Laughing is the Best Medicine

A.R. is a fan of the ventriloquist/comedian Jeff Dunham and I found out that he was bringing his show to Hartford this year, so for Christmas I hooked up my loving husband with two tickets to the show. He was supposed to go with his brother, who is also a fan, but something came up and I got to go along to the show instead.

Walter- the grumpy old man with Jeff Dunham

I was a bit leery about going considering I'm now in my 9th month of pregnancy and rather uncomfortable (read: "the size of a whale"), but the show turned out to be HILARIOUS and the Civic Center wasn't completely horrible. The line for the ladies room was my first annoyance and then climbing the stairs to our seat was pretty crappy. The stairs were made worse by the fact that I waited so long in the bathroom line that by the time I made it into the arena, the opening act was on and the lights were out so seeing the seat rows and numbers was nearly impossible. We found what we thought was our row and seats, but they were occupied. The lady in my seat actually got annoyed with me and told me I was blocking her view of the stage. I just stared at her and we went back down the stairs to check with the security guard that we were indeed in the right place. We were. I huffed and puffed up the stairs AGAIN and the lady wouldn't budge. Fortunately, a gentlemen in the next section noticed the hoopla and came over to tell us the two seats next to him were empty so we just sat there. Well, intermission time came and low and behold the people whose seats we had sat in came.

Achmed- everyone's favorite terrorist with Jeff Dunham

A.R. and I then had the immense pleasure of reconfronting the lady in our seats and showing her our tickets. The obnoxious lady then had the gall to act all sweet and innocent (after telling me previously I was blocking her view of the stage standing in the aisle huffing and puffing as she tried to watch the opening act from my seat!) and say, "Oh, we're sorry. We don't know where our seats are. We just sat down here." Yes, I'm hormonal..and it took every ounce of my resolve to not push her down the stairs as she left and I had yet another semi-painful Braxton Hicks contraction from having exerted too much energy walking the stairs twice.

Peanut with Jeff Dunham

Anyway, we got our seats and then the show began...and it was hilarious. Jeff Dunham is a very talented man! He even sang (really well) with his puppet called Peanut. All of his skits were hilarious. During his skit with the puppet called, Achmed- Everyone's favorite terrorist, he had me in tears it was so funny. We also got to see Walter (his grumpy old man puppet) and Bubba J came out as the finale. It is really amazing how Jeff really makes you feel like two people are on the stage instead of just a puppet and some weird guy who calls himself a ventriloquist. He shared with the audience that this was his 2nd trip to Hartford. A mere two years ago he had a show at the Bushnell with only 2,400 in the audience. My how far he has come when two years later he's performing for 10,500 audience members in a sold out arena!

Bubb J with Jeff Dunham