Jeff Dunham to speak to National Press Club today
Jeff Dunham – hailed by Time magazine as “perhaps the most popular comedian in the U.S.” -meets the press today when he and his comedic sidekicks appear as a prestigious newsmaker speaker at the National Press Club, the world’s largest professional organization for journalists.
According to a news release, the invitation to speak at the dinner is part of a month filled with such high-profile events for Dunham as he nears the premiere of his Comedy Central TV series “The Jeff Dunham Show” on Oct. 22.
The ventriloquist also will make a cameo appearance on the Emmy Award-winning Best Comedy “30 Rock” on NBC on Oct. 29.
The National Press Club invites speakers to address its members on such criteria as their newsworthiness and national or international stature, and generally are high-level decision-makers or extremely influential setters of policy and trends. Dunham joins such recent speakers as Sen. John Kerry, Congressmen Barney Frank and John Conyers, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, and “The Wire” creator and former journalist David Simon. Since 1932, more heads of state and government have appeared at the National Press Club than any other forum in the world outside the Oval Office of the White House, including every sitting U.S. president. Newsmakers luncheons also occasionally feature superstar entertainers like Oklahoman Toby Keith and Billy Joel.
Dunham has certainly become a newsmaker and influential trendsetter in recent years. Recently named to Forbes magazine¹s Celebrity 100 list, he has been rated as “America’s favorite comedian” by Slate and the top-grossing live comedy act in North America by Pollstar. Dunham has sold an astounding 4 million-plus copies of his three DVD titles (as compared with average stand-up comedy DVD sales of 35,000) and racked up 350 million worldwide views of his clips on You Tube and other Internet sites.
He earned the most-watched show ever on Comedy Central with his holiday show “A Very Special Christmas Special,” drawing 6.6 million viewers to its debut, and recently struck a multi-platform deal with Comedy Central and content partnerships with iTunes and Amazon.com. Next year will see the publication by Dutton of his unique autobiography, “All By My Selves: Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me,” in which the comedian and his characters tell his life story.
“The Jeff Dunham Show” is an innovative “comedy reality” series on which Dunham and his suitcase posse of comedic partners interact with real people in actual locations to hilarious results.
His “30 Rock” appearance finds Dunham joining such other notables as former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Anniston and Calvin Klein who have done cameos on the critically-acclaimed show. Dunham caps 2009 with his first-ever tour of Australia.
-BAM
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