Talent Show

Before "America's Got Talent," Terry Fator had decided, "When Vegas wants me, that's when I'll go."

With two sold-out shows at the Las Vegas Hilton this weekend, consider him a wanted man.

The NBC talent contest made all the difference for the ventriloquist. Before he won $1 million and priceless exposure, Fator likely would have had to rent a stage on the Strip.

One of Fator's interview anecdotes is that he would visit Las Vegas, look at the ads for other entertainers and say, "One day, I'm gonna have my billboard." But speaking by phone recently, he was quick to add, "I didn't really think that. It was one of those pipe dream things."

It wasn't that he was lacking self-confidence, but more because he wasn't desperate.

The 42-year-old Texan says he was one of the top-paid acts on the state fair circuit and was doing reasonably well with corporate gigs. In both circles, the entertainment is pre-selected for a somewhat captive audience.

But when it came to selling "hard tickets" in conventional theaters, Fator was lucky to put 100 people into a 500-seater in places like Sheridan, Wyo. People would look at his publicity photo and "automatically assume that if there's a puppet involved, it's for children."

And Las Vegas is back in the mode of buying big names instead of branding new ones. Even the midlevel "V -- The Ultimate Variety Show" had passed on Fator's audition tape. Had he really been determined, the ventriloquist might have found a room he could "four-wall" and work for the tickets he sold.

But, he decided, "I don't want to have to climb my way up the ladder in Las Vegas, because I'd already climbed my way up in corporate (shows) and in fairs. I just don't want to climb ladders my whole life. I just was tired of having to do that."

And then he walked out on the soundstage of "America's Got Talent." Celebrity judge David Hasselhoff shook his head and said, "Oh no, a ventriloquist." Then he said, "Show us what you got, man."

And Fator did. It turns out he wasn't merely a ventriloquist, but one whose puppets can do singing impressions. From the mouth of a cute Muppet-like little girl came a full-blown, Etta James voice singing "At Last."

Hasselhoff's reaction? "Wow."

Fator went on to win the show with his puppet takes on Roy Orbison, Garth Brooks and Kermit the Frog. The impressions have been part of the act for only two years, putting his career into high gear after 20 years as a more traditional ventriloquist.

He was in a car with his manager, singing along to Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" on the radio, when his manager asked, "Why don't you do that in your show? Do you think you could sing that without moving your lips?" Fator was skeptical, thinking it would come off too much like a karaoke act. His manager told him how popular Danny Gans was. Fator bought a plane ticket to see Gans' show at The Mirage "as an experiment, just to see what people respond to."

And as he watched Gans onstage, "I couldn't believe it. Every time he did a different voice, the audience would go crazy. And I'm sitting there going, 'I do that voice. I do that voice. I think this might be able to work.' And for about 80 percent of them, I said, 'I can do that without moving my lips.' "

He experimented, finding the ones that came easily and the ones that took practice. "I've spent six months on Marvin Gaye," he says.

"The big one" was Etta James. Long before "Talent," mouths would fall open when people heard the voice and "I knew I was onto something there."

"Talent" took the novelty to a national audience. "They've never quite seen anything quite like what I do," he says. Another departure is less radical. Fator performs with a variety of puppets instead of one primary sidekick. "I wanted my show to feel like a talk show. I was the host and my puppets were the guests."

Last year's "Talent" winner, teenager Bianca Ryan, either wasn't old enough for a full-time career or failed to strike while the iron was hot; she recently performed at a shopping mall in New Jersey. Fator already is booked for a return trip to the Hilton on Dec. 3.

(On the "Talent" finale, Fator was promised a gig at Bally's. But apparently, that offer was only for 10 minutes in "Jubilee!" and both sides mutually decided to let it go quietly by the wayside.)

Fator and his wife are ready to leave Dallas and move here. "I traveled so much it would be nice to have a home base," he says. He would like to perform here four nights a week and travel the other three days. "I want to be there (in Las Vegas) for a good long time."

This one doesn't sound so much like a pipe dream.