Anyone who has ever been around Durwood “Mr. Doubletalk” Fincher has unofficially signed the guest register as a visitor to Durworld.

It’s a badge one cannot wear with a straight face. The guy is pure funny. A comic genius. There is never a dull moment on the geiger counter. Among other things, the man invented toe floss — for people who stick their foot in their mouth.

Durwood’s appearance on Mike Huckabee’s show on the Fox News Network this past weekend was a serendipitous journey from start to finish. The former governor of Arkansas met the governor of Durworld. It was magic.

At last count, I have seen Durwood “doubletalk” approximately 223,794 people in the 12 years I’ve known him. In restaurants. At county fairs. In the break room at Wal-Mart.

It should be old hat by now, but it’s always fresh. Each unsuspecting victim offers a unique flavor of hilarity.

In this era of political discombobulation, bringing in Durwood Fincher — and introducing him to the studio audience as Dr. Robert Payne, an independent candidate from the 33rd Congressional District in Texas — was a brilliant move by Huckabee and his producers at Fox.

The stunned look on the faces of the audience as he opened the show being interviewed by Huckabee was priceless. Those poor folks were whiplashed right out of the gate. No doubt, they were trying to figure out if this guy was just nervous or having a medical emergency. Let alone — horror of horrors — an actual candidate for Congress.

There was an overwhelming sense of relief when Huckabee could no longer contain his laughter and “stay in character” by pretending to understand everything “Dr. Payne” was saying.

If America needed a good laugh on the last weekend in February, Mr. Doubletalk certainly delivered.

That Durwood even ended up on TV’s highest-rated weekend news program is a comical adventure itself. When he was a struggling (and starving) young comedian in the late 1970s — he was later discovered by Allen Funt of “Candid Camera” fame — he would “crash” convention parties at the hotels in the Atlanta area.

“I was amazed that I could walk around and there wasn’t a lot of security,” he said. “I stuck my head in the door. I had on a coat and tie and looked like everybody else. I got a name badge and just walked in.”

Of course, the buffet tables were piled high with food. And he happened to be hungry.

“All I wanted was a little roast beef,” he said, laughing.
Now, almost 30 years later, Durwood is a well-known corporate comedian. There is no need to sneak in the door. But he sometimes does it anyway. For old-time sake. And for fun. (The White House party crashers have nothing on Mr. Doubletalk.)

On the afternoon of Jan. 11, Durwood learned Mike Huckabee was the keynote speaker that night at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce meeting at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. On a whim, he decided to head over to the lobby of the World Congress Center, about 15 minutes from his home near Piedmont Park.

He did not have a ticket to the event, which drew an audience of about 3,000. And he certainly wasn’t on the list to a attend a meet-and-greet reception with Huckabee before the banquet.

But Durwood tip-toed into the reception, wearing his infamous polka-dot tie and carrying a briefcase. He introduced himself to Huckabee and gave him a copy of his biography, “Once You Step in Elephant Manure You’re in the Circus Forever.” The book, written by Macon Telegraph columnist Ed Grisamore, includes a DVD with video clips of Durwood on The Today Show, Live With Regis, interviews with the Atlanta Braves (posing as a sportscaster) and man-on-the-street interviews at political conventions and business conferences.

Of course, Durwood was simply “planting a seed.” Can you imagine how many gifts Huckabee receives on any given day? He ran for President! He has his own television show! People are giving him things all the time. Little old ladies are baking him cakes. That book was probably headed for cold storage. Or donated to the local friends of the library book sale.

But it wasn’t.

A few weeks later, Huckabee sent Durwood an e-mail. He had read the book and watched the DVD. And he had this crazy idea. Would he be willing to come to New York and be a guest on the program?

Durwood couldn’t get there fast enough.

Of course, traveling proved to be a tremendous challenge. He made three trips to the Atlanta Airport in a 24-hour span, only to see each flight to New York canceled because of the snowstorm.

When he finally arrived late Friday night (the show was taped Saturday afternoon), he discovered he had packed one brown shoe and one black shoe. A few hours before he was scheduled to appear on national TV, he bought some shoe polish at a store across from the hotel on the snow-covered streets of New York and transformed a brown shoe into a black one.

It all worked brilliantly. The folks on Huckabee’s staff are already talking about having him back very soon. Seems like they couldn’t get enough of Mr. Doubletalk.

Stay tuned and set your channel to Durworld.