This special was shot in Savannah, Georgia at Lucas Theater. The set (the interior of a haunted mansion) is pretty awesome, though it's not used as much as it could be. Jeff begins the show with some stand-up, talking about how he grew up loving the classic horror characters. He tells an anecdote from his childhood, and talks about teaching his children the joy of scaring people. None of the opening stand-up section is really all that funny, but it's brief. And anyway it's his puppet characters that are the main draw.
Then he begins the main show, which is his ventriloquism act. Before each puppet is brought out, there is a fake horror movie trailer featuring the puppet. The first is Walter (a grumpy old character) as Frankenstein's monster (and so the trailer is a take on the Frankenstein films). Walter says he was told to pick the costume of something that scared him as a child. So Jeff says, "Oh, so for you that was Frankenstein." Walter replies, "Actually, it was a Catholic priest, but..." Some of the material is kind of witty, some of it is not. I like it when Walter says, regarding his wedding, "Well, the worst part was when the minister asked if anyone objected and no one would listen to me." And of course they talk about Halloween.
I've always thought it slightly odd when a ventriloquist laughs at something his dummy says. They make a reference to another puppet, and the audience responds incredibly enthusiastically. Some demented woman actually shakes what looks like a baby doll in excitement. I'm not kidding. (But again, this was shot in Georgia, so...)
The second puppet is named Bubba J., and he's dressed as a white trash vampire. He says stuff like "my coffin has a gun rack" and "I bit my cousin," which is great. But he also says, "My gun rack has a gun rack," a line I swear I've heard before. It seems there are a few other jokes and lines in this that are borrowed from elsewhere. This section has some stuff that works - I'm always amused by golden shower jokes, and I like this: "Hey do you know what the difference is between space aliens and illegal aliens? Occasionally space aliens go back to where they came from." But other material is less amusing.
The next trailer isn't horror; it's a superhero trailer, which doesn't fit with the monster theme. Peanut (the character the audience seems to love the most) enters in a remote-control Batmobile car and is dressed as Batman. This is my least favorite section, but the audience is more enthused by this than the rest (making me really wonder about folks in Georgia). A second puppet, Jose, is brought out, and at this point the material sinks a bit farther, even stooping to fart jokes. Several of them. This segment is saved when Jeff pulls out a third dummy, a miniature version of Jeff himself. I love that he makes fun of himself through a doll making fun of another doll. Perfect.
The fourth trailer is mostly a take-off on Halloween, but also bits of Friday The 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho. And the set is used well for the entrance of the next puppet, Achmed, who is dressed as the scariest thing he could think of - a woman. Achmed is by far my favorite puppet, and not just because he's a transvestite. He's a seriously cool-looking doll, and a hilarious character. This segment is the funniest of the performance. The humor gets a bit racier, edgier. He talks about suicide bombing as a weight-loss program - Achmed lost 200 pounds in just a few seconds. And there are bestiality jokes related to The Silence Of The Lambs. You really can't beat that sort of stuff. So the performance ends with what I feel is the strongest material.
Bonus Features
This DVD has a lot of bonus features. When you click on "Special Features," a voice says, "Special features? More like let's fill up the DVD with crap." That's funny, but this is one DVD whose bonus features (for the most part) are actually truly interesting. The first is called Creating Crankenstein, and shows Jeff creating the head piece for the Walter puppet, a process which surprisingly uses computer scans.
The second bonus feature is Monstrous Mistakes, and yup, it's him screwing up on stage. This is stuff that was obviously cut from the special. And actually some of his improvisation in these moments is really funny.
Tour Of Terror is a five-minute tour of the set (which Jeff calls the "coolest set we've ever had"). It's great to see more of the detail of the set. Minding The Miniatures is a thirteen-minute feature about the creation of the graveyard for the opening of the special. It's really interesting that Jeff Dunham works on all this stuff himself. Also he talks about how he mixes old techniques with new technology, and that he likes to do everything himself (except painting the haunted house, which someone else did). The names on the gravestones are retired dummies.
The fifth bonus feature is Frightening Photos, and is a short segment on the photo shoot for the DVD cover (and getting ice cream from a truck).
The main bonus feature is Monster Movie Magic, which is nearly half an hour of behind-the-scenes footage. Most of it is interesting, with the glaring exception of some nonsense with the haunted house model in the back of a jeep. But there is footage of making the fake trailers for the special, and then more about the haunted house model, which looks great. We get to see a lot of the details, like an axe, a chainsaw, and a working porch light. There is also some footage of the shooting of the haunted house.
There is also a commentary track with Jeff Dunham, Matt McNeil and Kelly Asbury (who directed Shrek 2 and Gnomeo & Juliet). The commentary track, by the way, is not in the "special features" menu, but in the "setup" menu.
Minding The Monsters is scheduled to be released on October 9, 2012. It also airs on Comedy Central on October 7th. (For those with children, the DVD has the option of playing the performance with certain words "bleeped" out. But don't do that - that's lame.)
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