51237811If you ever wondered how Jeff Dunham went from an 8-year-old aspiring ventriloquist to the third highest earning comedian in America and the star of his own Comedy Central series, The New York Times Magazine recently ran a lengthy profile of Dunham that should answer all of your questions. And did I mention it features an appearance by Bobby Bacala? It does!

By the mid-90s, after moving to Los Angeles, Dunham was appearing on late-night television and headlining the Improv chain of comedy clubs. “In those days, he’d just started doing the old-man puppet, and he would knock ’em dead every night,” Steve Schirripa, who used to book Dunham at the Improv in Las Vegas, told me. Schirripa, best known for playing Bobby Baccalieri on “The Sopranos,” said it wasn’t surprising that when Dunham was finally given a shot on Comedy Central, he pulled monstrous ratings. Rooms in Vegas are microcosms of national television audiences — people from all over the country, looking to be entertained in a relatively unchallenging way. “Some stand-ups from New York or L.A. die a thousand deaths in Vegas,” Schirripa said. “They’re alternative, they’re artists. They’re too hip for the room.” Dunham, on the other hand, “didn’t even look like he was an entertainer. He looked like a regular guy, like he could work the front desk at one of the hotels or manage the coffee shop. It was a clean act with a puppet.”

That's all well and good, but what does Furio have to say? And what's Feech La Manna think? I like The Sopranos!

Like I said, it's a long and in-depth article, so you should really read the whole thing.

And be sure to tune-in for an all-new episode of The Jeff Dunham Show this Thursday at 9pm / 8c. There's a preview after the jump.