Like most entertainers, Paul Zerdin began his career in pubs and working men's clubs. Now, however, Zerdin is set to headline his own show at Las Vegas' Planet Hollywood as the second ventriloquist to win America's Got Talent, and it's all thanks to his puppet trio, Sam, Grandpa Albert and Baby.

The 43-year-old who hails from Wimbledon, South London, said he was "still reeling" from his big win of $1m in front of a million-strong audience.

"It feels kind of surreal, really," Zerdin confided, "When it came down to the final two I was completely ready to congratulate the comedian Drew, who I was up against, so when they said my name, my heart skipped a beat and I was filled with a mixture of exhaustion, jetlag and euphoria. I'm bowled over by the whole thing."

Zerdin picked ventriloquism up as an eight-year-old boy when he was given a box of magic tricks.

He became a professional magician when he left school and,inspired by The Muppets and Sesame Street, he decided to specialize in ventriloquism.

In order to "introduce something different into ventriloquism and play around with the art form a little bit," Zerdin developed a unique routine that included three different voices and animatronics.

When asked to share what the trick to successful ventriloquism was, Zerdin said it was basically to keep the audience entertained.

"The most important thing is that you've got to be funny, [to be] entertaining. You can be technically the greatest ventriloquist in the world but if you're not funny then you're just a bloke standing on stage with or without a doll taking to yourself."

When asked why he auditioned for America's Got Talent since Britain also had its own version of the highly popular talent showcase competition, he shared that he had already performed at the Royal Variety Performance thrice, and he was looking for more of a challenge.

He also thought that he could audition "then sneak back home and nobody would be any the wiser," but when his first audition was greeted by standing ovations from the judging panel and audience alike, the cat was quickly out of the bag thanks to social media.

"It spurred me on and made me think I could actually go quite far with this," the ventriloquist said. "Though I never imagined I'd get all the way to the final or even win it."