ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Darci Lynne Farmer has been on some big stages throughout the country, including winning season 12 of the hit TV competition “America’s Got Talent,” and soon, she will be bringing her show to a stage much closer to the area.
Farmer will be bringing her 'My Lips Are Sealed (Except When They're Not)' show to the Beaver County Fairgrounds in Beaver, Okla. Saturday, Aug. 24, with the show starting at 7 p.m. Adult tickets are $25 ahead of time and $30 at the door, and tickets for children 12 years old and younger are $10 ahead of time and $15 at the door.
As Farmer tells it, getting to this point in her career was an interesting road.
“I grew up pretty reserved and pretty shy, which I feel was a bit of a concern to my parents, so my mom put me in a music school when I was little, and I also grew up doing some pageants. I've been singing for about as long as I can remember, but it definitely took some time for me to be comfortable enough to do that on a stage,” Farmer said with a chuckle. “Participating in pageants is where I really found my voice, and then I met another girl who also did ventriloquism as her talent, and that was when I was about 9 years old. I was immediately blown away by what she did, and I became obsessed, so I asked her for some advice and began teaching myself ventriloquism at home. I asked my parents for a puppet, which was rejected because I think they felt it would be a passing fad, but it definitely wasn't. They surprised me with a puppet on my 10th birthday, and everything rather went from there.”
Shortly after receiving that puppet, things somewhat snowballed, Farmer said.
“It's funny because after I got my puppet, I entered a talent competition like two weeks later and ended up winning,” Farmer recalled. “At 10 years old, I didn't expect that in the slightest and went in with rather low expectations. I thought people would be entertained and would like me, but they really seemed to appreciate the overall art like I did. That helped boost my confidence and made me think I could legitimately make something out of all of this.”
After some more time, Farmer ultimately took a really big – yet somewhat familiar – leap when she decided to audition for “America’s Got Talent.”
“I grew up watching 'America's Got Talent' with my family, so it was something we all were fans of,” Farmer said. “I very vividly remember watching Paul Zerdin win season 10 and then the next year watching Grace VanderWaal win it all. Paul Zerdin's a ventriloquist, and Grace was only 12 years old when she won, so it was amazing seeing two ventriloquists take home the title in a row, one of whom was a young girl just like me. That made me think 'Maybe I'd have a chance,' so I became really set on auditioning and being on the show, and I really think that's where God was taking me, and it ended up changing my life. 'America's Got Talent' is primetime TV, so it ended up being a great way to put myself out there just because the show has such a huge following. One of my biggest goals while being on the show was helping people know more about ventriloquism because at that point, it was rather a dying art compared to the early 1900s. I feel like I achieved that because I've had a lot of people tell me I inspired them to give ventriloquism a try.”
With her upcoming Beaver show, Farmer said she is excited for a homecoming of sorts.
“I'm so, so excited because I grew up visiting Beaver basically every summer break and every holiday, so it's almost like a second home for me since my grandparents still live there,” Farmer said. “It's going to feel like doing a show at home, and that's just so amazing to me. It's going to be a really fun show, I've had a really busy summer so far, so it'll be great to get back there and have some fun and perform. I've done a small show or two out there, but I think this will be my first official show there. I'm genuinely so, so excited. Oklahoma was so super supportive of me when I went on 'America's Got Talent,' so any time I do a show here, it's just so much fun because it helps me remember how much support I got from everyone, so it'll be great. The show's going to be an absolute blast, so if you're free that evening, come on out, because it'll be really fun. The show is super family-friendly, and there'll be a lot of music and a lot of laughter, so you won't want to miss it.”
As for the future? Farmer said she has some exploring to do.
“I'm not in college at the moment, but I'm genuinely working on figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life, so right now, I'm kind of floating around,” Farmer said. “I'm super passionate about music, so I've been doing some writing and getting into all of that, and I'm also in the process of writing a new show for my puppets, which I plan on touring with next year. I'm also going to be in a new movie that's coming out in August, it's called 'Reagan' and it's a biopic about Ronald Reagan, so I'm excited about that as well. I'm really excited to continue honing my skills and grow with my audience and fanbase that's been following me since the beginning. This all started when I was a child, and I'm going to be 20 in October, so I feel like I'm rather in a time of change and discovery, and I'm looking forward to exploring and seeing what life has in store.”
