Terry Fator's voice - all 100 or so versions of it - is filled with excitement. And with good reason. The puppet-toting "America's Got Talent" champ is about to depart for a gig at his future base of operations in the state of Nevada. There, he'll scope out for the first time a miraculous epiphany of sorts.

Namely, himself, as transformed into a colossal marquee image of his visage, erected along the Las Vegas Strip, and heralding his very own venue, the Terry Fator Theater at the Mirage Casino & Resort.

It's scheduled to debut, with hugs and kisses, on Valentine's Day '09.

"I've only seen a picture of it so far, and it's gigantic … huge … impossible to miss," he marvels of the impending close encounter. "My name is in enormous letters, and there's a big old gigantic picture."

Smack-dab at Sin City ground zero.

And not just Terry, but also his tight-knit coterie of dummies … er puppets … er friends.

Very close friends.

Among them:

• Walter T. Airedale, Fator's oldest and closest confidante, also known as Cowboy Walter, per his Garth Brooks leanings.

• Winston the Turtle, the Kermit the Frog wannabe turned turtle to avoid copyright litigation.

• Maynard Thompkins, the Elvis impersonator who hasn't taken the time to learn even one Elvis song.

• Emma Taylor, blues diva par excellence.

• And Johnny Vegas, who'll soon be right at home at the Mirage doing Dino and Tony and other rat-packing, lounge-loving sorts.

All of whom not only converse with Fator on stage, but also do what Fator claims no other ventriloquist has done before: throw in letter-perfect celebrity singing impressions, from Garth Brooks, to Tony Bennett, to Elvis, to Marvin Gaye, to Kermit the Frog trading verses with Louis Armstrong.

As a result of that unique recipe, Fator's five-year, $100 million Mirage Casino deal (with option for another five-year extension at the same value) has been reported as among the most lucrative in Vegas history.

True or false?

"I've been told that it is, but I don't personally know whether it's true or not," he hedges.

Whatever: not bad for a fortysomething Texas boy who, until a year or so ago, was playing to near-empty venues, or worse.

How worse?

As the legend goes, just a month before Fator appeared on "America's Got Talent" in June 2007, he worked a Texas fair gig where his audience consisted of one very dedicated 12-year-old boy.

One.

A year-and-a-half later, "America's Got Talent" overlord Simon Cowell is branding Fator "one of the top two entertainers on the planet."

One of two.

And he's playing arena dates like Wednesday night's U.S. Cellular Coliseum here in Bloomington, where the asking price for a front-row seat and chance to meet Fator afterward is going for a cool $100.

One times a hundred. (Regular seats, by the way, go for $29.50 and $39.50.)

About that legend of the solo 12-year-old: true or false?

"Oh, true," says Fator.

Considering that the kid believed in Fator when no one else in that neck of his home state did, shouldn't the lad be given a memorial plaque or something in the new Terry Fator Theater?

The thought hasn't escaped Fator, who confesses that, indeed, the word has been put out, all the better for him to give thanks.

Alas, numerous candidates have emerged from the woodwork, all claiming they were that lone prepubescent true believer.

Even so, Fator says he's confident the real McCoy will one day be found and feted accordingly.

Until then, Fator is just thrilled to see that his perseverance has paid off, even as the years rolled by and youthful idealism gave way to the dawn of middle age.

"It's the satisfaction of knowing you worked for it - that you put in the effort and the time," he says. "When I was approaching 40, I thought to myself, 'this dream is over, absolutely.'"

Over or no, "the thing was, at least I loved what I was doing, even if I never became famous and hit the big-time - and how many of us can say that?"

So Fator dug his feet in and vowed "to never stop working toward it - to never do a sloppy show for my own pride and joy."

It helped, he notes, that his wife "had to support us to keep me going and the bills paid."

The native Texan, born 43 years ago, began that love affair with his job as far back as grade school, when he came across a book called "Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit" by Paul Winchell, the famed man behind the voice of such characters as Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff.

The book was discovered on behalf of a Valentine's Day book report assignment.

So that very fun and profitable Valentine's Day opening of the Terry Fator Theater in two months is fraught with layers of meaning for its namesake, he agrees.

Soon, a starter-level dummy from Sears and a performance at a church picnic set Fator on the path to diverting his vocal gifts through different channels.

He's old enough that old-school ventriloquists like Winchell and Edgar Bergen were still a part of pop culture currency.

"It was a great and wonderful way to grow up, watching those guys," says Fator. What he learned from these masters, he says, was not so much keeping his lips sealed when he threw his voice as conjuring "believable, lovable characters - you've got to have characters that people fall in love with. And that's what they did so good."

Fator's first foray into that realm occurred at age 18, when his birthday present from his parents was the dummy Fator fans know and love today as Walter T. Airedale, his longest-running character - the country singer who would be Garth Brooks, not to mention a sizable chunk of Nashville's output.

For the next 20-odd years, Fator stuck it out, working as singer in several show bands, where he hones his considerable vocal skills - the one that kept him in good stead as he began to dovetail them into his ventriloquism act.

That confluence is what led to "America's Got Talent," where he was an instant smash with both audiences and judges, even as one of the latter, David Hasselhoff, who greeted him with, "Oh, no, a ventriloquist!"

Ten odd minutes later, he was all but groveling.

And then the usually snotty Simon issued forth with that prescient "one of the two top entertainers on the planet" edict (the other, since you asked, is British pop chanteuse Leona Lewis).

For his Bloomington show, Fator hopes to not only make good on the hard-to-impress Cowell's grandiose pronouncement but also give Central Illinoisans a first look at what patrons at the Terry Fator Theater won't hear or see until next year.

"I promise," he says, "you will laugh like you've never laughed in a very long time."

And he hopes to unveil his latest celebrity-impersonating dummy, tentatively christened The Beatle, and a whiz, Fator says, at impersonating the entire Fab Four.

In tandem,

"A star is built," he says.

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Chips off the block

Profiles of the dummies & blockheads Terry Fator has known:

Walter T. Airedale

• Music preference: Big-hat country

• Celebrity preference: Garth!

Emma Taylor

• Music preference: Blues, baby

• Celebrity preference: Etta James

Winston the Impersonating Turtle

• Music preference: Tin Pan Sesame Street Alley

• Celebrity preference: Kermit the you-know

Maynard Thomkins

• Music preference: Elvis

• Celebrity preference: Elvis

Julius

• Music preference: Let's-get-it-on-'70s-soul

• Celebrity preference: Marvin Gaye

Johnny Vegas

• Music preference: See surname

• Celebrity preference: Loungers (Dino, Tony, Frank, etc.)

Dougie Scott Walker

• Music preference: Metal that is heavy

• Celebrity preference: Hair that is big

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At a glance

What: Terry Fator

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: U.S. Cellular Coliseum, 101 S. Madison St., Bloomington

Tickets: $29.50 to $39.50; front-row VIP ticket, including meet-and-greet with Fator, $99.50

Box office number: (866) 891-9992