I don't usually post my book reviews. The book has to really has to have an impact on me to do so. But I've decided to post this one. It's the last book I'll read in 2009 and it was a good read.
To tell you the truth I'm not sure what made me read this book. Before I started reading it I would have sworn under oath that I am not a Terry Fator fan. But I guess the things I had heard about his life, such as the his oppressive father and difficult childhood as well as my curiosity about his road to fame, is what led me to add it to my library. It was only out of curiosity and the fact that he's admired by other ventriloquists whom I admire that I read this book. It wasn't out of any desire I had to know his story for myself.
Now that seems strange because he's really lived the kind of dream and a life I would have wanted to live myself. He's an excellent ventriloquist; one of the best I've ever seen. His ability to imitate any singer he wants to is remarkable. He won a million dollars on a national television show, America's Got Talent, and it did it doing something he loves; something I love doing myself.
I have to admit now that the reason I am not a Terry Fator fan (or at least wasn't) was because I was jealous. That's right jealous. Seeing a vent with the degree of talent Fator has is very intimidating. He does things with his voice and music that I could only ever wish I could do. His national fame and continued success as a headliner in Las Vegas raised the common standard for what America thinks a ventriloquist should be. Knowing that no matter how hard I try I'll never be that good or live up to those expectations is very frustrating and discouraging.
And until I read this book I thought his talent was something that came easy to him. Now I realize he had to work hard and fame was a long time coming.
As I read this book I began to see that Fator and I have a lot in common. A lot of his history and influences are the same as mine. His life growing up was one of living in a religious household and attending church like mine. His early influences were drawn from listening and imitating comedians based on the stand up comedy albums he listened to. He even listened to some of the same comedians I did, Bill Cosby and Bill Dana as Jose Jemenez. His admiration for the Muppets is another thing we have in common.
Although I can't identify with the mental and physical abuse he lived through, all in the name of religion, at the hands of his father, I do know, first hand, what it's like to watch someone you care about suffer through a life of mental and emotional abuse by a father figure. The title of the book is a direct in-your-face question to his father, with whom he no longer as any contact, as well as a reciprocal one to those who doubted his talent along the road to success.
Fator discusses God, theology and religion a lot in this book. I really can't tell if he's a born again Christian because he never comes right out and writes that. He does have a strong faith but whether that's a saving faith in Jesus Christ, as I said, he never discusses. I have my own conclusions but I won't discuss them in this review.
As for Fator's path to fame and fortune it's a long and difficult one. He spent most of his life dreaming of being famous and doing his best to perfect his act and product for when he got there. He spent a great amount of years working in a very successful band which allowed him to develop his musical ability and impersonation skills. He didn't find the success he dreamed of until after he was 40 years old but then it went way beyond what he could ever imagine. This book is worth reading if only for that rags-to-riches story.
Now I am going to take away several things as from this book. First I'm going to get over my jealousy and realize that God has given me Terry's life as an example of His faithfulness if I am faithful. What I mean by that is this. I am going to have to be more diligent at working and practicing my ventriloquism. I am going to have to be more committed to my craft. I'm going to have to have put everything I have in my belief that this is what God wants me to do and that I will do it to His honor and glory even if it means little or no personal success for me.
One of the things Fator writes about throughout the book is always giving everything he has to his performances both on and off the stage. Over the course of his career he has performed for thousands of people in person and millions through network television. On the low end of the scale he has also performed for an audience of only a single 12 year old boy at some obscure county fair. In both cases he writes that his attitude and intention with his performance was to give them everything he has. I guess that's meant to be the message of this book for me. It's loud enough and clear enough I just have to acknowledge it.
I must take that message and apply it to my life. God has been practically yelling that that message to me for quite a while now. Terry Fator's story is just another shout out of the same message. It's up to me to respond to it. If I don't and I miss the opportunity God has given me to serve Him through ventriloquism I guess you could very appropriately ask me the question: "Who's The Dummy Now?"
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