and I, my, my manager, Judy and Robert, my managers, Judy and I were going to lunch to meet a publicist that is on Sherman in Sherman Oaks. And we agreed on a restaurant and nope, that one's closed. Well, let's go to this one right here. Le Pen. I go, okay. They have lunch and breakfast. Let's go in there. So Judy and I walk in, we sit down, and the waitress walked up to the table. Can I help you? Now, you and I know we meet women all the time. In comedy clubs, wherever we go, whatever we do. I was a point in my career where, you know, I'm talking to all kinds of women here and there and everywhere. And especially at that point, I was so down low, I just wasn't paying any attention to anybody. And this was months after the thing had gone down and this woman walks up to the table and she goes, can I help you? I looked up, up and it was literally like in Bambi, you know, the sun comes out, the clouds part, the birds fly and tweed and the butterflies fly around and the flowers bloom. And I thought, this is the most beautiful soul I have ever seen in my life. And so I made a joke about whatever sweetener she had and left. And then I called my business manager at the time and I go, john, I just met this woman at Le Pen that I can't even describe that feeling when I saw her. And he goes, what are you gonna do? I go, I don't know. So a week later I went back and asked her out and went and had a.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did she know who you were?

[Jeff Dunham]

No. And that's the great part. She had no clue.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's awesome. But then also when she realized, you're

[Jeff Dunham]

gonna love this, I knew. I gave her my dvd.

[Ryan Sickler]

Nuh, that was. And she's married you. And you do got the right one, bro.

[Jeff Dunham]

I gave her the, the spark of insanity. And I called her like a week later and I said, did you watch it? And she goes, oh no, not yet. And I looked on her. Not Facebook. What was it before Facebook?

[Ryan Sickler]

MySpace.

[Jeff Dunham]

MySpace. Looked on her MySpace and her, her favorite comedian was Dane Cook. I'm like, oh my God.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not the same.

[Jeff Dunham]

But her favorite movie movie was the Muppets Christmas Carol.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh. I'm like, there we go. You're in.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So there you go. And then we started dating.

[Ryan Sickler]

And all because the restaurant was closed.

[Jeff Dunham]

That's it. All because the restaurant was closed. Yeah. And in 2000. 2000. Yep. 2012, we got married and now we have twin boys, Jack and James. They're 10 years old. And I, you know, I, I wish anybody out there who's gonna get married that they have what we found. It's, it's amazing. And, and, and I know the one. I know the one thing you're going to ask me now.

[Ryan Sickler]

16 advice you give to 16 year old Jeff Dunham.

[Jeff Dunham]

Honest to goodness, I would tell 16 year old Jeff Dunham, don't change a thing. Because if, if you don't go through some shit, you're not going to be the person you are when you grow up. And so, you know, and if you

[Ryan Sickler]

don't go through this divorce and this ugly mess, you don't meet.

[Jeff Dunham]

I don't meet. Audrey.

[Ryan Sickler]

Audrey.

[Jeff Dunham]

Audrey. And there's no Jack and D. James.

[Ryan Sickler]

None.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah. So. Yeah. And you know, the. The next chapters are yet to be written. Those two little boys are very opposite. Are they? Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Jeff Dunham]

And I have to know how to. How to play with fire.

[Ryan Sickler]

So wait, you're 60? What?

[Jeff Dunham]

63, so.

[Ryan Sickler]

53. My age.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You have twin boys.

[Jeff Dunham]

Twin boys, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you're already pretty much out of the woods, are you not at that point with your other kids?

[Jeff Dunham]

Kids. Oh, yeah. They're done. They're done right back in. Oh, I know. Believe me. My. My. My daughter moved out of My. My youngest daughter moved away off to college and I'm scot free for three months. And then Audrey gave birth to our boys. So who knows? But. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you for doing this. This is a great episode.

[Jeff Dunham]

This is great. You just let me talk so I. I get to tell stories.

[Ryan Sickler]

The show is bro.

[Jeff Dunham]

Well, I appreciate it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you again. Before we wrap it up right there, tell them everything and anything you'd like. Promote it all.

[Jeff Dunham]

Okay. So again, the. The show on Discovery, Jeff Dunham's the Cars that Made us. Please catch that. And after all the air, all eight episodes have aired, I'm sure they're going to have it somewhere where you can. Well, they have repeats and then somewhere you can stream it, I hope. I have no idea. And then go to jeff dunham.com tickets for my. My road show. We're constantly on the road, constantly doing shows, about eight shows a month. Month and some theaters, some arenas. It's always great fun. And people ask me if my show is family friendly. You know my answer? It depends on your family.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's a great answer though, bro. It's a good answer.

[Jeff Dunham]

Yeah, it's probably friendly.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's like. It depends. Yeah, man. Thank you. Thank you for doing this. I genuinely appreciate it. You got it. As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media. We'll talk to you all next week. Ram.