INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Web exclusive: Ventriloquist Terry Fator in demand

 

Terry Fator
Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.
Clowes Memorial Hall
Tickets: $39.50-$99.50
Box office: 317-940-6444

Terry Fator probably was in Montana, but it might have been Utah, at a high school or college — he’s not sure — in April 2005 or thereabouts when he decided to try something that would forever change his life.

A few months prior, Fator’s manager, a guy named John Raymond, had heard him do a dead-on impersonation of Garth Brooks singing the hit song “Friends in Low Places.” Raymond suggested that Fator add impressions to his ventriloquism act. Fator resisted because “nobody wants to see a karaoke singer.” But with 20-30 people in the crowd that night in wherever-it-was, he thought he’d take a chance.

The reaction: amazement.

He’s still getting that reaction everywhere he goes — including the NBC competition “America’s Got Talent,” where he won the $1 million first prize last summer by wowing the judges and viewers by channeling Brooks, Etta James, Louie Armstrong and Roy Orbison, among others, from his non-moving lips through his puppets’ mouths. (Search YouTube for Terry Fator and you’ll understand.)

Since then, Fator, 42, has signed a multimillion-dollar deal to perform at the Las Vegas Hilton. And he’s so in demand that on Feb. 1 he’s headlining Clowes Memorial Hall, where the top ticket price is $99.50. (Editors note: Marc Allan works for Butler University, but Terry Fator's show is not a Butler production.)

“I’m really having more fun than I’ve ever had in my life,” Fator said by phone from his home in Dallas.

No wonder. After 20 years of playing small fairs, festivals and schools, Terry Fator, who was this close to giving up his dream, has made it big.
In an interview, he talked about his career, winning “America’s Got Talent” and more. Throughout the conversation, I never saw his lips move once. But then, it was a telephone interview.

NUVO: If you hadn’t won “America’s Got Talent,” would you have given up?

Fator: I probably wouldn’t have given up, but I would have felt the dream was pretty much over. I had practically given up on the dream of getting famous, anyway. When I got to my late 30s, I came to the realization that nobody’s going to care about a 40-year-old ventriloquist.

NUVO: People tend to look down on ventriloquism. Why do you think that is?

Fator: There have been so few really, really good ones since Paul Winchell. In the ’50s and ’60s, there were a bunch of really good ones, and in the ’70s there were a couple of good ones — Willie Tyler and Lester, Jay Johnson and Bob. In the ’80s, you didn’t see much. Every single time people saw a ventriloquist, it was a horrible ventriloquist. Or it was somebody who just got into ventriloquism to entertain children and therefore, everything they did was stupid or goofy or silly. If you’ve seen five or six really horrible ventriloquists, when you see a ventriloquist you’re just instantly going to think, “That’s just stupid.”

But you couldn’t have scripted “America’s Got Talent” any better because the second I walked on the stage, David Hasselhoff (one of the judges) leans over to Sharon Osbourne (another judge) and he says, “Oh, no, a ventriloquist.”

NUVO: Did NBC give you $1 million up front, or was it $1 a year for a million years?

Fator: They gave me the choice, and I took the cash. When you take the cash, you don’t get the full amount. But from the very beginning, it was never about getting the million dollars. It was all about getting the people in America to see who I was so they would come and watch me.

NUVO: So it was like a down-payment on your career.

Fator: That’s exactly what it was. And I really took a chance to do the show. I’m a guy who’s lived from paycheck to paycheck for 20 years, and I needed every check I got to pay the bills. I had to cancel my entire spring and summer to do the show. I told my friends and family that I may need to borrow some money at the end of this. Everybody said they’d be there for me if I needed money.

I think it’s a good example for people. Sometimes, you’ve got to take a chance.

NUVO: I guess the downside of winning was that you had to hold hands with Jerry Springer.

Fator: (Laughs) That’s great. You know, I don’t even remember that. But I’ve seen it on TV a couple of times. He did grab my hand, didn’t he?

NUVO: He did. I’ve seen hosts put their arm around contestants. But holding hands just seemed weird.

Fator: What’s odd about this whole experience is, I was able to come through that television screen and develop a personal relationship with millions of people all over the country. People will see me at an airport and they will run up and give me a big hug, like I was a long-lost friend or relative. They’ll say, “I cried when you won.” I think people really, truly were able to put themselves in my place. We all have these secret desires and secret dreams, and we all think “If only, if only.” I had been struggling for 20-plus years to do this, and there I was, telling my story on television. I think people thought, “That’s me, that’s me.”

I think Jerry just got caught up in the excitement of the moment. But there was something there that really made a connection. I love that people feel that way. It tickles me when people come up and hug me or people say, “I prayed that you would win.” I would think: Why would they pray that I would win? They don’t know me.
 
NUVO: It would be a little scary to think that God cared who won “America’s Got Talent.”

Fator:  (Laughs) There’s a little bit of God in all of us. In that sense, I think He does care because He’s in us and when we care, He cares. That’s the way I like to think.
 
NUVO: Jeff Dunham says the best compliment he gets is when people see his ventriloquism act and say, “You guys were good” — meaning the performance seemed like more than a man with puppets.

Fator: Exactly. My favorite compliment is, “Your puppets sing better than you do.” (AGT judge) Piers Morgan actually said that to me. So did David Hasselhoff. I did a duet with myself with a puppet and he said, “You came out and you were a little tentative. But then your puppet started singing and I thought: This is great. So your puppet sings better than you.” And then he went, “Wait, you’re doing the puppet voice. I’m so confused.”
 
NUVO: Your top ticket price here is $99. Do you feel like a $99 act?

Fator: In Vegas, they’re $150. You’re getting a bargain. What’s interesting is, I was the last person to really believe in myself. My wife and my sister and my mother-in-law — my family and friends, really — would tell me, “Terry, you’re really good at this.” It was when I started believing in myself and saying that I am a multimillion-dollar act, my attitude really changed. I didn’t get full of myself. But you have to believe in what you do and have that confidence. People pick up on that and react to that.

Am I a $99 act? Absolutely. I promise you this: If you pay $99 to see my show, you’re going to feel like you got your money’s worth. That’s 20 years of hard work talking. I’ve taken 20 years to put together the show you paid $99 for. So that’s a bargain.