Jeff Dunham talks playing Bridgestone Arena, five decades of comedy

Comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham plays Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on April 14. He does so nearing 50 years as a successful touring performer — and proudly advertises that he has yet to be canceled over something he's said.

Tickets for Dunham's set are available at www.bridgestonearena.com/events/detail/jeff-dunham-3.

Between six Comedy Central specials, and many appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show and countless other performances, he's said a lot.

"I used to tell jokes in an era where being an unedited and unfiltered comedian was expected — people didn't worry so much about the content of my routines," Dunham, 61, said. "Sometimes watching my old material is uncomfortable. However, it makes it hard for me now to discover what is actually funny anymore?"

Dunham's rise to acclaim

Dunham's career commenced in 1976, long after legendary and boundary-pushing comedian Lenny Bruce's 1966 death and the biting routines of performers like Don Rickles gaining favor with cultural tastemakers like Johnny Carson and Frank Sinatra. It was also a time when performers like George Carlin and Steve Martin were only beginning to earn success by erring in the direction of discovering nuanced humor in philosophical intellectualism.

Because Dunham's brand of comedy walked a line closer to Rickles and further from Martin, his work required 25 years of varying levels of acclaim to finally emerge at the top of the comic heap by 2003.

By 2009, he was rumored to be earning approximately $30 million a year by selling out the equivalent of small arenas worldwide twice a week throughout the decade.

He speaks with great fondness about being able to "freely say whatever (he) wanted" about anything via a one-sided conversation as civilization's "pinnacle."

To Dunham, the "sanctity" of the art he presents is defined by the immense pressure he places upon the value of his fans expressing their democratic freedom by paying money to hear him uniquely present entertaining views on society.

Ventriloquism's impact on his career

Regarding how he presents those views, he dives into a deeper conversation about how his ventriloquism skills allow him to have an on-stage sounding board for his thoughts to resonate alongside the crowd's responses.

"Having conversations about things that some people may feel are 'not quite right' is easier when relatable, stereotype-driven characters are involved. Anger, conflict, frustration—any emotion, honestly—can be discussed with humor," adds Dunham.

Even deeper, he dives into the two decades he's presented jokes alongside his character "Achmed the Dead Terrorist," who embodies a failed suicide bomber's skeleton.

In the decade between the 9/11 bombings and Osama bin Laden's 2011 death, Dunham satirized terrorism to the tune of almost a half-billion YouTube views, plus a 2014 comedy special on CMT.

"My brand of humor was important for people who lost family members because of the attack and might have desperately needed a laugh to help move on with their lives," says Dunham, who boldly played hourlong sold-out shows in comedy clubs within ten miles of Ground Zero.

"Sometimes it was like God put a vacuum cleaner on top of the room and sucked out all of the air," he says. "Other times, people laughed so hard and it was an incredible reaction. Sometimes the most offensive thing to say is also the funniest."

Dunham on comedy's modern era

Dunham's forthcoming sets reflect him, as he has for 15 years, essentially refitting the five-minute comic sets that spurred him to stardom as one of the final comedians to springboard to success via Johnny Carson's star-making co-sign on The Tonight Show.

"The formula is still all about being a great storyteller achieving a laugh every ten seconds," says Dunham.

"Wait a half a second too long and you look like you're dying up there."

When asked what defines the "pinnacle" of humor in America's most divided and "not quite right" era, Dunham pauses for ten seconds—however, it's not accompanied by a laugh.

His answer invokes the description that United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart used for his obscenity threshold test in 1964's Jacobellis v. Ohio Supreme Court case.

"I don't have that answer," he says, "but I'll laugh whenever I see it."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jeff Dunham talks playing Bridgestone Arena, five decades of comedic success