The previous episodes of America’s Got Talent were fun, entertaining, and offered us some very good performances (and a few bad ones). That winning streak went down the drain this week as the first 25 minutes were devoted to oh-so-bad performances and that’s not counting the few awful performances shown during the second half hour. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching bad performances too but this week was a tad too much. I prefer episodes focusing on performers that are moving on mixed with a few bad acts. How about splitting the air time 70% to the acts who are moving to the Vegas round to 30% devoted to the bad acts?
Some of the acts not going through:
- Amadeus, the dog who plays pool. We’ve seen many animal acts in the past (including talking parrots performances in previous episodes this season) but Amadeus doesn’t measure up. Yes, it was fun to watch but it wasn’t “wow”. It would have been more impressive if he pushed the balls in numerical order for example. As Howie said, “It’s a trick, it’s not a show.”
- Madonna: 20 years in 20 minutes! The few seconds we saw of this performance were not impressive and far from being the top act in America. However, the idea ain’t half bad as Madonna had enough looks and songs to fill in a “60 Madonna looks in 60 minutes” type of show.
- Thanks to the AGT judges to X Robo, the comedian dressed as a robot who told one bad and lame robot joke after the other.
The Worst of the Worst:
- First “Worst of the Worst” this week goes to 49 year-old Brian Jackson who attempted to break his own world record during his audition. Which world record you ask? Blowing in hot water bottles until they explode! Brian claims that he’s been training for the past 19 years and that he even broke a few bones while setting his world records. It was impressive to see the bottle extend like a balloon but that isn’t talent. It’s just proof that he has great lungs. During his audition, he wasn’t able to break his world record — the hot water bottle actually didn’t explode — but he was able to do so afterwards when back in the contestant waiting room.
- I have a second “Worst of the Worst” this week: Alaska, the free style dancer. This very calm and peaceful 48 year old got booed by the crowd as his movements were far from impressive. He basically ran/walked in the same spot while doing some sort of hand gestures here and there. As expected, Alaska didn’t get a pass to Vegas even though Sharon said that the interpretation was interesting… okay, that was not really a compliment but a nice way to say it was unusual. If you want to learn the next big dance trend, the Alaska Dance, check the video below starting at the 1:10 mark.
Some of the acts going through:
- A second world record holder auditioned this week. This time it was Geechy Guy — Geechy means “crazy” in Japanese — a 46-year-old comedian. He is unlike most comedians we see on stage nowadays as Geechy is all about telling those one-liner jokes very quickly. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for telling over 676 jokes in one hour! He claims he said more as only jokes that got his audience laughing counted. In his AGT audition, this geeky-looking comedian told 11 jokes in about 70 seconds (I counted) and got good laughs from the crowd, Howie and Sharon. Piers, unsurprisingly, didn’t. See for yourself below.
- The BGP, a band of three men who have been playing music together since they were 13-year-olds, are also going through to Vegas. Their performance wasn’t bad but missed the “wow” factor. To make it a bit more entertaining and engaging, they should get a piano player so that the singer could be free to move around the stage and interact with the crowd as he seems to have the charisma and persona to be able to get a crowd off its feet!
- Other good acts going through include an opera-ish type of vocal group who sings popular songs. Soleil a pole dancer who learned her craft using the pole at the fire station where she works. And Seth, the acrobatic magician, whose act is a sort of a mixture between what the duo “Quick Change” did a few AGT seasons back with disappearance/appearance tricks.
The “I Can’t Believe this Act is Going to Vegas” act: Surprisingly this week, I agreed with all the decisions made by the judges as to who should move on to Vegas.
The Show Stealers: Hip hop dancers The Art of Teknique won over the crowd with their cute look and their well executed dance moves. These three kids — ages 8 to 10 — are not the best dancers we’ve seen on the show but they are extremely good for their age.
The Best of the Best: Since the episode lacked in good performances, my “Best of the Best” this week goes to the most entertaining act of the night that is not going to Vegas: Marylee, the singer/songwriter of songs for dead people. Don’t adjust your computer screen, yes, she writes songs for the deceased! To maker her audition extra special, the “deceased” of the night was none other than Piers! As expected, Howie was ecstatic that someone was performing a “song for the deceased” for Piers! It was a pretty nice homage, including a montage of pictures and videos of Piers. Piers liked it so much that he even voted “yes” for Vegas! Check out Marylee’s homage to Piers in the video below.
Photo Credit: NBC
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