Las Vegas Weekly

March 13, 2009 · 5:30 AM

It’s premiere weekend for Terry Fator; our merry Mayor of Mirth gets roasted

By Robin Leach

Terry Fator and Walter T. Airdale.

Photo: The Mirage

The Mirage’s $100 million man Terry Fator will have a star-studded, red carpet turnout for his premiere gala party tomorrow night. The singing ventriloquist who won $1 million on Season 2 of America’s Got Talent has promised new puppets, celebrity voices and impressions as his five-year contract gets underway.

Adorable fan favorite Winston the Impersonating Turtle and lovable Emma Taylor will be joined by new puppet Vikki the Cougar. I saw Terry’s preview show, and his take on everybody from Michael Jackson, Cher, Justin Timberlake, Elvis, Garth Brooks and the Pussycat Dolls is not only right on target, but also unbelievably hilarious.

Forget everything you’ve ever feared about ventriloquists. Terry is the new king of the art, and if you were a skeptic before, he will convert you within minutes.

Photo: Kagan PR

Terry Fator and his puppet pals.

Here’s who to look for on the red carpet: actress Dee Wallace, talk show host Jerry Springer, Kate Flannery and Oscar Nunez of The Office, hunks Lou Ferrigno and Kevin Sorbo, plus Carla Ferrigno, Jerry Mathers, Mariette Hartley, masked magician Val Valentino, Muhammad Ali’s daughter Rasheeda, heavyweight comedian Louie Anderson, TV greats Adam West, and Jerry Mathers, as well as the Commodores, Deborah Gibson, Fred Willard and yours truly!

It’s been a 20-year-plus dream for Terry to make it to the Strip, and it’s all finally come true. Click HERE for a previous exclusive interview with him. I’m hoping he lived up to what he told me about inviting to the opening night the six agents who had rejected him and said he would never land a job on the Strip!

How he juggles Nat King Cole and daughter Natalie, along with Tony Bennett and a seamless switch to Brooks & Dunn, Louis Armstrong and Fergie, is still absolutely beyond me. Remember he’s the first ventriloquist in history to ever have close-up cameras on his lips projected to super HD screens to prove to audiences even in the back of the theater that “the lips never move.”

Photo: TVT

Mayor Oscar Goodman speaks during a press conference for the Las Vegas Marathon.

A roast for our mayor

Meantime, I’ll first dash to Green Valley Ranch to help roast our merry Mayor of Mirth Oscar Goodman in a benefit for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. Talk about getting just desserts after the meal because Flamingo comic Vinny Favorito, his former law partner David Chesnoff, wife Carolyn Goodman and yours truly will throw the barbs his way. We’ve got a couple of real doozies up our sleeves for this unmerciful verbal lashing -- all in good spirits, which is what he drinks most of the time!

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