There are many questions in life that seem to go unanswered. From the frustrating "why arent there more pan flutes in rock music?", to the classic "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" (The sound of one hand clapping by the way is the thunderous silence I experienced my first 5 years on stage.) But perhaps the most intriguing question of all is why do puppet people hate me? When I first began to perform comedy for predominately Christian audiences, I was very concerned as to how I would be received. Having honed my craft in comedy clubs in front of people whose only experience in praying was kneeling in front of the toilet saying "God if you get me through this, I'll never drink Tequilla again!" I wasnt sure exactly what God had in mind by unleashing me on an unsuspecting Baptist community whose only real conflict up to then was trying to find a Biblical precedence for allowing drums on stage. I ,as many of you who are familiar with my story know, grew up in the church. I was very familiar with what passes for entertainment amongst my brethern and consequently wondered how soon after my introduction to the church community it would take them to reinstate the custom of stoning heretics. I am a comedian. But a comedian who uses contemporary style comedy to communicate my worldview which is (for those of you who stumbled on this site only to time how long it takes for my moderator to delete your curse words you leave on my boards) conservative-politically and Judeo/Christian morally. One of the great tools of comedy communication is the use of satire and sarcasm to emphasize a particular point. Again having grown up in the church ( though at 5 foot 6 perhaps the term "grown up" is taking liberties with the term) I remember the youth pastors sermons in the form of  felt cut out displays and an occassional magic trick that somehow combined the act of Jesus sacrifice on the cross with cutting a rope in two, then restoring it,which if memory serves is in Nahum," Thou shalt know thy chosen one through the cutting in twain of a cord, and restoring it to the applause of the terminally bored." Anyway, back to the puppet people. Probably one of my most vivid memories are of  some gentleman, usually retired, who has taken up the art of ventriloquism. Sitting there on his ample lap would be some form of stock puppet that he had morphed into the visage of a young boy who was struggling with his faith. Why the boy wore a monocle I have yet to figure out.Through a humorous conversation we children could be enlightened to the struggles of a fellow child who found himself at odds with the church hiearchy. It was easy to imagine ourselves in his position as many of us felt like outsiders with an adult manipulating us from behind all the while struggling to find our own way far from the seemingly oppressive grip of the master, who put words in our mouths and shoes on our otherwise unusable feet. How so many of us reached this insightful position at the age of 6 begs the question "If God loves us so much, why are there mosquitos?" The point being that my experience with vents and their dummies left me a little "wanting" in the entertainment department. Now fast forward to today. When I started performing for Christians I was firmly convinced that they were ready for and in dire need of contemporary style comedy. In the course of one of those first shows I made a comment about what most peoples perceptions were of a comedian who was a Christian. The exact line is "Oh he's a CHRISTIAN comedian..great... where's your puppet?" From that first improv line 6 or 7 years ago I'm guessing, until now I have used the line almost at every Christian event I have performed at. EVERY time I use it, EVERY TIME..it gets a tumultous applause and laughter! The line is designed to invoke the concept that if it's Christian....it's got to be marginal!" Now let me clarify something. In all my years performing I have seen 2 ventriliquists that I thought were funny. Jeff Dunham was one and Taylor Mason was the other. They were funny because they wrote original material and created genuinly intersting characters to play off of. Any form of humor can be funny if it's prime objective is to be creative. That being said I have had some puppet people take issue with my puppet line as an attack on their chosen form of comedy. I recently had an article written about me in the Tennessean newspaper. In it the writer (a Christian) used my puppet line in the story and some people jumped to the conclusion that I was actually singling out a working puppet person for ridicule. May I take a moment to reiterate that my puppet line was in reference to a blanket statement of my experience growing up with church performers.Of course some of theses people are volunteers and are doing the best they can and for that I applaud them. Unfortunately though we sometimes see Christians in the arts who are not qualified to be there and they are representing how the mainstream world views Christian performance artists. As I have said,(and if I didnt I should have) I don't believe that monologists have the monopoly on what can be considered funny. Creativity and professional chops should be the template to consider what constitutes good comedy. Unfortunately though often times those who use props, (of which one could conceivably place a puppet) use them to hide the fact that they are not very funny on their own. I am not an elitest when it comes to what is "legitimate" comedy as it's none of my business. The key is to make sure your personality is what they remember and NOT your prop. So in closing let me say to all the puppet people out there who find my puppet line offensive, I give you permission to find humor in any way shape or form you find within the context of my show.I'm sure it won't take you much effort to find my flaws or as a famous man once said " Get me out of this suitcase,I'm suffocating!"