By Deanna Brown
Everything’s coming up roses these days for Terry Fator.
Three Corsicana residents made a quick trip to Las Vegas on Valentine’s Day at Fator’s invitation to see the grand opening of his new show at The Mirage.
Fator, who won “America’s Got Talent” in its second season with his impersonating ventriloquist act, proved that ventriloquism is not yet a dying art. He has stayed busy since winning the competition performing at the Las Vegas Hilton, and around the country.
“I met Terry as a young man, when he was a member of the Children’s Company at the Warehouse Living Arts Theatre,” Sandra Huffman said. “My daughter Julie was 11, and Terry was about 14. We went to England, where they performed ‘Tom Sawyer.’ He played the Artful Dodger in ‘Oliver,’ which Julie and I were in, and he was also in ‘Sound of Music.’”
Fator’s musical group from the ‘80s, Texas the Band, was generous in contributing to fund-raisers, Huffman said, and she has known him many years. When she saw him at a wake for a mutual friend several years ago, Fator said he had auditioned for the talent show, but had not been contacted yet.
“I started watching the show, and he kept coming back and coming back,” she said. “My husband Lloyd and I voted for him on all our phone numbers, repetitively.
“I know he appreciated how people from here stayed with him and supported him and encouraged him.”
Fator called some of his friends from Corsicana to invite them to share in his opening night for his new gig, which was Feb. 14. Sandra’s husband could not make the trip, as he was helping with “Bye, Bye Birdie” at the Palace Theatre, but Sandra joined Nancy Roberts and Cran Dodds (whose wife stayed home with sick children) on the very quick trip to Las Vegas.
That night, Fator became the newest headliner at The Mirage, where he has a five-year contract for five shows per week. The deal is for $100 million, with an option for another five years at $110 million.
“I thought it was going to be a nightclub kind of deal, but the show was in a big huge auditorium, really fancy, and lasted two hours,” Roberts said. “Afterward, we went backstage, and there were a lot of people back there. Some I knew, some I didn’t. That little girl who sang ‘Over the Rainbow’ on the show was there with her daddy, and I saw Terry’s mama, and his sister, and his brother Jep and his wife.”
Darrell Johnson, formerly of Corsicana, also attended the show in Vegas with his wife, Sissy. Johnson told Roberts that Fator lives in a penthouse at the top of The Mirage which is 15,000 square feet — not 1,500 — and has a jacuzzi that will seat 40.
“It’s just decadent,” Roberts said. “Terry called us up and said, ‘You’ve just got to come see how fancy it is up here, so we went!”
Roberts said when Terry was about 10 or 11, he came into the Corsicana Public Library seeking a book on ventriloquism. Roberts found two for him, which he checked out.
“I told my co-workers, ‘Little does he know, but you can’t learn ventriloquism from a book!’” she said. “Guess he showed me!
“We were thrilled to be invited to the show, and it was a sellout — every seat was full. Terry put on one heck of a show, and he has two new puppets I had not seen before. One is named Vicki, and she’s a ‘cougar.’ I mean, she’s 49, and she has a 21-year-old pool boy — and doesn’t even have a pool!”
Roberts said the Derrick Days Revue folks gave Fator his first job in entertainment years ago when he was still a teen. He played Edgar Bergen, the last very famous ventriloquist, and former Corsicanan Dr. Happy Settle sat on his lap and played Mortimer Snerd.
“Terry was funny as heck,” she said. “We’ve been knowing Terry since he was a little twerp. We’ve just had lots of fun with him over the years.”
Dodds directed Fator in “Oliver” back in 1981, and in several plays since, making them friends for nearly 30 years.
“Well, it was great,” Dodds said. “Terry is living in another world, not just Vegas, but the job, his theatre, his face plastered all over Las Vegas. A theatre named after him. A store devoted to him. He is a headliner!
“I still feel Terry is Terry. He is kind, considerate, a gentleman, a good friend, a wonderful guy. I was so proud of him, and so happy to be a part of the huge crowd in the Terry Fator Theatre that night. He is living a dream, and he deserves it. May he never wake up!”
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