Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Dreams Don't Have An Expiry Date With Terry Fator - America's Got Talent Winner

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

Terry Fator (@terryfator) is a ventriloquist, impressionist, singer, stand-up comedian and the winner of season 2 of America's Got Talent. He has a residency at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. He joins Chris Van Vliet at the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn Las Vegas to talk about how he got his start as an entertainer, the art of learning ventriloquism, why you should never give up on your dreams, how he created all of his characters, his incredible impression skills and more! Visit Terry Fator's website: http://terryfator.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. For more information about CVV and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Bleas! Oh, yeah. How are you, my friends? Good to see. Welcome back to another audio adventure on Insight. I'm CBV, Chris Van Fleet. Hope you had a great holiday weekend if you live in the U.S.

And for everybody else, just hope you had a great weekend in general. And thank you so much for being back here for another insightful conversation. And another one from the Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn, Las Vegas. So good. Terry Fader is one of, if not the best ventriloquist in the world. And his story of never giving up on your dreams is something that I know is going to inspire so many people.

When he won season two of America's Got Talent, it completely changed his life. But it happened when he was 42 years old. And so many people give up on their dreams at 32 or, man, even, 22. So hearing his story, man, really little fire under me, especially as we end 2021 and head into 2022. You can find Terry on social media. He's at Terry Fader. You can find me at Chris Van Fleet. And Terry's website is, it's easy. It's just terryfader.com. Our fan of the week is Cook-Kyle. That's the username, but I'm guessing your name is Kyle Cook in the UK. He says, one of the big boys. If you're into wrestling and want an insightful and friendly voice, then look no further

than Chris Van Vleet. Legend of the game and on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling journalism. Wow. Enjoy folks at Kyle A.E.W. Reviews. Well, thank you, Kyle. And everyone should give Kyle a follow. That's his handle there. Kyle A.EW. Reviews. And if you want a shout out, I read a review in every single episodes. So if you have an iPhone, or if you listen on an Apple device, leave a review on Apple podcasts, and I will read it out here on the show. All right, let's dive into it. Please welcome Terry Fader. Thank you so much for coming by. Thanks for having me. Saw your show last night, and it just doesn't seem fair that one man can have this much talent. I'm serious. That's funny. I will. I appreciate it. I can't take credit for the

the talent. I have to give that to God. It was given to you, perhaps, but you honed it. Yes. What I do is when somebody says, you know, tells me that. I always say, you know, I literally can't take credit for the talent. You don't just wake up when they go, you know what, I'm going to become an impressionist, a ventriloquist, a singer, and a comedian. You have to be born with those gifts. But what you do with the gifts you're given is, it's really all about you. So I do take credit for the hard work and perfection, perfecting the craft, you know. I had Ventriloquist come and see me a couple weeks ago, and he's like,

after the show, he's like, I've never seen anything. Like, your lips don't move. I said, well, that's a lot of hard work. Yeah, but with that skill set that you have, I feel like your career could have gone so many different ways. So when you were young, what was the goal? What was the plan? To be an entertainer.

I didn't really care. In fact, before I became a ventriloquist, I was a singer, I was a magician, I was a hypnotist, I was, I tried everything. I tried poetry reading. I just wanted to get on stage and make people have fun and make people feel good, you know? Yeah. And so once I discovered that I could do it, I'm a big proponent of trying to find something

that is unique and different and that is a talent that not many people have so that you can, and if you have that, you really need to hone that and there's going to, you're going to find an audience. It doesn't matter what it is. So you wanted to be an entertainer. You just, it didn't matter to you what stage you were off. It made no difference at all. I just, you know, I thought, oh, maybe I'll be an actor.

or maybe I'll be a TV news anchorman, or maybe I'll be, you know, a movie star. I don't know. I didn't know. And I kind of thought about all of it. You know, maybe a TV star. I wanted to get on a TV show. In fact, when I was 10,

I auditioned for the bad news bears go to Japan to get in there. And the problem is, I had seen the other bad news bear movie. And the first thing I said when I went to my audition, I said, I'm a Christian. I don't swear. So we can guess that I didn't get the part. Was the idea that you've learned. eliciting that response from an audience? Yeah, you know, my very first memory as a child,

I was three years old, I was standing on a table in my church cafeteria, and I was singing a song. And I actually remember this, and I remember looking at the sea of adult faces, and they were all smiling and laughing and clapping. And I remember very vividly saying, this is what I want to do. And it's interesting, but if you really look into entertainment and the psychology of entertainment, almost every big entertainer from Michael Jackson to any other true star, they had that defining moment that kind of psychologically said, this is it, this is the one, this is what I want to do. And what's so funny about that is,

had it gone the other way, you're standing up there singing and everyone's laughing at you or going, what is this kid doing? Maybe that would have changed the entire course of your life and your career. That's true. If I felt embarrassed or I didn't feel they were laughing at me, I felt they were laughing with me. Although I was always the class clown,

so I don't really care if you were laughing at me or with me. As long as you were laughing. What was the first voice impression you ever did? Well, probably Michael Jackson and Donnie Osmond. And then, of course, Wayne Newton, Donka Shane, darling, don't know. So as a kid, I had to do all those voices that were with the high voice until my voice changed.

And I got very lucky. And it's funny because when my voice changed, people would still, I would talk on the phone and they would say, yes, ma'am, and I would say, this is a guy. And so I was like, what's happening? But then I realized it became a blessing because now I can sing female and male voices. So I kind of have that weird voice where I can do, you know, I can do Julius and you can, or I can sing, you know, and last. And so I just, it's like that perfect sweet spot.

So I'm very happy with my voice. And I don't care if somebody thinks I'm, you know, I'm the wrong gender. It doesn't matter. Can you give us a little Michael Jackson? She's out of my life. She's out of my life. It's so good. Thank you.

