Other Great Reality Shows > Other Reality TV Shows & News

America's Got Talent Season 4

<< < (4/8) > >>

apskip:
AGT4 7/21/09

If they mentioned where these auditions took place I missed it. It sounds from the entries like it's somewhere in California. The script writers give Nick Cannon an excellent opening line: "the good, the bad and the downright crazy." He goes on to refer to "rules, buzzers and judges" all being maintained.  
 
 
We start tonight with the judged lesser acts not going to Las Vegas:
 
Jerry Katz aka El Vegas said he was doing 2 classic Elvis songs and started in on "All Shook Up (check for being by Elvis), then Glory, glory Hallelujah (which has no Elvis content that I know of) and excerpts from several other patriotic songs. Sharon asks Jerry "what went wrong?" but he refuses to admit that anything did
 
Jumping Eagles 7 performers age 16 to 19 -  this was embarrassing at how inept this group was at jumping one long rope stretched across all of them
 
Shaun Berkey - 27 yom singer who was just terrible. How did he get on stage when they have rigorous tryouts to narrow the thousands of acts to a manageable number. The only answer can be that somebody wanted to showcase just how bad he was.
 
Don Baldaramos - 61 yom Shakespeare reciter; I actually thought he did OK and rated a positive vote but neither the audience nor the judges agreed with me.
 
? - 27 yom; a singing, dancing glitter dispense with no discernible talent whose name I wrote down but cannot decipher (but looks like Shone)
 
Ashley Groff- 18 yof; she sings for a bit, then her inner something takes over and in a simulated male voice from a horror film she cackles a short period of time
 
Eddie and the Puppets - 52 yom puppeteer who works with a full-sized inflatable-like Tina Turner; he sings "Rolling on the River"
 
Heavy Vee - dancer that is massively overweight and just doesn't move that well ; she claims she was born to dance but the judges did not agree. After she is judged, Nick goes onstage to dance with her. It really changes nothing.
 
Here are the acts moving ahead:
I Shaara - a dance troupe of 10 aged 18 to 23 who did Bollywood-style dancing. Dancing and singing are huge in Bollywood movies and this troupe does no more than a short lip sync before concentrating on dancing. That is a good move because they are talented dancers with excellent synchronization. Piers calls it an exciting original act.
 
The flash- I saw only their brief juggling and acrobatics; they looked pretty good
 
Duo Design - 2 male age 33 to 41 acrobats who perform shirtless; they do one vertical handstand off the top of the other's head, then they do a horizontal version, then a double horizontal version. I was impressed and so were David and Sharon. Piers calls them "oddly compelling" but he votes against them. A 2 to 1 vote sends them to Las Vegas anyway.
 
It's time for a brief break and David claims that it's time for the weird and the needy.
 
Marcus and the Serenades - 3 20s females join age 20s Marcus; they sing rock and roll and soul while prancing around on-stage. Piers calls Marcus a genuine talent but he doesn't think much of the talents of the 3 women. I thought they were OK. David piles on and said he loved it but the singing of the women need to improve. Sharon says the female vocals need to be fixed.
 
Charles Dorsey 21 yom singer and keyboardist. He has an excellent voice. Sharon says he needs to keep smiling and show his star quality. Dorsey's mother is there and she refers to his "gift to the world".
 
Encore Dance Troupe 16 to 23
 
Alice Cooper 38 yof is a stand-up comedian that only was telecast for one joke, but it was a good one.
 
N2UN 13 yom violin and 36 yom keyboard
 
Kara and Corey - 23 yof and 29 yom brother/sister- singer and guitarist that have good but not exceptional talent

TexasLady:
Wow! thanks for catching me up apskip!!  :hearts:

apskip:
AGT4 7/22/09

Here we are at the final round of about 10 preliminary rounds.  I believe that it is leftovers from an earlier Los Angeles round that they packaged up to make a 36 minute show including commercials (the rest going to a Meredith Vieira interview of Susan Boyle who surprisingly did not win Britain's Got Talent but placed second).
 
The lesser rated acts go first tonight:
 
Joseph James, 40 yom - a choral director who sings. Does he sing in a normal way? Not quite. He goes into high-pitched off-key nonsense on a standard song. His brand of singing does not sit well with the judges, who are polite but firm in rejecting him
 
Inara Darko 25 yof - she has a marginal classical voice
 
Scott Renkes and Darren Kessner 27, 36 yom - their version of a comedy circus is despised by the judges
 
Reverend Franklin Ruehl 65 yom drives 10 straws through a potato. The audience and judges do not consider this a true talent
 
Brian and Anthony, brothers, 26 and 28 yom pianist and acrobat all around, under and over the keyboard/bench; it's not a propitious combination
 
The better rate acts going to Las Vegas include:
 
Breaksk8 - a break dance group of 6 guys ages 21 to 36 who break dance on roller skates. It's very impressive but this was a split vote, with Piers against this act moving ahead; however, they will. Piers states that the problem with this act is the skates as they are superb break dancers.
 
