Dean Atkinson

Puppet characters carry a lot of the comedy for Dean Atkinson, a ventriloquist with 25 years behind him on stages that range from corporate rooms to comedy clubs to cruise ships, P&O's Pacific Explorer among them. He works clean, and leans on improvising with whoever's in the room instead of sticking to a fixed script. That stand-up timing paired with the puppet work travels easily across different ages and event types, so the same act suits very different crowds without much reworking. Melbourne-based.