TERRY FATOR

by Ed Bruce edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

HERE IS THE BOTTOM LINE.....GREAT SHOW EVERYBODY HAD A GOOD TIME !

Fator the big TV star winner now in his own theatre long term at the Mirage....he is at the top of all shows ever done in Las Vegas ! All the elements are here ! Fator ......singer-ventriloquist and winner of "Americ's Got Talent" has got most of America's talent...he is 43 and working at the game for 23 years....he is at the peak of his powers and we all hope his extraoridnary voice maintains its power forever....along with his writing ability and creative themes.

First of all Fator asked how many had seen his show for the first time.....amazingly almost all the 1265 in this theatre raised their hands....how refreshing.....new meat appealing to new audiences (tourists)... good for them and good for the Las Vegas show diet. Another reviewer said the theatre held 750....a show usher that looked like he knew said 1265....(I think thats the accurate count).... this information made my day in our saging economy !

A review of a ventriloquist is just a tease.....this should be and is a plug for the show...but only because of the shows quality in addition to my personal approval...its a must see. One of the beauties of this is it is an on going process with Fator writing new material and creating new identities and redeveloping older themes. I would think a year from now I would see a somewhat changed program....I am for pounding old successful storylines....good....but here the artist and his genius are an on going process.

In 1964 at the University of South Dakota I wrote a paper on ventriloquism...wish I still had it....the issue was almost totaly the projcetion of sound (getting it up and out) ! Now.... the total picture as I watched this last night, I thought of all the elements going on here. Character, costume, hand work (to include eye lashes, eye brows, the use of both hands by the artist) joke writing, continuity and interaction of the characters, the conversations with character and artists, the timing with audience, the Paul Harvey pause..... and the band (six pieces....3 horns, drums, 2 guitars) and concentration.....the ability of Fator to put this all together is truly genius.
I really pay attention.....at one time for a female character with long hair....Fator was working it out of her face with his right hand, with his left hand and with the charaters left hand on a stick, that while singing in her voice, talking in his and making it all look good ! How many people on earth can do this ? At one point he lost continuity with characters and ad libbed out of it in the true stage genius he possesses....wow thanks for live theatre ! Someone wrote that Fator could never headline Las Vegas because he would not look right on the billboards....what bullshit....the guy is perfect, projects a nice guy image, thanked us war veterans and acted like he enjoyed doing the showj....I am sure he did because that is read I got and I am pretty tough to fool.

TERRY FATOR IS THE REAL DEAL !

I was questionable how a band with a ventriquist worked the first time I saw the show...not anymore...it makes the timing extremely difficult with punch line accents and hitting the right spots with background. They were OK !

Danny Gans had this theatre for a good run.....its a great showplace.....video screens on each side in high def give you a great enhanced...is he moving his lips look ! Background videos work and I liked the microphone in front of the dummies....huh....detail considered.

Ronn Lucas and Jeff Dunham my two favorite ventrioquists here over the last two decades now joined at the top of this short list by Fator....I mentioned to my fellow show goers that he should insure this voice for millions. Ronn Lucas told me at 53 his voice was getting strong....we can only hope Fator's does too.....I so much hope to enjoy this over the next decade ! At the top he had Roy Orbison doing Crying....Fator knows how to win me me over instatnly altho I was already sold....he also did a Beatle...king of a composite of the four....this group had some decent music if you recall....this was a parody rewritten to sounds ...this and Yesterday....clever writing. Only the greatest music in hstory here. Fator also sings by himself with this marvolus instrument with which he could headline in itself !

The bastard was late 7 minutes thusly away goes his perfect score. Some guy acting as a pre show DJ added nothing as did some unknow (to me) dude who came out of the audience to scream into the microphone.....the show ran 90 minutes and if thses two elements were eliminted we could have had more Fator.

92 A- terrific world class entertainment recommended to the world.