Oh, my gosh. It's so good. And those are the easy ones. Seriously. Because any time, and no, it is because anytime you have something that you can really hang your hat on and you go and you say, okay, well, see that vibrato, you know. That's easy for me to, like, pick up on and I can work on. Same thing with, like, Rod Stewart. Have I told you?

lately that I love you. So you got that little gruffness, and I can grab onto that. You know, it's really hard to do somebody like Frank Sinatra, like, fly me to the moon. Because he doesn't do any of that stuff. He just sings, you know, so you have to really work on the tone for it. I really felt like Frank was here for a second. Wow. That took me like five years to learn how to do Frank's voice because I just couldn't figure out,

but I had to actually learn to save. things the way he said it and to put those, there's very minute nuances, so it's very difficult to do somebody like this. Yeah, so where does a voice impression begin that? Well, first of all, I try to find someone who has a really distinctive voice, you know, like Sammy Davis Jr. It's, who can take the sunrise? You know, he's got that kind of Kermit the Frog sound

where it's like very deep. And oddly, I can do things with my throat that sounds like a dirty thing, right? Where are you going with us? In fact, I used to do porn movies. No, I'm... But, no, I can do things with my voice that other people can't even conceive of. For example, if I'm not feeling well or...

Let's say, I have a cold, you know. People in the eyes will never know I have a cold. So normally I can do the falsetto and the high voices, and I do it in a normal way. But if I find, oh, man, I've lost that range because I've got a cold, you know, I'm having some coughing or whatever backstage. And so I can't... I can actually... I can actually move where I'm going to, I can change where I'm going to use my vocal cords so that I can still do the voice, but I do it in a different part of my vocal cords.

And my wife is like, I have no concept of what you're talking about. But I can do that. I can actually manipulate. I can use different parts of my vocal cords. And I think any impressionist can probably do that. So it's kind of a, that's why where I say it's not, it's a gift. I mean, it truly is a gift that God gave me that I can't, you know, you can't just, most people can't do that or even understand what that is, but I've been able to do it my whole life.

Well, most people don't have the awareness. They know, like, this is my voice when it's low. This is my voice when it's high. Right. But they don't really know how to manipulate their voice, anything other than that. Exactly. And interestingly, I must have been born with an ear of mimic because my parents would tell me that when I was like six months old, before I could even walk, I was in a crib. And I was the hit of the church because the people would come over and here's this six-month-old baby. And they could say helicopter, and I would say helicopter, and they would say hippopotamus, and I would say hippopotamus. So apparently, I was born with his ability to hear something and then repeat it. So I was able to, and so it was just one of those things. And oddly, I did not know I was an impressionist

until I was probably 31 years old. I thought everyone could do it because it came so naturally for me. So I was in a bar, and you're watching a band, because I love to, I love music and live music and everything. And there was this absolute god-awful singer that was just one of the worst things I've ever heard and he was trying to do, dude looks like a lady. This was back in the 80s when, you know, when Aerosmith, that song was popular, you know, and this guy, he was so horrible. And I turned to my friend and I said, see, I hate this. He's trying to make it his own. Why didn't he just do it like Stephen Tyler? And my friend kind of looked at me with the goofiest look and he goes, Terry, you're the only person I've ever known in my life that can do that. And it was like,

ding, oh, wow, okay, so I have this gift. I didn't know. I thought everyone, I thought the person was choosing not to be good. So before you were doing this for a living, you were, I knew you worked as a waiter. I did. How amazing would it be to have you waiting a table? Oh, it was, trust me. I, in fact, I changed the way they designate the tips at that restaurant. It was called Surlynelling Stockade in Corsicana, Texas. I was, I was 17 years old and I was raising money so that I could go to England with an acting troupe because I was an actor too. I played Huck Finn in a production of Tom Sawyer. We were taking it to England. It was really cool. So I said, well, I got to get

some money because I got to get over there and I got to have some money to spend when I'm over there. So I got the job as a waiter. I did that for about a year. And so I'm like, you know, as I'm serving somebody their coffee, I'm like, here you go. Wait a second. You know, I'm saying, oh, wait a minute. Your coffee cup just talked, you know. And so I would have voices coming from underneath their stakes and underneath. And I'm telling you, man, the tips. I was making five times, 10 times the amount of tips of anybody. People would come into the restaurant and they would say, we want Terry. We we want Terry. So they, so they actually, after I left, thank God they didn't do this until I left, because I was just, I mean, my pockets were stuffed with money every night. And after I left,

apparently there was a, there was kind of a revolt, and they started pulling all the tips together so that nobody could do that anymore. I'm like, well, that's not really fair because, you know, I was entertaining them. Yeah. And, you know, if you're a, if you're a bad waiter or waitress, you shouldn't get a good tip. Yeah, if I'm a bad waiter, I shouldn't get some of your tips because you're a good waiter. That's how I felt. And so. But luckily, like I said, they didn't implement that until. But I was told by a couple of my friends that were servers there that, yeah, after you left, they took that away. And they also wouldn't allow people to request a certain server.

So after me, because, man, every time, people would bring like 20 people in. They'd get this huge table. And I was, you know, I was doing voices and I was singing as I was, you know, so I was this guy that was just super entertaining. And then I'd make a $150 tip, you know. I mean, that's a lot for 1980. That's a lot of money. It's like $800 in today's money. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. I don't think that you would be cut out for doing nine to five, but did you ever have an office job? No, I hate manual labor, and I hate anything that requires a rigorous, structured schedule. I'm massively ADD, massively. And I think, you know, you saw the show last night. I'm up there doing about 10 things at the same time without even thinking about it. And I honestly think I can do that because of my ADD. You make it look so easy.

