'America's Got Talent' winner allegedly stole jokes from other ventriloquists

By Paula Dela Cruz, Christian Post Contributor Friday, September 25, 2015

The hit reality show "America's Got Talent" just crowned its 2015 winner recently, but accusations against Paul Zerdin are already surfacing.

Paul Zerdin, a ventriloquist, might have thought that things will now be better from now on; however, two ventriloquists have surfaced and accused Zerdin of stealing their jokes.

Zerdin, who is originally from the United Kingdom, went to the United States since he thought "no one back home in the UK would notice." "I never thought it would be like this. I just thought I'd nip over to America, have a go at this talent show, and if it didn't work out then I could come home back to the UK and no one would be any the wiser," the 'America's Got Talent' winner said, according to a report from BBC News.

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However, people indeed notice since a pair of ventriloquists, David Strassman and Ronn Lucas, claim that the puppeteer did not come up with his own original material that made him win "America's Got Talent."

The two comedians believe that Zerdin copied elements of some of their acts, and claimed it as his own routine. One example they cited is Zerdin's performance during the quarterfinals, where he was seen having a "falling out" with his puppet Sam. The 43-year-old performer was seen leaving the stage, and left Sam to fend for himself. The dummy suddenly came to life, and Zerdin continued to voice Sam from the backstage. The audience found Zerdin's act funny, but Strassman has also done the same act at a performance on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1989.

Lucas, on the other hand, claims that his joke from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" was stolen by Zerdin. The joke he claims that's his was when Zerdin used a fake mouth apparatus that can make anyone a ventriloquist puppet, which is what he had done on judge Howie Mendel for his semifinals act.

The great news for Paul Zerdin, though, is that Strassman and Lucas do not plan to seek any legal action against him.

No official statement was released by the show or Zerdin about the accusations against the winner.