Celebrate the holidays with Terry Fator

Terry Fator’s friends will tell you “he freaking loves Christmas.” Not like he gets his tree in early November—like he watches every holiday movie, from The Muppet Christmas Carol and Scrooged to 1947 Oscar nominee It Happened on 5th Avenue.

“Of course my wife and I watch every Hallmark Christmas movie that comes out, and there’s like 40 of them this year,” he says with the kind of stoke you just can’t fake. “I love it! And I cry every time at the end when they kiss. Every. Single. Time.”

This energy has sustained the incomparable voice artist through a decade of headlining on the Las Vegas Strip, after winning America’s Got Talent in 2007 with a combination of ventriloquism, celebrity impressions, down-to-earth comedy and genuinely beautiful singing. In that time Fator has become part of the Vegas mythos, with a theater named for him at The Mirage and no end in sight to his wildly successful run. Yet somehow, he forgets he’s famous.

“I’m just Terry,” he says.

No doubt the surrounding tables are hoping he’ll pull a puppet out of his jacket. He’s on his phone at a local Cracker Barrel, talking to me about his new Christmas show, his Swiss shoes (like walking on marshmallows), his incredible writers and figure makers, and why Santa Trump won’t appear in A Very Terry Christmas 2, The Sequel. No politics, he says. Just fun.

This being the 10th year of his act on the Strip, Fator came up with a fresh concept for the themed special that plays throughout the holidays. It has always been a country Christmas, but the retool riffs on a Muppets device, building a narrative around the puppets pitching their ideas for what the show should be. And Winston the Impersonating Turtle isn’t the only one in the game. Fred Willard, famed comic actor and friend to Fator, plays the casino president via a series of videos woven into the live material.

“One of my favorite lines is Fred saying, ‘Why don’t we call it Celine Dion in Concert?’ I’m like, ‘But I’m not Celine Dion …’ and he goes, ‘Once you have their money, it doesn’t matter.’”

Wearing the infamous pink bunny suit from A Christmas Story, resident stoner puppet Duggie Scott Walker suggests they celebrate Juana. As in, Merry Juana.

Jokes and visual gags abound, but the music is as substantial as the humor, be it Fator’s dead-on Etta James from sweet little puppet Emma Taylor or his Bing Crosby-David Bowie duet on “Little Drummer Boy.” Styling Elton John and the Rat Pack or his own original characters, the “Voice of Entertainment” strives to be low-key enough to let the puppets truly come alive.

“I don’t dress up when I get onstage,” he adds, “because I want it to feel like the guy next door is just entertaining you in your living room.”

He insists that he doesn’t think about the impact he’s had/is having/will have on Vegas’ legacy because he’s too busy creating and rehearsing. Especially during his favorite season.

“One day I’m gonna look back and reflect, and I hope I can say, ‘Wow, I was at Mirage for 40 years!’” he says with a chuckle. For now, Fator is about crafting this moment, and being our city’s version of Andy Williams. “We really bring out the spirit of the holidays and Christmas with characters and impressions and comedy. You’re going to leave being on top of the world, feeling like Christmas has started.”

The Mirage, 7:30 p.m. Mon.-Thurs. (dark Dec. 9), additional 7:30 p.m. show Dec. 14, starting at $59.99 plus tax and fee, 5+. 702.792.7777