Right. And now that's just, you know, 50,000 hours of practice. That's me being obsessive and wanting to be the best in the world. And, you know, I did. I was rehearsing every moment of every day. Even when I was mowing the lawn, you know, as a kid, I'd be mowing the lawn. My parents were janitors and they would have me cleaning toilets and vacuuming. And I'm sitting there singing along to the radio going,

don't start believing, you know, as I'm vacuuming. So, and by the way, if you're listening, I was not moving my lips when I said that. That was impressive. Thank you. So I was listening to everything, and that's how I learned how to do it. But I hate manual labor. I hate physical labor that just, you know, I went, we were hired, my brother and I were hired by a rancher. And they wanted us to dig some post holes or do something.

I think I lasted 10 minutes, and I sat down and I said, no, no, dollar an hour. No, not going to do it. brother's like, you're such a wimp. And I'm like, yeah, I'm a wimp. No, this is not my life. I'm probably, shake my word for it. I think obviously America's Got Talent was your big break. What would you say was your first break? America's Got Talent. There really wasn't. No, actually, I shouldn't say that because my first break was when I came here to Vegas and I saw Danny Gans perform. Do you remember Danny Gans? No. Okay, so he was here. He was kind of legendary. He was here for like 18 years at the

Mirage. He started in the 1980s. And I'll never forget. I read at USA Today that, Danny Gantz had signed a multi-million dollar a year, like two and a half million dollars a year contract to perform in Las Vegas. And I'm sitting there, you know, as a young adult, I was in my 20s, and I'm thinking, I could play Vegas and I can make millions of dollars. So that became my goal. And so I couldn't afford to see him. He was $100 a ticket. And I was broke. I mean, I was poor. I couldn't. So finally in 2005, I had saved up enough to go see Danny Gans. And I went to see Danny Gans. And at the time, I was, I was doing okay. I was making pretty good money as a, as a ventriloquist. But I wasn't really focusing on the impressions. Where were you,

like were you playing kids parties? Well, I was, no, I was playing a, uh, schools. I did a lot of elementary schools where I'd come in and do like a bullying program and stuff. And then I was playing a lot of county fair. So I was actually playing the Clark County Fair in Logandale. And, uh, so I was able to, um, I was able to, uh, see Danny Gantz finally in 2005. And I'm sitting in the audience. And every time he would go into another impression, the audience would go crazy. And they would start cheering. And I'm going, I do that voice. And then he'd do another. And they're cheering. And I say, I do that voice. So through the show, every voice he did, I said, I can do that voice. So I'm driving back to Logendale, because that's where my hotel was. And I'm going, I'm going to be

a Vegas headliner. That's all there is to it because I can do what Danny Gans is doing. But I, you know, but I don't want to be Danny Gans light. You know, I don't want people to say, oh, yeah, you know, he's just like Danny Gans. So I said, well, hey, I'm a ventriloquist. Why don't I just have my puppets do the impressions? So the next night, I downloaded it to my iPod. I downloaded Friends in Loap Places and the track. And so I just had a puppet saying, you know, it was Maynard.

And Maynard says, I can do an impression to Garth Brooks? And I said, really? I said, can you do it? And he goes, sure. So I started the song and Maynard goes, Blanklet all on my roots. I showed up in boots and ruined your blind. And he did the whole song and the crowd.

I saw the jaws drop everybody. And then after the show, this guy comes up to me and he goes, were you really doing that? I said, yeah, I was. And he goes, do it. And so I said, plain it all on my rain. And he went, oh, my God, I've never seen anything like this. So I'm thinking, I'm on to something here. And I changed my whole show and it became a full impression ventriloquism show.

And from then on, things started to click. I went from having 20 people in my audience at the county fairs. to having 300 and 400 people. And it was like standing room only 20 aisles back because they wanted to see what the next impression was going to be. And I'm like, oh, this is great. Now, I never thought I was going to like become a, I knew I was going to become a Vegas headliner at some point,

but I never thought it was going to be like, I mean, I went overnight from playing county fairs and elementary schools to headlining in Las Vegas in the matter of about six months. What's the hardest sound to make or letter to make without moving your mouth? Well, it's any of them, and it's very easy. Well, it's very easy for, no, any of them that use your lips.

So, like, P, B, M, the hardest ones are PRs and B-Rs and, you know, B-Ls. Like, if you want to say black, you have to, so, so that's just a lot of practice. And the ventriloquism books tell you, and I'm going to do something, and I know all of you're going to start, are going to try this, okay? Okay. So the ventriloquism books tell you to substitute it for a D, like the doid dog da d d'A d. Well, that doesn't sound like the boy bought a basketball. That's ridiculous. So even as a child, I'm 10 years old and I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, that does not sound good. So I had one of these little brick recorders, and I recorded myself saying it, and I started experimenting with different ways to say it. And I found, and this is interesting because all the really good ventriloquists do this, and I didn't know this. I was self-taught this. You put the tip of your tongue against the back of your front teeth instead of against the roof of your mouth. So like a D, same thing. With an N, you put the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. But for all of those hard letters, you have to put the tip of your tongue against the back of your front teeth.

So listen to the difference. Instead of the do I dot a basket doll. When I do that, I go, the boy thought of basket ball. You hear the difference? It sounds like a bee. Same thing with the line leather, Larry, lot in the, you know, a pancake. Same thing with the, all of them. I put it against the back of my front teeth.

On the bottom? Your bottom teeth? No, the top, the top front teeth. And then, but now, again, when you try to do it, and I'm sure you guys did it, right? Am I right? Did you all try it? I'm sure everybody watching and listening did the same thing. You're not going to be able to do it as well.