Mosaic - a cappella group of 7 ages 30 to 34 sang with great harmony and synchronized moves
 
Lollipop girls - eye candy for the men in the audience, a burlesque show of 8 comely females. Although they are going to Las Vegas, this group will not get far.
 
Recycled Percussion - 4 guys 22 to 34 who create quite a racket
 
Jeffrey Ou - 18 yom on the keyboard, but imagine what he will sound like on a real piano. He has great talent.
 
SQ Entertainment- 9 guys age 18 to 23 who are a dance crew
 
Koshka Raenelle, 33 yof female singer of "Feel Like a Natural Woman"
 
Beale Street Flippers - these 4 guys do high speed aerial somersaults starting from the ground. they ratchet the difficult up until you quickly ask "How could they have done that?" This is an exceptional act. David calls it the "best flippers we've ever had on this show" which, while OK, is damning with faint praise.
 
Giana Pelekai - 8 yof from Hawaii, she has a 14 year old's vocal cords and can really dazzle. She will make the final 10.
 
There was also a series of 5 acts that are going to Las Vegas but we know nothing about them, not even their names. Couldn't NBC have rearranged things to show us who they were and what they do? You know that the answer is yes, so why doesn't they "waste" one minute total on these 5 acts. There was ample opportunity to cut out fluff from Meredith Vieira's interview of Susan Boyle which was good but at 21 minutes could have been trimmed by one minute  without any impact.
 
So we now know most of the more than 160 acts going to Las Vegas for the partially live cut to the round of 40 next week (the judges have to use memory and video to cull before anybody takes the stage there). Why couldn't the judges have exercise more discretion and sent fewer acts onward? Let's see who I predict to reach the rounds of 5, 10 and 20:
 
Top 5 - Pete Peterkin (impressions), Jay Mattioli (magician), Mosaic (a cappella), Beale Street Flippers (acrobatics), Giada Pelekai (young singer)
Top 10 (there are some really excellent singers here, but I think the quality of non-singing acts forces them out of the top 5) - Barbara Padilla, Lawrence Beaman, Charles Dorsey, Texas Tenors, I Shaara
Top 20 - Rockin' Rory, Voices of Glory, Kari Kellams, Thia Magea, the Fab 5, Alizma, Platt Brothers, Joseph Constantine, Tallas Noble Latz
Top 25 (the five teams who just miss top 20) - Eric and Rickie, Mario and Jenny, Mark and Anthony, Eleisha Miller, Jessica Martin
 
These ratings are certainly open to criticism and revision, particularly after we see those chosen to perform (which should be all of the above).
 
 

apskip:
AGT4 Las Vegas round 7/28/09

On we go to Las Vegas. My position is that it is absurd to have this round without any actual competitions (except a 3 team danceoff untilizing identical music coming tonight). What David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan did in the plane could have been done long before this round. Getting hopes up for numerous teams that were not going to make the cut and the travel expenses associated with them going to Las Vegas and back could have been avoided. Even better, why weren't the judges more discriminating in the preliminary rounds? Why did they have to have 160 acts left at their end? Why not the 40 that the Las Vegas round produces? It could easily have been done, but then Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff would not have been the giver of glad tidings to mediocre acts.

I will give NBC and the production company in which I think Executive Producer Simon Cowell is prominent one kudo. They got it right in grouping acts by type to compare and make appropriate decisions. Much of what I saw last night was done that way. They should also dispense with the false drama. This is NBC, not the FOX network. They should be more straightforward in delivering both good and bad news to acts. Sugar coatings and misdirections, both of which they are famous for, are unnecessary and waste valuable air time. Also asking the stupid question "how will this affect you" or "what does it mean to you?" is absurd. Every act remaining will be affected hugely by the total outcome of AGT4. Some are better at articulating it, but answering those questions better has no impact on their talent.

Teams were grouped A, B, C and D in a large airplane hangar to see which ones got into these stretch Hummer limos to go to the Palms Resort and Casino. Only the 25 acts in Group B were told they were going home(again, why bother to ever bring them in the first place). That means there are 135 acts left and less than 1/3 of them will go to Hollywood. I then expected that there would be competitions but there were none last night. Acts were brought up one-by-one or in small groups to hear their fate based on the one performance in the preliminary rounds.

The first grouping was singer/guitarist Keith Johnson and impressionist Pete Peterkin. Johnson is not going to Hollywood becasue "there are better singers." Peterkin is going to Hollywood.

Dancer Arcadian Broad is going to Hollywood. Acrobats the AcroDunks are going. 3 guys who dance, I believe it could be the Platt Brothers, are going through. Recycled Percussion is going through.

