Watch Fator (and puppet Winston) perform It's A Wonderful World

Paul Potts brought opera to the British masses, now America’s Got Talent contestant Terry Fator has given the USA, er, ventriloquism.

With a menagerie of puppets, a tendency to gush, and bearing a striking resemblance to The Office's David Brent, Fator may well have been booed off Britain's Got Talent. But last night America voted him best amateur performer in the country.

Handed $1 million in prize money, Fator’s long, vexed career as a niche performer came to a close, and life as a reality TV star began. Scheduled to headline at Bally’s Resort in Las Vegas next month, the Texan can now begin to forget the show he organised earlier this summer, where only one person turned up.

If this all sounds too much like a Christopher Guest mockumentary, wait until you hear who the singing, impersonating ventriloquist was up against. The infinitely more modern finalists were 14-year-old singer Julienne Irwin, human beatbox Antoinette “Butterscotch” Clinton and reggae singer Cas Haley.

And yet it was the middle-aged, rotund Fator who won over the audience. His lifelong dream of performing with Kermit the Frog didn’t put them off. Nor did his impersonating turtle, Winston. Instead, they turned up to America’s Got Talent filmings in droves, waving puppets from their seats to show support. They put his clips on You Tube and posted messages of support:

“Well I am totally speechless, Terry you have it all” enthused Lordess777.

“How can you not smile watching this,” posted TheGuard.

Now that he is officially America’s most talented performer, the hysteria has grown. Suddenly a middle-aged man wearing a stuffed-toy as a glove is sexy:

“He does deserve it!! And he is just tooooooo cute!” whimpered KenoGrace beneath a You Tube clip of his winning performance.

Can we write this strange story off as “only in America”? Apparently not. Two of the show’s three judges were British and, yes, they approved of Fator’s rise to stardom. Former Mirror editor Piers Morgan told him: “You’re a great impersonator, a great singer and a great comedian.” Sharon Osbourne added: “You put a twist on the whole being a ventriloquist thing.”

Could all of this signal the unthinkable? Prepare yourself for the return of ventriloquism. Anyone seen Orville?

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