But, you know, I promise, if you give yourself about 50 years of it, you're going to be really good. And I think the other thing, yeah, 50 years. Okay, great. The other thing is your mouth is not completely closed when you're doing. Is that awesome? No, it's impossible. You know, if you close your mouth, you know, so every ventriloquist has to.

If you ever see a ventriloquist in their mouth this close, there's a tape. They're actually just lip syncing to a tape. So you, because the only possible way to do is to have. It's scary. Yes, is to have a little tiny, and I don't know, Larry on my looking right there, is to have a little tiny slit open so that you can,

so that the sound can come out. Now, my doctor, I have a doctor in Dallas, Texas, who is the Doctor to the Stars, and I'm heartbroken because he retired. He's retiring this year. He may have already retired. And I'm talking he's like the Doctor of the Stars. He just saw Mick Jagger last week and sent me a photo of him with Mick. And he does all the – he does me.

And he did an interview with the Rolling Stone magazine. And they asked him, what's the most unusual case you've ever had? And in this interview, he says, there is one person, Terry Fader, and what he does is physically impossible. should not be able to make the tones that he does because when I do these, for some reason, I get a full tone and it sounds like I'm singing. And I've had, I can't tell you how many times I've had people come to my show and they go, I teach voice at school and you just destroyed everything because I always say, well, you have to open your mouth to project. And I, and I'm doing it all

with this tiny little, you know, my mouth open just a tiny bit. So, and again, that's gift. I don't, I can't, you can't make yourself do that. But all the air is coming from your diaphragm. Yes, yeah. So your diaphragm is just, you know, ridiculously large or something. It's, well, it's also developed. One of the things in my ventriloquist books was it would say sit on, you know, we had a set of encyclopedias when I was a kid, and it would say lay on the floor, put the, put the heaviest books on, and then watch it go up and down and do that for like 10 minutes

at a time. And I would do that. So that, and so anyone out there, if you want to learn to sing or you want to learn to do something that requires a good diaphragm, you really need to put that, you know, get a heavy book and lay on flat, 100. you know, books not a Kindle like your iPad. I mean, it's got to be a book. Something heavy. And then you have to breathe and watch it go as far up as it'll go. And that's the way to practice. And then another thing to do is to take a deep breath once you're dive here and get it full and then go, king, king, king, so that you can, so you're pushing, you're pushing the air out.

And so those are things. So when you're doing like a distant voice, if I want to make it sound like somebody's in the room, I'm like, hey, are you in there? Yeah, I'm here. What do you want to see? What? So that's what you do. You have to press on your diaphragm, and then you squeeze the voice out so that it sounds like, and then you can muffle it so that it's like somebody's in a box, and you're like, are you okay in there? I'm feeling it pretty good.

You know, so you can just, and those are all just, again, that took me about 20 years of. Only 20 for that one. Only 20, right, right. So you realize that the singing is catching on, but you're still doing county fairs. What makes you decide or makes you realize you can take things to another level? Well, that was kind of an accident and, you know, Providence, because I was doing this, I was doing this thing in 2006.

And at 2006, my entire show was my puppets doing impressions of singers. So, and that was the year America's Got Talent was on. And people were coming up after the show saying, man, you need to get on America's Got Talent. I said, I'll consider maybe, you know. And unbeknownst to me, hundreds or even thousands of people are writing in, and calling NBC and sending emails, and they're saying, you've got to see this ventriloquist. He does impressions of singers. So randomly, I get a call in maybe October of 2006.

And it was funny because my cell phone said NBC. And I'm going, NBC. What was NBC called me? So I picked the phone. And they're like, hi, this is so-and-so from America's Got Talent. We're getting an awful lot of buzz about you. Would you be interested in auditioning for America's Got Talent? And I was like, sure, but, you know, I'm really busy.

I'm working all the time. So let's look at the schedule of where you're doing auditions. And I just happened to be performing at elementary schools in Los Angeles. And it was about a 15-minute drive from the last school to the Los Angeles Convention Center. And I just drove over there. And I didn't have to stand in line because they had, you know, and I walked in. They gave me a number. I went into the thing.

And they told me, you only are allowed five minutes. If you do more than five minutes, you're going to, you're not going to get on the show. they're going to yank you off the stage and that's it. So I did my five minutes rigorous, man, and I did about maybe 10 impressions in that five minutes. And then, so they're sitting there and there's like six people. It's no judges at the time. It's like producers, yeah. And they're all whispering and then they go, do some more.

And I'm thinking, oh, this is good. So, you know, luckily I had everything on my iPad, I mean, my iPod. And I had maybe three hours worth of music that I would. So I just picked a few songs and I did it five minutes more. And they whisper, whisper, whisper, and they're like, do more. I'm like, okay, so I did five more minutes. And so they whisper a little bit more, and they're like, you're cheating. And I said, wait, what?

So I'm right? Literally, you know, six feet away from them. I said, what do you mean? I'm cheating. They said, it's impossible. There's got to be a tape. This actually happened. There's a tape recorder in the puppet.

And I said, okay, what do I need to do? They said, get right up to the table and do Edda James. And so I literally got six inches from their face and went, And last, my love has come along. And they just went, oh. And so that was when I knew I was going to get on the show. The whispering was probably like, oh, so if he goes through the next round, will they have more material? Do another one.

That may be. If he goes to the finals, will he have more material? Do another one. That's probably exactly what happened. And the funny thing is that I didn't know this, but Simon Cowell is the executive producer of that show. So he was not one of the judges. It was Pierce Morgan. Yeah.

