The Unneeded F...

Mary Catherine and I were in Raleigh two days ago, to see Jeff Dunham... If you've seen many of his shows, or clips on YouTube (and I may have posted a couple here in the past), you'll get the joke with the post title... For those not in the know... look up the routines with Peanut (or get the "Spark of Insanity" DVD... you'll laugh your head off. Just be sure to pick it up again, so you can laugh some more). Here is the recap...

(** Note - I did not take a real camera with me, but I was moved to take a few pictures with my phone, just for the purpose of using them here... Picture qualities not the greatest for that reason...)

We popped out to Raleigh early, and hung out at the mall - window shopping and catching up with Chris, even doing lunch. In the process, this sand sculpture was on display inside the mall:

Which leads me to say: Go Canes!

We got to the RBC Center, which was set up for about 2/3 occupancy for the event (large black sheets hanging for an endstage setup. Our tickets were for section 4, on the floor... and one of the staff led us to our seats... As it turned out, though, he seated us wrong, and put us in section 7... once this was discovered, another individual led us further forward to our real seats.

The opening act was "Guitar Guy" Brian Haner (who, it turns out... as he mentioned during his 30-ish minute set, is the father of Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold)... Not too bad, including a number where he plays in several rock styles (including Van Halen, and Hendricks - complete with behind the head playing).

After a brief intermission, Duhnam took the stage at about 6pm, with a short solo routine (telling of a story that happened when flying to a west coast gig... about having to land at an alternate airstrip [due to weather], that turned out to be part of a military installation)...

After the solo section, out came Walter.

Followed by Achmed (which included the bluesy song, "Blow Myself Up Blues" with Guitar Guy).

Peanut was next, with a brief appearance by Jose Jalapeno (on a stick). After burning up a "Taste of China, taste like Fish" joke (try saying it in the stereotypical manner of folks working at a Chinese restaurant, and you'll shake your head when you get it), Guitar Guy came back out to provide some more musical accompaniment.

For his encore, he came back out bearing Bubba J - whose two favorite sports are "watchin' NASCAR and drinkin' beer". He said he had gotten so many emails (which MC was curious if it was after a show he did in the last two months out in Winston Salem) about not seeing Bubba J, that he felt he had to bring him out.

The creepy (cool) thing was when he started going through his routine - which he admitted was rusty, since he hadn't been using Bubba J regularly lately. As he would ask the questions, most of the crowd would repeat Bubba J's response back to him. He played it off well, with Bubba J commenting "it feels like we're at some kinda church or sum'n... Communion will be Budwiser and Corn Dogs.... and I will now read from the Book of Bubba, chapter 4, verse 5..." (I think he used different chapter/verse numbers, but you get the idea)...

Afterwards, he came out with some t-shirt shooting air guns (and Guitar Guy was sporting a Hurricanes' jersey), launching 8-9 shirts around the stadium (including getting some all the way to the back upper deck).

All told, his set ran for almost 2 hours (about an hour and 45 minutes, and another 10 minutes or so to pop off the t-shirts). We waited for traffic to thin out a little bit before making out way back to the car, and heading home. We were both tired by the the time we got home, but it was worth it.

In talking with other people the next day (yesterday), people were asking about our tickets. I had gotten them back in November/December at a very reasonable price. By the timepeople were looking at similar seats on the day before the event, they were going for upwards of four times the price I had paid. Ahh, yes... the joys of planning things months in advance...

Walter Moment...

I've mentioned before (here) that I think that Jeff Dunham is hilarious... MC and I picked up copies of his DVD specials the other weekend, while visiting her parents. Watching the whole routine flow together is much (much) better than just watching dubbed versions from YouTube. Natch.

For those that are unaware of Dunham's characters (what kind of rock have you been under? Really, mine was in a granite quarry, I think, until a couple of months ago, so what kind is yours?), there is one of his staples that is named Walter. In one of his specials (Arguing with Myself), he introduces his segment with Walter by saying, "We all know someone like this." And we do... actually, I think there's a little Walter in each of us. He's the crotchety old man that seems pissed at the world - a Mr. Wilson (from Dennis the Mennace). Walter Matheau before he found Sophia Loren (watch the movie)... you get the idea.

I've taken to calling my crabby episodes "Walter Moments" because of that, and I recently had one while here at work... which I recount below.

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All day long I answer phone calls - some people are easy to understand, and some are not. Some are a well-spring of information, willing to offer up epic upon epic recount of their family (or personal) history without even knowing, really, who they are talking to. Others, however, are quite the opposite.


I received a call for the OB/GYN office, where the patient wanted to leave a message for a nurse to call her. "She was supposed to have been calling me since last week, and I haven't heard nothing." (Yes, that's the kind of language I get to hear all day... as an English major it really grates me, but I digress.) I offered to take another note (since there was no "open" document at first glance, showing that a nurse was working on anything for the patient), and when I asked what it was regarding, the patient refused to say anything, just that she wanted to talk to the nurse. Eventually, the patient said, "Forget it" and hung up. (Side note: I ask because it's required, not because I want to know the intimate details. It's all about prioritizing calls - if someone just sees "has questions" or some other generic statment with no supporting details to prepare for the call, they are less inclined to worry about it, compared to a message that has four lines of information - it's called human nature.)


I looked down the chart and saw the note from her previous call. There was still the "would not specify information" issue, but I was looking more for the nurse notes. A nurse had tried calling, a couple of times. The numbers that had been provided - rang back as "No longer in service."


"Moron," I muttered as I read that information. Walter would be proud.

Comedy... with Puppets!

We ended up having a discussion at work the other day, and someone mentioned having a deep rooted fear of dolls. She doesn't mind scary movies, but give her any of the Child's Play series, or the Puppet Master series, and it's no good.

I mean, what is there to be scared of with this guy?

So, in all fairness, I sent this same person a couple of videos that I was exposed to over the weekend. Mary Catherine has been talking to me about this guy for a couple of weeks, a comedian ventriloquist. I thought some of them were hilarious, so I share them here.

His name if Jeff Dunham, and there are lots of videos out on YouTube. These are but two...

Peanut and Jose Jalepeno


And... Achmed the Dead Terrorist


Enjoy!