Terry Fator

I had to put in a good word for Terry Fator here. The guy won America's Got Talent, and there's a reason for that. He's a singing ventriloquist. Oh, and he does dead on impressions. His big finale when he was with a turtle dressed like Roy Orbison singing "Crying." And he sound exactly like Roy.

His new DVD really shows off everything he's got. It starts with a girl puppet singing "At Last" by Etta James and it is perfect, almost to the point of being scary. He goes through a few different puppets and styles, from the Bee Gees to a yodeling cowboy. It's a strange feeling watching a puppet sing a great "Let's Get it On" when you know it's coming from the disinterested looking guy standing next to him.

He breaks it up a couple of times in different ways. He sings a straight song, and that's all nice. Then he comes out dressed like Michael Jackson and sings a duet with a puppet and it's a little uncomfortable. Even if he was still alive, the skit just drags on and on and the song isn't that great of a payoff and his Jackson isn't all that great. The best break for me is when he grabs an audience member and puts a mask on him, where Fator controls the mouth. It's like audience participation without him actually participating. Even better, he dresses the guy up like Cher while Fator puts on the Sonny wig and sings "I've Got You Babe" with himself.

I have to say, I don't think he's as funny as Dunham. The jokes are alright, but a lot of them are pretty standard and others you could feel coming a mile away. As if to seal the deal, the writing credit on the end doesn't go to him. Even odder is the mix of sweet little songs peppered with crude jokes. I'm not sure if he feels he needs to dirty it up since he's in a Vegas casino or what, but he's not doing himself any favors. That said, I'd say he's at least as talented as Dunham. Singing is hard. Singing without moving your mouth is difficult. Singing while looking like you aren't singing is pretty much impossible. He sings things most couldn't not matter what the circumstances.

So check him out. The DVD was $10 at Target, but it's at least worth a NetFlixing. I've wasted an hour in worse ways.