Multitalented singer, comedian and ventriloquist Terry Fator is returning to live performances on the Las Vegas Strip. His fresh new production, Who’s the Dummy Now? debuted March 18 at the New York-New York Theater, a few blocks away from The Mirage, where he made his mark as a superstar headliner for more than a decade. He was in the process of finalizing the details on this new show when the pandemic put a halt to all things entertainment. Now that he’s back doing what he loves and what inspires him—connecting with a live audience—Fator couldn’t be more energized or excited.

How does it feel to be back in Vegas?

I am so excited about getting back onstage live. I think I’ve continued to be creative this year, but it’s so much harder when you don’t have a real live audience in front of you. And it was such a disappointment for my last show at The Mirage to be: You do your thing on a Thursday and then get a call Sunday night saying all shows in Vegas are canceled. We had this whole thing planned where I was going to move to New York-New York, and we would have moving trucks with my poster on the side saying, “Terry’s Moving!” None of that got to happen.

What can we expect from this new show at New York-New York? Will we see a lot of the familiar songs and characters from your act or more new stuff?

The format is completely different than anything I’ve done before. It’s kind of a whimsical origin story delving into the psychiatry of a ventriloquist and showing the interesting connections of how and why I created different characters. For example, the annoying neighbor, Dougie, he’s kind of the stoner dude. He’s really based on a friend from high school, but the guy turned into a successful businessman. Every time I’ve seen him in his 30s and 40s, he’s wearing a suit and tie. But that guy from when we were 16 years old, that’s the origin story of this character.

You took advantage of a few opportunities to perform across the country in 2020. What was that experience like?

It was always one of my lifelong dreams to play comedy clubs, and over the summer I got to play four different clubs across the country as they opened up. Remember, I went from playing schools and fairs to suddenly headlining in Vegas (after winning America’s Got Talent), so it was really fun to get into that intimate space and make people laugh. It was a big change, but it was a really fun change.

You also created a new way to interact with fans and perform online with a weekly musical video post.

If you come to a show, you know most of the songs are just a verse and a chorus. I’ve been doing that since 2004 … and I like to put a lot of music and lots of different things into the show. But I really miss singing a full song, so I decided to once a week release a video of me and the puppets doing a full song. I’m going to continue that tradition as long as I can, and you can see them on YouTube.com/TerryFator and also on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

It sounds like perhaps the extended downtime had you looking within your skills and performance style, and evolving your show with some new perspective.

I definitely did. Even when I was quarantined, I’m never alone. I think of the Tom Hanks movie, Castaway, and watching that movie years ago and thinking, that wouldn’t be too hard, I’d just create a bunch of characters to sit and have conversations with. (Laughs.) But I don’t talk to my characters unless I’m writing or rehearsing a routine or recording a video. My creative process became more about figuring out how to utilize myself to the full potential of the different things I can do. People say, you do such good impressions and you can sing, why use puppets? Well, because I can. But in this new show, I’m going to take some time to showcase what I’m capable of without the puppets. And it’s way harder to do impressions of different singers without moving your lips, I can tell you that!

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