And I didn't know this, but Simon was watching the tapes of everything. And in that audition, I actually sang Tony Bennett. I left my heart in San Francisco. I had a little puppet, and I just pulled it out, and he was like, I left my heart in San Francisco. And so I did this thing. And I get a call from Simon Cowell about in my third audition. I mean, my phone rings, and it's somebody says, yes, please hold for Simon Cal.

And, of course, I'm flipping out. Yeah. I'm grabbing something trying to record it, you know. And he says, he says, what you do is the most remarkable thing I've ever seen. I've never seen this. And he says, I really would love to hear you do that, Tony Bennett. And I'm thinking, how did he hear Tony Bennett? You know, because I did it in this little room.

But apparently he had watched the tapes. And he said, I think if you do that, it's going to do really well. So I said, of course, you know, as Simon says do. Simon says to Tony Bennett. You do Tony Bennett. You do Tony Bennett. I mean, the impressions themselves are so incredible. the fact that you're doing it without moving your lips.

Like, how? You know, that's the funny thing is, you can't believe how many times I've heard. You don't need the puppets. Why do you use the puppets? And I'm like, because I'm the only one who can. You know, nobody else can do impressions. There are a lot of people out there that can do impressions of singers.

And there are a lot of people out there that can do vitroliquism. But I'm the only one that I know of that can do impressions of singers with puppets without moving my lips. And so when you get something that nobody else can do, that's how you get to the type of status in the entertainment industry that I am. When you can literally nobody else. And the funny thing is that took me by surprise. I thought there were going to be copycats popping up everywhere.

So I changed my slogan to Terry Fader, the original. Because I thought, you know, next year there's going to be 10 of these people. Well, next year and the next year and they didn't. And it took me about three years to dawn on me that, oh, wow, I'm the only one that can do this. There are no copycats. So you were on America's Got Talent, you were 42? Mm-hmm, 42. Did you think that you weren't going to make it big if it wasn't for America's Got Talent?

Did you think, like, I had my time's past? Yeah, you know, it was weird. From the time I was a kid, I knew I was talented. You know, I knew that I had a lot of talent and I could do amazing things that nobody else could do. And I was very good at it, you know, even before I put the 40 years of practice in. But I just assumed that I was going to hit it. that someday I would get discovered. When I turned 40, I kind of went through a little midlife crisis,

and I kind of was a little depressed for about, I don't know, maybe six months. I'm thinking, I'm 40 years old, and I never made it. And so it was like, well, you know, who's ever really going to care about a 40-year-old ventriloquist? I guess I'm never going to hit that, but it didn't, I was just a little depressed. And then once I kind of came to the grips with the fact that I was never going to make it and to that next level, I was super happy. I was really satisfied with.

I said, well, hey, at least I don't have to go to work as a janitor again. You know, at least I don't have to be a waiter. Not that there's anything wrong with those things. It's just, again, I don't like physical labor. And you also love passion, and that didn't fuel you. No, no, exactly. That's right. I mean, there are some people that absolutely love to be a server, and that's good.

And that's awesome. You know, everybody has something that they love, and I just didn't. I loved entertaining. So I thought, well, geez, you know, I'm not having to, you know, take orders at Taco Bell. I get to get to get up and perform for kids, and I get to get up and perform at fairs. So, hey, I'm living the dream. And then so it really hit me by surprise. And I never, and the cool thing was, every time somebody would get kicked off, America's Got Talent, man, they would be crying and blubbering.

And I'm sitting there thinking, man, not me. I'm on this show. And if I get on three episodes and get kicked off, I can probably double my price at the elementary schools. I'm happy, you know, I was not at all worried about getting kicked off. I did not know I was going to win. And then when I did, it was such a whirlwind. It was like, it all happened so fast. And then the next thing you know, I'm headlining in Vegas.

And then the Mirage comes over and sees me at the Hilton and asks me to perform there. I did 11 years there. And then in my 11th year, the people at the New York, New York, Casino, my agent calls me, and he says, hey, what would you think of moving? And I said, like, where? And he said, well, New York, New York is really stoked. They really want you. And I said, hey, that would be great.

Let's go to New York, New York. And that's how it happened. And it wasn't like, you know, there's rumors out there. Oh, Terry Fader got fired. And it's like, no, I didn't get fired. I was doing great at the Mirage. I just was, I was ready for a change. I was ready for something new.

And to be honest with you, my favorite casino in town is New York, New York, because it's good for kids. And I've got nephews and nieces. I don't have any kids myself, but they love it because, you know, there's a roller coaster. There's a roller coaster. Exactly. And they, and it's such a cool place.

And so, so it was a match made in heaven. I absolutely love it. So, Terry, there's going to be a 40 or 40-plus-year-old listening to this going, I haven't got my break yet. I'm waiting for that thing to happen. I'm super passionate about it. I'm doing the work. What do I need to do now?

You can't do it for what might happen. You have to do it because you love it. And if you do that, you're going to be happy. I can promise you this. If you're doing it because one day you hope to make it, you're not going to be happy when you make it. You have to be happy with what you're doing. Happiness is not a destination.

It's a choice. So you have to say, you know, I am lucky because I get to do this. And even if it's only a hobby and you get to do it, but I mean, if you're doubly lucky, you get to actually get paid to do it and you get to make a living doing it. And maybe you're just paying the bills and that's it. But hey, that's the dream. And so do it for the love of the craft and do it for the love of what you're doing and choose to be happy with wherever you are.

