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America's Got Talent Season 4

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RealityFanWA:

--- Quote from: apskip on July 04, 2009, 02:03:05 PM ---You can watch fulll episodes on www.nbc.com. In general, the outstanding talent has been thin. Your strategy of waiting until the Las Vegas round and later rounds may be the best one.

--- End quote ---

I agree. Vegas will separate the pretenders from the contenders for sure.

apskip:
I will be posting a series that is my recaps of all preliminary rounds. See the posts that follow.

apskip:
AGT4 6/23/09

Welcome back to America's Got Talent. I have been anticipating this since last summer's crackling shows. The job of emcee, held by Jerry Springer most recently, has gone to comedian Nick Cannon. I have to admit that Springer had a little too much gravitas for me even though he did bring an earnestness and plainspoken quality that I liked. Cannon is funny and that makes all the difference. I had the impression that Nick was just itching to go out on stage with some of the acts. He gets a big positive rating from me.
 
David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne, and Piers Morgan are back as judges. They can get rid of the first two to give the show less fluff and irrelevance. Sharon is constantly telling teams essentially "No, but I'm Ok and You're OK". It gets old very fast. Sharon had two ratings of No when the other two said yes, but that is not recorded below. I was with them both times. David is wishy-washy sometimes having trouble making up his mind. The only time I liked him last night was his response to a "Love letter" song from a male contestant. David was really squirming but he stayed upright and said some reasonable things to get himself out of the embarrassment. That contestant is going forward because his original song was very clever and he did a good job performing it. Only Piers does a consistently good job of judging. Sharon and David don't want to make enemies, so their votes reflect that. Piers knows that at least one of the judges has to tell it like it is.
 
The acts themselves were from the preliminary rounds in New York City, Chicago and Seattle. It was the good, the bad and the ugly.  NBC decided to showcase much of the worst talent in NYC to start the show. Let's get to it. I will on the right hand side on the line give the judges' ratings unless obvious. I will cite the number of positive votes in front of a P and the number of negative votes in front of a N. 2P or 3P means moving forward to the Las Vegas round.
 
These NYC acts got the hook very quickly:
Ray Schwarz - 26yom (my abbreviation for year old male), singer and dancer performing an Elvis piece Elvis style                                                        3N
Jay Brunelle - 29yom guitar act                                                                                                                                                                                              3N  
Andy Lapota  - 41yom rapper; this act fell flat quickly                                                                                                                                                            3N
Sky and Vlad, fire dancers - she fell into a flaming area of the stage while fire dancing, which ended this act precipitously as her hair caught fire. Probably too much hairspray!
 
The rest of the performances in Chicago, Seattle and New York were a mixed bag:
 
David Lanham- 48yom turned his feet all the way to 180 degrees and walked on them. The judges were grossed out but they knew this guy has talent 3N
Footwork Kingz - several males 16 to 24 had a high energy break dancing routine that was very good                                                                               3P
Christina, singer - I don't remember her and she is out.                                                                                                                                                         3N
Peter Peterkin- an impersonator who sings James Taylor R&B. His singing is average but his impressions of President Obama and others are excellent.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  3P
Draconik- who plays with fire and was entertaining.                                                                                                                                                               3P
Dave Johnson- songwriter, singer and guitarist, who has the song about his love for David Hasselhoff. This is the surprise hit of the evening.                3P
Anointed S- vocal percussion did not impress me but they did the judges.                                                                                                                            3P
Brad Byers- who was riveting to watch as he put a hook up his nose and then used a drill up it. David Hasselhoff was so grossed out that he
could not watch this act but he voted for it anyway.                                                                                                                                                                3P
Original- a young woman dances in a bikini, contorting through a hoop, while an older one plays the accordion                                                                 3N  
Rockin Rory- a fabulous dog with trainer act. The dog is incredible but the trainer is very good too. This act is going places                                             3P
Debbie Victor- animal impersonator-  who is interested by this?                                                                                                                                           3N
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Eri-Am Sisters - singers who I thought were OK but the judges really liked                                                                                                                          3P
Joseph Maracini- impressions of Jack Nicholson and Anthony Hopkins but David says "you just didn't sounds like those
guys", reflecting the consensus                                                                                                                                                                                              3N      
Dave and Zoe, Paradizo dance- he 37, she 29 essentially do gymnastics together and do lifts of the other one and supported (by the others hands)
handstands. The impressive thing is that she at 100 pounds, he at 240 pounds she has no difficulty leveraged him into the air                                        3P
Shine - a quartet of siblings singing Walking on Sunshine                                                                                                                                                     3N
Voices of Glory (Michael 16, Avery 13, Nadia 9) sing God Bless America inspired by their mother, who is asked by the judges to come onstage for bows
from her wheelchair. This was fantastic harmony and they are are highly talented signers.                                                                                                 3P
 
