‘I had this void in me, and I wanted to be loved’: Legendary comic David Strassman reveals the man behind the puppet

David Strassman has been a ventriloquist for so long that his characters recently started thinking for themselves.

The puppets – Ted. E Bare, Chuck Wood, Grandpa Fred – all attend his comedy of hard knocks, much of which draws from his own life. But his puppets have started to improvise lately, and the results are surprising.

“They’ll come out with jokes that I didn’t think of, that their character thought of,” Strassman says, “when I’m in that mode.”

Strassman knows these characters like the back of his hand – after all, that’s where they live. So when we talk about the puppets (who will join our conversation shortly), Strassman flits between total belief in them and referring to them as props.

READ MORE:
* Why HBO pulled The Larry David Show hours before premiere
* Sarah Hyland learned about the Modern Family death by watching TV
* Connecting the dots between Outrageous Fortune and Westside
* Ventriloquist David Strassman plans to push the limits of puppetry in new show

At the very least, they work as Trojan horses for the hot topics Strassman is looking to address in his new show, The Chocolate Diet, which tours New Zealand from February 25.

Like many comics, Strassman is working through things in his comedy. As with anyone processing things, this means getting himself into a little bit of trouble along the way.

Strassman grew up in what he would describe as the suburban world of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. – all stingray bikes, white picket fences, and wide boulevards.

But there was narrow room for Strassman’s own space to grow. The “awesome” suburban life of his upbringing belied something a little darker.

“In it all, my mum was an alcoholic, my dad wasn’t available, so I felt unloved. I first became a magician, because when you do a magic trick, you think – ‘Oh, you love me, I feel powerful now!’”

You might imagine him as the child on the playground inventing voices or mimicking the teachers for laugh – not so, according to Strassman, who said it took a long time to find his (or Ted E. Bare’s) voice. But why did it take so long?

“Well, you know how expensive therapy is? It’s really expensive. It’s so hard for people to realise why you do the things you do. [It’s because] you have shit deep in there you need to resolve.”

Despite a solitary kind of childhood, Strassman went to the city to make his name, joining a vanguard of new-gen comedians who were hanging out as support acts in the New York clubs of the late 1970s. Strassman made a name for himself there, alongside unknown newcomers like Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, and Jim Carrey.

Strassman cycled through a few different characters of his own there, first as a magician, then as an actor, before settling on comedian.

“I wanted to be an actor, and it was all because I had this void and I wanted to be loved.”

Time, fame, “and a couple of ex-wives” have helped him graduate from that space – quite literally, as the performer no longer travels the US with his shows.

It turns out Strassman has no star-spangled attitudes towards his country, and arrives laden with warnings about the US that are far removed from the comic banter of Ted E. Bare.

“Where I come from is a silly little country that elects f…ing idiots as a president – absolutely insane,” Strassman says.

“But it’s been great comedy fodder.”

Some comics might find our present situation – where fact is stranger than fiction – too absurd to respond to. Strassman thinks it’s grist to the mill, the perfect comedy fodder for his suitcase of characters.

“I can get away with a lot more with a puppet, because he’s not real.”

Like most of us, Strassman’s puppets find themselves changed by the pandemic – unstitched by circumstance into something entirely new. In the case of villainous doll, Chuck Wood, this includes the revelation that they might be transgender.

“Chuck comes out in a blonde wig and he feels like he has not been carved with the right piece of wood. He’s having gender issues, and he wants to be a woman basically. It’s a brilliant pro-woman, pro-LGTBQ routine.”

Then there’s Buttons the Clown, “a drunk alcoholic molested by the clergy,” who was developed by Strassman during the Cardinal Pell saga.

“These puppets have a conflict that needs to be resolved. I’m just the straight man. I’m asking questions and leading the conversation; but my character is really just the straight guy.”

Strassmann fronts his identity as a straight, cisgender white man addressing – or embodying – such topics, and is just as eager to remind audiences that the tone is not preachy.

”None of this is preachy – if this was preachy there wouldn’t be any laughs.”

Strassman has developed a genre of his own by creating such characters – a top-shelf cocktail of hot-button topics, that still goes down easily courtesy of his charm. Whatever Strassman was once working through, he’s worked through it – there’s now that trademark grin etched on his and his characters expressions, in perpetuity.

”I have this character Kevin the Alien, who says these lines about the truth of how f…ed we are as a species. But it’s from a puppet – so it’s funny.”

Strassman’s The Chocolate Diet is on tour from 25 February to 18 March. Strassmann is giving away free tickets to all those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle here, with hundreds available for special shows.