And then when the door opens, you're ready to walk through it. Oh, that is so good. That's so powerful. For you, how much did America's Got Talent change your life? Oh my gosh. There's really not even a word to describe it. But I'll tell you, so afterwards, right after it happened, everybody, the number one question I would get asked. And I did, I mean, I did hundreds of interviews in the next year following year. And they're, how did your life change? And I have this example. So I'm doing county fairs. And there were a

couple of them that were really nice to us, little acts, you know, the ones that got to perform near the petting zoo, you know, and have clowns running around in the audience while you're performing. There were a number of us that did that. And they were very nice to us and they had water and food and things for us. But 99% of them, they did not treat us that way. And not that they were mean. It's just that, you know, it'd be like, oh, you know, it's 107 degrees out there. Can you provide some water? And they're like, hey, they sell bottle water out there. Go get your water. It's like, well, how about some, how about a fruit tray? And they're like, they sell fruit over there. Go eat your own fruit, you know. And that's just how it is. If you're, if you're not.

a top entertainer. That's what it is. Everything is provided by you. So, and after, after America's Got Talent, and I mean, it's literally overnight. I mean, I, I did every single contract. So I was doing things. I had just won America's Got Talent. My price jumped to like $50,000 a show overnight. Wow. And I still did the ones that I was, that I had booked for $750. I didn't charge him another cent. And I still went in and did it. And, and so, but I go in and they're like, and they're like, What would you like? And I said, well, I'd really like a fruit tray and a meat tray and some water. And I'd go in there and there'd be enough for a freaking army.

I'm like, oh, my God, how many people do you? I'm a ventriloquist. How many people do you think I carry with me? The puppets don't eat. I mean, there'd be like 20 varieties of fruit. And so that was the big change. It's amazing how everything changes when you get this amount of this place of celebrity. Yeah.

And it was really cool because, let me say this, my goal was because at the time, Jeff Dunham was very popular. And another ventriloquist named Ron Lucas, who is, they're both of huge influences on me. And both of them were making $25,000 a show. And so I told me, and I said, you know, my goal is to make $25,000 a show. I think if I can do that, then at least I feel like I'm a colleague with these other people. And so it's like overnight, boom, $50,000. I said, holy cow, I just doubled my goal, you know. But here's the thing, America's Got Talent got you to that point.

Then it was, what are you going to do now that you have this position? And the fact that we're sitting here now 14 years later is a testament to the fact that you have a talent that sustains that. Yes. And the thing is, is when I was on America's Got Talent, a lot of people will go on and they'll have three or four really good acts. I had been doing this for 20-something years before I went on America's Got Talent. You know, since I was a kid, I had three hours of quality material. And I was the only act in any of the fairs. And that's why they loved me. I would do four shows a day, four 45-minute shows a day, all four different shows. Everybody else would do the same show, 45-minute, you know, same show four times.

And so people, I would actually get people to come see all four shows because they were enjoying it. So I had three hours with the material. It was not, what am I going to do? It was like, what am I not going to do? I knew I had all these impressions. The one thing that was kind of a curveball was I had made it through to the final round, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. and my family had all, and my friends, they were like, Terry, we've heard you do crying by Roy Orbison,

and it's so amazing, and you sound just like Roy Orbison. We think you should do that as your final act. And I said, but I've never done it without moving my lips, you know. And so I said, okay, so I'll, okay, fine. And so I told the producers, I'd like to do crying by Roy Orbison. They got me the permission. So I get my turtle. I put a little wig on him in glasses, make him look like Roy Orbison.

It's super cute. And then I do crying. And I win the show from it. And I get an email from Roy Orbison's widow a few months afterwards. And she emailed me and said, I wanted to thank you for letting me hear my husband's voice again. I mean, can you get a better compliment than that? Can you get a better compliment? And a turtle is the one who did that, you know?

Wow. You also do a great Justin Bieber. How many voices, is it? Oh, gosh. Like I said, we stopped counting after 200. I mean, I was just kind of going through and doing all these voices. I really haven't found one that I can't do. Sometimes I might have to lower the key a bit.

Sometimes it might take me. It took me five years to learn out of Frank Sinatra. But, you know, if I work at it, I can pretty much do any singing voice that I want to do. I don't want to give too much away, but the opening of your show, it's incredibly impressive. Oh, well, thank you. Because you're hearing all these voices, and then you put two and two together and realize that it's you and you're like, oh, stop it. And I've had that idea for about 10 years and I've been wanting to do it.

And so it was so perfect because when I had a whole new venue, it was like, hey, I'm going to reimagine the show. And a lot of people don't realize that I can sing. It's the oddest thing. I said this in the show. And it's so true, though, I'll do a couple of songs by myself and my show. And people come up afterwards and go, I had no idea you could sing it. It's like, you saw me in America's guttelling every single week.

You know, you think the turtle was actually singing Roy Orbison? You know, it's, but I guess that's a testament to how well I'm performing because they don't, they don't realize it's me. They actually think the turtle is doing it. I will say there is a definite separation between you and your characters. So, like, when you're on, when we're watching you on stage, you are interacting with these characters, not interacting with your hand and your own voice. It's, it's, it's, listen, it's very confusing. I'm not crazy, but listen, at times, it almost feels like I'm having a conversation with a different person because it's not in a weird way, but in a way of just I have developed such a strong character. And also, it's weird.

