‘Equal-opportunity offender’: Bethel Park native pulls no punches as ventriloquist

Complete with frosty hair, even whiter teeth and ever-present sunglasses, meet Joe Bidentime.

“He came into my life at the end of 2020. And the reason he came into my life was he was president, and I’m an equal-opportunity offender,” Bethel Park native April Brucker said.

Four years earlier, she’d introduced the world to the dour-faced, yellowy orange-coiffed Donald J. Tramp, who drew quite the reaction during public appearances leading up to the ’16 election. Brucker remembers one young woman in particular:

“She says, ‘Could I punch him?’ And there is a picture of her punching Donald J. Tramp. She almost broke my hand!”

Donald and Joe join three dozen other ventriloquist puppets in Brucker’s collection, which first gained national notoriety 15 years ago when she chose her dummies over a boyfriend in an episode of the TLC series “My Strange Addiction.”

Starting with a Groucho Marx puppet she received as a Christmas gift at age 13, she embarked on an entertainment trail that, as they say, takes no prisoners.

“I make fun of everybody, because we need to laugh,” Brucker, who lives in Las Vegas, said. “And I feel like what America is mission now is, unfortunately, people have forgotten that they’re all kind of ridiculous characters.”

Brucker can make it easy for people to forget that she’s the one doing all the talking, whether it’s an interviewer referring to her and a puppet as “you guys” or someone who joins the puppet-punching lady in being none too fond of Donald J. Tramp, such as this gentleman:

“He comes up to me and he goes, ‘Why do you hate Donald Trump?’ And I had my talking points ready. I don’t hate anybody. I only hate ideas,” Brucker recalled. “He goes, ‘I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to him.’ And so he starts arguing with Donald J. Tramp.”

‘Bring a little humor’

That encounter took place at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, and Brucker is raising money to take her Donald J. to this summer’s RNC in Milwaukee.

“We hope to bring a little humor to the convention, because we were there in 2016, but unfortunately, we couldn’t go in 2020 because it was virtual,” Brucker said.

Meanwhile, let’s hear from Joe Bidentime.

April: “President Bidentime, what do you think of this year’s election?”

Joe: “I’m not going to run for president.”

April: “What? Excuse me?”

Joe: “I’m gonna walk. You’ve seen me run. It’s not good.”

And …

April: “So, what do you think of your vice president?”

Joe: “Here’s the deal. Calamari Harris is a most extinguished young woman.”

A mainstay of Brucker’s collection is the self-absorbed, attention-grabbing, gold-digging May Wilson, the puppet pictured prominently with April in her 2021 book, “Don’t Read My Lips!” The pair also appear in promotions for “My Strange Addiction” on Hulu.

Here’s what May — er, April — had to say about that:

“The good news is that people are recognizing us from ‘My Strange Addiction,’ and they’re buying April’s book.

“The secret is, people are buying the book because I’m on the front cover. Can I tell you another secret? I taught April everything she knows about ventriloquism.”

More good news is that “April in Vegas,” Brucker’s TV chat show produced on location at the picturesque English Hotel, is resuming after a hiatus caused by last year’s lengthy Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike.

‘Had I not been raised in Bethel Park’

She keeps busy otherwise with entertainment ventures including performances at Las Vegas venues, a nine-month stint as special guest star in the showgirl revue “BurlesQ” and involvement with Toast Boast Roast, a service in which professional comedians create original, personalized video routines for special occasions.

Beyond her work, Brucker earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing and screenwriting from Antioch University in Los Angeles. Along with “Don’t Read My Lips!” is her authorship of “I Came, I Saw I Sang,” a book chronicling her job of delivering singing telegrams.

Then there’s the streaming availability of Season 1, Episode 4 of “My Strange Addiction.”

“One good thing about being on TLC is it’s connected me with a lot of my old classmates and it’s connected me with a lot of my old teachers,” Brucker said. “And I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today had I not been raised in Bethel Park and had I not had the teachers that I had. They’d say, ‘It might be musical season, April, but you still owe me a paper in my class.’”

She recalled delivering one such assignment right after playing the Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz” at Bethel Park High School. The teacher told her:

“Thank you for handing your paper in, April. But go home and wash that green paint off.”

She credits her parents, Bill and Anne Brucker, with instilling a strong work ethic to complement her sense of humor and always encouraging her career aspirations.

As for what they think of Donald J. Tramp … well, it’s hard not to snicker at their daughter’s bit with regard to wannabe Republican presidential nominee Nikki Haley.

April: “So, have you guys been talking lately?”

Donald: “Yeah, I saw her in the supermarket.”

April: “Really? Was she shopping?”

Donald: “No, her face was on a milk carton.”

For more chuckles, visit www.aprilbrucker.tv.