Ventriloquist Terry Fator has found enormous success since he won “America’s Got Talent” back in 2007, and has had a headlining Vegas show at the Mirage for 11 years. In all that time he’s never been asked to change his act in any way, until now. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Mirage has asked him to cut the Trump puppet from his routine.
“It was kind of one of those things where the Mirage came to me, and they have never told me what to do, ever. But they asked politely, and when they ask politely, I do it,” Fator told the Review-Journal. “We have a good relationship. It’s a give and take. I’m not a diva. I’m not going to go off and say, ‘Screw you’ when they ask me to do something. But they said, ‘This political season is very, very, very rough and it’s going to get nastier. Would you mind?’ I said, ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’”
The Trump puppet has been a part of his routine for over three years. Here’s a clip from the routine from just under a month after Trump took office.
As you can see, it’s something anyone with a sense of humor can enjoy. Of course, liberals have a reputation for not having a sense of humor. Perhaps the real question is whether the Mirage was really hoping to avoid politics, or did they simply object to Fator’s Trump routine not being anti-Trump enough, or did enough liberals who attended his shows complain because it wasn’t anti-Trump enough, and the Mirage caved to pressure? It’s quite possible. Terry Fator has described himself as “a huge Trump fan,” so obviously he’s not going to change his routine into something that won’t trigger liberal snowflakes, but, it’s probably safe to say that the Mirage felt cutting Trump from the routine was necessary, which is really sad. I’m not familiar with how the routine has evolved over the years, but whether the routine comes across as neutral or even pro-Trump at this point shouldn’t matter. How many stand-up comics integrate politics into their routines? Have any anti-Trump comics been told to avoid politics because of the nastiness of the political climate today? I highly doubt it.
I can understand Fator not wanting to have any conflicts with the Mirage, but it’s troubling to see a venue dictate what the talent can or cannot perform.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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