Every character has such a strong personality. So, you know, when I first hired my comedy writers, the main thing that we had trouble with was they would throw a joke out and they would say, oh, I think Winston can do this. And I would say Winston would never tell that joke. That's a Walter joker. That's a Maynard joke or that's a Vicky joke. And so it took them several years to kind of learn to speak in the voice of the puppets because they're not, I'm not a stand-up comedian that uses puppets. I create real living characters that come alive. And I mean, trust me, am I right? I mean, five seconds in, it's not me. It's not me and just me. It's two people or a person in a turtle. Yeah. What's the question that people ask you the most now after they see your show? What's your advice to anyone else out there? And my advice, my advice to people is never stop working on your craft. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter what it is. If you're a carpenter, if you're a singer, if you're an impressionist, if you're a comedian, if the minute you take that guitar and put it in the closet and never pick it up again, the dream does die. But if you pick that guitar up for 15 minutes a day, I promise you, in 20 years, you are going to be really, really good at that and anything can happen. You know,

There was any moment I could have said, I'm so tired of this life. I'm banging it out on the road. It's so hard. And oh, my gosh, you know, I got heat stroke a couple of times standing there in the sun, in the summer doing a fair act, you know. And I didn't give it up. I said, no, this is what I want to do. I'm going to keep. And I kept working toward it. I never stopped working. So I just tell people, never stop working. You may not, it may not be, but you'll get the satisfaction of getting better and better and better. And it's a very fulfilling. thing for you to do for yourself. What was the best advice that you were given along the way? Okay. It's a person who we don't care for anymore, but Bill Cosby actually. And I wish I'd taken his advice because I got taken advantage of, but a few times, but he told me, I met him about 12 years ago and he said, he said, I'm going to give you some advice because he saw my show and he said it was amazing. He loved it. And he said, sign your own checks. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever give anyone, don't ever give anyone access to your money but you. And unfortunately, I didn't listen. And so I'm going to tell everyone out there's the same thing. And I promise there's no scandals in my life that's going to come up

that are going to make, you hate me, sign your own checks. Don't ever give anyone control of your money but you ever. You're telling me Winston doesn't sign your checks? Well, Winston, but you know, I can definitely trust him because you know where my hand goes. Did I see him come in here? You did. Oh, my gosh. Hello. How's it going?

This is so, oh, Winston, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm listening to this. Listen, Terry doesn't do anything. I do all the work. I can see that, yes. Winston, has Terry ever given you any advice? Absolutely.

What's the advice again? Yeah, what was it? Just relax, and I'll cut my fingernails later. So with a puppet like Winston, it's just your hand in there, but there are other puppets where you're controlling the eyelids and the eyeballs. Yes. Those are the hard figures, the wooden figures, and mine are actually carved out of wood. I'm very old school. Most people use a composite where it's kind of plastic and wood, but my character's actually a hand carved.

And I'm very proud of that. I'm not carved, no, I'm the real turtle. That's right. He's a real turtle. I feel bad talking about you in front of you, Winston. Oh, that's okay. I'm used to it. You were talking about me and I was back down there.

You were sleeping, I figured. No, I was listening. Okay. How was your improv so good? It's not him. It's me. That's true. Yeah, that was, you know, it's just something I relax and I just enjoy and I get into the moment when at one moment when I was on America's Got Talent, Jerry Springer says, so, you know, you're one performance away from winning a million dollars.

What are you going to do if you win? And the puppy says, I get half. And that just was like right off the top of my head. Did the judges give you any sort of advice along the way? No. In fact, I was the second season. I was the only person that had ever been on the show that never got an ex or never got any critiques. And every single time, every single time, they would just say, oh, my gosh, this was amazing.

It was amazing. So I knew I was doing well. I didn't think I'd win. I thought it was going to be the other guy that came in second. Why was that? Well, I was looking online and I was given way too much credence. to views on YouTube. He had like 100 million,

and I had like 20 million views on YouTube. And so I was thinking, obviously, that was going to turn into votes, and I was totally wrong about that. And it really does come down to votes? It really does, yeah. No, you... And trust me,

I was told by the people that America's Got Talent that it came out of left field. They did not expect. They thought it was going to be cast because he had been ahead of me in every single round except the final round.

And then, and the final round, and I was given this little secret, I don't know if I was supposed to tell, but I'm going to tell it anyway, because it's 14 years later, who cares. They said, not only did I win it, I won 60% of the vote, and the other three shared the other 40%. So I didn't just win. I mean, I completely, and again, I didn't expect it, and neither did the producers, because Cass Haley had been ahead of me in the voting every single round except the final round. Well, I think it's just, it's talent that's undeniable. And I think that people can see singers or dancers up there and go, oh, that's really good. And they kind of think to themselves, but if I tried really, really hard,

I could be a better singer. I could be a better dancer. But with what you guys do, it's like I feel like I could try and do this for 30 years and still never be even close. Yeah, you need to get yourself a turtle. I need to get myself a turtle. What would I name him, Winston? Well, you could name him Winston the second.

No, no, no, no, you can't do that. How about Walter? No, no, I've already got a Walter. Okay. Yeah, figure it out yourself, buddy. And I think that that's what it is. They're seeing a talent in you that they know that they could never possess. Maybe so.

And I think, I don't know what it was, but, you know, I'm grateful to my family and friends because they were the ones who suggested crying. And when he said, Crying over you. And also. I don't cry on the deep rock here. It's so good. Thank you.

I hate to ask this question in front of Winston, but who's the star of the show? Duh. Well, it's definitely Winston. Yeah. And, you know, we did a poll a few years ago, maybe 10 years ago at the Mirage. And Winston, he kind of ran away with the poll. But interestingly, this is very interesting. Thank you.

I take that as a compliment. It is a compliment. But it was very interesting because Winston, like, and kind of like what, when I was on America's Got Talent, he got like 60% as everybody's favorite. and the other 40% were evenly distributed between every other puppet, which means all the puppets were popular, which I found very fascinating. And so do you mind if I say something true?

No, no, say the truth, as long as you don't say that I'm not your favorite. Well, you are my favorite. But he is my favorite overall because there's no doubt I would not be where I am if he had not saying, crying. But my favorite to perform is Maynard. You saw Maynard because he's so goofy. and I really go off script a lot more with Maynard than I do with anybody else. And my sentimental favorite is Walter T. Aredale, the drunk cowboy that came out because he was my first professional puppet.