So, the acts identified with 3Ps above are going to the next round in Las Vegas (after multiple more preliminary rounds). The Las Vegas round had more than 100 acts last year, so it is essentially an indication of how the judges abdicate so that more acts can have the satisfaction of elimination in Las Vegas than really deserve to. More discrimination (read that as eliminations) by the judge could make a good show a very good one. I missed maybe 5 acts last night; I'm not sure how this happened but they can go by very fast.
 
Who do I like from those I saw? Voices of Glory was special and could go all the way. I loved Dave and Zoe but I don't know what they can do for multiple rounds of encores. Rockin Rory could go all the way. I have never seen a better dog act. Peter Peterkin's impersonations were extremely good. Tonight at 9pm EDT is the next of the preliminary rounds, including from Houston and Miami.

apskip:
AGT4 6/24/09

The most obvious fact about last night's AGT4 preliminary round was the versatility of Nick Cannon. He is a superb mimic and he can sing and dance like the act is doing onstage from the sings. I like this as he is quite talented. In the judges, last night David Hasselhoff took over the cheerlead/insipid commentator role usually played by Sharon Osbourne. Let the festivities begin:
 
These acts were from New York, Seattle and Miami and all were judged suitable for a trip to the next round in Las Vegas -
 
Manuela is a 36 yof who wears a dominatrix uniform for laughs only, but whose talent is yodeling. She is 6'2" and her platform shoes adding quite a bit to that, so you is an imposing figure. Her yodeling was good but not good enough to go much beyond Las Vegas. Nick called her act "oddly entertaining."
 
Comic Bots is a group of about 6 (they move around so it was difficult to count them) performers inside metallic robot costumes. They drummed and they danced. They may have also sung but that was not clear. They had great energy and enthusiasm, but they too are not going far beyond Las Vegas.
 
Tom Durnin is magician who made 3 balls appear out of his mouth. I was not impressed that much but the judges were.
 
G Force is a group of females age 7 to 14 who sing and percuss very loudly. I do not like them much, but they are cute so the judges are suckers for this type of act.
 
Rafael Serrano 40 yom is an overweight singer who puts some dancing into his act. His singing was OK and he managed to pull off a split to close it. He stated that "you didn't believe a fat boy like me could do this." He will not make it past Las Vegas.
 
Erik and Rickey win the cuteness award for the evening. They are age 8 friends who do super fast dancing from the 1940s to a music track. They are really talented and should go far.
 
Alizma - 3 triplet females in this 20s who are beautiful and have reasonable talent. They play the violin (Irish reel or job style) and they sing. Piers told them that they have a chance of going all the way if they stop singing and focus on their violin playing. We'll see if the heed his advice.
 
Arcadian Broad is a 13 yom who is a dancer with great twirl move reminiscent of ballet. My wife commented "he's really agile" and Piers rated it as "absolutely great".
 
Drew Thomas is an illusionist with 3 female assistant, all of whom must be expert contortionists and one of whom is his wife. He had an upright crate the shape of a coffin and from behind a screen inside each of the 3 assistants got out and went under separate cloths. Tom was able to pull the old switcheroo for the finale. He apparently went into the box but then unexpectedly appeared instantly with his wife under a cloth. Very nice. This is one of the best acts in the competition.
 
