Luxe Life Blog
Exclusive: Terry Fator reveals secrets of Mirage show opening Valentine’s Day
Photo: TVT
Entertainer Terry Fator officially becomes The Mirage’s new $100 million man this coming weekend. It marks his last regular three-day run at the rival Las Vegas Hilton.
As Vegas DeLuxe readers know from our past reports on Terry -- click HERE for one recent story -- it has been an extraordinary 20-plus-year journey toiling away unrecognized in the smallest of American venues until “overnight stardom” as the very first winner of America’s Got Talent shot him to the top.
Appropriately, his love affair with Las Vegas will get underway on Valentine’s Day when the first preview performances in his new theater at The Mirage begin. The official premiere is March 17, but here at Vegas DeLuxe, you get the first look at three of the new characters he’s already planning to add to the new show. Don’t worry! Winston the Turtle and Emma haven’t been kicked to the curb. They are still very much a part of his family.
I caught up with Terry when he gave a sneak preview performance to Mirage executives and other VIPs after the opening of the new $25 million volcano attraction there. Here’s our exclusive conversation:
Robin Leach: How are preparations for the new show going?
Terry Fator: Great! We are still two months out, and we are just about ready. We have one more character to perfect, and then we will be ready for the Feb. 14 opening. I am confident. I am going to step out on that stage and set Las Vegas on fire.
RL: You have added three entirely new characters to the act?
TF: Four, actually. Since I have been in Vegas, we added Julian, Doggie Skywalker and Vicki, who is a cougar. She is 49 and dates 20-year-old men, and the Beetle. He is a Beatle and he does all four of the Beatles’ voices. He will be doing all four voices -- John, Paul, George and Ringo -- and he speaks with a Liverpool accent and sings their individual voices. He will be a lot of fun.
RL: You have settled into Vegas and all is well?
TF: We moved in just two days ago. I feel like Vegas is my home and it took me 20 years to get here. I truly feel this is my hometown, and I am ready to represent Vegas in a positive way, and I hope it embraces me as I have embraced it.
RL: Is your head spinning on this very fast merry-go-round of sudden super success?
TF: When we pulled in two days ago, we were driving from the airport. My wife flew in with our cat, and she was all anxious to get to the condo, and I said we are going to the Strip first. She said, ‘No, I have to get the cat home.’ We saw a huge sign with my face on it, and she said she was glad we came down the Strip now. It is pretty amazing. It is wild to see the Terry Fator Theater. It has been a pipe dream for 20 odd years, and now it is all happening.
RL: It is a major life change.
TF: It is, but all in the good ways. If I have a choice of having fans or not having fans, I choose to (have fans). I like having fans; I love my fans. I always hope I can give back. I am going to do a meet-and-greet after every show.
RL: When do you stop the grind of nearly 25 years of being on the road traveling?
TF: In January, I only have six to seven shows, the rest of the time is preparing The Mirage show. It couldn’t end fast enough. I am so tired of traveling. It has been a grueling but fun schedule.
RL: So now you will just drive to work because you will live right around the corner from your very own theater?
TF: I have never had a home life in my adult life, so to be able to get up in my bed, drive to work in the evening and sleep in my own bed afterwards will be absolute heaven.
RL: So tell us some secrets of what you will be adding to the new show.
TF: We are adding new transitions, we have HD video cameras, and this thing is going to be in the 21st century. We are going to have a show that utilizes the HD monitors instead of a normal ventriloquist. I am going to evolve the show so that people will keep coming back and never get bored. All the regular puppets will be there, plus the four new ones.
RL: How many voices will you have in the new show?
TF: In the past, I had 25 to 30; now it will be 45 to 50 voices in every show. We will add all the time and especially when fans suggest voices for me to do.
RL: Are you writing new routines for the new show?
TF: After every show, I sit down and evaluate it to see if there is something different or a better way to do things. It keeps me from getting bored.
RL: When you won the staggering Mirage contract, did you think that your life would change?
TF: It didn’t register. Everyone told me it would change, and then I played at the Hilton. I didn’t feel like a headliner, I felt like a fill-in. The day my manager called me and said, ‘Terry, you are the new headliner at The Mirage, and you will have the Terry Fator Theater,’ that is when I realized all of my life dreams came true. Even then it was still a dream. I am on a marquee; my name is on the signs. I am so giddy. It’s a long way from when agents told me I would never work on the Strip when I auditioned for them. It’s a long way from being laughed at in school as a kid trying to entertain. I told you, Robin, the one time in a show tent, there was just one teenager in the audience and the workers came in while I was on stage to clear away all the other empty chairs. That was the lowest point in my life. That was the night I told my wife I had to quit. She wouldn’t let me give up though -- and look where we are today.
“It’s been more than a year now since The Mirage people watched America’s Got Talent, and they discovered me. When we open on Valentine’s Day, it will be exactly 19 months later! They are re-doing the theater for me, and I promise we’ll have a stage that lets me go out in the audience so they feel they have me right there in their living room.”
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