Singer, ventriloquist and comedian Terry Fator has always packed the maximum amount of fun into his Las Vegas headlining show, which relocated from The Mirage to New York-New York last year. No other Strip performance offers music, comedy and puppets. But Fator can barely contain his excitement surrounding the newest switch-up, shifting into holiday mode for A Very Terry Christmas for performances through Jan. 1 at the intimate Liberty Loft. He’s turning the entire space into a winter wonderland and showcasing his favorite classic Christmas tunes—which, as it turns out, is most of them.
Are you the type of person who’s ready for the holidays well before Thanksgiving, or the type who’s saying it’s too early for Christmas music once those songs hit the radio?
I love the holidays and I already started listening to Christmas music (in November). I can’t get enough. I think a lot of that (fatigue) is because people put pressure on themselves during the holidays when it’s supposed to be about loving each other and being kind to each other. It’s easy to get sucked into the commercialism and the shopping and I don’t do that. I start my Christmas shopping for my wife and nieces and nephews in June.
You’ve launched your holiday version of the show at New York-New York and it seems like audiences are really ready for holiday entertainment since your show and many others couldn’t proceed as planned last year under pandemic restrictions.
I think so. My show has always been a Christmas show but one thing we all learned over the last year is that people celebrate in different ways. So, the theme of the show this year is just how different people have different ways of celebrating the holidays, and I’m going to let my puppets tell us how they celebrate, in a humorous way.
Do you have a favorite Christmas song that you love to perform?
It’s all of them. There’s really not one I don’t love. I love “Blue Christmas” by Elvis. I also wrote “Christmas in Las Vegas” and that’s actually one of my favorites to perform, because I compiled a list of all the things Vegas is iconic for, and the things Christmas is iconic for, and put them together. The first line is, “The neon lights shine like Christmas night.” It has all those aspects mingled into a big band type of thing the Rat Pack might sing, and I open the show with that.
You moved your show from New York-New York’s larger theater into the Liberty Loft over the summer. What was that adjustment like, and what do you love about the new venue?
That (larger) theater was always a temporary thing, they just wanted me to get started again and I was dying to get started. It was great, but once I found Liberty Loft, it’s really special. My wife Angie was an event planner before I met her and she has a really good eye, so she worked with the team to build out this beautiful room. It’s so intimate. When I walk out on that stage, I can just feel the energy from the crowd in a way I never could at larger venues. I’ve never been happier to perform five nights a week. As soon as I get on that stage, that energy hits me and it lifts me through the show.
It certainly seems like your fans feel more connected to the show in Las Vegas, and you’re still playing big theater venues when you hit the road.
I play places ranging from 1,500 to 10,000, and when I go and do a one-off like that, it’s wonderful and it gives me a real charge. But the only to keep it fresh every night is if you’re feeling that energy. And to be able to change my Vegas show for the holidays, which I have such a passion for, it’s like a perfect storm of happiness.
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