Special to the Pioneer Times
HOULTON – Approximately 5,000 people attended Jeff Dunham’s performances last Saturday at the Millar Civic Center. Dunham is a comedian and ventriloquist who has been featured on Comedy Central and has two DVDs out for sale, Spark of Insanity (2007) and Arguing with Myself (2006).
Comedy fans traveled from throughout New England and Maritime Canada to attend the event. Hotels from Millinocket to Presque Isle were booked, and local restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores enjoyed the influx of business. The civic center held two sold out shows, which each seated 2,500 people. Proceeds from the event will go toward the 2008 Agricultural Fair.
“I would bet that 80 to 90 percent were people that came from out of town,” said Paul Cleary, of the Houlton Agriculture Fair board of directors.
According to Cleary, people traveling from Portland and elsewhere couldn’t believe they had to travel north to Houlton for a Jeff Dunham show.
“We do this every year, and it seems that each year we get more and more people who travel from out of town,” Cleary added, “We all complain about having nothing to do in Houlton, but then we have people coming up from Portland for this show.”
Dunham began his act by explaining his awe upon arriving in Houlton and seeing snow on the ground.
“We’re from L.A., so we were thinking, ‘Where are we, Greenland?’”
But Dunham then interrupted the show because of sound problems.
“These people paid good money to be here – we need to fix this,” Dunham said, addressing the soundboard to the rear of the arena.
Dunham even left the stage to walk through the crowd and investigate the sound problems himself. Still holding his microphone, Dunham’s disembodied voice then declared:
“I know what the problem is – we’re in a [expletive deleted] hockey rink!”
The audience responded with laugher and applause. Several minutes later, Dunham returned to the stage and resumed his act, although the sound still wasn’t ideal. The sound problems were remedied before the second show, however.
The first puppet Dunham pulled out was his character Walter, a cantankerous old man, with whom Dunham continued to poke fun at the far-flung northern Maine locale.
“Did you lose a bet?” Walter asked.
Dunham explained that it was a big show: 2,500 people were attending two shows, for a total of 5,000.
“What’s the population of Houlton?” Walter asked.
“Six thousand,” Dunham replied.
Dunham also continued having fun gently mocking the hockey arena-turned-performance hall. The ice is gone because the hockey season is over, he explained to Walter.
“What is it now, puppet season?” Walter asked.
Despite the rough start, the audience warmly received the show.
For an encore, Dunham pulled out a local favorite, Bubba Jay. Bubba Jay’s first words, “I’m home!” were met with enthusiastic roars of cheers and applause. Dunham explained that he’d received requests for the character, although he hadn’t performed with him for some time. The lack of rehearsal didn’t seem to matter, though, when the audience began recited punch lines along with Bubba Jay/Dunham.
“This is one of the weirdest show’s we’ve ever done,” Dunham said.