Singer Thia Magea is going. The 8 year old dancer couple Erik and Rickie are going. The young 3 girl band G Force is going through.  The Texas Trio are going to Hollywood. Manuela Horn the yodeler is going through, but she is dead meat in the next round. Her yodeling is good and different but not good enough to make the top 20. She promised "3 spankings". 5 female clogging sisters "Fab 5" are going through. The singer of a witty song about David Hasselhoff, Dave Johnson, is going through but he too is dead meat for the round of 20.

Anthony Ferrante the singer was told that his talent merits a trip back home. The Spiritual Harmoninizers were told they had a great lead singer and great character, but they did not have enough vocal talent to survive.

3 dance groups were put together and challenged to develop a routine in 12 hours to be performed to determine which 1 or 2 of this group would be going to Hollywood, We will see them perform tonight. It might be the only new performance we see. Breaksk8,  Euphoria, and Destined 2 Be are the 3 groups.

The magicians were put head-to-head in front of the judges for compairson purposes. Joseph Constantine and his wife KC were told them had talent but there wasn't room for 2 magicians. Drew Thomas and his wife Rebecca were told that his act would be leaving Las Vegas ...to go to Hollywood.

2 all-male dance groups are going home.
Female dancer Fuschia Foxxx got a no.
5 guys that I believe were SQ Entertainment got a no.
The burlesque group Lollipop Girls is going home.

Hairo Torres the young contortionist is going to L.A.
Lawrence Beaman and Keith Skinner were apparently pitted against each other, but this was just an illusion created by the producers for false drama. They are both going ahead.

Tonight we will see the other half of the remaining acts.

apskip:
AGT4, 7/29/09

The "Las Vegas Round" is very confusing. The beginning release of 25 acts meant that we do not know precisely who those were. Also, not every act involved in a yes/no decision was telecast. Instead, NBC and the AGT producers opted for trauma (tacky drama) as the core of this episode. I hate that! They only showed 3 acts doing a new performance last night. I hate that even more! As stated in yesterday's comments on the first Las Vegas round, to not have made all these cuts either in the original selections (the right way to do it) or before the judges got on the plane to come to Las Vegas is a bit absurd. All those acts waiting around for decisions that did not need to be made on the way to or in Las Vegas.

It's time to see how many acts did. I am going to use a simple Y (for yes) or N (for no) system to report outcomes:

The dance-off was won by skaters Breaksk8 (Y) so U4Ria (N) and Destined2Be (N) go home.

Dave Zooey, Paradizo Dance, get Y. The issue for them was "what do you do next?". Dave answers that lamely by saying they have some more moves prepared and ready for Hollywood, but there are many rounds in Hollywood. Dave lifts Zooey and Piers says it is the first time "she hasn't been lifting you." to celebrate, they both lift Nick Cannon separately.

IShaara - "bringing Bollywood to America" as the lead female dancer puts it Y

FootworkKingz dance group - Y

Jeffrey Ou, classical pianist - Y

His new friend Rashida Jolley, harpist/singer, N

Christopher/Laura Camp, the whip guy, N

Next was 3 groups of acrobatic acts, all of which were eliminated - Kalinins hand balancers N, Duo Design N, the Flash jugglers N

Arthur Gulkarov, dancer, N

Kara Blitz was lacking her brother Cory who withdrew due to other opportunities. She was eliminated because the judges could not envision her carrying the whole act. N

Eleisha brash 8 yof keyboards/singer Y

Mario and Jenny juggle chainsaws act, Y

Marcus and the Serenades - the judges indicate that Marcus could go through without the Serenades but he refused until one of the Serenades suggested that he take this offer. Modified Y

Voices of Glory brother/sister trio fo singers Y

Barbara Padilla - a very good female opera singer Y

Coney Island Chris - his digusting act was attractive to the judges. It is different than anything else you will ever see and this is for a reason. Y

Both dog acts went through. That is Rockin Rory Y and Pam Martin with Viva Y.

Carol Lugo 62 yof dancer Y, but what is she doing almost in the top 20?

African High Flyers Y

Pixie Mystere 6 girls age 6 to 9  Y, but they cannot be going any further than that against this competition.

EriAm Sisters - 3 young female musicians

Anthony and Matt - friends where one plays the guitar and the other does dances and contortions

Oldster Grandma Lee with her jokes Y

Kelli Glover singer N

Mia Boostrom singer Y

Charles Dorsey singer Y

ALIZMA female triplet violinists/singers Y

There were one or two more than I could not visually associate with their names, but i will correct the above list when I get more official confirmation of who those were. However, there are some acts that I have not seen or recognize if by chance I did see them eliminated. First is Beale Street Flippers. There is also Mosaic a cappella group, Jay Mattioli magician and Giada Pelekai. 4 of my projected top 5 apparently did not make the round of 40. Also, missing are Tallas Noble Latz and Jessica Martin. That's not good talent judging by somebody, either the judges or me.

Off to the Hollywood rounds. Next week the acts will ber cut to 20.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page