FOR three decades US comedian David Strassman has been a staple on Australian television using his sneaky sidekick Chuck Wood and band of puppets to reinvent the art of ventriloquism.

“Australia is my second home. I played on every TV show there was from What’s Cooking to Bert Newton. I’ve ingratiated myself to four generations of Australians now,” Strassman said.

“I even did the Hey Hey It’s Saturday 100th Anniversary with Daryl (Somers) a month ago.

“I’ve been playing here since 1992. I just know the Aussie culture and I make a lot of fun and Aussie references in the show.”

Since the late 1970s Strassman has been performing the comedy clubs of New York City and after appearing on US television, regularly toured New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland and Australia.

During the past two years Strassman’s iconic characters have been packed away as COVID lockdowns put his show on hold, forcing him to divert his attention to create a podcast on paleontology called Paleo Nerds.

Talking to the Guardian and Tribune from Townsville at the start of his Queensland tour, Strassman said Australia was the obvious choice to get his show back on the road.

“Australians are clever compared to American audiences. I really appreciate their ability to catch good, clever material. It’s really great and I have so much fun doing it,” he said.

“It’s been a while. The pandemic has put a big huge two year postponement on everything and so I can’t wait to come back.

“You can’t sit still. We started in Tassie a month ago and now we’re playing to Queensland and we’ll end up in Sydney and then we’ve got a huge tour later on this year and we’re back in the game.”

Strassman’s show comes to the Ipswich Civic Centre on June 16.

“I can’t wait to come back to Ipswich. Before I ever played it we made Ipswich the butt of the Brissie jokes and then when I played there, I went, ‘My God, this is great’,” he said.

“[Ipswich Civic Centre] is a beautiful venue and we stay in Ipswich [when touring]. We don’t stay in Brissie. We actually stay in Ipswich so we always get to experience the city. It’s great.”

The art of ventriloquism has always struck a chord with Australian audiences from Ron Blaskett and his puppet Gerry Gee in the 1950s to Chris Kirby and his bespectacled puppet Terry in the 1960s and ’70s.

Both puppets became icons of Australian television thanks to the artistry of Blaskett and Kirby. The fame was such that the puppet Gerry Gee sold to a mystery buyer for $17,000 in 1998 after 40 years of shows.

Strassman said comedy and special effects were the key to him being able to bring the art of ventriloquism into the 21^st Century.

“A ventriloquist is either brilliant or they suck. There’s no way around that. Same thing with a juggler and same thing with a mime,” he said.

“What I’ve done is I treat the characters as though they are characters in a play rather than objects of entertainment.

“They all have their hopes, dreams, fears, foibles, neuroses and interpersonal relations. And that’s how my show is fully fleshed out and not just a demonstration of an artform.”

Strassman’s latest show the Chocolate Diet completed a sold-out 20 city tour in 2019, lauded for the comedy and jaw dropping puppetronics.

“It’s really just a fantastic show about all our dietary desires. Don’t come to the show hungry,” he said.

The Chocolate Diet is a look at our obsession with sweets and lollies, a send up of our failed diets, and Ted E. Bare's drama with his self-image and addiction to chocolate.

The problem is getting worse, especially with the sneaky and evil Chuck Wood leaving tempting donuts around. Meanwhile, Chuck has his own amusing personal drama, a sneaking suspicion that he was carved out of the wrong piece of wood.

“I do work with a writer. I have a collaborative team. In a lot of shows I improvise during the performance and add new bits every night and take out the bits that suck,” Strassman said.

“I’ve got a great crew and we joke about sick things during the tours and that ends up getting in the show. So it’s a collaborative effort.

“The bottom line is it is so much fun being a grown man playing with dolls.”

* David Strassman’s The Chocolate Diet comes to the Ipswich Civic Centre on June 16.