I got him as a birthday gift, and so he will always have a special place in my heart. Watching him go from drunk to sobering up was my favorite part of the night. Oh, thank you. Yeah, because like the eyes light up. We've all been there. And I went, oh, this is so good. It's kind of like when that cop pulls you over, right? He's sober up real quick, right?

And that was exactly what it was, and we all went. Yeah, that's it. You were sold out last night, and it's a Wednesday night in November. I think that that's a true testament to how popular you are here. Well, thank you. Yeah, we're doing really, really well. Our numbers are great, and people, and I think as people begin to realize that a lot of people still aren't sure I'm still performing and don't know where.

So we're getting the word out, and as people get, and of course, word of mouth is always helpful, so, you know, people knowing and finding out. And my Christmas show is absolutely, totally different than one. one you saw. And it's so much fun. I mean, if you really want to get into the holiday, it's really a holiday because the theme of the show is everybody celebrates the holidays in a different way. How does each puppet celebrate the holidays? And so we even have Barry Fabulous, who is the only gay character that I have, you know, and he's, he's fabulous, you know, so he's fun. He's really fun. And the only reason I literally created Barry Fabulous simply because I wanted to do show tunes.

And he does Ethel Merman, Cher, and Judy Garland. That's amazing. So what's the best way that people can find you? just all of my socials, it's everything is at Terry Fader, except TikTok is official Terry Fader. So, who took Terry Fader on that? You know, I don't know, but they do this where they gouge. We're going to make a complaint and see if we can get it back, but it takes a while. And I said, well, I'm going to get on and then eventually we'll move it over once. But somebody stole it and they're trying to like gouge me money-wise.

And I'm like, I'm not paying you for that. I'll just do official Terry Fader. Like, there's not too many Chris Van Vleets in the world, especially with this spelling here. Someone took it on TikTok. Yeah, that's it. That's the only one. Somebody took Terry Fader on. So I'm Chris. Van Vleet on TikTok.

And I'm official, Terry Fader. Well, you are official. Yeah. Terryfader.com. Right? The original. Yeah. Well, not. We don't need to say it original.

Yeah, the original. Should have been winced in the impersonating turtle. Yeah. Well, that would have been good. Yeah. Too hard to write, though. And how many nights a week are you at New York? I do five nights a week.

We're actually Wednesday through Sunday this year. And then we're going to try for the first six months of next year in 2022 going Sunday through Thursday. Because I found it. at the Mirage I was doing Mondays and Tuesdays, and I was doing incredibly well because most shows are shut down. There's very few shows that actually are performing, so there's less competition. So we're going to try it, and if it works, and I love having my Fridays and Saturdays off, because then I get to go see other stuff. I never get to see anybody if I'm performing on the weekends.

Who do you want to see? I want to see everybody. I want to see David Copperfield and Matt Franco and Sinn Lim, and I want to go see, and I went to see the Rolling Stones. I actually, my assistant Marine over there. I did my show, and I ran out to her car. She dropped me off over at Legion Stadium, and I got there before they started their set. But I don't want to have to do that. I want to be able to go and see, you know, Garth Brooks when he comes in at George Strait and Billy Joel and all this. So, I mean, I can't do that if I'm working on Fridays and Saturdays. Your story is so inspiring. And I'm so grateful for you coming by and sharing this with us. I think it's going to inspire a lot of people who maybe are a little bit later on in life and are

going. And turtles. And turtles as well. The turtles that are listening. that are maybe going to go, I don't need to give up on my dream. There's still lots of time. No, no. And make sure the dream is not to make it big. The dream needs to be to do what you want to do and that you love. Because then you definitely, absolutely, definitely are going to live the dream. So I'm all about gratitude.

So I end every conversation with this question. I'll ask it to both of you guys. What are three things in your life that you're grateful for right now? Number one, without a doubt, God. I'm a very strong believer in God. And I'm so grateful that he has given me the gifts that I've given, and I feel like that I'm giving back to him by using my talents to create joy. I'm not a negative comedian. I'm a very positive, as you saw last night.

The second thing, without a doubt, is my wife, Angie. My gosh, she's my third wife, and I had given up. I thought, man, this is it. I'm just not made for this. And then I met the love of my life, and this woman makes me feel so loved. and so special, and it's amazing to have that. I would give up anything and everything, and, you know, I've had a very difficult life

with a lot of abuse and everything growing up, and I would do it all over again if she was at the end of it. I'm so grateful to her, and I'm grateful for Winston. Oh, Terry, that's so nice. And what are you grateful for? Food. I like food, and second thing, food. Okay.

And third thing, food. You're not even grateful for Terry? No, no, no. And I could do this without him. I don't think so. No, I could. Yeah, I believe you. I'm thinking of going solo.

Wow. I'd love to see that, like Maynard did last night. That was impressive. It didn't work out. I'll come to your show, Winston. Okay. I'll be there. Yeah, we'll see.

Winston, Terry, congratulations on everything. Thank you. And thank you guys so much for coming by. Thanks for having. No, super appreciate it. So thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Terry Fader, ladies and gentlemen,

that man just has so much talent. And that whole story, about putting your guitar away in the closet and the dream dying? I don't know about you, but that one really hit me. Please share this with someone who you know would love it and take a screenshot, tag us on social media, and let us know that you were on this journey with us. Terry is at Terry Fader.

I'm at Chris Van Fleet, and the next time you're in Las Vegas, I can't recommend Terry's showing up at the New York, New York. Incredible. I'll leave you with the words of Langston, Hughes, which seems so fitting for the theme of this episode and the theme of this conversation. He said, hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. Be great and be grateful, my friends, we will see you on the next one for some more insight.

The Hammer Alley podcast, an 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it. in the world of rock. But there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock?

I'm looking for a music video. They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley.

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