By Amy Serna It might seem hard to imagine making a successful career with puppets, but that is exactly what stand-up comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has accomplished. His fame, however, wasn’t handed to him from the get-go. Dunham has been working with dummies ever since he was a kid, but now the puppets he brought to life have quickly become classic comic icons. Forbes magazine didn’t name Dunham the highest-paid comedian (along with popular comics Chelsea Handler and Dane Cook) in the United States for nothing. In the past year, the puppeteer earned up to $22.5 million, and Pollstar named him the top touring comedian for the second year in a row.  Dunham’s “Very Special Chris