Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
TERRY FACTOR EXTENDS HIS VOICES
Q+A: Headliner reflects on eighth anniversary at The Mirage, renewal through 2021
There are two more years remaining on the unparalleled 10-year, $100 million contract that entertainer Terry Fator signed with The Mirage as its headline attraction, and he’s just been renewed for another five years to 2021.
The singer, impressionist and ventriloquist says it is only now with his third marriage, to Dallas catering and event planner Angie Fiore, that he has finally found contentment and true happiness. The couple were married twice in September and November of 2015. I started my interview Monday afternoon with Terry asking about his eighth anniversary of “Terry Fator: The Voice of Entertainment” at The Mirage.
It seems like only yesterday that you won Season 2 of “America’s Got Talent” and landed your Strip residency. Does it seem like eight years?
It does and it doesn’t. I feel like I’ve lived several lifetimes since I started. At the same time, it feels like you blink and it’s gone, so it’s weird. I’ve been through a lot in the eight years — a lot.
I think in Las Vegas you have to experience a kick in the head every now and then.
Yeah. It’s just like anybody, though; I’m searching for happiness. People think you sign a big, multimillion-dollar deal, and you’re happy. I wasn’t happy until I met Angie. Really happy. I mean I was happy, but I didn’t know what it meant to be happy inside, too. Now I feel content. I’ve got a real, genuine contentment in my life. I don’t have a lot of drama. It’s just amazing.
She was right next door, but you never saw her. You went through two divorces, first with Melinda after 18 years, then the second with Taylor Makakoa. Your sister introduced you to Angie at your 50th birthday celebration at home in Dallas.
I never saw it coming. We both believe in God. We believe God put us together because what are the odds that I would happen to have a friend who knew her? I hired her through this friend as a caterer, and, boom, there it is.
Let’s go back to the beginning. You arrived here after winning Season 2 of “AGT,” and you learned that you landed a long residency here, something that you’d worked for for 20-plus years. Then it hit you that this was real. It was no more tents of just two or 10 people. Suddenly the crowds were 2,000 at a time.
Yeah, it’s incredible. I don’t think that I realized the magnitude of it at first. I’d been dreaming of it since I was a kid, but I was 43 when it happened — better late than never, right? It just never occurred to me that it wouldn’t work because I had seen the kind of reaction that the audiences had on the road. Once I figured out that I needed to do impressions and ventriloquism, I saw how people reacted to it.
I just knew those fans who watched me would want to come and see me live, and it’s cool that I have this place where they can come from all over the world. I’ve worked so hard. I’ve probably rewritten the show 15 time in the eight years. I work all the time. I’m always creating; I’m always writing.
To be honest with you, knowing that this is the eighth year, it blows me away. I’m like, “Wow, I really did beat the odds.” Nobody beats the odds in Las Vegas, and I did it. Now I want to go as long as I can. I love doing this. We’ve got five more years now. If we’re continuing to be successful, I have no reason to think that we won’t continue to perform at The Mirage.
Sometimes within the intricacies of this art, does the doll become more important than the ventriloquist in the public’s mind?
Yes and no. That’s true, and I think that was something that I believe I heard that Edgar Bergen really had a problem with — he didn’t like that Charlie, and I believe Paul Winchell was the same way, he didn’t like the fact that the puppets were more important. I don’t really care. It doesn’t bother me if the puppet gets the credit and the accolades.
For me it’s different because I’m not just a ventriloquist. I’m also a singer and more of an entertainer. One of the things that I’m doing is regular impressions myself. If you want to ...