While ventriloquism seems to belong in the territory of that nerdy kid everyone kept their distance from in high school, Jeff Dunham has found a way to parlay throwing his voice and playing with dolls into a stand-up comedy career that includes three Comedy Central specials and more than 300 million YouTube views.

And if his nearly sold-out performance Saturday night at the Cox Convention Center was any indication, I’d say there are a few Oklahomans who’ve been watching – and taking notes.

When Dunham brought out his final puppet of the night – a beer-swilling redneck named Bubba J – the crowd was more than anxious to show their affinity. Hundreds of audience members were shouting out the punchlines before Dunham could even get there, leading him to call his stop in Oklahoma City one of the weirdest shows he’s performed in a long time.

Up to that point, he had the crowd in stitches for over two hours of stand-up that included a number of puppets, each with their signature persona – Walter, a cantankerous retiree; Peanut, a manic Muppet-like character; José, a soft-spoken jalapeño pepper on a stick; and Achmed, a dead terrorist reduced to nothing but bones after a suicide bombing mission that failed miserably.

Dunham devoted a segment of the show to each character, setting them on a podium next to him and proceeding to bring each one to life. Every time I see Dunham perform, I have to keep reminding myself that he’s actually controlling every aspect of the show, as the “conversations” he has with his puppets seem so thoroughly natural and the different voices he’s able to achieve without opening his mouth are astonishing.

The show centers on a number of prepared jokes – Walter complains about his age and his wife, Peanut makes fun of the indistinguishable English when he tries to order Chinese food over the phone, Achmed wallows in depression because he’s an utterly incompetent terrorist – but the show’s best moments came when Dunham improvised, either out of choice or necessity.

Picking on one audience member is a time-honored tradition of stand-up comedy, but Saturday night’s victim was an uncommon one – an infant. During his segment with Achmed, cries kept interrupting the terrorist’s attempts to explain his depression, leading him to berate the baby for disturbing the show and being ugly. And not just once. The “ugly baby” bit was the most oft-repeated joke of the evening. Cruel? Sure. Hilarious? Absolutely.

Dunham’s got a knack for connecting with his audiences through the means of his puppets. His amiable demeanor provides a stark contrast to the offensiveness of the characters sitting next to him, until you remember that’s he’s got his hand inside of them. It’s a highly effective and consistently entertaining comedy strategy that transcends the potential gimmick – Dunham’s not a ventriloquist who tells jokes, he’s a comedian who just happens to use puppets.

At the end of the show, I was rewarded with an exhausted face, muscles sore from laughing. Jeff Dunham might’ve been that nerdy kid in high school, but now, he’s one of the coolest nerds in the world.