In his youth, comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham discovered that the Internal Revenue Service was "not your best friend."
At the tender age of 11, Dunham began performing his now-famous puppet-based stand-up routines at birthday parties, church shows and banquets and making considerable sums of money from it.
All was well ... until he was audited.
"Dad was filing all of the taxes," says Dunham, 45, "but got a little generous with the deductions."
Although the entire debacle was alleviated thanks to his father's reassuring call to the IRS, for Dunham, the whole situation served as a bit of an eye-opening introduction to adult life.
Since then, the jocular puppet master hasn't experienced any tax-based difficulties on the road to comedic stardom.
He's steadily moved from selling out ballrooms and comedy clubs to entire theatres and opera houses.
Bringing his punchline-spewing puppets to the Lyric Opera House tomorrow, Dunham admits that he's escaped the kind of public scrutiny often directed at solo comedians who specialize in an occasionally raunchy and politically incorrect brand of comedy.
Unlike other solo acts, Dunham has a trump card of sorts, or as he puts it, "a secret ray gun."
"I get away with things that are unbelievable. It all comes back on me, because most of the time I am making fun of myself," he says. "It gives you more creative license when a puppet is picking on you."
Dunham has steadily built his puppet posse over the years. Some of his rotating cast of characters include Walter -- a disgruntled and grumpy old man; Bubba J. -- an outlandish stereotypical Midwesterner who was married at Wal-Mart; and Achmed the dead terrorist -- a suicide bomber who was the victim of an explosion that was his own creation.
These characters (and a few others) have been used by Dunham as a vehicle to deliver the poignant and potentially offensive one-liners. Although he used to experience some dissent among his crowd, he hasn't experienced any hecklers in quite awhile.
Dunham attributes it to the vicious and unrelenting sarcasm that his puppets project on heckling audience members.
"Most people can have a sense of humor about it," he says. "If someone gets angry, they will be made fun of -- by the puppet, of course."
Most have had more of a sense of humor about Dunham's act, including those overseas. His routine with Achmed the dead terrorist, featured in his 2007 DVD Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity, has received more than 32 million views on YouTube and is popular on the Google search engine -- with most hits coming from South African, European and Scandinavian countries.
But despite foreign appeal, Dunham says he's set on touring the U.S. as much as possible.
"There are so many places in our country that we haven't played. Selling out New York City and Baltimore is one thing, but we just saw enormous, diverse crowds in Appleton, Wis., and Boise, Idaho," he says. "Sure, we've talked about going abroad, but then again, if you have a farm in Texas, why go to Alaska?
brad.schleicher@baltsun.com
Jeff Dunham will perform at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Admission is $37.50. Ticket availability may be limited; go to the Lyric box office, call 410-547-7328 or go to ticketmaster.com.