‘Terry Fator & His Cast of Thousands’

Some people just won't go see a ventriloquist, no matter how good he is. Their minds won't be changed by the success of Terry Fator (or Jeff Dunham, for that matter).

And that's not such a bad thing. It just gives everyone else a better chance of getting in.

The insanely popular Fator doesn't reinvent ventriloquism. But he does bring it one killer new twist, fusing it with impressions. From the time he launches the show with a little-girl puppet singing a full-voiced "At Last" -- the same stunt that started him on the "America's Got Talent" road to fame -- audiences are in the grip of this nice guy from Texas who can sing like Axl Rose on "Sweet Child O' Mine" or Amy Winehouse on "Rehab," all without moving his lips.

But there are limits to the form; it's still a guy with his hand up a puppet. And the comedy doesn't hold its own without the gimmick. Fator's genius is to celebrate this instead of trying to subvert or ignore it. The posters of him with a cute puppet amount to truth in advertising, and they pre-sort audiences for him.

Clearly, this is the year of the likable underdog. And that's good news for The Mirage, considering a $147 Fator ticket will buy about 40 shares of the parent company's stock.

It's hard not to be impressed by Fator's Cinderella story, but also hard to say how long that will last now that he's a well-paid Las Vegas headliner. This came to mind after a Beatle puppet made a half-baked crack about President Obama raising his income taxes, which kind of landed with a thud coming from a guy who won a million dollars on TV.

Fator certainly worked a long time in the state-fair trenches to get to this place where he could have a seven-piece band and a flashy stage (by TV designer Andy Walmsley), adding visual interest to what's essentially a static, one-man show.

He anchors the act with "greatest hits," such as a Porky Pig-stuttering rube named Maynard who wants to be an Elvis impersonator, and a stoner dude with a mullet who likes to rawk. But there are newer impressions of Maroon 5 and James Blunt, some not even assigned to the puppets.

"See what I just did? I did a song by myself," Fator points out, to make sure we didn't miss it, after a turn at the Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke."

One bit is so old it's new again. But it still seems old. Fator dresses up like Michael Jackson -- but looks more like Weird Al Yankovic -- for a barrage of gags I'm sure I don't have to spell out, as cowboy puppet Walter T. Airdale reacts in disgust. Last summer I suggested retiring this, but then Jacko had to be the one to come out of retirement.

Fator's skills are impeccable, his humor more uneven and even divisive.

Some of his choices for the new show make you wonder if he is overthinking the act now that the stakes are so high.

First, why did he dirty it up a bit? Did he figure it would play better on the Strip? Or has he trained his sites on Dunham and his Comedy Central level of appeal?

Granted, the jokes are mild by current network TV standards. Fator's oldest puppet sidekick, the cowboy Walter, talks about being "the guy who put Carrie under wood" or leaves "Clay achin'." After a surprise cameo by the Commodores, his Botox queen, Vicki the Cougar, proclaimed herself a "Commo-whore."

Still, I was glad I took the 8-year-old to the more state fair-like version last summer, during Fator's transitional year at the Las Vegas Hilton. And I wonder if parents in the reception line will pressure him to tone it down once school lets out for the summer.

Then there were the anti-Obama jokes, which throw up a needless cultural divide and suggest Fator knows his longterm job security is on the "Blue Collar Comedy" side of it. When his soul-singer puppet Julius tells Fator he looks scared, Fator answers, "I've looked like this ever since Obama won."

The reaction on this special night was mixed enough that Fator surely wouldn't have risked it had a full month of "previews" not born out that he's pulling in mostly red-staters. It may prove the only person more popular than a president with a 60 percent approval rating is a ventriloquist named Terry Fator.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.