FORT HALL — America’s Got Talent winner, singing ventriloquist Terry Fator, is traveling to Fort Hall to perform a new version of his Las Vegas show, “Terry Fator: On the Road Again,” at the Shoshone-Bannock Casino Hotel on Friday.

Fator, who won America's Got Talent in 2007 and has been performing regularly in Las Vegas for the past 17 years, said he put Idaho on his list of tour destinations in response to emails he got from fans in the area asking him to visit.

"A lot of people can't travel to Las Vegas because either they can't afford it or they're sick and they just can't do it," Fator said. "This is the people in Idaho's chance to come out and see my Las Vegas show and they're going to absolutely love it. I love to perform and I love my audience, so if somebody really wants to see me but they can't come to Vegas, I'm coming to them." 

Fator's 90-minute show will feature comedy, music, musical parodies, and of course, his ventriloquism skills. Fator will be accompanied by his cast of puppets portraying characters Walter T. Airdale, Vikki the Cougar, Duggie Scott Walker, and Winston the Impersonating Turtle, as well as celebrities Elton John, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior.

A news release announcing Fator's Idaho tour stop described his show as a "Music Hall of Fame roster of the greatest entertainers and their songs brought to the stage by master impressionist Terry Fator."

Originally from Dallas, Fator spent much of his life performing at different venues across the country, including appearances at the Idaho State Fair and other fairs, prior to his being catapulted to fame. He said from a young age he envisioned and manifested the fame that eventually came to him. 

"I've been singing since as far back as I can remember," Fator said. "My first real memory is me singing a song in front of some adults at my church, and people were laughing and enjoying and clapping. It was that charge that I got out of entertaining these people. That was the bug that really got me, then I did magic shows, started doing balloon animals, and I was always singing or reciting poetry. I found ventriloquism at 10 and I just fell in love with the art."

Fator recounted learning the art of ventriloquism as a kid and then participating in his elementary school's talent shows as a ventriloquist.

"There was not another ventriloquist at my school, so I thought, "Great. That means there's not going to be any competition'" he said. "My puppets would always sing or I would do impressions of comedians. Then when I was 22, I started a band, and every 10 to 15 minutes while performing I would pull out a puppet and have them sing along. People absolutely loved it, and so I decided I wanted to be a professional ventriloquist, this dream I've had since I was 10."

Fast forward to 2007, Fator took his singing ventriloquism onto America's Got Talent, and after winning the show, his "whole life changed," he said.