The Dude abides (in the Flathead Valley)

The Dude is, fittingly, waiting in the bar of the Pin &Cue bowling alley in Whitefish. 

Sitting against the back wall, dark sunglasses on despite the dim lighting, Joel Welle is eyeing a plate of nachos on the table in front of him. The clothes he wears for his workday job as a teller at Whitefish Credit Union are in a blue duffle bag at his feet. He has swapped them out on his lunch break for a familiar patterned lambswool sweater. Though he has not yet ordered a white Russian, he is unperturbed.  

You could even say he abides. 

It was just about six months ago that Welle, 56, turned his resemblance to Jeff Bridges’ character Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski in Joel and Ethan Coen’s “The Big Lebowski” into a business venture, working in his off time as The Flathead Dude for events and charitable endeavors around the valley. But his transformation into the role began during the pandemic. He had let his hair and beard grow out as Covid-19 upended the world and suddenly saw The Dude looking back at him in the mirror.  

Welle thought it would make a perfect Halloween costume, but that meant doing some research. Though a fan of other films directed by the Coen brothers, like “Raising Arizona” and “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou,” he had yet to see “The Big Lebowski.” 

"If I'm going to do this for Halloween, I should watch the movie,” he recalled thinking. “I watched it and was like, this is amazing, this is brilliant.” 

The Coen brothers’ comedic riff on a classic crime noir story came out to mixed reviews in 1998 but has only grown in popularity in the decades since. The tale follows Bridges’ character, a layabout with a bowling habit, as he keeps his cool despite being swept up in a kidnapping plot in Los Angeles. 

Welle’s portrayal of The Dude that Halloween was an instant hit, he remembered. People kept coming up to him and telling him how much they loved the movie — and the character. So Welle decided to keep the look.  

When his younger brother — who Welle described as a dead ringer for John Goodman’s role of Walter Sobchak in the film — got married last summer, Welle jokingly offered to officiate. He had just discovered Dudeism, a recent addition to the pantheon of organized religions that draws inspiration in part from the movie, Taoism and Buddhism, and become ordained. Though it ultimately never came to pass, the idea of starting a business around The Dude began to take shape in Welle’s mind. 

Toward the end of June, Welle, who is married and has a son in college, launched The Flathead Dude. He has since worked with Mike McCracken of the Pin & Cue to host a themed trivia night and pulls shifts behind the counter in character. No stranger to the stage, he is working on a cabaret-style show with Tracy McDowell, artistic director of the Alpine Theatre Project, and does charity work as The Dude. Earlier this month, he leapt into the frigid waters of Whitefish Lake as part of the annual Penguin Plunge.  

He hadn’t planned on swimming that Saturday morning, Welle said. But he thought maybe he could help out by pledging to jump in as The Dude if a certain amount of money was raised. Welle figured $1,000 was probably just enough to avoid an icy bath. 

He ended up raising $1,053. 

“I joke that people tell me to go jump in a lake all the time and I thought it was a figure of speech, but I guess they put their money where their mouth is,” he said with a laugh.  

The appeal of The Dude for Welle goes beyond his enjoyment of the movie or his appreciation of the Coen brothers’ filmography. The character’s approach to life’s travails resonated with him, he said.  

“I know it's cliche, but that line, ‘The Dude abides,’ when you bust that down it’s he prevails, he moves on no matter what happens,” Welle said. “He continues to exist and be The Dude.” 

For a shy kid from Washington who grappled with anxiety and self-doubt as an adult, it’s a powerful message, Welle said. And it’s not just him. Along with a religion, The Dude has inspired a plethora of books, including an annotated translation of the Tao Te Ching and “The Dude and the Zen Master,” which was coauthored by Bridges.  

But Welle is also quick to caution that The Dude has his flaws, including a love of white Russians, marijuana and sex. It’s important to keep from putting him on too high of a pedestal.  

Even so. 

“The dude is just, he's chill. I would say he's not a role model, but I would love to be that chill about life,” Welle said.  

He has taken that approach to The Flathead Dude. The money Welle makes from his shifts at the bowling alley goes back into the venture. Mostly, though, he does it to make people happy and support the friends who have helped him as an actor, musician and person.  

As for financial success: “If it comes, it comes,” he said.  

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.