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March 29, 2024

It’s Miss Arkansas, Rosie … and a dog … in rare show at Fator Theater

2011 Miss America Pageant: The Big Night

Julie Jacobson / AP

Alyse Eady, Miss Arkansas, performs a ventriloquist act in the talent competition during the Miss America Pageant. At left is Rosie. At right is the ill-fated Rocky.

2011 Miss America Pageant: The Big Night

Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan waves to the audience after being crowned 2011 Miss America during the 2011 Miss America Pageant on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011, at Planet Hollywood. Launch slideshow »

Puppets might share the stage with a ventriloquist, but they do not fly first class. Or even coach. And one of the puppets used by Miss Arkansas and Miss America contestant Alyse Eady was relegated to last-class treatment on a flight into Vegas this week.

This would be Rocky, a cherub-cheeked figure familiar to those who watched Eady finish as first runner-up to 17-year-old Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan in this year’s pageant at Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts.

“I’m not used to traveling with them, and I don’t have puppet cases, so I pack them in regular suitcases,” said Eady, who tonight and Saturday is featured as a guest performer in Terry Fator’s show at The Mirage. “I was flying out after doing Rachel Maddow’s show and had to check the suitcase with Rocky inside. When I opened it, his face was smashed into four different pieces.”

Eady had planned to perform three numbers before Fator and his merry troupe of puppets hits the stage. The bit she used in the pageant, where she yodels with puppets named Rocky and Rosie, will instead feature a dog and Rosie. Maybe the dog also will be named Rocky, a name befitting Eady's first trip to the Strip.

“I’m going to make the dog work,” said the ventriloquist beauty queen, who did offer that the airline that wrecked the face of her buddy was Delta. But Eady’s own face remains beautiful, and she’s in fine voice for this weekend’s performance as Fator’s opening act.

More interview highlights from a session conducted in the middle of Fator’s stage at The Mirage:

The Kats Report: Do you remember the first moment you thought you’d like to be a ventriloquist for a living?

Alyse Eady: Absolutely I do. I was 9, and I was at a talent competition. I saw one girl do a ventriloquist act, and it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. Part of it was that you don’t see ventriloquism that often, so it just immediately caught my attention. So I went home and checked out some books about ventriloquism and watched some Shari Lewis tapes and just taught myself how to do it.

T.K.R.: Shari Lewis had Lamb Chop, which was actually a sock, in her act. Did you also start by using footwear?

A.E.: (Laughs) No, actually, I still use the puppet today, it’s a dog puppet I found in the back of my closet. I didn’t realize until I looked closely at it that it was actually a puppet, but I pulled it out of the pile and started using it.

T.K.R.: Was it difficult to learn the technique?

A.E.: Not really. I was learning how to yodel and do ventriloquism at the same time, which for me was pretty easy. My mom was a speech pathologist, too, and she helped me learn how to make different sounds and form different sounds with my voice without moving my mouth.

T.K.R.: We always know how the winner of Miss America feels after winning the pageant, and it’s usually some version of “blessed.” But you’re in the unique position of knowing what it’s like to be second in the competition. What was it like to be onstage and have Miss Nebraska’s name called instead of yours?

A.E.: Well, I can honestly say that I didn’t expect to make it as far as I did. I hadn’t been really happy with how I’d done in the preliminaries. I just wasn’t able to show my best, for whatever reason, and I was really disappointed in that. So I didn’t even expect to hear my name called in the Top 15. When I continued to make it further and further, I thought, “I really must have done well in the (preliminary round) interview.”

So standing there, in the final two, I just felt really calm, and I remember Teresa was just jabbering something, like ‘Whaa-la-la-la-aaaah.’ She was really nervous. I just knew if I won Miss America, I would do a good job, but if I don’t win, I still have it so good in Arkansas, I have a great support system. I knew I would be OK either way, and I am genuinely happy for her.

T.K.R.: I’ve done something with pageant contestants I know here in Las Vegas, former Miss Nevada America or Miss Nevada USA contestants, where I ask a pageant question and have them answer in 20 seconds. It’s like this, “How would the ouster of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi affect the United States?

A.E.: OK, that’s not fair (laughs). I’m behind on everything. Do they usually know the answers?

T.K.R.: They have an answer, yes.

A.E.: I would think they’d say, “Let me run to the library and get back to you!” It’s a great question.

T.K.R.: And it’s probably unfair. I’ll come back with something better some other time. But my last, real question is, what is your career objective now?

A.E.: I know that what I want to do in the immediate future is use my $48,000 in scholarship money to go to school. I want to go to Columbia University for journalism, and then work in PR for the Boys & Girls Club. You have the money to advance your education, so you might as well use it.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow Kats With the Dish at twitter.com/KatsWithTheDish.

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