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Ford Center venue opening November 2011 located in Downtown Evansville (replaces Roberts Stadium) |
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JEFF DUNHAM(comedian/ventriloquist) Wednesday February 1 at 7:30 PM Ford Center Find Tickets Time Magazine's most popular comedian will be making the Ford Center laugh on February 1st. His television specials and series have been the highest rated programming in Comedy Central history, his DVD sales have reached seven million units, his videos have received a half a billion views on You Tube, and his live concerts have become mega-events played in front of sold-out arenas worldwide. Dunham has, of course, plenty of help on-stage: his entourage of signature characters who are there to challenge and chastise his every sentence. There.s Walter, the grumpy retiree; the beer-swilling, NASCAR-loving and resolutely red neck Bubba J; the furry and manic Peanut; José Jalapeño, the spicy pepper from South of the border; and the bumbling skeletal Achmed the Dead Terrorist. They may have all been conceived and hand crafted by Dunham, but his characters, who are anything but dummies, have now taken on a life of their own, each with their own legion of fans. Today, Dunham.s global appeal is undeniable. He was named top-grossing live comedy act in the world in 2009 and 2010 by Pollstar, the concert industry trade magazine. He has sold-out stadium-sized shows across three continents, from the United Kingdom to Sydney, Toronto to Copenhagen. He sold-out an 8,000 seat hockey arena in Helsinki, Finland on Easter Sunday, and Dunham doesn.t speak a word of Finnish. Or Swedish. Or Norwegian. Or Afrikaan, which are the official languages of some of the countries he has visited. There is universal appeal to Dunham.s relationship with his characters that transcends any small gaps in language translation. His limited-series commitment, .The Jeff Dunham Show,. premiered as the highest rated series in Comedy Central history with 5.3 million viewers in its initial airing. The DVD was released in May of 2010 and sold more than 100,000 units within the first four weeks. Dunham maintains a unique multi-year, multi-platform distribution arrangement with Comedy Central, content partnerships with YouTube (where his Achmed clip is in the top twenty most all-time viewed and video designated as a favorite), Amazon.com, and iTunes. As an entertainer, Jeff Dunham has truly impacted popular culture, and his character catchphrases, such as Achmed's "Silence! I Keel You!" and José Jalapeño.s "On A Steek!'", are now part of our vernacular, much to the delight of multi-generational audiences worldwide.
"That's the core of our group, how we started," says Dave Haywood, harmony singer and multi-instrumentalist. "What spawned our friendship was that special writing chemistry. That's when we are the happiest, just sitting in a room together making music." "Maybe it's a self preservation kind of thing," agrees co-lead singer Hillary Scott. "Especially on the road we have to work to nurture our relationship. I write so much from about what is happening in my life and the people closest to me, so knowing my friends care about what is going on in my life outside of Lady A, makes me more likely pour it all out into a song." "Writing lets us chill and slow down a bit," says Charles Kelley whose edgy lead vocals merge and weave with Hillary's velvet tone." The group's second album, Need You Now (released Jan. 2010) took the band to an even larger audience. To date the album has sold over five million copies worldwide, spawning three multi-week No. 1 hits ("Need You Now," "American Honey" and "Our Kind of Love"), and scored five Grammy Awards. It has also received over a dozen other award show trophies. "Need You Now" introduced the world, outside North America, to Lady Antebellum. The single was a huge airplay hit around the globe, reaching the No. 1 spot in numerous markets and achieving Top 5 Airplay in 30 countries world-wide. The album has sold in excess of one million units outside the US, and "Need You Now" remains in the airplay charts more than 18 months since release. "We never expected to be thrust into the international spotlight in the way that we were.from the success of just one song," says Kelley. "It was six months or so after the album came out that we were finally able to go play overseas. When we got there, we were floored at the life that 'Need You Now' had taken on. The power of that one song really changed the scope of our entire career at home and in all these places we had only dreamed of playing."
TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA
VINCE GILL & AMY GRANT Vince Gill looks forward to his annual Christmas tour with wife Amy Grant, but perhaps not for the reasons you might imagine. .I like Christmas songs and all, but are you kidding me? I get to ride around on a bus with my wife? That.s 80 percent of the reason I do this,. he tells Country Weekly with a hearty laugh. "Trust me, I'm a guy." All joking aside, the pair's 12 Days of Christmas Tour, has special meaning for Vince and Amy.
"It's really sentimental to us because it.s how we first met-doing Christmas music," he says of their first meeting at a taping for his television
special Christmas With Vince Gill. .We met in .93 and were crazy about each other. [I thought] "This could be a great friend right here."
"It has a real sentiment to us and she just adores this music," Vince continues. "She's far more steeped in it and loving of it and knowing it-all
that stuff-than I am. I like it, but I'd rather be playing really loud," he says with a laugh, before allowing, "It's fun. At the end of the year I
get to go out and be a crooner and sing these beautiful songs with these great melodies, and I really like the majority of the great [Christmas]
classics. People like the familiarity of it and it's got a bit of reverence to it."
There's another reason as well, Vince admits. "It's always fun to see people in a red sweater and some slacks instead of a wife beater and a pair of
shorts," he says with a laugh.
The show features a mixture of well-known Christmas songs as well as some non-holiday material. .It won.t be all be Christmas, Christmas, Christmas,.
Vince reports. "There will be a few things in there that are just sentimental and pretty. [Amy's] really, really grand at this, putting this kind of
night together."
STRAIGHT NO CHASER If the phrase "male a cappella group" conjures up an image of students in blue blazers, ties, and khakis singing traditional college songs on ivied campuses. think again. Straight No Chaser are neither strait-laced nor straight-faced, but neither are they vaudeville-style kitsch. Originally formed over a dozen years ago while students together at Indiana University, Straight No Chaser has reassembled and reemerged as a phenomenon . with a massive fan base, more than 20 million views on YouTube, and numerous national TV appearances. On the road, Straight No Chaser has built a reputation as an unforgettable live act.
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