Jackie Martin was a singer/violin player and aerialist. This is a visually striking act, as playing a violin 20 feet up is something you rarely see. She has talents in all 3 disciplines and could go far.
 
 
There were also a number of acts which did not survive the cut:
 
Jennifer Gaudix brought a large rolled suitcase on stage with her. After she took off her shoes out popped a very similar woman who started also doing a routine.
 
Janifer James calls is African dance, but Nick Cannon had her act of bumping and grinding more accurately pegged as something questionable for showing to anything but a late night audience.
 
Ventiamin Shows is a group of people in costumes of some weird characters like the Human Blowfish. What were they thinking?
 
Dan Diaz is a 35 yom who stacked containers toward the sky (actually just 4). Did he think this was entertainment?
 
DeanO and Friends were 4 clowns. They had no talent and did not last long.
 
 
I want to play a little catch-up on acts I missed the prior evening. The dog/trainer act was actually labeled "K-9 Flying Discs". Here are ones moving ahead:
 
Noel the Freak - who put hooks in his eyes and had the Hammer brothers use sledge hammers to break things against him. This guy is really nuts, but you cannot take your eyes off him unless your name is David Hasselhoff, who believes you can judge an act without watching it because you are grossed out.
 
NY Gay Men's Chorus
 
Urban Nation Hip Hop Choir
 
Unexpected Step Team
 
Anointed S - vocal percussionist that I did not much care for
 
Blackfire Percussion
 
Jesse White Tumbling Team
 
 
The loser acts were:
 
EmpeROAR Fabulous
 
the Positive Brothers dancers
 
JayJay - keyboardist who should have been given more time to perform, but was hooked quickly by the judges.
 
Tommy and Diane Lane and their miniature horse
 
Leapin Louie Lichtenstein - lassoing
 
Kerry Christensen - play accordion while making chicken noises, with some yodeling thrown in
 
Cirkus Pandemonium - acrobats
 
See you next week when there will be more good, bad and ugly.

apskip:
AGT4 6/30/09

Last night's one hour show started in New York and then went to Chicago. Almost all less talented acts from new York had been featured in the first show, so it was a pleasure to watch better acts there. Chicago had plenty of lesser acts to retaliate.
 
This week I will reverse the order of presentation and summarize the rejected acts first:
 
Jeffrey Jenkins - 5'3" but bursting with energy, he jumped but not with talent
 
Witches in Shows - here we have the unusual spectacle of Sharon criticizing an act (how often does that happen?) because "you can't sing"; they were pathetic
 
Robert Myers -  a harnessed threesome dance to "Viva Las Vegas"; it stinks
 
Franklin Sane - a 56 yom Detroit court judge who sings - badly
 
The better acts were:
Carol Lugo, 62yof shook her body around in a moonwalk; I didn't think she has any talent, but the judges thought she did
 
Camille - dancing to "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" by the Temptations
 
YoYoKing - a young man who made yo-yos do some interesting things
 
Diva League - males age 21 - 44 dancing drag queens
 
Coney Island Chris - eating a light bulb as if it were a hot dog, which shocked the judges but they sent him on to Las Vegas
 
Jay Mattioli - a magician and contortionist whose act started with bending to one side at an impossible 60 degree angle; very impressive
 
Thia Megia - a 14 yof  who can really belt a Jennifer Holliday tune. I bet in future rounds we will hear her do a variety of songs, all of which are ideal for her low mezzo voice.
 
"The Fab 5" - 5 sisters (all mothers) ages 23 to 35 who stepdance with great synchronization
 
Kevin Skinner - a country singer (Garth Brooks style) whose act Piers rated "an emotionally powerful performance"; he will go far even though I personally dislike that style of music.
 
So there were some decent acts tonight. I liked Jay Mattioli the best, with Thia Megia a close second, "The Fab 5" third and Kevin Skinner fourth. They should all do well in the Las Vegas round. The rest are probably not going to survive that.

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