Interview, photos and video: 12-year-old Oklahoma City ventriloquist Darci Lynne Farmer prepares to go back on 'America's Got Talent'

An abbreviated version of this story appears in Friday's Weekend Life section of The Oklahoman.

Darci Lynne Farmer, a 12-year-old ventriloquist from the Oklahoma City area, performs June 28 during Allied Arts' Brackets for Good Championship Celebration in Automobile Alley in Oklahoma City. Photo by Nate Billings, The Oklahoman

A piece of notebook paper is taped to the narrow window flanking Darci Lynne Farmer’s front door, the childlike pencil scrawl representing the latest request for an autograph.

The Deer Creek Middle School seventh-grader obliged as soon as she saw the sheet, signing her name to the back and taping the paper back in place so that the young fan could pick it up.

It’s the kind of thing she’s learning to take in stride, just the latest sign of the strange and surreal summer the Oklahoma City girl has experienced.

“I do get recognized a lot in public. And that’s just kind of weird to me,” she said with a laugh. “I get recognized at the airport a lot and restaurants and at the mall.”