Day: June 1, 2009

You can quibble all you want about Jeff Dunham and the relative credibility as ventriloquists within the comedy community. But when I read the latest issue of Time magazine, which devotes a one-page profile to Dunham, I couldn't help but notice when he said that as a club comic, working four nights a week, 40 weeks a year: "I was making between $600,000 and a million a year. I knew if we could let the masses see it and not just the comedy-club fans, then it would explode." That's right. Jeff Dunham was making millions before "the masses" (read: the mainstream media) cared about him. How many other professions in the performing arts get such short shrift? Oh, also, file this throwaway comment under things Shecky Magazine might say for $100: Why did the reporter tell us that at 200 million views, Dunham's bit with "Achmed the terrorist" has been viewed "more even than footage of style-deprived singer Susan Boyle"??? Considering Dunham's video has been online for more than a year, and Boyle's barely a month, we should certainly hope the former has more views than the latter, or else why are you profiling him in your newsweekly...

Jon Lovitz opened the doors last weekend on the Los Angeles comedy club that bears his name and carries a theme of a tropical beach, complete with leis for the audience members. The Jon Lovitz Comedy Club operates out of the Universal CityWalk complex at Universal Studios Hollywood, with shows booked only for weekends for now. This month's headliners: John Caparulo, Kyle Cease and Brad Williams. Guess he got out of his "lifetime contract" with Jamie Masada at the Laugh Factory? While we figure that one out, let's see how the local TV news covered the opening, with appearances by Dana Carvey and Judy...