Terry Fator was born on June 10, 1965, in Dallas, Texas. The beginning of Fator’s ventriloquism career dates back to when he was in fifth grade. While searching for a book for an assignment on Valentine’s Day, he came across a book about ventriloquism titled “Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit” by Paul Winchell. Fator checked out the book and started learning about ventriloquism. A few weeks later, Fator purchased a Willie Talk dummy from Sears and soon won a $25 prize for a performance at a church picnic. Throughout his childhood, Fator entertained family and friends with his ventriloquism and did impersonations of singers and actors.
Fator did a solo act combining comedy and ventriloquism but for many years had little success. In May 2007, Fator was performing at a fair near Houston, Texas and the only spectator was a 12-year-old boy. Discouraged, Fator contemplated pursuing another career, but his family encouraged him to hang in there. Fator says the low point of his career was when he appeared at a thousand seat theater and had only one customer.In the course of the Vegas Round, Terry Fator was placed in the “Variety” category.
The performance that he gave in Episode 205 consisted of his emulating Tony Bennett by ventriloquistically singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” via one of his puppets. Because of the quality of his audition, the judges decided to advance him to the semifinals, which will take place in Episode 206.